Fever Dream Red

56

I guess me and Inez had chosen to glaze over the subject until Danny was ready to talk about it.

It was just strange.

Chloe and Skye were twisting their forks around their food much in the same way Inez was.

I found their whole display quite sad.

Eli sat next to Chloe on my side of the table, eating with little etiquette even though I couldn't imagine he enjoyed the food.

His leg kept sjaking under the table and I found it odd.

What need had he to be nervous?

Mimi sat opposite him eating quietly, repeatedly looking to the girl at the head of the table opposite Nick.

She had long overflowing hair that was frizzy and looked static to the touch. Her pale complexion looked almost yellow in the warm lighting, and her eyes stuck out from their hooded frame.

She wasn't sat like the rest of us in our fancy dresses and ties. She was simply in a tank top and some sweatpants.

I was jealous to say the least.

The dinner plundered on, with the main being dleivered. It was some form of meat, with sauce and potatos on.

I ate the potatos happily enough.

I didn't really know what the meat was. It looked a bit like beef, but I wasn't sure.

I didn't know if they even served beef at fancy dinners like that one. 

I tasted it and my suspicions were excitedly confirmed: it was indeed beef.

I cleared the rest of my plate with relish.

Many others did too, except Sunny, who looked at the plate in strange apprehension. It was okay though. She managed to sell the beef off to Doug in the end.

The dessert came: a cheesecake. My face lit up when I saw the waitors come in with it. I loved cheesecake.

It was beautiful. It was the best thing I had seen since I witnessed Doud and Alfie's PDA. If anything could make this stupid dinner part worth it, it was cheesecake.

I loved cheesecake.

As I dug in I kinda zoned out everything else that was occuring.

I only dipped back into relaity when I had finished my slice of cheesecake and could hear the annoying ding of metal against glass.

After clearing his throat multiple times, the meandering chatter of the table quietened.

"I bet you're wondering while I brought you all here today." Nick started his speech and I felt like crawling into a hole.

I wasn't really wondering why I was there. Actually, that's a lie. I was questioning why I had to be there.

Maybe Nick had heard about my love for cheesecake.

"We come to this gathering in celebration." Nick announced with much joy. A few hesitant cheers followed, most noticeably by Doug and Alfie, who I presumed were already drunk, if not teetering on the edge of so.

"Because," Nick paused for dramatic effect,"our great Zoe is cured!"

When Nick said this I openly cringed. I think 'cured' was going a bit too far and perhaps tempting fate. I think 'our great' made it seem as if Zoe ruled over us in some kind od great dictatorship.

It was a bit of a moment when the penny dropped. There girl about my age sitting at the end of the table was Zoe. I hadn't seen her ever since I had moved away at the grand age of seven. Ever since the apocalypse she had been shut away, ill. Now she wasn't though.

It didn't make any sense. How could Zoe be cured? How could Nick succeed where many other doctors had failed?

At the mention of her name, I expected Zoe to turn beetroot from embarrassment or crunge in self loathing. She did none of this, and instead just rolled her eyes in annoyance.

Nick had his work cut out with this one.

"So here's a toast! To Zoe!" Everyone lifted their glass, mumbling in half coherence.

I didn't even know toasts still happened. I had only seen them in movies and such.

The whole thing just seemed really stupid to me. And why was it called a toast?

We all sat down, but Eli remained stood up, even when Mimi motioned for him to sit down.

He remained there, swaying a little from the amount of drink he had had to get through the painful evening.

Eli snarled at Nick in a most ungrateful fashion to say that Nick had just saved his sister.

"And a toast to you, Nick." Bitterness clung to every syllable in his sentence. It made its home around the ends of the words, sinking its heels into the roughness of the letters. "The man who wants to ship away my own sister to get married-"
"Eli you've had too much to drink. Why don't you go lie down." Mimi told him in a caring nature, but her face said otherwise. She was staring daggers at him, begging or perhaps yelling at him with her eyes to step down from the figurative plank in which he stood.

"No! He wants to take her away from us! Don't you understand that? He only cured Zoe to help himself!" Eli argued with Mimi for the whole table to see. Zoe sat in front of them, her eyes twitching from one to the other like a spectator watching tennis.

She seemed a little detached at the whole situation at hand. It primarily concerned her, after all.

"At least she's cured!" Mimi rose up from her seat.
"But at what cost?"
"There is no cost!"
"She had to go to a school!"
"And get an education? Is that not a good thing?"
"To get married off!"
"When she's older!"
"This isn't the 1800s Mimi! She should have a choice in who she marries."
"And she will! Won't she, Nick?"

Nick seemed to be enjoying the drama until his name was called out. He stumbled on his words and made a hurried "Yes, of course."

He only wanted the argument to continue.