027: we are for(n)ever
DAY 10.999
"Exactly how intense was your walk?" teases Brooke as Dakota and Elijah return to the group.
Calvin laughs, lifting his head up from Brooke's lap, for a second. Between his fingers are a bright red elastic band, which he's strumming and making it twist and turn. Arthur's sitting in front of Fiona, somehow distant from the rest, playing with the fringes of the patterned blanket they've laid out. It's to distract him and Dakota is very much aware of that. Fiona is spread out on the blanket, gazing at the many clouds of stars above. She's frowning and it is because of the pollution messing the image in front of her.
"As intense as Arthur looking at artwork," Elijah replies, taking a seat beside Arthur.
Arthur looks at him, interrupted in his trance, and softly gazes at Elijah. "Hmm?" he asks, unknown to the conversations held. His pale face is twisted into a look of question, as his mind takes in the faint string of words he'd heard.
"You're such a charmer," Elijah chuckles, shaking his head. Dakota smiles a toothy one at his words. Arthur gives him a tight smile, in return.
"Anything we should know, Dakota?" Arthur mutters, tracing an irregular pattern into the grains of the sand.
"Why don't you tell me?" Dakota hoarsely whispering, leaning onto her arm. Arthur looks at her for the longest time. He's confused. What exactly is he supposed to tell her?
"Okay, ew, I can't deal," Brooke loudly interrupts, before Calvin proceeds to pretends to barf.
"Well, you're not going to have to put up with it any longer," Fiona sadly murmurs, breaking her gaze from the glistening stars. Her eyes come to rest on Brooke, with her and everyone else looking at her expectantly. She smiles a tight smile. Fiona smiles to give courage and happiness, but the heavy bitterness rests evidently behind it. She shrugs a shoulder, trying to show that the fact hasn't shook her at all. "Last clue," she mumbles, throwing the piece of envelope at the sand. It's weight makes the grains of the sand fly in different directions, just like them, soon.
"It can't be," Brooke firmly denies, refusing to believe the disheartening truth. "It's only been ten days," she argues, looking at the back of Calvin's head, as he'd gotten up and was leaning over to grab the truth.
Calvin frowns, quickly ripping off the sealed opening of the encasement. His fingers fiddle with the paper inside, before he takes out the flimsy clue out. His eyes go across the paper multiple times, before he lets out a loud, defeated sigh. Brooke, concerned, gets onto her knees and shuffles closer. She peers over his shoulder.
"Hello, team! If you're reading this, then you've found your final clue. You can't sleep," Brooke quotes whoever wrote this down. Wrinkle form on her forehead and she questions the writer. "I'm sorry, what?"
Calvin chuckles - he doesn't know if the humour is included in the sound or not. He gently looks over his shoulder at his girlfriend. "You can't sleep. That's the final clue," he whispers, his eyes stealing a glance of her lips.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dakota nervously chuckles, getting onto her knees. Her skirt exposes her creamy legs, just as she folds the sleeves of her black turtle neck onto her fingers.
Calvin lifts his head to look at Dakota, his eyes wondering over her face, trying to find a suitable explanation to make all of this seem alright. After a while, he smiles, sharply, shrugging a shoulder in defeat. With a small utter, Dakota hears, "I don't know."
What a perfect sum up, Dakota thinks, of everything.
She bites onto her bottom lip, trying to make sense of what they have been given. But her eyes drift off to someone she's fond of.
Arthur's sitting there. He's not making an effort to say anything. He's simply staring at the sand, a blank expression plastered onto his face. His facade doesn't slip . . not even for a second. This worries Dakota. It always worries Dakota.
What's he thinking now? she wonders. Although it surprising, she slowly begins to understand.
He doesn't want to leave. And maybe he feels this way because it's the first time Arthur's ever gotten emotionally close to people. It scares him. It slices right through him, the shock so sharp, he doesn't have time to cry out and ask for help. Help from his former self.
It dawns Arthur that Dakota Adler is the reason. It's because he wants to kiss her and hold her hand can he not leave this adventure whole-heartedly. And in that moment, he regrets joining this trip the slightest bit.
"What?" Arthur mumbles, looking away from her stunning features.
Dakota hesitates. She opens her mouth to say something but stops, instead, gaining her posture and looking elsewhere, as well.
Suddenly, Elijah gets up and begins to walk towards the cold lake. It's only Fiona who is looking at him in wonder. "Where's he going?" asks Fiona, getting up, as well, to get a better view of the tall frame in the dark.
Dakota, who is absentmindedly looking at the ground, gently lifts her head up, to look over her shoulder. She sees Elijah's pants rolled up and the sleeves of his blue sweater bunched together to rest high up on his arms.
"Come on, lets get sick so we don't have to go back," Elijah yells. Everyone knows he's trying to make this dramatic because they're the only ones interrupting the silence of the night.
"We're going to get arrested if he keeps yelling," Calvin comments, getting up and taking his shoes off. His socks and Brooke's shoes follow onto the pile Calvin's created. Soon, a few more shoes are found in the rubble.
Then, there are laughs and bright music and cherry smiles taming the once tensed atmosphere.
"Elijah, I swear to the fucking universe, if you even think about doing –" Arthur swears, but can't complete because Elijah lets out a huge holler, before he jumps onto Arthur, sending him straight into the cold waters of the fresh lake.
Elijah laughs, tackling Arthur, who's desperately trying to get out because, fuck, water.
And it's not Dakota who seems to know about Arthur's great fear, as she, trying not to reveal his weakness, jumps onto Elijah's back, distracting him. In that time, Arthur escaped the wrath of Elijah, clambering towards shore.
It doesn't take long for Elijah to get Dakota off and soon, she too is falling happily beside Arthur, giggles erupting from her mouth. Her strawberry blond hair is soaked, and Arthur can feel it when she presses up against him, their skin touching one another.
Dakota looks up at him, smiling lightly. Not hard - small enough to make him feel comfortable. The moonlight shines onto the water droplets cascading down his smooth skin, making his face glisten, ever so gorgeously.
They're the only ones who are momentarily distracted from the fun, just so they could gaze into each other's eyes and find the beauty within one another. "We have now," Dakota announces, giving him a sweet smile and a cock of her head.
The waves travel between them and so do their hands. Amongst the waves and wet sand, their hand slowly meets, gliding over each other.
Suddenly, there's music filling the cold summer air. Brooke's hooked her phone to the large speakers and is dancing back towards the lake.
Calvin bites onto the corner of his bottom lip, a smiling slowly finding its way to his face. His eyes are bright – the love filled them is absolutely unbelievable. Brooke Hollins is his and he's happy. She's happy. He's happy and that's all that matters.
He slowly walks to her, a soft yet bright smile resting on his face. Brooke returns this million-dollar smile, approaching him to take his hands in hers. She closes the distance between them, swaying lightly to the song. She giggles behind her sealed lips. Brooke tilts her head back as he leans down and gives him a sweet eskimo kiss, lightly chuckling as she does so.
Brooke Hollins never really knew if she would find love in her life. Sure, she and Calvin aren't in love but they're getting there. Slowly but surely. Because if there's one thing Brooke knows it is that her and Calvin are meant to be. It's early, it's a fucking cliché, but it's true.
And just then, when the waves rush over their feet, their smiles are well lit, their eyes are lost within the others, Brooke and Calvin know that whatever it is they're doing, they're doing good.
"You think that you and I will be able to figure this out?" Brooke asks, leaning in, her heart increasing. All her heartbeat needs to increase is a touch from him, the proximity of them or their love.
"Well," Calvin says, smiling with sealed lips and taking a step forward. His smile is shy but confident. "I know that you and I are made of titanium. It'll take sometime to break each other down. . but I'm certain we'll figure this out."
"We haven't forever, you know, right?"
"Let's take it day by day."
"That's some Skam shit right there, that is."
"Why do you always ruin the moment?"
"It's a part of me, Hallman. Take it or leave it," Brooke shrugs a shoulder, twisting side by side.
"Well," and that's all Calvin says before he presses his lips to hers.
The sparks between the are amplified. The electricity prominently crackles between them and it causes shocks to be sent through their being. Their kisses enhance their passion and cure their hearts.
They don't want to let go. And that scares Brooke because she says that now but what does time have in store for them? What is 'they will let go'?
Calvin's lip quickly crush the negative thoughts, as he brings her cold body into his warmth – into his world. "Stop worrying," he chuckles, mumbling against her lips. Brooke's stunned, wondering how he knew. But then she remembers he's Calvin Hallman: future Princeton graduate and part-time mind-reader.
"You know I hate you when you do that, right?" Brooke announces, squinting her eyes and looking at him knowingly.
"Hate me? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know those two could exist in a sentence together," Calvin shoots back, raising his eyebrows at her.
Brooke smirks, "Well, Sweetheart, it was a question, after all. ."
"You're good at this little game of ours, aren't you?"
"Sure am."
And they both laugh, as they begin to sway to the music.
"You think we'll all be friends after this?" Elijah asks, cocking his head to the side, to a twirling Fiona.
Fiona stops her spinning immediately and indulges herself into the aftermath (which consists of the world spinning hopelessly before her) and the serious question. "If there's one thing I know, Vans," Fiona says loudly, grabbing everyone's attention. She looks around, the world finally coming to a still, and smiles. "It's that we're forever."
a/n: okay, go ahead, kill me. do whatever you want I'M SORRY. I didn't mean to leave this story hanging. Amongst my IGCSE mocks and vacation I kinda just didn't bother. . .but then a month turned into two months and I regret it. I've probably lost most of you but it's alright. . .bc i love the ones that stayed <3 :)