Chapter 7
She didn’t hear him coming down the steps. She didn’t hear him open the door either.
“What are you doing in my room?” It wasn’t accusatory as it once might have been. It was simply a question.
She lifted her head up slightly from her position of lounging on the bed, then lowered herself back and stared at the ceiling. “It’s not your room anymore. You moved out.”
“Yeah, well, it didn’t stick.” Sebastian throws down his bag and then walks to his desk chair and slumps into it. He swivels so he’s facing her. “Why are you hiding down here?”
“I’m not hiding.”
“Just snooping through my old comic book collection, then?”
She sighs and sits up, “I did that pretty thoroughly back in grade seven. I think I read them all before you did.”
He raises an eyebrow, “probably.”
There’s a moment of silence. She crosses her legs.
“So why are you back then?”
He exhales, rubs the back of his head. “City wasn’t so good.”
She nods, “no. It wasn’t.”
They hadn’t been in the same city, but that didn’t seem to matter just then. They don’t say anything else for a while. Then Maru gets up and walks towards the door.
“I guess you can have your room back.”
He looks at her over the top of his computer and nods before she goes, closing the door behind her. It’s the most civil conversation they’ve had in years.
Back when Finn was still in town, dislike for him had been a rampant topic in Pelican town for a number of weeks, and it was felt deeply and personally, though none had such claim to personal offense as Shane.
Shane had been there when Finn had first sauntered into the Stardrop and quietly folded himself onto a stool at the bar and ordered a ginger and rye from Emily. He’d been within earshot when Emily, normally friendly and talkative with everyone, and gone aloof and started to avoid him.
He was there the second night it happened too. He cut himself off early because that fuck was so annoying. He hadn’t anticipated being followed.
“I saw you watching me all night.”
He heard the words slurred from behind him. When he turned and saw Finn stumbling towards him in the dark, quiet, street, he didn’t know how to react, what to expect.
“And I saw you the other night too.”
“That’s what happens when you’re a belligerent ass.” Shane snapped back, wondering if his scrawny kid had some sort of machismo complex and wanted to fight him.
“Sure, sure…” Snickered Finn, stumbling even closer, entering Shane’s personal space. “Not because you see something you want, country boy?”
And then, through the random chaos that is the universe, Finn’s lips were against his, his tongue on his teeth.
Shane was drunk. He went along with it. Like he’d go along with it every night afterwards, listening to Finn’s derogatory terms of endearment; country boy, dumb hick, hillbilly fag.
Shane would wake up in the morning with a pounding headache and a stomach full of livid anger. Live anger. By the same freak energy that brought them together, after months of emotional atrophy, Shane began to feel again.
Maru stands at the top of the dark staircase and thinks about what she’s about to do.
Back in the day it would have been out of the question.
She internally shrugs, they aren’t back in the day, are they? And walks down the steps.
She knocks on the door. “It’s me.”
“It’s open.”
She goes in.
“You want to come to the moonlight jellies with me?”
“What?” There’s no lights on, just the computer screen glow illuminating his face is harsh shadows.
“You want to go to the moonlight jellies with me?” She repeats, feeling dumb.
He shrugs, “yeah, sure.” His eyes lower back to his screen, “just give me a minute to finish this up.”
Alex stood on the pier alone, leaning out slightly towards the water, searching for something in the gloom.
Shane stood with Ry at the other end of the pier. She was talking to Harvey, and Shane was tuning them out completely. He was looking for Evelyn now, sure to be near her grandson, but he couldn’t see her anywhere. He did another sweep over the spectators, looking to see that girl from the gym, only noticing his clenched chest when he released after being unable to locate her. Why is he even looking, what kind of self-torture is this?
A elbow sticks into his ribs and causes him to take a step dangerously close to the edge of the pier.
“Fuck off.” He hisses, reactionary. Ry’s looking at him with an unamused expression, Harvey’s gone, down the way talking to Maru and Sebastian.
“Just go say hi.”
“To who? Harvey?”
“No, Lewis. You know who, asshole. Just go, he’s alone.”
He glares at her, remaining firmly planted where he is. She rolls her eyes and leaves him there. Now it’s his turn to pretend to stare out at the water. To anyone watching, the look on his face would give the impression that he hated it.
It was weird being with Sebastian like this. She remembers them getting along well when they were kids, him protecting her from the bullies at school, but as they got older things got more hostile. Maru didn’t understand why. Sebastian was cloaked in his own darkness and she couldn’t penetrate it, wasn’t welcome to try.
They’d only seen each other a few times since she’d moved and the hostility he usually exhibited towards her changed to an outright exhaustion. A heavy silence. It was as if he no longer had the energy to fight whatever it was about her that irked him.
Now standing by the water together, she wondered what it was between them. They spoke little on the walk down, hadn’t exchanged many words at all since his arrival back home a few days ago. But something had definitely changed. They now pointedly stood away from their parents, not wanting any remarks on an alteration neither of them yet understood.
She was snapped out of thinking about it by Harvey, approaching in his usual awkward manner.
“Maru,” he nods at her and she returns it. “Nice to see you again.” He says to Sebastian.
Sebastian just nods, and they all stand there in their individual silences, staring out at the water.
“Hey Seb, I didn’t know you were back!” Maru is surprised to see Ry walking towards them. She’s even more surprised when she hugs her brother, and he hugs her back without any resistance. Since when were they friends? Since when did Seb show physical affection?
“Just got back the other day.” He says, patting her on the back. “I thought about coming by…” They back away from each other and Sebastian shrugs.
“No need to explain, pal. But it’s nice to see you.”
He smiles at her, “you too. Is Eternal Darkness still kicking?”
“Eternal Darkness?” Harvey asks, raising an eyebrow.
Ry laughs, “ Seb’s void chicken. We call her ED for short, and yeah, she’s good. She hates Shane, chased him out of the coop the other day.”
“That’s my girl.” Seb smiles, clearly amused. Maru doesn’t know what to make of it, but before she can observe any more of their familiar dynamic Lewis calls Ry over to help launch the boat to lure the Jellies.
“Since when are you friends?” She can’t help but ask.
Seb shrugs, “I don’t know. Since after you left for school.” He clearly doesn’t think it’s as strange as she does.
It isn’t long before the ethereal glow of jellies starts bobbing towards them, and they all lean in to get a better look. It’s still amazing to each of them, even after all these years.
She’s not exactly sure how Harvey manages to fall in the water, but he does.
Shane’s down the way when he sees Harvey accidentally go for a dip with the jellies. He takes a few steps forward, instinctively, but Elliott, standing nearer, is already in the water before he can form any real thoughts.
His eyes only linger on the rescue scene for a second – Maru and Sebastian helping to pull the two men back to dryness, Harvey shocked and coughing, Elliott holding onto to him firmly – before they travel up the crowd again. He sees Alex, on the other side of the commotion. His eyes aren’t on the rescue scene either, they’re on him. The realization sends a shudder through him. Alex looks away again quickly, and it’s too dark to see if his ears went red.
Shane stares out at the water again, thinking, calculating.
Harvey is not a good swimmer but he is adept at embarrassing himself.
He’s not sure how he ended up in the water, all he knows is that he did. One second he’s dry, standing beside Maru, observing a beautiful natural phenomena, the next he’s got water up his nose and doesn’t know which way the surface is in the black murk of the cold night sea. A third second and big warm hands are gripping him and pulling him to safety. A fourth, and he’s back on the dock, coughing his apologies.
He sees Maru’s concerned face and Sebastian’s slightly amused face and a swirl of other people’s too. He hears a melodic voice say “it’s alright,” quietly in his ear, and then he hears that same sentence repeated louder for the blurry faces. He’s swept off the dock and up the shore in another blink of an eye.
He’s trembling from cold and dripping water droplets all over Elliott’s floor. How did he get here?
“E-e-Elliott?” He stammers through his clacking teeth, trying to find a thread of sense in it all.
Elliott’s lighting candles in the dark shack. Then he’s pulling off his overcoat and hanging it over his desk chair. “Let’s get some dry clothes, shall we?” His voice doesn’t waver like Harvey’s but in the soft light he can see that he’s also shivering a little. This makes him feel more calm. Noticing Elliott’s white blouse stick to his firm chest, transparent in its wetness, makes him feel considerably less calm.
Instead of retrieving the promised dry clothes he gets a towel. He hands it to Harvey, who’s slow to remove his arms from holding himself. “Th-thanks,” he manages.
Elliott smiles softly, “here,” he says, before tugging at Harvey’s wet coat and removing it. Is it the increased exposure to the air or his touch that makes him tremble more? Elliott wraps the towel around his shoulders. He’s instantly warmer.
“I’m sorry, Elliott.” Harvey mumbles.
“Don’t be absurd. Unless you intended to fall in the water..?” Elliott raises an eyebrow at him. He hasn’t stepped back since wrapping the towel at him, and Harvey, slightly taller, looks down into his eyes and can’t find it in himself to answer the question.
Elliott seems to find this amusing and steps away from him, going to retrieve the promised clothing.
As Elliott steals Harvey away up the beach Maru spots Penny sneaking away quietly on her own. It’s the first time she’s seen her since the luau. She has no idea what happened between her, Sam and Connell, but she knows that Sam and his friend had left the next day. She hopes that means he didn’t have time to inflict too much damage.
Penny seems more herself, shrivelling up in the shadows, but that’s not exactly a comfort.
“You and Penny aren’t really talking, are you?” Sebastian asked.
“Since when are you so observant?” She replies in a deadpan voice.
Seb rolls his eyes, “she used to be at our house for dinner every other night. I haven’t seen her at all since I got back.”
“We aren’t… honestly, I don’t know.”
He shrugs, refocuses on the water like the conversation is dropped.
She’s not sure why she has the impulse to say, “Sam was here. For the luau.”
She sees him freeze under that statement, his face growing a shade paler than it already is, but he recovers himself quickly, just nods. She wonders what that meant to him.
The initial wonder of the jellies is starting to wear off and people are returning to their conversations, though still content to stand out in the glow. Ry never returns to Shane’s side and he wonders if she’s pointedly ignoring him. He’s not going to be the one to seek her out.
After he’s finished glaring at her and the people she’s talking to, he turns back to the water and is startled, thrilled and disturbed to notice Alex is now standing next to him.
“So did you teach that girl how to properly squat?” It’s a horrible intro, he wishes he’d said anything else, he wishes hadn’t said anything.
Alex’s ears go red, “uh, no… no.” His eyes are pointedly fixed on the water.
“Not your type after all?”
Alex looks over at him, and he’s biting his lip and shaking his head no. Shane can’t stand to look at that for too long and has to face the sea again.
“So uh… is your power still on?” Alex asks, shifting his weight awkwardly.
“You know it is.” Shane says with his classic bite, though this time it makes him want to wince.
Alex eyebrows crinkle in confusion.
Shane shrugs, “you did good work.”
“Oh.” Alex rubs the back of his head self-consciously, Shane enjoys the look of his mussed up hair. No, he doesn’t, he didn’t even see that.
“Don’t act like you don’t know you’re good.” Shane scoffs.
“I don’t think about it in that way.” Alex says with a thoughtful frown. Shane wants to study that frown.
“Oh.” Is all Shane can think to say. He’s surprised by the answer. Because it’s a weird answer or because it’s Alex saying it?
They stand there. In silence. And it’s horrible. The chatter of the crowd around them serving as an incessant reminder to Shane of his lack of conversational ability. He can’t think of a single thing to say.
“I’m sorry about the other day.” Alex says, suddenly.
“What?” Shane’s caught off guard again. What could he possibly be sorry for?
“I feel like I was rude. I wasn’t expecting to see you there and my brain just sort of… wasn’t working.”
“Look Alex,” the feel of that name in his mouth, he shouldn’t even be saying it, “I’ve kind of got the market cornered on being rude, don’t think you can disrupt that.” This is probably where Shane should apologize too, but he doesn’t.
“I don’t know about-”
“It’s true.” Shane cuts him off, if only to make his point.
There’s another silence. Shane has to fight hard to think of something to fill it with.
“So… Is Evelyn not here tonight?” That’s all he can come up with?
Alex shakes his head, “she said it’s too late for her.”
Shane nods, aware now, that he’s exhausted all possible paths of conversation. He takes a step back from the edge of the dock.
“I uh… think I’m gonna head. Early farmer morning and all.”
To his surprise, delight, horror, “yeah, me too. But the mechanic’s version.”
They walk back to town together, the sleeve of Alex’s shirt occasionally brushing against Shane’s arm.
“I keep asking your sister to visit the farm but she never shows up.” Ry is telling Sebastian, grin flickering between him and Maru.
“Oh?” Sebastian raises an eyebrow, barely visible through his hair, gaze turned to inspect Maru’s reaction to this.
“I’ve been uh… I wasn’t sure you meant it.” She thinks that’s a better lie than saying she’s been busy. By the look Sebastian is giving her she can tell he thinks it’s a weird response coming from her.
Ry just shakes her head, “I don’t say things I don’t mean.”
“Okay well…”
“We’ll stop by this week,” Sebastian finishes for her, nonchalantly, like that’s a totally normal thing for the two of them to do.
We will? She wants to say, but doesn’t, not sure if she’s mad at him or not for speaking for her. The three of them have been out on the docks longer than she would have expected, many people having already left.
Ry smiles, “better,” and she nudges him lightly. The familiarity between them is still throwing Maru for a loop. Ry looks over her shoulder, “did you see if Shane left?”
“I think I saw him leave with Alex.” Seb says disinterestedly.
Ry’s head snaps back to look at her brother, eyebrows up high.
Sebastian chuckles, “does that mean something?”
“I don’t know… I do not know.” She muses.
It seems like Sebastian is about to ask further questions about this but he's interrupted by Robin and Demetrius.
"Children. Ry." Demetrius greets, smiling jovially at them.
"Enjoying yourselves? Behaving yourselves?" Robin adds.
"Enjoying yes, who can be the judge of behaving?" Ry jokes to Robin. Her parents laugh and Sebastian rolls his eyes.
"Glad you're having fun. We're heading home now but don't think you have-"
Maru cuts off her mother's usual plea for her children to have a social life, "I'll come with."
"Think I'll stay for a bit." Sebastian says, surprising apparently everyone except himself and Ry. Maru, Demetrius and Robin all swallow their disbelief and bid them goodnight. Without Abigail and Sam, oftentimes even with them, Sebastian was usually the first to slink off at the first excuse.
"He seems to be doing well, Robin." Maru's dad says when they're halfway up the beach, patting her hand.
"I hope you're right." Robin says quietly.
Maru's not sure if she agrees but doesn't voice this opinion. Her brother was always a mystery to her. Crossing into town she realizes that she feels very strange about her brother and Ry hanging out without her. What could they possibly be talking about? She almost turns back.