Scarred Roses

Chapter seven: tipping the balance

As another week came and went, Audrey's dates with Thomas became more and more constant. She would stay at home, only for as long as she felt she was needed, and then the second work was done for the day, she would disappear. Without Ingrid, Leo or even Florence able to keep me company all the time, it made me feel somewhat lonely. And the more lonely I felt, the more I began to visit Liliowy-and Nick. He stayed there, without any mentioning of leaving, appearing to be almost well-groomed when I saw him, and somehow always well-fed. The company was there whenever I needed it, so much it felt like it could've been conjured from my imagination. I sometimes wondered if Nick even wanted me there, in his makeshift home as often as I was, but he was always brutally honest, so he would've told me if that were the case. It felt...good, having something of my own that was separate from everything else. A friendship I didn't have to share.

"Do you ever wonder what it'd be like to work as a sailor?" It was just one of many, out-of-the-blue sort-of questions he liked to spring on me.

"First of all, I'm a girl and picturing myself in those funny uniforms isn't something I normally do. Second, no. I've never imagined myself wanting to work as a sailor."

"I would. To travel all over the world, the wind against my face, the smell of the ocean. I'd leave a trail of sweethearts behind in every country, learn to speak every language, and then when the time comes I'd hoist the sails and tell ye scallywags to scrub the deck!"

"And I think you're getting the life of a sailor confused with tails of blackbeard!" I said, laughing. "Besides, I thought we were already enjoying the feel of the ocean?" As I said this, we were sitting on the grassy bank, beside the lake. Our bare legs submerged from the knee down. It felt refreshing, compared to the surge of heat that had overcome Bolen these last, few days. I thought it must've been just one, last wave of summer before autumn.

"We'd enjoy it even more if we had a boat," he mused. "Even just a regular, old rowing-boat. I might even let you be my first mate."

"Who says we can't be co-captains?"

"That's not how piracy works, Hazel." He said, "there's a hierarchy to it. First there's a captain, then that captain has their first-mate who is second in command, then there's the rest of the pirate crew, and lastly their captives. And I'm obviously the biggest, strongest and oldest of the two so I think that puts me at the top of the food chain, don't you?"

"Well, maybe you ought to be taken down a few pegs." I scooped some of that icy lake-water and flung it at him, catching him right in the face. He looked bewildered for a second, before a devious, little smirk tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"I don't know-I think it might be you going mad with all the power." He took an even bigger handful and flung it, right onto my blouse. The chill surprised me, given the more sensitive area...that gave me an idea.

"You're right-I'm not playing by the rules, am I?"

"Indeed you aren't,"

I took a piece of sopping, wet moss from the bank while he wasn't looking, then leaning over as if I were checking something in my satchel. He paid no mind to me, thinking he knew I wasn't the kind to pull juvenile pranks. Normally, that was true-but there was something about Nick that provoked the most childish habits in a person, even me.

"But if I might offer you some advice when it comes to sportsmanship?" I leaned just a little closer, so that my lips were only a couple of inches away from his ear. "Learn my game before you challenge me."

The slimy moss slipped down the back of his shirt-collar where I'd dropped it, making him jerk and wriggle like I'd never seen him before. Jumping to my feet, I broke out in a run, letting my laughter bounce back at him for good measure. I'd never teased him like this before, and I wish I had. If I knew making him flay about like that would look so funny, I would've tried it ages ago, when he first started asking me so many questions! It'd be a sure-way to shut him up.