Sands Of Time

Eight

The pattering of the rain echoed hypnotically upon the roof and windows of the car. Tara laid in the back, stretched out upon the seats, with one knee up and the other flat beside it, and one arm sticking up against the back of the seats on her right with her hand flopped over at the stump of her wrist, and her other resting upon her stomach. Her head was turned neatly to one side and all of her auburn, wild curls were resting around her tired, pale face.

It had been four hours since Mark and Henry had left her there.

The music from the club burst out through the doorway as a group of people came stumbling out, as drunk as anything and laughing their heads off. Tara stirred softly in her sleep and turned her head to the other side.

Five minutes after the nocturnal group staggered up the road with each other in the pouring rain, leaving the club far behind, the door opened once more to let out the sound of the boogie music that was blasting loudly. Out came three men, two, staggering left and right with cheesy smiles across their faces, who Tara would have immediately recognized if she were awake, but the third one, a complete stranger to her. They trudged through the rain and over to the car whilst all talking at once with large hand movements and split up when they reached it.

Henry went to move around to the driver's side, but their new friend grabbed him by his shirt and pulled him back "Mark, if you want tp drink and drive, then go ahead, but not while I'm in the car."

Mark threw his hands up "Whey! Come now, Jaemin, I'm"- He hiccupped softly "Perfectly s-stable."

Jaemin rolled his eyes "Sure you are."

He pushed Mark away and watched him stumble round to the front passenger door. Henry was standing on his right, at the back door, and seemed to be having some difficulty in opening it.

"Holy tomatoes! Mark - your car's broken." He slurred stupidly.

Mark screwed his face up in annoyance and tried to open his door "Shit, I think you're right, Henry."

Jaemin gave a small pull on his handle, with one hand tucked in his trouser pockets, and snickered "They're locked."Henry let go of his handle and then huffed loudly "Oh, honestly..."

He and Mark leant in towards their windows and, placing their hands flat across their foreheads to block the bright lights of the City out, peered inside. Mark accidentally smacked his nose against the window and burst into laughter with Henry; Jaemin just rolled his eyes. Once Mark and Henry stopped laughing and looked back into the window, they spotted Tara asleep in the back and grunted in annoyance and began knocking on the windows. However, once Jaemin suddenly realized that there was a girl in the back, he just stood there and observed her curiously. From where he was standing, she looked very attractive... although, the fact that she had only one boot was a bit of a turn-off.

"Tara! S-snooky poooodles!" Mark sang and knocked on the window loudly.

Tara did no more than take a deep breath in and lift her other knee up to join her right one. Mark leant up and looked over at Henry irritably.

"Great." He snapped.

"You've been here for four hours now - no wonder she's asleep." Jaemin called over to them in amusement at their naïve ways.

Mark ran a hand over his soaking hair "Don't get cheeky Jaemin. If you'd have"- Mark paused for a hiccup and then continued "just come when we asked you to, then we wouldn't be in this stitituation."

Jaemin shook his head "If I knew you had an injured girl in the car, I would've come sooner... And I think you mean 'situation'."

Mark's lips turned into a thin, long line of ridicule and anger and he looked back down at the back window where Henry stood. He growled and suddenly slammed both palms of his soaking hands down onto the rainy window as hard as he could.