Always To Ashes

Midnight Oasis

Chapter One

Empty air stretched on infinitely below me, taunting and dizzying, as the cloying summer breeze kissed my bare legs. The heels I wore were slipping off my feet, dangling by the strap, threatening to come loose and plummet down to their demise. What a shame that would be. I had just bought these shoes.

"Ash, what the hell are you doing?"

I turned my head, causing my loose curls to dust across my bare shoulder. I regarded the drunken boy in the tux before me. Adam had cleaned up rather nicely for the evening, though he had sort of spoiled it by spilling liquor on his nice white shirt.

"Sitting," I explained. "Come join me."

"Uh hell no!" he protested drunkenly, "You gotta get down from there Ash, you're gonna fall!"

I gave an amused tinkle of a laugh. "You're being silly," I told him offhandedly, "I'm not going to fall." I turned my attention back to the view that stretched before me. It was quite enchanting really. The balcony we were on overlooked a beautiful expanse of water, some fifty feet down. The little pond, outlined in weeping willows, was entirely too scenic to be real.

"I - I'm serious," he slurred onward, "You gotta get down from there. You're freaking me out."

"Oh alright," I huffed a sigh, "If it'll bring you peace of mind." I swung my legs around the railing until my feet rested on solid ground once again. Around me, the balcony was alight with activities. I imagined that the Hotel Alleman had had this spacious balcony erected so that guests could dine out here and enjoy the view. How disappointed they would be to learn that adolescent prom goers were using it to hide from their chaperones and binge drink.

"Thank you!" Adam exclaimed with obvious inebriation as he wrapped his thick arm around my shoulder, pulling me into his side. I felt his lips on my hair, kissing my head, and smiled a little to myself. "Thirsty?"

I regarded the flask he had offered to me. "Not particularly," I replied, scrunching up my nose at the sharp scent.

"Oh c'mon Prom Queen!" taunted the newly arrived Debra who, with a bottle in hand, had stumbled over to pester me tipsily from behind her thick bangs, "Take a shot!"

"But I'm not thirsty," I reminded her passively.

"And you think I am?" she retorted with an eye roll, taking a swig from the glass bottle, "Please. I'm like ninety percent vodka right now. I sure as hell am not thirsty, but I'm still drinking 'aint I?"

I considered that. "Good point. I suppose I'm just not in the mood."

She cackled a laugh. "Ha! Sucks for you Adam," she teased, shoving him playfully. "You - you get it? Cause she's your date, and she's not," she gyrated her hips then in a demented motion that was reminiscent of Elvis Presley, "In the mood."

"Ha. Ha," Adam commented, eyeing her with drunken annoyance, "You're so damn funny Deb. You - you should do stand up."

"I'm not sure I can stand up!" she cackled some more. Based on the way she was swaying, I believed her. "Well I'll catch you losers later." She put a hand to her forehead, intending to make an 'L' I assumed, though she seemed unaware that it was backwards. "I'm gonna go . . . uh away."

With that she teetered off, looking dangerously unsteady on her precarious heels. "Remind me again why we're friends with that girl," Adam grumbled as he took a swig from his flask.

"I thought you knew," I joked softly, absently really, my gaze once again attracted to the landscape. The view from up here was simply gorgeous. The Hotel Alleman really was on prime real estate.