Between the Lines | ✓

Cliche 15: Friendship Triangles

I could hear the sirens, see the flashing lights behind my closed eyes, and the odd film of red over my sight. I didn't really feel much at all except for an unfamiliar prickle along my skin, cold and sticky. The gentle tinkle of glass rainfall almost sounded nice, until the shouting started. 

Suddenly there were hands on me, so many hands, and even more voices yelling in my ear but I couldn't make out their words. My body felt like it wasn't my own as the hands guided me forwards, upwards, away.

Soon, there wasn't the sound of yelling, or the sound of glass falling like snow. There was just the long drone of a machine beeping, the rasp of a sob, and the wetness of tears pattering across my face.

And then a voice, soft, familiar, home. 

"You were supposed to wait for me," Amber cried, her voice distant. "Lex, wait for me."

And, finally, the beep of the machine stopped.

My heart, too.

***

I must have only blacked out for a second or two, because when my eyes blearily opened again it was to Elias's frantic face, his brows pinched and lower lip worried between his teeth. His hands were shaking my shoulders, and I could only blink rapidly as the flashing lights of the dance-floor made my head ache.

There was the pang of something unsettled in my stomach but I couldn't chase it, like a dream at the periphery of my mind that's forgotten by morning, but I didn't think too much on it when my face screamed with pain.

Elias quickly noticed me waking, one of his hands flying to my cheek, gently patting it as he murmured my name.

"Alex? Alex, can you hear me?"

"Mm, I'm awake, I'm awake," I groaned, pushing myself from the ground and hissing in pain, Elias helping me up with a hand on my back. Pain lanced across my face, arms and chest, but I couldn't help the empty laugh from bubbling up my chest. Elias only began to look more panicked as I laughed, his hands on my shoulder twitching like they wanted to inspect my head for any injuries, because a person who just got beaten to a pulp was not supposed to find the situation amusing.

"Thank God, you're awake," Elias breathed out, slipping his arm around me to help me to my feet. "Can you get up?" I swayed dizzily when I attempted to rise, Elias grunting in surprise when I all but flopped onto him, steadying myself with an arm around his waist.

"Mnh, sorry," I mumbled, but couldn't help but lean into Elias further, the soccer captain the only pillar holding me up while the entire world spun. "I need some fresh air. And some nurofen. Or... or morphine. Morphine would be good. Ugh, and a tissue, my nose is bleeding everywhere, sorry. Oh, God, I think I got some on your shirt," I sniffled with a pained noise, cupping my hand over my oozing nose to avoid getting any more on Elias.

"You don't need to apologise, come here," Elias huffed, grip on me tightening as he helped me hobble out of the party, Aubrey hovering by my other side with a comforting hand on my back. The protagonist's face was a little pale after witnessing the red seeping from my nose, but she was clearly trying to gather her wits to help me, the notion heartwarming.

As we stumbled out I breathed a sigh of relief, my head already feeling better when the fresh breeze hit me. The three of us quickly stepped around the inebriated teens laid out on the lawn like furniture, walking down the street to a quiet, empty playground. The red plastic slide and bright yellow monkey bars gleamed under the moonlight, the swing set gently swaying against the light breeze.