Sally showered every morning the boiler would cooperate with her, yet no bleary-eyed bathing session delivered as much satisfaction as this one. Making full use of the rubbing and scrubbing tools hanging from the rail, she looked on in horror at the thick streams of water the grey of old dead leaves. As the soft shine of her skin resurfaced through the dirt and the pearl tones of her nails glimmered against the pristine white shower curtain, however, her shock turned to delight. The water stung less with every pass over the small cuts on her hands, and soon the shower ran clearly enough to rid the tub of the ashy ring she had sprayed along its walls. She stepped out of the shower and sealed her revival with a breath of the lingering steam.
"On a scale of 1 to 'Very'," Flick's voice asked through the door, its sudden arrival knocking Sally off-balance. "How naked are you right now? Can I come in?"
"No! Wait a second!" Catching herself on the washbasin, Sally reached for the red towel Flick had used earlier. "You took my clothes, remember?"
The door rattled in its frame, and Flick's voice slid down to near the floor. "So, extremely naked, then? Sounds like a party I can vibe with," she said, clicking her tongue at the end of her speech. A moment of silence followed, then the door shook again. "I mean, I could get naked too, if that'd help."
"You're fine, just wait!" Somehow, after spending more than a few moments fantasising about sharing a shower with the girl, Sally pleaded for Flick to keep her clothes on. She folded the towel around herself and tried in vain to still her quaking hands. "Alright, you can come in now."
"Sir, yes, ma'am!" The door flew open and closed in a second, with Flick gliding through in the brief interval. Grinning at Sally from the entrance, she clutched a parcel of clothes against her chest. "Thought I'd nab you a quick fix for your extreme nakedness while you were busy getting steamy. Need a hand drying off?"
Before Sally could answer, Flick tossed the bundle into her arms and nestled in behind her, taking the towel in her grasp. At the top of the pile was a royal blue V-neck jumper, designed to fit over the fresh white button-down shirt folded beneath it. Tucked between the shirt's folds, a white wireless bra and pink underwear shimmered in the light. Straight black trousers and equally dark slip-on shoes held the pile up with their calm ease. "Are these all yours?" Sally asked, holding up the shirt by its collar.
Flick ran the towel along Sally's back, and the feel of the girl's breath against her skin dulled Sally's hearing almost beyond recovery. "Believe it or not, I don't always wear flannel and ripped jeans," she said, laughing as she moved onto drying Sally's hips. "I've never worn those, though. They're more your style anyway. You're going to look adorable while huddled in your blanket powering through The Tempest."
Sally shuddered, though whether it was the book's name or the brush of Flick's fingertips against her waist was unclear. "How'd you know what I'm reading for uni?"
"I haven't just been staring at your cute butt all this time, Sal." Rising from her kneeling position, Flick leaned past Sally's side and shot her a fiendish smile. "As adorable as you are, I can check you out and listen to you at the same time. How do you think I knew which window to throw rocks at?"
Shivers running along her skin, Sally hid her chest beneath the bundle of borrowed clothing. Flick floated by her side, the fall of her side-plait framing the bold yet delicate lines of her face. Smudged eyeliner faded over her cheek's curves, and Sally wondered if that had been what the girl was wiping off before she arrived. She wanted to be the one to finish clearing the streaks away now, in any case. "You really care," she said, fighting the urge to take Flick's hair in her hand.
"You got me there, sailor," Flick said, walking around to Sally's front with both sides of the towel in her hands. She smiled and yanked on the towel ends, pulling Sally up to her chest and catching her by her shoulders. "Did you think I'd steal a fancy boat just to chill with someone boring?"
Sally's mind blanked. A fraction of a step forward would rest her forehead against Flick's, stun her skin with her girl's touch, and guide her face to the outermost reaches of Flick's blush-red, softly parted lips. As if aware of her thoughts, the strap of Flick's top shook around her arm to beckon Sally closer. What few thoughts she mustered raced to simulate the sensation of helping it slip all the way down.
Cutting through the noise, Flick wiped Sally's messy fringe aside. "Offer still stands, you know," she whispered, her words filling the little space between them with her rich, sweet air. "Take a chance, Sal. Hit the road with me."
The fall back to earth whisked the words out of Sally's mouth. "I'd love to," she began, prising herself free from Flick's intoxicating aura. "But it doesn't matter how much I want it, Flick. I can't leave everything behind just like that, it's not that easy."
"Figures." Flick relaxed her hold on the towel, letting it rest on Sally's shoulders. "It's your family, isn't it? They don't want you seeing me, just like Miranda's stopped me seeing her."
"It's not just them," Sally said, wincing as soon as she spoke. The darkness that fell over Flick's face confirmed that her rushed words had only made things worse. "This village is all I know, more or less. As much as I'd love to see the world, I need time to untangle myself from here, to plan what I'm doing next."
Footsteps downstairs shuffled beneath the heavy silence that fell between them. Flick cast an eye over her wrist, nodding at the reading of an invisible watch. "Well, if it's time you need, I still have a bag to pack before I leave. Is about ten minutes enough time for you, bud?"
"You're still planning on leaving tonight? Look out there!" Gesturing outside, Sally saw the window's frosted glass and waved it away. "You saw me when I got here. That's a storm, Flick, a real one. My dad and brother have been sailing for decades between them, and even they couldn't handle it. They're stuck at sea right now because of this storm!"
"It sucks out there, I know. But between a storm and Damien, I'd hook up with a hurricane every time!" Flick backed towards the door, fiddling with her locket. "He won't stop for this, Sal, and neither will I. Me and Miri are leaving tonight."
The door shut behind Flick, the shockwaves of wood striking wood knocking the towel from Sally's body. Her heart thumped as she dressed herself, and every item of clothing she put on brought an image of her father and brother devoured in the storm, or her mother trapped in the family's brittle cottage. One slip on the valley roads would add Flick to the list in no time.
Rolling up her sleeves to her elbows, Sally found her phone and silver ring necklace poised on the end of the handrail. The device had somehow evaded the storm's wrath that had claimed the jeans they had ridden in before now, and she stuffed it in the pocket of her borrowed trousers without hesitation. Flick had made sound choices with these clothes, as they not only fit Sally as well as any of her own clothes did, but were just as comfortable to move around in too. They cushioned her flexing joints as she looped the ring's rope around her neck and raced down the steps.
"Hold your horses, child!" Sally jolted at the call of Polly's voice, yet a look at the corridor ahead showed it was not aimed at her. The woman leaned out of the open front door, bellowing out over the full force of the storm's fury. "Felicity Polina Scott, stop being such a blasted so-and-so and get back inside before you catch your death!"
Not stopping to ask if she had heard Flick's middle name correctly, Sally shot out of the front door. "You and all?" Polly said in her wake, flapping her arms at Sally's back. "Nothing but hot air and foolish ideas in young things' heads, I swear!"
Sally skipped past the wide pool of rainwater that spread across the farmhouse drive. Thunder swept along the nearby hills as its partner lightning cracked the sky, its flashes all she saw beyond the ground at her feet through the sieging wind and rain. All the work Flick had put in to dry her off came undone in seconds, yet Sally pushed onward as her clothes filled with wave after wave of misty droplets. It was her girl's touch, voice, and company she missed.
"Back off, dude! What's your problem?" Through the storm, the very voice Sally longed to hear fired itself into her ear. Flick was somewhere close by, yet there was a cloud of anger polluting her tone that Sally had not heard before. "What don't you get? She was my best friend!"
"Friend? Look at you! At best, she pitied you!" A heavier shot of fury coursed through the other voice, making it difficult to identify. Sally did not need to guess at its owner, however, as she glimpsed Damien's motorcycle jacket flapping in the wind ahead of her. "Why else would Miranda even bother to give a washed-up deadbeat like you a second thought? Get a grip, girl."
Flick stood by her car, keeping her camera bag close to her chest as she rolled her eyes at the man across the track from her. "You drove hundreds of miles to get here and you didn't come up with one new line to use on the way? Dude. Seriously. Do better."
"Don't call me dude!" Mud slopped and splashed as Damien stormed ahead out of Sally's sight. "Stop messing around and give me back the bag!"
"Back? It wasn't your bag in the first place, dude!" Something smacked into the car as Flick answered, her voice trailing at the end of her sentence. "Get it through your skull! Miranda wanted me to have it."
Damien cried in frustration. "She never said that!"
"She didn't need to!"
The pair circled the car, and as Damien reached out to grab Flick's arm, Sally lunged in between them. Her ribs bounced off the car's bonnet, and the flash of pain grew into a lingering ache. "Leave her alone!" she screamed, soaked hair splayed across her face. "Flick loved your sister, can't you see that?"
A laugh escaped Damien's lips. "Are you sure? Because all I saw was how she was always hanging around Miranda, she wouldn't stop bugging her." He leaned on the front of the car, his other hand wiping the rain from his brow. "That's what she does. She doesn't care, she obsesses until she's bored!"
"Flick does care! I know she does!" Sally wanted to keep yelling, but clearing the noise of thundering wind placed too much strain on her voice. Stepping away from Damien, she turned to look for Flick. "Tell him, Flick."
There was no answer. After a few seconds of searching the darkness, Sally discovered there was no Flick to answer her at all. A glance inside the car revealed only vacant seats, and the farmhouse lights remained unmoving behind their walls. She fell against the car again. Flick had left her.
Sniggering behind his hand, Damien shook his head at Sally. "Nice try, but you've got no clue what kind of person she is. Next time, stay out of other people's business, alright?" With a tilt of his head, he set off down the track towards the village, his arm raised to deflect the worst of the storm.
Sally picked herself up from the car. "No, it's not alright! Get back here!" she cried, pushing off the vehicle and starting a determined march in Damien's fresh, puddle-drenched footsteps. Despite pushing herself to keep an intense pace, she never caught up with the man, and she clung to the fact that this meant he knew where Flick went for some small comfort. She stopped looking ahead for Damien's shape and started looking down to follow his tracks.
Soon, however, the dirt made way for the unmoving hard surface of the village. Streams of stormwater flooded over the bricks beneath her feet, every glug through the cracks mocking her lost steps. A gloomy veil surrounded Sally on all sides, and the cold air tugged at her joints, fighting her movements more with every second. She came to a stop on a random, lonely patch of plain stone, exhaustion piercing her muscles.
Lightning lit up the land again, and Sally clutched her ears as thunder came hot on its heels to split the air. Deaf to the world, head aching with stress, she only noticed the uprooted tree as it crashed against the road in front of her. She tried to stir her stunned legs, but the broad trunk of a snapped branch flew into the side of her head before she moved.
Sally fell to the ground, and the veil of shadow closed around her until Porthdruro vanished entirely.