Fever Dream Red

57

All in all, Nick was eating up the drama like no other food he had consumed that day.

"See?" Mimi pointed at Nick with here eyebrows raised in defence.
"He's lying through his teeth!" Eli argued. 

Nick had had enough of being called a liar so he promptly stood up.

"Why don't you go, Eli?"
"I'm not-"
"GO!"

Eli was drunk, but not stupid. He flounced out of the room, quickly followed by Mimi.

Zoe just sat there with her arms crossed, leaning back into her seat.

I had the feeling this happened often.

"Is he fit?"
"Hmm?" Nick asked.
"The boy you want to set me up with." Zoe clarified with a subtle roll of her eyes.
Nick giggled. "You musn't believe everything your brother says-"
"Can't you just answer the question?" Zoe asked, annoyance in her gestures as her hands grazed the air erratically.

There was a pause as Nick attempted to size her up.

"Oh. I see. You don't want to come across as wierd, do you? I can see how it would look if you started rating young boys. I assume he is a young boy?" Zoe leaned on the table, everyone watching her and her only.
Nick stared at her, willing her to stop.

She didn't.

"Why don't you show me a picture?" She asked sweetly.
"I can't do that." Nick conceded, still deeply staring at Zoe.
"Okay...?" Zoe leaned back and thought for a few seconds.

"Is he a decent human being?"
"How so?"
"Does he support equal rights and things? He's not in any way phobic is he? Or anti?"
"What if he was? What choice would you have?" Nick's tone grew in its menacing capacity, but Zoe refused to rise to it.

She winced. "None. But if I'm spending the rest of my life with some random dude, I don't want him to be dumb and I want him to be pretty."
"We haven't actually picked anyone for you yet Zoe." Nick said quietly, as if he was ashamed to admit it.
"Great! That means I can write you a list of everything that I like and don't like!"

Nick didn't compute what she was saying. He pulled a confused face.

"Who do you think you are?" He said slowly.
Zoe shrugged. "A stupid teenage girl who wants a hot boyfriend? Why are you acting as if I'm committing a crime? You're the one that's enforcing arranged marriages!"
"I'm sorry...What's going on here?" Doug asked the table, tired of the confusion of spectating the sport.
"This doesn't involve-"
"Now that I'm better, Nick wants to move me to a posh school where all the other fancy kids that have managed to survive the apocalypse are also staying. Then I have to marry some boy." Sunny made a disgusted face. "I know, right? I did the same thing when I found out!"

I couldn't imagine that Zoe would have any trouble getting someone.

She was wonderful and held us as her captive audience. I had only actually properly known her for a few hours. For the vast majority of that she had not spoken a word.

"ZOE!" Nick yelled at her from the other side of the room and she looked at him with her eyes narrowed and her lips pursed.
"Hm?"
"These discussions aren't for the dinner table. I suggest you go find your siblings."
Zoe looked Nick up and down and shrugged.

As she was leaving, she waved to all of us. We all waved back.

"So. I see you have all met Zoe." Nick started. "She can be a bit of a...handful sometimes. Please excuse her."

Silence followed. Everyone was disinterested now that Zoe had left.

"I am indeed going to take her away to a school."
"Why?" Doug asked him.
"Have you not just seen why? She is out of control! She needs to be put into her place. I can think of no better place for her than a school."
"And you're marrying her off?" Sunny found her voice at last.
Nick stared daggers at her. "It is the only way."
"You have no right." Inez told him, scolding him for being so disrespectful.
"I do! I cured her. If it wasn't for me she would be dead. Shouldn't she be thankful to me? Shouldn't she be willing to repay me in any way that she can? Shouldn't that whole family be? Instead they shove it back into my face! What am I supposed to do with that?"

It was strange. Nick seemed to have his power reduced at every opportunity. Inez pushed him around. Skye wacked him unconscious. Zoe belittled him to much effect.

But then he would bite back at the worst time possible. Skye was shot. Zoe was getting married off. Nothing had happened to Inez, but I feared Nick would get his way soon. It seemed inevitable.

Nick hunted his own karma, taking his time and energy to exert his revenge.

"If that it all." Nick finished. It was really a pretty way of telling us to leave.

I needed no second ordering. I was straight out of there, my mind fizzing at the revations that had occured.

It was strange to think that Zoe, and Zoe only, would be going to the school. What if I had to go? If I had to go I might as well as drowned on the beach.

I wondered where the school was and how many students where even there. I didn't imagine it to be too busy. It was an apocalypse, after all. But if this was all the teenagers who had survived all over the world then the school would have to be massive.

I also wondered why Nick was getting Zoe married off. Money, perhaps? But that made little sense. The Base seemed to be doing okay. And who needed money in an apocalypse?

It was something else. Social climbing, maybe? There could be a secret cult gang ring he was part of.

Wouldn't surprise me.