Sink or Swim

Chapter 8

It had taken a while for Skye to feel aware of her surroundings again. Her tired eyes looked over the room, halting as they reached Cassandra's face. She was in the other woman's bedroom and the whole journey there had been a frozen blur. She'd been conscious throughout all of it, yet still she was unable to recall a single second of it.

Skye rubbed her eyes and muttered, "What happened?" Her short sentence was slurred, she was still very much drunk.

"Niamh thinks you had a panic attack. Your eyes went all weird and you started pointing at a car." Cassandra tried her best to be sympathetic, but it wasn't very her.

The younger blonde pushed her eyes tightly together and then opened them again, trying to relieve herself of that drunk, head-spinning feeling.

"It looked like the car that drove into me," Skye finally recalled, her eyes looking deep in thought, almost like she'd fallen into a daydream.

"It was red, Skye," Cassandra replied, looking at her friend like she'd gone mad.

Skye said a dazed, "Oh," and then looked around the room. "Where did Niamh go?"

"Into my brother's room," the older woman answered with a roll of her eyes. "It's really disgusting but I think they've started seeing each other."

"Jack and Niamh?! Wow!" Skye beamed; her eyes widening by at least 50%. The smile on her face had grown so bright, showing her almost-perfect teeth. She had never felt happier for her friend. Niamh deserved happiness and Jack was so lovely. She'd never have thought of them as a couple before but now she knew, it just seemed to make sense.

Maybe love was a more important than Skye had thought. Two people with perfectly-matching personalities finding one another, that was pretty special. Perhaps she just was just too drunk to have her usual view on it.

"I'm happy for her," Skye added, still smiling. The blonde wiggled herself closer to Cassandra as they sat on her bed. Skye had always admired the older woman's room. It was so minimalist, yet there was a lot of beauty to it. Golden fairy lights and photos were in on the wall beside the bed. Skye could see herself in a few of them.

Cassandra nodded. "Yeah, it's about time the lot of us settled down, we're getting old."

Skye tilted her head to the side as she bit down on the corner of her lower lip. Eventually, she said, "You can speak for yourself. I have loads of time left."

"It'll go by quickly."

Skye shook her head. "I...I just want my career back. I don't want to think about men," she slurred.

Cassandra rolled her eyes and replied, "Suit yourself." Cass had never been too interested in having a successful career. She worked as an assistant at a law firm and that was enough for her.

It took a couple of hours for Skye to sober up and drag herself home. The sunshine in the sky was hazy when she stepped out of the taxi. Skye's feet scraped awkwardly as she began to navigate her way up the driveway. With eyes all over the place, it took her a little while before she noticed her sister standing by the front door.

"Is nobody in?" Skye shouted over to her. With so many cousins under one roof, it was a rare event, especially for 10am in the morning.

"Doesn't look like it."

The blonde reached the door and unlocked it, before using her crutches to aid herself in.

"I'm so glad you're here, Marce. I had the worst night and I really need to talk..." She trailed off when she turned around to see the discontented look on her sister's face. "Are you okay?" The thing about Marcia was that she was always okay. At least, she always looked like she was okay, but today it was like there was a grey cloud over her features. It was such a rarity that Skye couldn't just ignore it.