Truth

2.Coast

The sun was streaming in beams through my curtains when I woke up. My eyes were stiff, and rejected the sudden light but I was too hot to stay in bed. For early September it was like a heat wave, but I loved warm weather so I wasn't complaining. I was only complaining about getting up. My bed was like my lover, she was hard to leave and easy to come back to.

I rolled out and stretched as I stood up. I could see the dust particles dancing about in the streamers of sunlight, I used to call them fairies and Steven would laugh at me and say I was gay. Evelyn probably wouldn't laugh at me, but then who was I to tell? I'd only known the girl a day.

A sharp, loud knock hit my door, it made my head twitch and I jerked to grab some shorts and polo. After pulling them on I opened the door to an impatient and flustered Evelyn.

"Come on we gotta go." She said quickly, making lots of hand gestures that I couldn't interpret. I followed her out of the room, locking my door with the key in my pocket before running down the corridor behind her.

Her face had been blushed, as if she were out of breath and tired out. As she ran her hair flew about behind her, and her legs moved fast. I noticed she had bare feet and only a black vest and pair of shorts again.

We got out of the dorm block but seemed to keep going fast across the grass toward the campus car park. I caught sight of something on her left arm, but I couldn't work out what it was, I shook my head telling myself it would be nothing. I instead tried to focus on keeping up with Evelyn, which turned out to be harder than I'd anticipated. Steven always did say sport was not my forte.

We reached the car park and I spotted Tarim and Lucas standing against a rusty blue people carrier. Evelyn pulled a key from her pocket and unlocked the vehicle, climbing into the driver's seat and shouting: "Rowan gets shotgun."

I followed the indication and walked round the other side, getting in beside her. I did up my seat belt and watched as Evelyn reversed really fast and sped off out of the packed parking lot. It seemed when driving, her friend was the accelerator and she didn't like the brakes much.

"Where are we going?" Lucas called forward. Evelyn just giggled and opened her window, before sliding her arm out and swimming it in the wind as we joined a highway. I watched her beautiful tan face relax as we escaped the campus and drove down an empty road. It was about nine in the morning, way too early for any normal Saturday to start.

I found my eyes glide down to Evelyn's arm, where I spotted five dark lines traced across her wrists. I looked away immediately, not knowing if I should say anything. They weren't red, so clearly they weren't new. I just told myself she probably fell over and let my mind evert to something else.

We arrived at the coast in about thirty minutes, where Evelyn messily pulled up on a stretch of road right near a small pier. "It's the beach, baby!" She laughed out, getting out and running away with the keys still in the ignition. Her hair streamed out behind her and her racing legs took her body far into the distance in a matter of seconds. She ran up the wooden steps of the old pier and ran down to the end, so she was suspended over the water. She stopped as she got to the end and then stood looking out at the ocean, where she stood with her arms outstretched and no doubt a smile.

Tarim got out first, and pulled Evelyn's keys out of the ignition and waited to lock the car after Lucas and I. We got out also and I walked toward Evelyn. I tried to make it look like I was taking in the sun-kissed sand of the beach, and looking at the gorgeously blue sea; but all I could see was a beautiful girl stood - now - a couple metres away of me, and all I wanted was to close that gap and feel the warmth radiate onto me from her body, to smell the smoke as it left her lips and hear her voice as she spoke to me about nothing.

I noticed Tarim and Lucas walk away together, probably to go fight or swim or something. Those two seemed close, like they'd known each other for a while. My guess was that they went to the same high school before now. I didn't pay attention to them, instead I walked up the pier steps and slowly made my way down the boardwalk.

"Evelyn." I called up. She turned her head, keeping her feet firmly stood in position. Her hair flicked around and glowed in the low sun.

"Rowan, come you can see the fish." She smiled, turning back and sitting on the edge. I was surprised there was no barrier, but perhaps it was for fishermen or divers.

I sat beside her, the scent of stale smoke surrounding me from her clothing. It wasn't unpleasant, although it sounds that way; it was actually like a hug. Sure enough, there were various sized fish bobbing about beneath her feet. It made me grateful for the extra few inches higher my feet were, thanks to the stilts the pier was upon.

This beach seemed old, like a hidden treasure chest that hadn't been touched for years. This boardwalk was crumbling, and there wasn't a burnt out bonfire or anything to be seen across the entire landscape. It was like a painting you'd see in your grandparents' home. It made me wish I could paint.

"My daddy brought me here when I was little. He would dip my toes in the water whilst he waded in, waist deep. We would laugh and have picnics and only go home when the sky was a deep midnight blue, because we thought that the life was still here that fed us. But the magic never left. The only thing missing now is him." Evelyn said softly, I'd never heard her speak so quietly. Tarim and Lucas probably had, I got the impression they'd been friends for a while.

"I s'pose they'll have to rebuild this here bridge soon. Makes me sad 'cause all I ever wanted was to be scattered here, my ashes I mean. But I wouldn't want to be scattered from some swanky new pier with rides and benches and candyfloss. That just seems sad, y'know?"

I didn't say anything, just stared out at the water trying to think about the world without an Evelyn in it. The beauty would die with her, I feared. I didn't want to experience a life without her face in it occasionally, it sounded ridiculous but now I'd seen such beauty everything seemed bland in comparison. A beauty like that scars the mind.

"You're good to talk to, Rowan. You don't interrupt or make it about you. But at the same time I hate that you're such a mystery. Luckily, I don't hate you." She teased, nudging over at me before pulling out a cigarette and lighting it between her teeth.

"You don't smoke." She said. I shook my head, even though it didn't seem like a question. Truth was I was dying to know what it was like, the curiosity almost hurting my head, but she hadn't offered and I wasn't sure I wanted to know. I wanted to understand what Evelyn liked, but I wanted to stay healthy too. And the paranoia of cancers that society had imprinted on me would never leave long enough to try, nor would the lack of confidence to ask. So I would never know.

"You're not missing much, don't worry about it." Evelyn said, as if she'd read my mind; I almost panicked I'd been talking aloud.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I don't exactly smoke for the taste; I smoke because of what it could be doing to me." She said. I looked at her and saw a glint of cheek in her eyes.

"Killing you?" I joked.

Then, in all seriousness, she just said: "Yes."