Alisha walked onto the roof.
They liked the rooftop, it was their space somehow. She had thought maybe after Nathan died falling off it that they'd be turned off, but it didn't stop them. Guess the fact that he didn't really die helped somewhat.
The sky was slate coloured and the water concrete. Curtis was brooding, an earphone in one ear, looking distant. Nathan lay on his back, a malteaser balanced on his lip and he blew on it, trying in vain to keep it afloat above him. Kelly was chewing gum almost obnoxiously, egging Nathan on.
Alisha didn't care much about them. It was Simon her eyes were drawn to. He sat straight-backed, watching Nathan with disinterest, pensive.
"Hey," she said, smiling though nothing was funny. Curtis took out the earphone and nodded and she came over to his side, like a reflex, and he flinched away a little so that they wouldn't touch, another reflex.
Nathan cursed and ate the malteaser, obviously bored of that game. He and Kelly began to talk about something uninteresting, and Simon sat on the edge of their conversation, never quite involved.
Alisha didn't listen to the words. She simply saw Simon, how he was now, a different man to the Future Simon that she had woken up beside this morning. The change frightened her a little.
"You even listening?" Curtis asked her, and she realised that he had been talking to her.
"What?" she asked, maybe a little sharply, because he shrugged. "Just forget it."
She wanted to go back to Future Simon's place, but she'd only just got here and they'd ask questions and she thought she might break down if someone said something, anything at all to her now.
"You thirsty?" Curtis asked brusquely, always a great man for conversation.
"No." He left without a word, and she barely noticed the difference.
"Uh, Alisha?"
Simon had come over to her, looking a little apprehensive.
"What?"
"Are you feeling alright?" he asked in that polite manner of his.
"I'm fine, are you saying I look sick or something?" she replied in that bitchy manner of hers.
She didn't mean to snap at Simon, but he just wasn't right, he wasn't the Simon she wanted.
He still stood there, a concerned look on his face.
"Just fuck off, would you?" she said, and he did then, and that made her feel even worse.