Fever Dream Red

16

Danny strode over like he didn't have a care in the world. I wish I could walk as carelessly as him in the wake of an apocalypse.

"What are you wearing?" I asked him as he came into earshot, my voice brimming with amusement.
"Hm?" He countered, pretending not to hear me.
"You heard me."
"I...actually didn't." He smirked at the sheer awkwardness of the situation.

I couldn't help smiling too.

"What have they done to you?" I laughed.

Danny shrugged, as if it had simply happened to him.

"Part of their initiation or some garbage they were talking about."
"Not your choice, then?"
"You think?" He looked at me with helplessness.

"I got a wardrobe with a bunch of pretty clothes in."
"And?"
"And I couldn't be bothered to put them on."
"That's not fair! I got forced to put this on." Danny threw his hands up like a toddler plagued with tantrums. A few people on the tables around us gave us dirties.

"What if Nick sees you. I'm guessing he hasn't yet?"
"Nope. But I doubt they'll kill me for not wearing a dress."

Just then Nick burst through the door, looking like a mirage of Danny. He surveyed the room, scouting around like a humanoid lighthouse.

The room fell silent.

"Speak of the devil." I murmured to Danny. He nearly burst out laughing. I wasn't really that funny.

Nick spotted me. My mind spoke a hundred profanities at a time as his expression turned sour. He saw my cheap sneakers, my dirty bottoms and my scraped back hair.

I hadn't done what he had asked.

"Pheonix."

I cringed. Hard.

"What are you wearing?" He spat at me, much like Eli had spat on him the day before.

I stood up so he could see, shrugging my shoulders ever so slightly.

"That isn't the uniform policy."
"There's a uniform policy?"
"Yep. You would realise that if you had been at the meeting this morning."
"What time?"
"8."

I wasn't getting up at eight for anything unless it involved food. It was the end of the world and I was still getting treated like a little kid.

Some things never changed.

"Go on. Go and get changed. Properly this time."
I rolled my eyes. I went up to my room dissapointed and annoyed.

I hadn't even finished my caesar salad. Maybe Danny had saved it for me.

That was funny. Danny would eat what was left of it- who was I kidding?

I fell onto my bed again. I debated staying there for the whole day. Maybe I could stay there my whole life. Maybe not.

I got changed into the least revealing dress I could find. There were all dresses.

It was a simple red summer one. Slight frills. Casual. Kinda.

All the dresses were red. It was a bit...strange. I wasn't wearing one colour for the rest of my life. I had always suited red, but not all the time.

I stumbled down the stairs and walked into the garden instead. My stomach had calmed itself for now.

Sunny was there, in a yellow dress with yellow sandals. The dress was much like mine, although more reminiscent of sunshine and lemon than blood and anger.

The day was glorious for it too. Radience was in blocked capitals, decorating everything in its path and more. I wished I had packed suncream.

I waved to Sunny and wondered up to her. She was reading a book. The walls of the gardens had seats carved into them, furnished in plush cushion. Sunny was there, fully engrossed in her book, her eyebrows furrowed and her eyes widening every now and then at a nice twist in the tale.

I swiped the book from her, much to her annoyance. I needed a bit of fun for the day, and a bit of exercise. I ran for my life, around the gardens, past the blushing roses and uniform daisies.

I heard screams behind me, squeals of panic and crazed delight. My heart sped up a little at the occurence of them.

Every now and then a hearty laugh escaped me.

I liked Sunny a lot. Maybe a little too much.

I felt arms round my back. Laughs encircled me. It was just Sunny, there to get her book back. Bent over from both a stitch and bemusement, Sunny took her book back.

"What is your problem?" She giggled to me, at my level.
"You were enjoying it too much."
"Yeah. I bet. You were just bored, Pheonix. Don't lie to me."

My heart fluttered at the utterance of my actual name. I didn't like anyone calling me that. Why did I like her calling me that?

"Hey! Don't say that!"
"What? Your actual name? My bad."

Pause.

"Pheonix."
"I'm being serious! Knock it off!" I went to say, but I only just made it out before joy got the better of me.
"Why are you laughing then?" Sunny rolled her acid blue eyes at me.
"I don't know!"
"You're crazy."

If that was what it felt like to be crazy, I wanted to be out of my mind for eternity.

"What book is it?" I wondered to Sunny after a pause in the joyous mind fog.
"Can't remember." Sunny shrugged. "Kinda glad you took it away from me. It was boring as."
"You seemed pretty into it."
"Seemed being the operative word."

I gazed at the clouds when my laughter ceased.

"How do people see things in clouds?" I wondered.
"Imagination?"
"Maybe. Or maybe they're deluded."
"So you can't see anything in the clouds right now?"
"Nah..."
"I don't know. I see a face. Like, a side profile." She took my arm and pointed it at one particular cloud. "Look. That there looks to me like a slope of a nose. Don't you agree?"
"I-"
"And the dimples there. The hills almost. They look like a pair of lips. You see it?"
"I see it." I answered her.

Sunny swallowed.

"It kind of looks like you." She looked at me with these eyes. They were radiant and pretty, and as she hald her thumb on her lips, I had to turn away.

It didn't help. Heat still crept onto my face.

I imagined she had the most gleeful smile on her face. I did.

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