❝later that night, i held an atlas in my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered 'where does it hurt?' it answered 'everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.'❞
the twilight saga / embry call
eclipse ― breaking dawn pt 1
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CHAPTERTWENTY-THREE: BETWEEN TWO LUNGS
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THE FIRST FLASHES OF dawn bled through the darkness of night like splattered paint on a canvas. Mae watched in muted wonder as dark purple slowly but surely gave way to the lightest of pinks; then, an orange hue that streaked just above the line of forest green trees that rose up in the distance, their bared branches scraping desperately to reach the sky.
Allison had picked a nice spot to end their trip, somehow managing to a secure a camp-site where Mae could just make out the cliffs of La Push through the caravan's sun-faded blue curtains. They were so far down the coast that Mae could've been imagining them, but as dawn inevitably dipped behind familiar grey clouds, she knew they were out there somewhere. At Mae's feet, Spot started to whine in his sleep, his paws twitching as if he was chasing something in his dreams. Mae was just happy Allison had let her bring him along. Like Kira, she wasn't much of a dog person, but Spot seemed to charm everyone he came across, even her.
His new favourite person -- second to Mae, of course -- just so happened to be Allison's friend, Verity Wu. Mae didn't know much about her, and two months spent together hadn't changed much. She knew Verity was twenty-six, one of the 'mature age' students studying archaeology at the same college as Allison. That, despite attending the same school together for more than two years, they met in a bar one night a few months ago where Verity drunkenly spilled beer on Allison's favourite red leather jacket. What a surprise it was the next day when they ran into each other in the college library, where a horribly embarrassed Verity offered to pay Allison's dry-cleaning bill, and they quickly became fast friends from there.
Or so they said. Frankly, Mae called bullshit. She didn't know many friends who were happy -- excited, even -- to sleep in the same twin bed for two months, who snuck kisses when they thought Mae wasn't looking, who casually spoke about moving in together when they returned home the following week. But Mae didn't mind their secrecy. She liked seeing Allison happy. As dramatic as it might make her sound, at least one of them were.
When the last of the sunrise was gone, Mae dropped the curtain back over the window and crept over to the small kitchenette on the opposite side of the room. Spot, sleepy-eyed, woke up and immediately followed after her, almost like he could read her mind and knew she was getting him breakfast. She reached for his bedazzled food bowl, which Kira had insisted she take with them, and grimaced as he barked eagerly.
"Mae, shut up," Allison groaned, her face buried deep in her pillow.
Mae glared at her sister's head. It wasn't her doing the barking. Still, she knew what Allison could be like in the mornings, so she quickly finished mashing up mince and dog biscuits before taking the bowl and Spot's leash outside. The fire pit was smouldering in the fresh, early morning breeze. Three damp fold-out chairs were tucked beneath the awning, surrounded by beer bottles and empty chip packets. Mae sat down, gripping on tight to Spot's leash as he dug into his food. No one else was up this early, and Mae had half a mind to crawl back into her bunk where it was warm when Verity creaked the door open.
