Above

2

Estelle
Leeciy drives, I'm in passenger seat, Nigel's behind me, Annaliesee next to him, Jackson next to her.
"We're mighty squished." Annaliesee complains.
Leeciy looks up at her through the rear view mirror. "We're not."
"That's because you're both up front." She says.
Leeciy nods."Yup."
I look out the window, watching Willowdale reduce to ant size.
"Let's listen to some music." Jackson suggests.
Leeciy turns on the radio, letting the ads roll until the song plays.
'Perfect' by Ed Sheeran.
Then suddenly, I'm dancing on August's feet, so close our noses are touching.
I push away the memories and change the channel, flipping it to some country station.
"Um, no thank you." Annaliesee says.
Leeciy flips it to another station.
I could feel his eyes on the back of my head.
"Let's just leave it on this station, don't want to pour salt in the wound." Nigel says softly.
***
We all split our separate ways once we get there.
Well, kinda.
Annaliesee and I walk towards the general area of the art school she went to, Leeciy goes to his apartment building, and Nigel and Jackson walk to the lab.
The ground is covered in rubble, and a few ruins stand awkwardly.
"I hope that the fashion room still stands." Annaliesee says. "I wanna steal some fabric."
"What were you working on last in class?" I ask.
"We were in a battle course, so battle armor." She says.
"Like the faux leather get-up I was in for the video."
"No, that was inspired by some Britney Spears music video." She says.
"Oh." I say, kicking a peice of cement.
"Here we are!" She says. "Warby-Parker Arts."
The sign lays charred on the ground in front of half a building.
"Let's check it out." I say.
***
Annaliesee is a fabric fiend, she found half of the fashion room. Which is apparently the half that holds all the fabric, and fills her arms, and mine.
"This is the fabric that's refilled every week." She says, stuffing a backpack that she found. "Probably hasn't been refilled for a while." I say.
She adjusts her glasses. "Oh my god!"
"What?" I ask.
She slings the backpack on her back, collecting the remaining fabric in her arms. "I forgot about my pet!"
"You have a pet?" I ask.
She nods. "C'mon!"
***
We arrive at Nigel's and discover that they were already setting up camp for the night, since the sun was setting.
Annaliesee pushes rubble and glass out of the way before gasping.
"Did you find it?" I ask.
She nods, carefully pulling it out of the rubble. "He's okay!"
I lean over, expecting to see a cat or dog.
Instead, she's holding a venus flytrap close to her chest.
"That is your pet?" I ask.
She nods. "His name is Vincent."
"Oh." I say.
"His pot is cracked!" She says. "Oh poor baby!"
I look over to Nigel, who just shrugs.
"I'm going to patch it!" She says.
***
We brought two tents, one for the girls, one for the guys.
Annaliesee was out as soon as her head hit the pillow, but I lay here, staring at the neon green tent top.
I sigh and push my sleeping bag off me, climbing out of the tent noiselessly.
"Can't sleep?" A certain Austrailian accent makes me jump.
"No. How 'bout you?" I say, standing up fully.
Leeciy shakes his head. "I fell asleep, then Cirus woke me up with an awful nightmare."
"Why?" I ask.
He shrugs. "Maybe it's fun for her."
"Oh." I say.
"I was going to go for a walk, do you want to come?" He asks.
***
I don't think I've ever been anywhere this dark. Usually, South-side is lit up at this hour, with neon bar signs and house lights.
Now it's pitch black, a little reminder that it'll never be the same.
"Where are you?" I ask.
Leeciy's voice, though expected, makes me jump. "I'm here."
"Like where?" I ask, feeling around.
He grabs my wrist. "Like here."
"Can you see?" I ask.
He pauses. "Yeah."
"How?" I ask.
"When I was little, I would lock myself in my room, cover my windows, turn out the lights, and just let whatever shapes my brain would make surround me. I started adapting when my father died, because the shapes would just look like him." Leeciy says, trailing off.
I stay quiet for a second. "I didn't have a room."
"You were poor?" He asks, surprised.
"I wasn't, then I was because my mom refused to work once my dad died." I say. "My sister and I did odd jobs, trying to earn money."
"I was on the opposite side of the spectrum, really." He says. "But my past is boring as hell."
"I doubt that it's that boring." I say.
"Oh trust me, it is." Leeciy says.
"Oh." I say.
He pulls me by my waist.
"Woah, woah, woah, careful!" He says.
"What?" I ask.
He chuckles lightly. "You were about to fall into a basement."
"Oh." I say, my cheeks hot.
Hesitantly, he lets go of my waist. "Sorry."
I smile tightly. "It's alright."
He grabs my wrist again. "Should probably hold you closer now."
"Yeah. probably." I say.
We sit in silence.
"Should we head back?" He asks. "They're probably worried."
"Actually, they're probably asleep." I correct. "And I like hanging out here with you."
There's a rustling, then I get pulled down. "Don't fall." He murmurs.
"Are we sitting by the basement?" I ask.
"Above actually." He says. "We're sitting above the basement."
"What are we looking at?" I ask.
He pauses. "There's a wooden shelf with broken jars, a broken air conditioner, a basement, with basement things in it, and then you."
"Oh, I probably look as messy as this place." I say.
"You don't look messy at all, you look sleep deprived but mosty like yourself." He answers.
I look to where he would be, seeing a soft outline. "I wish it wasn't a new moon, so I could see your face instead of a slight shadow."
"You know what's going to be absolutely awful?"
"Hmm?" I ask.
Leeciy shrugs. "We have backseat tomorrow, and we have to listen to whatever Nigel wants to listen to."
My head flashes to the folk songs he likes to listen to, the slight thought making me want to pull my brain out and punch it about a katrillion times. "Oh god no."