Title: The Red Balloon (1/1)
Rating: PG-13 (swearing)
Disclaimer: I don't own Skins.
Summary: What I think happened in the parts that got skipped from the lake scene.
A/N: First fic, please be nice, but I do love constructive criticism.
And it all had seemed so clever from the other side of the lake's face.
"Jesus!" she gasped when she surfaced, blond hair plastered to her forehead, her mouth forced open with the shock of the water, cold like how you'd think of the north Atlantic as frigid. I held onto the rock of the road on the side of my lake, turning a black tar color as it began to rain, and hoisted myself out of the water as she splashed around just behind me, cursing like the sailor she seemed most of the time – solitary, knees bent to the rocking deck beneath, eyes constantly searching for a storm, one that she simply knew was coming, even if the horizon was tinged pink and the sky clear overhead.
"Christ Em, as soon I get this fucking ice bucket of a lake all of a sudden it's a bad idea?" Naomi: hardheaded and stubborn for no reason at all sometimes. I guess she noticed that I'd changed my mind rather quickly about our dip that had turned out to be less of a romantic, fun activity to get her mind off whatever the fuck it was on about today, and more of a terribly miscalculated attempt at whatever I was trying for. Sometimes I honestly didn't know what I expected.
I felt my mouth quirk, and settled with my feet still in the water, sitting on the fringe of the lake. She swam over, her lips seemingly bluer with each stroke closer. "You look freezing."
"Yeah well," and gripped my knees to my chest when she might have begun to reach for them, but then had thought better of it, and grabbed the ledge instead. Such is the story of Naomi and I.
"Listen," She began, slicking her hair back and wiping her eyes, pausing for almost so long I had forgotten she was speaking for a moment, entranced by the ripples she was making in the water, "I know I've been a cow lately, and I-… That's not it, not right I mean-…" She picked a rock off the ledge and let it fall into the water. I watched it hit the bottom, and wondered just how much I had in common with it, but looked up, and all I saw were her eyes. "I-I don't really know what to tell you, what to say. I want to say thank you, but really, its not that, it's more than that."
I wanted to mention that she hadn't actually said thank you, or sorry, or I'm glad you're here with me right now, or I love you, with the words that had sounded carefully chosen, but I nodded, and she pulled herself up and out of the water.
I felt her behind me, shifting in her bag, and exhaled. I started when she began speaking again, being positive that was all I was going to get, and I felt like shit immediately after realizing that I was happy for just those words.
"When I was little once, my Dad bought me a balloon." I didn't move, she was so quiet. "It was red."
She sat down beside me, and handed me some clothes, and I shrugged them on as she continued, using my skirt as a towel.
"I remember I was sitting in the back of our car, at the train station, that day my Dad got me that balloon, and my parents were talking. It was the most they had in a while, and ended with my Mom handing my Dad a bag and walking back to our car." It had stopped raining, and the sun had come out a bit, but I was still freezing.
"We drove away, and kept going, past our house, my Nan's house, out of the city. I asked where we were going, where Dad was, but all my Mom said was that all we needed was each other, and opened all the windows. It was January." She snorted, and I cringed.
"I think she thought it meant she was free. Driving down the freeway in our fucking station wagon, flooring it to get to the speed limit, back windows only going down halfway – all it was, was pathetic." She stopped, and my heart felt heavy.
"The balloon got ripped right out of my hand, right out, and it got sucked out the window. The only thing my fucking Dad ever got me." Her voice cracked, "Stupid bitch. I got a fucking cold, and I cried for days about that stupid balloon."
She sniffed, and I debated hugging her when she turned to me and said, "It just floated away".
She blinked, stood up after a few moments, picked up her bag, and I followed her into the woods after a second's hesitation. I couldn't be sure, but it sounded an awful lot like, "don't give up on me".