PEARL

SIX

TRACK 6
DISCO
SURF CURSE

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IDA was even more amazed now that she was about to sit down on the mud-brown couch beside Rowan (to avoid the risk of accidentally upsetting Nicole) that the four people lounging in the corner of such a lifeless, lukewarm room hadn't diverted her rock-blue eyes without Nate's guidance, because within such close proximity, said four people shone far brighter than they had from a distance.

In fact, if Ida's aspirations of being a writer hadn't died long before she'd tried to on the school bathroom floor, she may have said that Nate and his friends were like an opened treasure chest, lost in the dark depths of the sea and illuminating a small patch of the enveloping murkiness.

After Ida had been introduced to the treasure trove in the usual Wallflower way, receiving a mixture of glittering gold smiles, white-cold consideration and smoky-eyed silence, she gave her fringe an unoriginally signature swipe and made to sit down on her unappealing couch of choice.

No sooner had she done so did Lily Rose jump stained-fabric ship, sling a dove-wing arm around Ida's neck and fan warm breath over her cheek, giggling like a little child being let into a candy shop for a treat.

"Oh Nate," she breathed, sounding starstruck, her voice as sticky and sweet as everything that fictional candy shop surely had to offer. "Oh Nate, isn't she pretty? Oh, Ida's so lovely, so lovely and pretty. Pretty blue eyes, just like yours, Nate. And such lovely, pretty brown hair. Isn't she lovely, Nicky? Look at her hair. Micah, Ro, look at how lovely she is. Her lovely lips. I could kiss her!"

Go ahead, Ida cynically considered responding, seeing as it would definitely be hard for Hollywood to cope with not one but two instances of homosexuality involving its main characters.

"Yes, Lily," Micah laughed, sounded as warm as Ida thought he looked, and Ro nodded along with him, showing a small half-smile that was similar to Nate's, inasmuch as it didn't show his teeth. It seemed that Nate may not have spoilt the gradual development of Rowan Emery's character from surly to sweetheart after all, because that slight but genuine-looking smile was cast Ida's way as well as Lily's. Ida figured that was odd, seeing as there was always some character with respect needing to be won from or a tragic backstory needing to be unfolded after a couple of scenes of false impressions.

Not in this case, it seemed. Naturally.

"She's very pretty," both boys agreed. "Very lovely."

"So lovely," Lily echoed, her eyes as blue and round as sapphires in awe, running a Snow-White thumb over Ida's bottom lip and sucking on the faint trace of roseate lipstick that came away with it. "Look at her, Nicky. She's got freckles like little stars, and such lovely, lovely hair."

Even though she was talking to Nicole (who answered with nothing but a nod, submerged in smoky-lashed silence), Lily didn't take her own pretty blue eyes off of Ida – more specifically, her hair, which she was lacing her milk-white fingers through almost as delicately as she was humming. She herself was as delicate as she was gold and white, even if her body wasn't as fragile as Nicole's seemed to be beneath her violet-hued dress; as delicate and gentle as a fairy wing, and equally as ethereal.

Because nothing about Lily Rose, from big blue eyes to bare baby-soft feet, seemed to belong to the real world, and Ida supposed that was courtesy of all the lithium Nate had mentioned.

The occasional twitch of Lily's fairy facial features backed up that assumption.

"Told you she was touchy," Nate laughed lightly, sitting down next to Nicole (taking care not to get too close) and kicking his feet up onto the table between the couches, while Lily sidled up even closer to Ida – so close that their noses, one freckle-dusted and the other pure virgin white, nearly kissed - and wrapped both alabaster arms around her neck with another little laugh. "Lovely, though."