Fifty Shades of Pink-Eye

The Departure

“To be honest, I don’t really know where to go from here,” I said awkwardly.

“Yeah, I figured,” Emily replied with a sigh.

“So… um, does it hurt? You know, your, uh, Super Pink-Eye?” I asked in an attempt to break the ice.

I examined Emily more closely. I looked first to her long brown hair, then her pale skin, and then finally her green – but now, mostly pink – eyes. To be honest, the green was barely distinguishable. I never thought that I would ever get over my whole fandom thing with Emily, but after seeing her with Super Pink-Eye, with swollen, puffy eyes which were slightly oozing puss; it was kind of hard to continue idolising her. I guess it’s for the best…

“Sometimes it really hurts. Sometimes it doesn’t at all,” Emily replied.

“I heard from Rosie Taylor today that, because of your, um, condition, you might be transferred to a specialist in London. Is that really true?” I asked,

“I sure am, Lilly. Right in time for school holidays, how convenient,” Emily said, sarcastically.

In her mentioning of the upcoming school holidays, I started to think about what I was going to do in its duration. I started to mentally flick through my brain calendar, and was not too surprised to see it completely devoid of plans – or honestly, devoid of any social life. This became the predominant reason of why I said what I said next.

“I’ll come with you to London, if you’d like, that is,” I said in the hopes of resurrecting my social life.

Emily’s face instantly lit up, which didn’t really look very comfortable for her Super Pink-Eye. “That would be so amazing! Can we go with a few other people though? It could be a boat party! Oh, yeah,” Emily said as an afterthought, we'll be travelling by cruiser for the most part, then swapping for a plane. My parent's own a cruiser instead of jet, because I don't like flying for very long."

Okay, so she owns a cruiser. Play it cool, Lilly. Play it cool.

“Yeah, that’s fine with me. I don’t mind,” I said with a shrug, but what I was really thinking was: Holy mother of Voldemort’s nose, she owns a freaking cruise ship, and I’ll be going on it to go all the way to London!!

“Splendid,” Emily said, “Who should we invite to come with us? Of course Nikki will be coming, so will her sister Catherine, but you haven’t met her yet. She’s the chef, and you know what? Nikki and Catherine are twins. It’s so entertaining when they talk to each other in German, it’s like they’re speaking to a mirror.”

It was hard to understand Emily because she was speaking so fast, in all her excitement. I caught most of what she said, and went off that.

“I think we should invite Jacob Collington. I know he’s a pretentious snob and everything, but that kid could seriously use some social interaction. ASAP,” I suggested.

“Who’s Jacob Collington?” Emily asked, arching an eyebrow.

“The one who feels it’s his job to answer every single question, in every single class, with the highest confidence, even though most of the time he’s wrong. He’s shortish, dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and lets off a kind of gay vibe?” I described.

“Oh… That guy,” Emily said in in a fluctuating pitch.

“Yeah, him…” I said.

“Can you think of anyone else who you would like to come with us?” Emily asked, desperate for a party.

“There’s Rosie Taylor,” I suggested.

“My memory escapes me,” Emily said. Puss was also escaping her at that moment. I shuddered inwardly.