Equinox

Part 3

Back in the main tent, Ellie found that she didn't really feel like partying anymore. Feeling the bass pump through her veins didn't have the usual heart-pounding effect, if anything the music had become almost a monotonous background. Being surrounded by young, wild, colorfully dressed (and undressed) people didn't feel like a call to join them anymore. All in all, the event that she had spent months longing for suddenly just didn't have the right vibe.

The worst part was that Ellie knew exactly why she felt that way. How could she enjoy the party - any party - after planning it all for months with her best friend, preparing together, driving there together, only to let a little friction tear them apart like that? She sighed. On the other hand, what could she have done differently?

Having linked up again with Devil Mark and Angel Jessie, Ellie was now doing her best to explain the situation. The fact that they needed to shout at each other in order to make themselves heard, despite standing at arm's length, only made Ellie's stress levels rise higher and higher.

"...she now? Maybe I can... -alk to her!"

Jessie's question came fragmented, barely rising above the electro-trance that was driving everyone else into a frenzy.

Ellie shrugged, feeling a little red in the cheeks. "I don't know where she went! She just left, I dunno! I'm sorry".

"You left her all alone?", Mark pressed, with a worried look. "Out... 'ere, in the crowd?"

"No I didn't! She ran away, I..." Ellie tried justifying her actions. Rationally, in hindsight, it had clearly been a dick move on her part to turn her heels on a clearly upset Becca; the fact that she felt the need to lie about that detail meant that she was all too aware of it.

"What...Becca so upset...'bout, anyway?", Jessie asked.

Ellie paused. What 'was' Becca so upset about, anyway? She had been freaking out because of the poor deer, then saw the wolf mask guy and... panicked? Why? She shrugged, shifted her weight and tried her best to explain her train of thought. "I think she saw some weird guy and got, like, a bad vibe from him, and then she really didn't want me to go dance with him... I guess?"

"She was scared...a guy?", Mark immediately shouted back, visibly frowning even against the backdrop of dancing neon lights. He had always been protective of his friends, with a sixth sense for detecting dangerous situations and unwise decisions without coming across as overbearing - usually. Though this instinct was particularly strong when it came to Jessie, he often escorted Ellie, Becca and others back home or talked them out of doing certain things alone. Despite the occasional snarky comment about white knighting, they were all grateful for it. There were good reasons why they attended raves as a group, after all.

"Not really scared, I don't know, it's not like we know him. She just got a bad vibe and went crazy", Ellie tried to clarify. "He didn't do anything. He was just standing there", she added. 'He was just standing there'. His demeanor had been a bit weird, that was true, but then again who wasn't weird at a rave like this? Then again 'again', who doesn't dance at a rave, especially when surrounded by girls clearly hitting on him? Then again 'again again', he was definitely hot in a unique sort of way. You're allowed to be weird if you're hot enough. 'Maybe he would have danced with me'. For a split-second, she considered mentioning the incident with the deer, just for context - that could help Mark and Jessie in understanding their friend's odd state of mind. But she bit her tongue. What could that actually explain? 'No one has to know', she had told Becca, just the two of them, alone on the forest road. 'No one has to know', Becca had replied.

"We...go find her", Jessie chimed in, grabbing on to Mark's arm. His own reply came almost simultaneously, almost identical: "...nyway, we gotta go find her", along with a gesture that signified something like 'I can't hear you anyway, let's go find Becca and we will figure out the details of what happened later'.