One of us is lonely

Chapter 10

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"HER NOSE IS NOT THAT BIG," Gabriel remarked as he inspected the colorful canvas, a half-finished picture of Red lounging on the windowsill painted on it. Jake put down his paintbrush for the third time that day and deeply exhaled in annoyance. 

"You wanna do it yourself?" He snapped. Gabriel held his hands up in defense and slowly backed away while Mira just snorted with laughter. 

"Just giving you some feedback, Picasso." He muttered. Gabriel sat down next to his girlfriend, who in return brushed a loving hand through his hair. Jake just shook his head. 

"Why are you guys here anyway?" He said it more to himself than to his friends. 

"It's either this or helping or folks clean up last night's mess," Mira said with a shrug, leaning back against the headboard of Jake's bed. The storm had wreaked some pretty nasty havoc. Trees had been ripped from the ground, roofs had collapsed and cars had been badly damaged. All the parents were out and about, trying to fix what was worth fixing and all the other stuff got replaced. When money wasn't an issue, the call to replace something rather than fix it was quickly made. The North had suffered as much as the South had - if not more - and Red knew what that looked like and what that meant for the families. It was a disaster. While she sat in her ivory tower, being painted as if she was a Greek Goddess, the Northsiders were barely holding it together. 

"Speaking of last night," Mira glanced at Red and she felt the blonde's eyes burn on her skin. It was a topic she could not avoid. "Does Finn know?" Red shook her head. 

"And I would like to keep it that way." She said, moving her head from the position Jake had so carefully picked out, to look at her friend. 

"Red." Jake spoke her name as a reminder that she was not supposed to move and with a quick "sorry"  Red moved back to her previous position.  

"Agreed." Gabriel said, nodding his head. "Your brother would kill me." Figuratively speaking of course, but Red was sure that Finn would lose his mind if he knew Gabriel had not stopped Red from walking into the water that night.  

"My lips are sealed." Jake agreed, dipping his paintbrush in a dark auburn color before stroking the paint onto the canvas. Mira nodded her head as well.  

"But don't you ever do that again, Maxwell," Gabriel warned. "You scared me to death." Red just softly nodded her head. She had scared a lot of people that night, including herself. It was a stupid mistake. A miscalculation. She had swum in thunderstorms so many times, but this one was fiercer than she was used to. 

"I heard Ares' dad was pissed off," Mira started.

"He was." Red added. Mira shot her a look Red could not see but she felt it burn on her cheeks. 

"That's right," And Red felt how that look turned into a cheeky smile. "You spend the night." 

"Jake, permission to move?" Red calmly asked, glancing at Jake. The brown-haired boy softly nodded his head, an all-knowing smile on his lips. Red grabbed for one of the pillows on the windowsill bench and threw it at Mira's head. 

"Oh, shut up." She whined as the pillow flew across the room. It hit Mira straight in the face and the poor girl fell backward onto the bed. Red shook with laughter and the guys joined in. 

"I'm just wondering, did you twist that ankle while you were out for a swim or another nightly activity?" Mira wiggled her eyebrows, the smirk never leaving her face. She held the pillow Red had thrown at her tightly pressed against her chest and when she saw Red grab for another one, she shouted: "Don't you dare!"  

"We fought for a bit and then I fell off his roof, okay?" Red admitted. Gabriel lifted a brow and all of them just kind of joined laughter, Red following along because admittedly, it was too bizarre not to laugh. She, who had always preached that every Southsider - and especially one like Ares - was her sworn enemy, was the one that had spend the most time alone with him out of all of them. It was ridiculous really. 

"Oh, Céline is gonna love that." Gabriel breathed out. From the corner of her eye Red could see Mira look at her. Her laughter had faded and the expression in her eyes had taken place for a look of worry. Red could hear the words Mira had spoken to her the night of the party bouncing back and forth in her head. The warning she had uttered about this Southern boy. It's a game he likes to play and she wouldn't be the first to lose. 

Her ankle still ached but still Red made her way down the old road that led from the Southside to the North. You could see the change clearly. Not only in the condition of the asphalt and concrete or in the shape and sizes of the houses. That day, the day after the storm, you saw it in the distruction. The lack of things that had been fixed and those that had been taken care of were done poorly. You saw it in the lights that burned inside the houses. Those that lived on the border were fortunated enough to still have electricity and water or at least to have gotten it back. But the deeper into the North you went, the darker the houses got. One of those houses a long way down the beach was PJ's. It was a similar bungalow built as the one she used to live in. Grey paint chipping from the window frames and door, loose planks in the floor, weeds around the porch. The lights were out, but Red knew that that only was because their electricty had not come back yet. She knew PJ was home. So, she did what she had done many times before. She sneaked to the back of the house and lifted his bedroom window. 

"PJ." Red whispered harshly. The blonde boy laid sprawled out across his bed, wearing nothing aside from a pair of swim trunks and a shark tooth choker around his neck. His eyes were fixated on the ceiling, a cigarette in his hand. "PJ." Red tried again. By now she was sitting halfway through his open window. PJ slowly turned his head, a soft smile on his lips. 

"Hey, South." He murmured. He sat up straight, his feet dangling over his twin bed. 

"Don't call me that." Red growled as she plopped down next to him, snatching the cigarette from his fingers and taking a long drag before handing it back. The smoke slowly exited her lips as the nicotine filled up her lungs. "How's the damage here?" She softly asked. PJ shrugged, extinguishing his cigarette in an ashtray that was already overflowing with cigarette butts and ashes. His father hated it when PJ smoked. That's why he always did it in his bedroom, his dad stayed clear of there. 

"The electricity is out," PJ started. "And one of the trees broke off and hit part of the roof right above the living room. Other than that, it's actually not that bad." Red nervously bit on the inside of her cheek. 

"I'm sorry I wasn't here today." She felt bad. While PJ and his dad probably had been struggling the entire day to fix the house, she'd been sitting in Jake's apartment, moddeling for a stupid painting. 

"It's alright. We mainly moved the big pieces of junk out of the way today. You probably wouldn't have been much help anyway." He teased. He let himself fall down on his bed and Red did the same, resting her head on his bare chest. PJ played with her hair, twisting a few strands around his fingers. 

"I'm pretty strong, you know." 

"I bet you are." Red couldn't see his face, but she felt him softly smile. She was peaceful in his arms. She could feel the soft beating of his heart against her cheeks and his breath on top of her head. She could lay like that forever, but soon enough she'd have to return to the South. 

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