Ash and Cinder

24| Color Shift

Late in the afternoon the next day, I find myself alone in the room with Elle and Sky while Delilah is away with Yana. Elle is awake, staring out the window at the city. Sky lays on the bed, one arm over his eyes, pretending to be asleep while I attempt to paint Elle's toenails with the indigo nail polish Yana left behind. She made it look so easy yesterday, but the sheer amount of precision it takes to get this stuff on only the nail is insane. Already there are drops of purple on the sheets and smears of it on the sides of Elle's toes. The brush is too tiny, and my hands shake too much. I'll have to practice some more, maybe Sky will let me do his.

"Hey, you want some nail polish?" I ask, not looking up. Sliding the brush across Elle's third toe, I silently rejoice when the polish leaves neither drip nor smear. Then a blob from the brush drips off and ruins the paint job.

When Sky doesn't answer, I glance up, the paintbrush poised over the next toe. "I know you're awake."

"You don't," is his muffled reply.

"Your hand is twitching," I say, turning back to the nail polish. I don't have to see him to know I'm right. The sound of his fingers snapping together rises above the beeps of the heart monitor, and he doesn't do that when he's asleep.

"Put the polish on my other hand then," he fires back, flopping his arm across the bed and tilting his head to look at me. "So how about that nurse?"

"Yana? What about her?"

"I think you have a crush on her."

This time the smear on Elle's toes doesn't come from shaky hands. I wipe at it with the pad of my thumb and only succeed in making it worse. "I don't know what that is."

"Oh, come on. You like her, admit it," he scoffs. I catch a glimpse of his conspiratorial grin out of the corner of my eye. I frown and shake my head, focusing harder on putting the paint where it's supposed to go.

"You have a concussion," I mutter.

"You have a crush," he repeats, sitting up.

"Stop saying that." I shoot a glare at him. Paint is glistening on Elle's toe. I stick the brush back in its bottle and give it a couple quick twists. The hard plastic cap cracks in two with a startling pop.

"Ice out mate, have some fun." He hops up to stand on the edge of the bed. His hair sticks up in all directions, almost hiding the bald spot. He snaps his fingers and points to Elle when she turns her head to look at him. He holds up his cupped hands. He has something, and he won't tell us what. He's been sneaking around with it in his pocket all day, only taking it out when he knows we can't see it. He's made a game of getting us guessing. I suspect he stole it, since there's no other way he could have gotten ahold of anything, but I don't know what he was stupid enough to steal.

"Is it a pencil or a pen?" Elle asks, propping herself up on her hoard of pillows. Her skin stays cool and her grip on reality is as solid as ever, it's all too easy to believe that she's improving. But there's a tray of food resting precariously on the bedside table, no different from when the nurse brought it in this morning, except that all of the foods have been mashed up and pushed around. She hasn't eaten a bite since she woke up yesterday and shows no interest in trying.

"Neither. Trick?"

"This is serious." I set the bottle of polish to the side and scoot off the bed so I don't accidentally smear more paint all over the place. There is a worldwide war going on right outside this hospital, no one has time for games or crushes, least of all us.

Sky shrugs teetering across the bed like it's a balance beam. "I agree. I mean, she's a bit older and way out of your league, but less possible things have happened."