The Elemental Trials

Nine

Luke
Me and Skye hadn't spoken to each other since I walked away from her on the boat. I wasn't sure if she was mad at me - or if I was mad at her - but there was undoubtedly some awkward, palpable tension that we were both consciously aware of. Thankfully, her cousin lived close enough to the port that we didn't spend long in the car together, but for the duration of the short drive we sat in silence and only occasionally spoke to reply to something Alex had said. It irked me when I found myself relieved that she had left, and I spent the rest of the drive and plane journey thinking about our earlier interaction - which I was still trying to decipher. I'd decided I would stop thinking about it and simply enjoy my day with Pat. And I did. I can't say anything particularly exciting happened, but just being back in that familiar environment with my Grandmother to keep me company was refreshingly enlightening. I helped her out with some of the things around the farm, but the more times that I visited the more I'd started to realise just how capable she was on her own. It almost made me feel like I'd been cheated into doing work all my life. After catching up about everything - again, nothing exciting - and relaxing in each other's company, Alex returned just as the sun was going down to take me back to Wales and eventually the island. Pat and him spoke for a while as old person to old person, having built up a solid friendship over the course of the visits, and before I knew it I was saying goodbye and getting whisked off to the airport. Alex slept for a majority of the flight, surprisingly, which gave me a good chance to sit alone with my thoughts before we arrived back at Wales. This was where I decided to consider things with Skye. The whole reason I'd gone over to talk to her on the boat was to discuss how she'd kissed me during the spar, and maybe also the fact that it was my first kiss. I knew there was a huge chance it meant nothing to her - that it'd only been her way to win the spar and nothing else - but there was something nagging at the back of my mind that told me I should at least bring it up to her and try to find out. But instead we ended up just...arguing? Who am I kidding, it wasn't an argument. I don't even know what the hell it was. Based purely on the vibe I got from the conversation and the way we'd been acting afterwards, it honestly felt very much like an argument. I thought she was offended by the fragile way I'd been treating her during the trips, so to counter that I thought I'd bring up the other topic that'd been on my mind. Asking about her parents was none of my business, but I'd just thought-...no, that was the thing. I hadn't thought. If i'd actually just considered that she might not like me bringing up her dead parents no matter how curious I was, this whole thing could've been avoided. I wasn't completely stupid. Dense as pig shit, yes, but I could tell fairly easily she didn't want to talk about her parents. I just wish she hadn't brought up mine. I totally had it coming of course and deserved exacltly what I got, but I reacted completely on my instincitive emotions and look where that got me. I had to talk to her as soon as I saw her. We'd be meeting her at the port, which meant the best time would probably be when we headed out to sea. At least then we'd have some privacy. I was an idiot, but if there was one thing I was sure of it was that once I told Skye that, everything would go back to the way it was.

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It was well past dark by the time Alex and I got off the plane in Wales. The car was outside the building exactly where we'd left it, but as we exited through the front doors and began to walk towards it I saw Alex pause slightly beside me. My brow furrowed as I watched him place a hand against his head, before his gaze started to look off wispily into the distance. "Alex? Are you okay?" My voice seemed to break him out of his stupor, but there still seemed to be something bothering him. Before I could even ask what it was, he nodded his head and walked off towards the car without a single inkling of acknowledgement or explanation. Despite how strange it was, I decided to give Alex the benefit of the doubt and act as though it was a one off. I threw my backpack into the back seat of the car before getting into the passenger beside him, and without any further delay he started the engine and started to drive.