Song of the Fireflies(43)
Author: J.A. Redmerski

Chapter Nineteen

Elias

I remembered taking a piss. I vaguely remembered cutting the end of my pinky toe on the way back to the bonfire on a jagged rock that had been hidden underneath the sand. I remembered sitting down next to Bray, drinking my gin and Sprite, laughing and carrying on with her and everyone else.

But sometime during that—I can’t recall when because time itself seemed to shift abruptly—everything changed. Bray was lying on the sand next to me, looking up at the stars, laughing and pointing and talking about how colorful they were and then—

I was standing by the ocean. I didn’t know how I had gotten there. I looked behind me. The bonfire had been reduced to a dim orange glow, barely holding on to the oxygen it needed to keep from burning completely out. And then—

I was sitting on a rock. The ocean water was pushing against it two inches away from my feet. It gurgled and spit and told me to move. I looked down. The water was black. I looked over, back toward the bonfire again. It had completely faded, and only a thin coil of smoke rose above the branches. I stared at my hands in front of my face and I could see every line like on a map. I ran the tip of my finger over each one: every road, every river, every shortcut. I could hear my heart beating in my ears like a bass drum, constant and unrelenting. I could taste grains of sand between my teeth and trapped in my gums and in the creases of my lips. I thought it was glass and I panicked. But then I was calm when the glass dissolved in my mouth.

I was alone. Bray was gone. Everyone was gone. It was just me sitting there on the rock. I heard music. “Night is the Notion” by Dax Riggs blasted through the speakers. I heard someone else singing along with it, but I couldn’t see anyone. I was completely alone.

Time seemed to skip backward, then—

“Holy f**k, Tate,” I heard Jen’s voice say, but I couldn’t see her anywhere. “This is some good shit. Ho-ly f**k. I’m seeing rainbows and shit. It’s the Reading Fucking Rainbow.…” She began to sing the Reading Rainbow song.

And then I woke up. It was the next morning.

I sat there on the sand for a long time, trying to pull my head together. I don’t remember doing anything last night except gin and weed. But I was definitely on something.

And I was pissed.

My attention was diverted when I saw Bray walk quickly across the sand and kneel down next to the blonde, Camryn, trying to comfort her as she vomited violently.

“Get off of him!” Jen screamed at the top of her lungs

Andrew was fighting Tate, walloping on him with his fists.

“Andrew!” Camryn tried to scream, but it came out raspy and painful. She was clearly in a bad physical state. She couldn’t even stand on her own.

“What the f**k is wrong with you, man?!” Tate roared.

He was trying to back away from Andrew, but Andrew just kept swinging. He punched him over and over, eventually knocking Tate in the sand.

Caleb tackled Andrew from the side and they both rolled across the sand away from Tate. Andrew grabbed Caleb by the throat and lifted him over his body, throwing him hard against the sand and was on top of him in seconds. He punched Caleb three times before Tate was behind him, pulling him off.

“Chill the f**k out, man!” Tate shouted, trying to defuse the situation. But Andrew rounded on Tate and caught him in the chin with an uppercut. Tate staggered backward, holding his hand over his jaw.

I knew Tate wasn’t going to take much more. Rage had begun to churn in his eyes.

“You drugged us! I’ll f**king kill you!” Andrew roared.

From the corner of my eye I saw Camryn stumble to her feet and start running toward the fight, and before I could do anything, Caleb barreled straight toward Andrew again and knocked Camryn down as she came between them.

I ran out after them.

Andrew couldn’t hold his own against both Tate and Caleb at the same time for long. I remembered hearing Jen say the night before that Tate had the drugs, and so I did the only thing I knew to be right. I jumped into the fight to help Andrew, despite Tate being our so-called friend.

“Move!” I growled as I pushed Camryn out of the way, both to keep her from getting hurt further and so that I could get in there. Tate had it coming. He shouldn’t have drugged us.

“Stay back here with me,” I heard Bray say as she dragged Camryn the rest of the way to the side.

I punched Caleb first.

The four of us fought hard, exchanging blows so fast I almost couldn’t tell who was hitting who. But I ended up fighting Caleb more. Andrew focused on Tate. By the time the fight was over, all of us were bleeding from the mouth or the nose. My jaw felt like it had been beaten on with a hammer.

“Just back off of him!” Tate said to Caleb, grabbing him from behind by both arms and securing him there. Caleb was going to come after me again. Tate was just ready to end this.

I did the right thing, I thought, but I had also sided with the people who weren’t helping Bray and I get around. I knew that after this, she and I were screwed. Unless Andrew and Camryn decided to become our new ride, Bray and I were going to be right back in the situation we were in before we met Tate and everyone at that hotel.

But something deep down told me that Andrew and Camryn weren’t going to be as accommodating.

Andrew had murder in his eyes. Even when he looked at me. I couldn’t blame him. If I were in his shoes—I was in his shoes. I walked behind him over to Bray, who was helping Camryn as she lay next to a stinking puddle of vomit being soaked up into the sand.

“Shit,” Andrew said, looking at Bray. “Will you run to my car and get a bottle of water out of the ice chest in the back?”

Bray nodded quickly, stood up, and ran off to do it.

Andrew rolled Camryn over onto his legs and he brushed her hair away from her face.

“They f**king drugged us, baby,” he said.

“I’m going to kill that bitch. I swear to God, Andrew,” Camryn said.

They started talking about something entirely different than the drugs or the fight, I assumed. Something about one of the girls. I had no idea, but it wasn’t about Bray, and that was all that mattered to me.

I stepped up closer and crouched down next to Andrew. “I’m sorry, man, we didn’t know. I swear,” I said.

“I believe you,” Andrew said.

Bray scurried back with the water, and Andrew reached out for the bottle. He twisted off the cap and poured some in his hand first, wiping Camryn’s forehead and mouth.

“Look man, I’m sorry,” Tate said, coming up behind us. “Didn’t think you’d mind. We just dropped some in everybody’s drinks. We didn’t bring you out here with any f**ked-up intentions.”