Chapter Twenty-Five #2
We meet the guys, climb into the gaudy black limo that my mother sent, with sideways glances and smirks, and say hi to Larry the driver. It doesn’t take too long to get to wherever we’re headed but Kalen cranks the tunes and passes round the booze, so it feels like a party en route anyway.
The guys all compliment me on my clothing, and praise Elsie for the great job she did with me.
I thank them all for their generous gifts.
Kalen insists I give thank you kisses, to him at least. It’s a bit awkward, but Kalen doesn’t seem to notice, pulling me in for a loud noisy smacker on the lips.
I blush when Slate gives my hand a squeeze and tells me “later” and Onyx just gives me an awkward kind of pat on the leg like I’m a damn dog or something. Elsie just giggles at it all.
When we arrive at the country club where the bonfire celebrations are taking place, it’s the valet, not Larry, who opens our door for us.
I feel a bit sad that I don’t get to say goodbye to Larry, but I’ll see him the next time my mother wants to assert her authority over me by refusing to let me drive the damn car she got me.
The country club is stupid posh. Like something out of a movie. It makes me snort when someone opens the door for us. Are rich people not able to do that for themselves? I’m surprised this place would have a bonfire; won’t it make everything smell?
I let the guys lead me through the club - which is more like a stately home or mansion - and out to the grounds. There are crowds of people everywhere, with suited servers running around with trays of canapes and champagne.
“Oh man, this sucks!” Kalen whines. “I wanted to give Amelie an authentic experience.”
“You mean the whole country doesn’t eat caviar on November 5th?” I quip.
“Laura,” Kalen groans. Which is enough to explain everything.
“This isn’t what you normally do?” I check.
“Hell no. This sucks,” Kalen replies. Speak of the devil and she shall appear; Laura is swanning towards us like she’s the queen of freaking England, dressed in a sequined shimmering cocktail gown. It’s entirely inappropriate.
“Kids, you’re late.”
“Sorry, Laura, the limo had to go round the block twice whilst we finished up the orgy.” Kalen grins at her.
“Kalen!” Monty’s sharp reproach comes from behind us.
“Jeez, chill out, dad. Laura knows I’m joking by now!” She smiles tightly, unamused and probably wondering if Kalen was telling the truth. “Anyway, as I was just saying to Amelie, this was NOT what we were expecting.”
“Well, no. But Laura thought it would be nice to do something special tonight and I agree. It’s nice to do something a bit different.” Monty couldn’t sound less honest if he tried. He looks so uncomfortable in his tux.
“Tell me there’s candy floss or I might have to kill someone!” Kalen demands.
“There’s a kiddy bonfire in the far field but-” That’s as far as Monty gets before Kalen is grabbing my hand and dragging us away from the parentals.
“Bye! Don’t wait up for us, Larry the Limo is waiting to bring us home! Laura, make him give you his jacket, I’d hate for you to get ill!” The twins laugh as we all race as far away from Laura and Monty as possible.
It takes about five minutes traipsing across the field to get to the kid’s party, which isn’t for kids at all it turns out.
The enclosed field is rammed with teenagers, an enormous bonfire burning in the centre of the chaos.
Fairy lights are strung all through the surrounding perimeter trees, and on the far side of the enclosure are a variety of food carts.
“Now this is more like it!” Kalen crows.
“Oh my God!” Elsie cries, grabbing my hand.
“What? Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
“Marcia Brown is over there! What do I do?”
“Erm, go say hi?” I suggest. I think Elsie's crush is cute, but I have no idea if Marcia is interested in Elsie in that way.
“Okay, sure, yeah...I can do that.”
“Ooooh, Vag- I mean, Elsie, do you have a crush on our girl Marcia?” Onyx drawls, changing his nickname for her when I glare at him.
“Your girl?” She raises an eyebrow at him.
“Our girl. As in, we’ve all ridden that bike. More than once. Sometimes in tandem,” Onyx winks, as if the lewd metaphor wasn’t obvious enough.
Elsie’s face falls.
“Onyx you dick. What did you say that for?” I snap at him.
“Because it’s true.”
“Doesn’t mean it needs saying.”
“Absolutely bro, she’s right,” Kalen pipes up. Never thought I'd see the day that he took sides with an outsider compared to his family, but I do know that he and Elsie have been getting a lot closer. “Like, it’s true that you had herpes that one time, but we don’t tell everyone...ooops.” I laugh.
“That was a cold sore you asshole.”
“Herpes is herpes dude. Apologise to Elsie.”
“Sorry Vag...Elsie. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.”
“Can we get food?” I ask as my stomach gives an almighty rumble. It breaks the tension and the silence.
“Absolutely! Follow me!” Kalen declares.
He leads us around the perimeter of the bonfire and over to the food stalls.
There’s so many choices I don’t know what to have, but Kalen takes care of that by ordering a bit of everything, so we tuck into loaded jacket potatoes, hot dogs, pulled pork rolls - which are all delicious - but dessert is so much better!
There’s candyfloss and toffee apples, warm popcorn, chocolate drizzled fruit kebabs.
“I’m going to pop,” I groan when we’re done. Everyone agrees.
“Come, let’s get a spot by the bonfire, they’ll be lighting the Guy soon and then the fireworks start,” Kalen tells me. He’s so excited it’s hard not to be infected by his enthusiasm.
“Did anyone get sparklers?” Slate asks.
“Yep and a lighter,” Onyx replies, taking out the lighter and sparking it up.
We find a good spot at the front by the fire, mostly thanks to Elsie and Kalen elbowing people out of the way. I may not ‘get’ the whole bonfire thing, but I am enjoying myself.
I stand close to the flames, with Elsie on one side of me and Kalen on the other.
To my surprise, Slate stands behind Elsie and lightly holds the back of her coat to stop her from getting any closer to the bonfire.
I mean, there’s a railing for safety, but it looks pretty flimsy and Elsie is gazing at the fire, hypnotised.
Onyx stands behind me and wraps his arms around my torso, snuggling up against my neck.
This is new, I think to myself, but I like it a lot.
I watch the flames dance and understand why Elsie is so enthralled.
It’s mesmerising. I love the sounds of the flames hissing and sparking, the occasional pop or crack of a branch making me jump.
The smell is amazing too, though I know I’m going to have to wash everything I’m wearing and my hair to get the smell out.
What smells so nice now, won’t be as appealing in the morning.
The Guy is thrown onto the bonfire to a round of applause. I wonder if it’s just my imagination, but the guy looks vaguely familiar.
“Does that look like…?” I begin to whisper to Elsie.
“Headmaster Knox? Yep!” she whispers back.
“Kalen,” we say at the same time, laughing.
“As much as I love to hear two women moaning my name at the same time, I’m not appreciating the laughter, ladies.” He grins at us.
“You did this,” I say pointing to the Guy. The crowd is parting and a second, female Guy is being brought forward and lifted. She too is thrown unceremoniously onto the blaze.
“Laura?” I ask, spying one of the dresses I had seen her in at dinner this term.
“Guilty,” Kalen says with no remorse whatsoever.
“She’ll do her nut when she realises her favourite dress is gone,” Slate points out.
“That’s what I’m counting on.” Kalen gives me a wicked grin and winks. Oh poor Kalen, he’s very much mistaken if he thinks Laura will even notice the dress missing. And if she does, she’ll probably just demand that Monty buy her two more to make up for it.
The fireworks start and I’m sucked into the hype with everyone else, ooohing and aaahing at the pretty colours, jumping at the loud bangs, and pleading with Onyx to light the sparklers already.
The magic of the entire evening has taken me back to my childhood, to happier memories before Laura changed and things got bad.
We never went to any shows as grand as this, but I do remember staying up late one time to watch fireworks when I was small.
My brother wrapped me in his coat and my dad held me in his arms.
“You okay?” Onyx murmurs in my ear. His warm breath tickles my cheek and I nuzzle into him a little.
“Perfect,” I tell him. And I mean it, this evening has been perfect. Or as close to perfect as it could be without Sawyer with us.
I turn my head away from the aerial display and capture Onyx’s lips in a sweet thank you kiss. I know I have them all to thank for tonight, but right now his attention is on me and I want to show him how grateful I am. When I pull back, he’s grinning softly at me, his whole face transformed.
“What?”
“Nothing.” He smiles.
“No, tell me,” I insist.
“Just…you’ve not kissed me like that before. And I liked it.”
“Me too.” I return his smile and then the moment’s lost by Kalen demanding we all draw dicks with our sparklers. We laugh and join him.
Unsurprisingly, Kalen’s is the biggest.