dead sea (a. pressman)

two

Heather soon found herself back in the center of town, with all the rest of the kids who had been set to go on the trip. It was the same story all around - everyone had returned to their homes to find them empty, no trace of their families to be found. Heather was far from the only one freaking out. Nervous chatter broke the still quietness of the night, voices overlapping as everyone's fear fed off of each other.

It began to settle down as Grizz asked what had been on most people's minds - why they were gathered here. Cassandra spoke, addressing the group as a whole. "Has anyone been able to reach anyone?"

'No' was the unanimous answer, even when she asked a second time.

"Okay... Well, there's, I mean, there's definitely a simple explanation," Cassandra said, shaking her head slightly. She may have appeared cool and calm to the others, but Heather could read her well enough to see she was starting to get a little freaked out too. Her and Allie exchanged glances, both thinking the same thing - Cass had to keep it together. If she didn't, or couldn't, no one would.

"Like what?"

"Um..." It's quiet for a moment, only crickets continuing their usual midnight song in the grass below their feet. "They were evacuated." Her voice is decisive, not leaving much room for argument. It's something that she wants to believe too. Her resolve seems to get stronger as she continues speaking. "After we left. And there was a miscommunication, and we were brought back here by mistake."

"Someone would still answer a phone," Kelly pointed out.

"Maybe they're asleep." Cass shrugs. "I don't know, maybe they're some place with no reception. They're in a shelter, with no reception or something. In the morning, someone will answer a phone." Her tone is reassuring, but Heather can tell it's not working for everyone. Not for her, at least.

"Maybe it's not safe for us to be here," Elle chimed in, "if they all left."

"A couple hours isn't gonna make a difference," the older girl insisted, as the tide of voices began to rise again. She raised her voice slightly in order to be heard, "We'll figure this all out in the morning. Right now, we should just uh...go home. Yeah, we should go home. Anyone who doesn't want to be alone can um, come back to our house - yeah?" She directed the last bit at Allie, to make sure it was okay with her, but Allie nodded in agreement.

"Is that your advice, Cassandra?" Harry called, something in his tone combative. Then again, that was kind of Harry in general - combative.

"Yeah. Yeah, Harry. Just go to sleep."

Of course, nobody listened. They were a group of roughly 200 hundred teenagers, after all, with no adult supervision. They weren't just going to quietly go home. What they wanted to do instead, apparently, was throw a party in the empty church.

Heather followed a few steps behind Allie, looking at the crowd around her with her nose wrinkled in distaste. She narrowly avoided being doused in beer and huffed in annoyance. Parties were definitely not her scene. Allie managed to convince her to dance a few moments later, and though she was initially nervous, soon she was laughing and dancing around easily with the blonde.

Some time later, things had died down a bit, and Heather finds herself seated on a pew a couple feet from Sam. She had a bottle of beer in her hand, nearly half-empty, and her legs were propped up on the pew in front of her. Her gaze followed Allie as the blonde bounced across the room, coming up behind Will and getting his attention. They talk for a moment and then -

She looked down, absently swirling her beer around in its glass bottle and trying to ignore the pain in her chest. Even having known how Allie felt for Will, it was immensely painful to see her kiss him.

"Heather." She looked up, gaze focusing on Sam. Having gained her attention, he began to sign something. She was a little rusty - though she and Sam had never really been super close, she had learned sign-language because he often hung out with her and Allie as they were growing up, seeing as she was his cousin. She quickly got it, though. "How long?"

"How long what?" she asked, confused. She signed as she spoke, but her movements weren't as smooth as they had once been. Still, that combined with Sam reading her lips, got her point across.

"How long have you liked Allie?"

The brunette scoffed, her cheeks heating up. "I don't."

"Bullshit," was the boy's response, a grin on his face. She scowled, which only made him laugh. "Does she know?"

"I told her. Once. Then she told me she liked Will." Heather wasn't quite sure why she was telling Sam this, but it felt good to. Plus, she was pleased to find that once she got back into the groove of it, all the sign language she had learned was coming back, despite being hardly used the past couple of years. Sam winced sympathetically at her response, a slight frown on his face.

"That must've sucked." Heather laughed dryly.

"Yeah. It did."

-

The next morning, Heather was sitting outside the church, the brick digging into her back as she leaned against it, head tilted to look up at the sky. Morning had brought exactly zero answers, and while most of the others had headed home to crash some hours before, a handful of them were out here, discussing what to do next.

Cassandra spoke first. "I'll get a car and go to Greenwich to get help."

"Why you?" Harry asked, sitting on the church's stoop, a red solo cup in his hand despite the fact that he was clearly hungover.

"Someone has to find out where everyone went, and we can't all go."

"I'll do it."

"You sober?" Cass asked, turning to look at Harry. He chuckled shortly.

"Fuck you, Cassandra." He turns to Luke, and the two agree to go get some of the guys to go with them. With that, they're walking off.

Heather stood up, brushing off her jeans. She was about to head home, feeling a serious need for a shower and a nap, when Allie called her. Turning back, she found both the blonde and Sam looking puzzled. "The smell's gone," Allie said, making Heather pause for a moment. Realizing the girl was right, she frowned. After. West Ham being plauged by some stupid smell for weeks, it disappeared now?

"What do you think it means?" the brunette asked, tucking her hands into her back pockets.

Allie shrugged. "No clue." 

///

y'all, i'm so sorry that it's been so long. life has been nuts. but, here's this chapter, which i'm not sure how to feel about but i hope you enjoyed anyway. 

i wanted to write another tonight, but it's already eleven, and i'm super tired from work today. hopefully i'll be putting chapter three out tomorrow, though.

thank you to those of you who have stuck around this long :)