My jaw clenches.
Teeth ache.
So, I watch her. As we arrive at her dorm to grab another overnight bag. As she tries to explain what we are doing and why we might be gone for a few days, Elise’s eyes become saucers.
I’m not sure I can hear much at the moment. I’m as sober as I’ve ever been, my hands trembling, eyes losing focus on her. But I’m trying not to drink. Her deadbeat father used to drink. I won’t. Can’t.
“Okay, you can come.”
Wait. What?
“I’ll grab my things!” Elise announces, rushing around her dormitory, around Blesk who owns my gaze.
So, Elise is coming… Blesk looks at me. I am still looking at her. Sheapproaches me slowly, loose strands of blonde hair moving around her face, her eyes softening when she stops in front of me. I don’t move. She grabs my hand, no, my fist. I am fisting my hands. She kisses my knuckles, doesn’t say relax, just acknowledges that I am not.
I exhale hard.
“Right! Ready!” Elise calls.
Fine—after how emotionally drained I am from last night, I actually don’t think it’s a bad idea.
But then we leave their dorm, and there is more. More fucking eyes on me as I try to keep my shit together.
Jax is waiting in his Prado, the engine idling. "Should probably take the Prado,” he says through the window, arm slung over the edge. “Your beamer isn't comfortable at all.”
I grunt with minor annoyance. "Fine, but I'm driving." Seemed like a good idea in that second, because I need activity to get my mind off… just off.
Gardier Prison is a three-hour drive from campus. As I sit in the driver's seat, it's hard to shake the memory of her sobs, her body as she— Not in a good way, either. And I fucking hate that most of all. I mean… I love her. I will do this. She’s not okay. I will be what she needs.
Jax clears his throat, cutting into my thoughts. “Everyone is always going on about Shakespeare! I get it, the dude was good, but seriously, in high school, all I ever heard about was bloody Shakespeare." He slams his boots down onto the dashboard and opens a packet of crisps.
I squeeze the wheel.
“Shakespeare coined more words than anyone else. He literally wrote ten percent of our vocabulary,” Elise argues. “The man deserves the mention.”
“Yeah, it was easier back then,” Jax says, “Hardly anyone could afford education and the educated had a lot to be desired. Fucking inbreds. We have more competition than Shakespeare ever did.”
I scoff. “He didn’t write my dictionary.”
“What, the Psycho Dictionary?” Elise cracks up, and I feel my hands loosen on the wheel. I think… Yeah. I’m smiling a little now.
“TheAustralianDictionary, Elise,” Jax offers very matter-of-factly. “Konnor and I speak Aussie. Where we add an 'O' to the end of certain words. Get it, kiddo?” Jax laughs as he knocks me with his elbow.
I smirk. “Give us a demo?”
“Haven’t you already heard most of them, Kono?” Jax says, feeding chips into his greedy mouth.
“Dunno, Jaco, I wasn’t really listening to your convo,” I reply, shifting gear to the take the next corner.
“That is because you can’t concentrate when you’re sober. So let’s stop at the bottlo. Everyone knows Kono is an alco.” Jax grins at me with a mouthful of crushed up chips.
Cheeky motherfucker…
I scowl at him. “Righto, but we’ll still need to stop at the Servo in the arvo?—”
“Stop talking, you deros. You’re making me aggro.” Elise smacks both of our headrests from the backseat. Jax and I look at each other and for a long moment, something passes between us. A truce. An understanding. I nod.
He nods.
