Crash

Thrash

A/N: ;A; I REALIZED THAT THESE DORKS CAN BE VERY ANGSTY AS WELL BUT THATS WHAT CUPPIE LIKES, RIGHT? ;A; *goes to corner to honor holy bananas* the full chapter available on Radish is pretty long by the way >_< hope it's to your liking :') sigh, I actually thought they would be all fluff BUT OH COME ON we need some competition and complex feels *spots burnt cookie amongst the good ones* *eats it because bitter is okay, bitter is good, bitter is sometimes necessary* 

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"Um, good night Blake."

He laughed lowly. "You too Ace."

So began our uncomfortable silence before the draw of sleep, signing the start of a most frightening time of the night. There was nothing to hide behind: our defences tucked away and hearts—raw. I waited for sleep, eyes closed. Heart fast.

Within those few seconds, I thought of ways to calm a racing mind and a stuttering heart. None of them seemed to work at the moment. The more I thought about silencing its beat, the louder it seemed to get. I prayed to everything above—anything at all, even if there was nothing—that Blake would not hear what I was hearing.

"Why do you like me?"

I froze, swallowing once before gathering whatever courage I had to croak. "What?"

"I mean," he snorted musingly. "What's so attractive about me?"

It was hard to search for a place to begin. There was no pin-pointing what I felt, let alone why or how I had come to feel these strange things for someone as strange. In fact if there was answer, I would have never known—had there been one at all. My heart lagged behind with a weight so heavy, it sunk.

I pretended to laugh under my blanket. "You just want that ego-boost, don't you?"

"Hm," he returned the favour. "Maybe."

My throat was dry. I felt that a glass of water was necessary at some point, if this were to continue. I was having a hard time keeping up with Blake and his sheer ability to pry my heart open. It was already so weak.

"I don't know," I managed finally. Quiet. "I don't know."

"Don't lie."

"I'm not lying."

There was a warmth that caressed my back soothingly, calming the heart. I didn't know what to feel about his affection; whether I should be allowed to get the wrong idea—whether it was the wrong idea at all and perhaps even forcing myself to think that I was not entitled to any idea at all.

"You did well today," Blake sounded tired. "I read the report you submitted. It was good."

"Sorry for tiring you out." The caressing stopped.

"It's time you get some sleep." He patted me once on the head. I didn't turn to look at him; it was hard to, really, when my lips were trembling and my voice—weak.

My ground of consciousness caved in, swallowing much of what was within its grasp. It pulled us apart, and I vaguely remembered dreaming of the fall.

*

"Do we, uh, get to swim in the pool?" I posed tentatively, a little embarrassed that I was getting excited over mere calculable litres of water mixed with chlorine when we were basically going to be surrounded by an entire ocean-full. "I mean, they have two."

"Yes, an indoor one just in case it rains and another on the deck," Blake elaborated. "You should enjoy this while it lasts."

"Agreed." An attractive voice blessed us with its sudden presence and I turned to see Xander Jaxon with an incredibly impassive but incredibly hot expression. "Don't get your hopes up, Salander."

While I naturally transformed into a banana, Blake rolled his eyes and looked perfectly unhappy to see his best friend. "What are you doing here?"

"No fucking clue," Xander returned with a sigh as we arrived at the yacht's boarding area. I was the first among us three to start on the stairs, lugging my bags along while starting to feel the strange sensation of being off-land.

"You okay?" Blake asked from behind, and I had the courtesy to blush in embarrassment.

"Uh, yeah. It's my first time, so. I'll probably get used to it—" In no time. As a matter of fact, that wasn't true.

Most of the buses had arrived a tad earlier than ours, so the majority of the company were already on the yacht chilling out. When I reached the top of the stairs however, what my eyes met was something close to paradise—or at least a close representation of whatever my imagination seemed to picture it as. The pool was relatively huge, consisting of two jacuzzies elevated above the corners of the main pool wherein the former's bubbling water overflowed into the latter. The deck was a classic beige wood littered with designer beach sofas and sun loungers, accompanied by some open-concept bar where people were already seated at.

That long description did not include the interior at all, which appeared to include the majority of the yacht.

I swallowed.

"Does your family bathe in liquid gold?" Blake snorted as soon as he took in what I did, turning to Xander with a raise of his brow. "I swear, this thing changes every fucking time. Since when were there jacuzzies?"

Xander didn't express any form of pride. "Yeah? And Giselle would have had better education if we did?"

Blake sighed. "I was kidding, asshole."

"I know," Xander only shrugged. "I swear, my mood gets even more fucked up every minute I don't have Chip in my line of sight."

For a moment there, I understood how Chip managed to turn into a blushing red pebble in front of Xander. Sure, he was the physical representation of a forest fire in the middle of freezing winter (hot as hell) but at the molten core of his charisma was the sole attention he devoted to just one person—as though he had sold his heart to the devil.

Or angel, for the matter.