The Bikini Syndrome | WATTYS2019

» twenty-three: green moons (part two) ⚠️

SENSITIVE CONTENT AHEAD.
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Holly quickly realized she couldn't get out of drinking. She tried to dump the drink when Rohan wasn't looking -- except he was always looking. She tried to leave several times with her cup in hand, pretending to need a napkin or some other trivial item, but Rohan always got it for her. She even accidentally knocked the glass over, spilling everything, but Rohan insisted on getting her another glass.

She wanted to leave because it was quickly getting annoying. But Holly knew she couldn't. Not until she was sure who Rohan was, and if he was the one who'd hurt Sadie.

"So, what's your story, Rohan?" Holly said nonchalantly.

A small, barely existent sip of her drink here.

"I go to a college near here," he said vaguely, his teeth glowing white in the semi-darkness.

"So why are you at the beach so late? Don't you have class tomorrow?"

A sprinkle of fake concern here.

"No, it's summer. No classes for me!"

"So you come to the beach?"

"All the pretty girls are here," he said wickedly. He pointed towards her drink at that. "You don't like it? Let's get you another one then."

He was already making to turn around, and Holly took a small sip again.

"It's fine," she said quickly. "This is enough for me."

They kept talking. Every so often, he would bring Holly's drink up and she'd have no other choice but to take a sip.

A sip here, a sip there.

It started to add up.

Soon, she was feeling a little bit lightheaded. Just a little.

She told herself she needed to leave. Alarm bells were going off in her head.

But she had to stay. She had to find out if it was Rohan.

She had to help Sadie, so Sadie could stop worrying and find closure. So Oliver could stop worrying too. So Oliver could trust her.

But didn't he already trust her?

Holly shook her head lightly. She was confused, and everything felt a little hazy.

Rohan looked far away, and his voice sounded distorted to her ears.

"Are you alright?"

"I need--I need to go somewhere dark," Holly said at last. The lights were so bright, they were killing her KILLING her, jabbing her eyes, her eyeballs so hard.

"I know just the place," he said, green eyes peering into hers. They looked so large, had they always been that large?

He helped her to her feet. Holly swayed, giggling.

Giggling. Why was she giggling?

The ground felt funny underneath her feet. It kept sinking and a weird glittery sparkly dust kept getting in between her toes.

"It's magic dust," she said dreamily.

"Yes, it definitely is magic dust," Rohan said with a deep chuckle. His arm was wrapped around her waist, and his fingers dug into the soft fat around her stomach.

"Fat!" Holly suddenly cried out. "Fat!"

"Who?"

She looked into Rohan's eyes, and saw her own reflection, distorted and blurry like a funhouse mirror. She looked like a big, dark balloon. "You!" she said angrily, pointing at the thing in his eyes.

Rohan stopped suddenly. The good humor slid off his face, and he turned, green moons -- green eyes boring into Holly. "Repeat that?"

"So fat and pathetic," she said softly, still looking into those green mirrors -- green eyes.

They flashed angrily, and Rohan's fingers dug deeper into Holly's waist. "You don't mean that," he said, voice now cold and almost pouty.

Holly decided to say no more. She also decided she didn't like those green moons, and she wanted to get away from them. She tried to get out of Rohan's grip.

She tried to get back into her own grip.

But why was everything still so hazy? Why did the moon above feel like it was stabbing her? And why was she lying on her back, in the magic dust? When had she ended up there?

Rohan's hands, hot and angry, slid under her chin. "Say you didn't mean that," he whispered, his breath hot across her face.

"But it's true," Holly whimpered. "It's really true."

His hot hands, moving, moving downward.

"Stop," Holly pleaded. "Stop, I hate...I hate...I hate it too," she said, not sure what she was talking about now. She just kept seeing the dark reflection in his eyes. The dark reflection that was her.

She felt tears streaming down her face, hot.

Everything was so hot.

But he didn't care. The green moons didn't care.

"You're all the same," Rohan growled at her. "The same as my mother. You act so high and mighty, but get a couple of drinks into you, and look at what you become."

Holly shut her eyes, and tried to plug her ears. It was so loud, so hot. She didn't want to see her own dark blob anymore.

But he held her wrists down.

His breath, still furiously hot, across her chin, her neck, her face.

There were no more words after that.

Just teeth, angry, biting, into her neck. Her collarbones. She felt so hot. And sad. And angry.

She wanted the teeth to stop.

She just had to kick him, right?

It was something like that.

But kick him where?

Lower, lower his teeth went. Angry all the way.

She was angry too. She didn't what for or why, but--

Sadie.

Without thinking, Holly's leg lashed out, kneeing Rohan right in the balls.

At least, that was the hope.