The fire burned brightly through the deep night. Sparks floated up into the velvety sky.
They had gotten used to the smoky scent; they built fires every night. Sometimes they would forget to continue whatever conversation they were having and stare, hypnotized, into the flames. It was comforting to watch the twisting arms of red and yellow. There were always thick tree branches nearby, ready to refuel their light source, their heat source. And all through the night, the fire would be there.
It made Hurley want a bag of marshmallows really bad.
He looked around at everyone gathered around this fire. There were about ten people. Of course, he wasn't very good with names, but those he knew were Kate, Claire, Boone and the Korean lady… what was her name? Sun. What was she doing here? Wasn't she always with her husband? He'd seen how possessive he was, and it made Hurley angry. Not that he'd ever done anything to stop the Korean guy. It wasn't his business. Besides, who would listen to him, right? He looked around aimlessly for the Korean guy, but he wasn't at any of the neighboring campfires. Whatever.
He saw that Kate and Claire, who were directly across from him, were looking at him expectantly.
"Huh?" he said dumbly.
"I said where did you live before?" Claire repeated, smiling from under her floppy beach hat. She probably thought he was stupid and fat but surprisingly lovable, Hurley reflected gloomily. The whole island did. They saw him coming and said to themselves, 'Oh look, it's Free Willy the friendly whale!' You'd think after almost a month, he would start to be showing visible signs of weight loss. Nope. Must be the boar.
"Uh, I lived in the outskirts of LA." He answered. "With my…" He had begun to say 'parents' but something stopped him. They were on a deserted island, weren't they? How would they find out if he jazzed up his life a little? That is, until they were rescued, of course, and when that happened… well, Hurley wouldn't care.
"…with my girlfriend." He said with a grin that he hoped was convincing. It must be, he thought. The others were looking at him, interested.
"Yeah." He continued. "She's a first grade teacher. Really one of the nicest people I've ever met. I guess you have to be to teach little kids. Every kid wanted her to be their teacher. She's always smiling at someone." He started to ease into his lie smoothly. "Anyway in the summer we'd go to Florida. We did it every year since we met four years ago. First we were just friends. For a while, actually. I went to Sydney to visit my grandma. When I got back to the States, I was going to propose to her. She really wanted kids. My mom was getting excited, 'cause she knew I was going to ask her…"
He trailed away, and drew in the sand with his finger. The others around the fire thought that this awkward pause was because he was thinking about his girlfriend sadly. But Hurley had stopped because he'd just realized that he had unconciously been describing the story of his brother. Paul was the one who had the happy girlfriend who was always smiling. Paul was the one who had been friends with this amazing girl, and then suddenly fallen in love. Paul was the one who was about to propose to her right before Hurley went to Sydney. Before Hurley went to Sydney to find out if he was cursed, of course. His grandmother was dead. It was probably good that the plane had crashed before Paul had proposed. Hurley would have made something to happen to screw everything up.
He suddenly felt lonelier than he ever had in his life. He noticed that he was still the center of attention as everyone was silent, watching his forlorn figure. He sat up straighter and cleared his throat loudly.
"What about you, Sun? Why were you and…" Crap. What was his name again? "…Your husband going to LA?"
Sun was surprised to be acknowledged. After all this time on the island, when everything had changed, she was still surprised. Once she'd gotten here, she'd started to be treated nicer than she ever had before. Even when no one knew she could speak English, Michael had been kind to her… treated her like an equal, not something that can be ignored like Jin had as of late. Michael and then Kate found out about her secret, and she suddenly had friends again. The only real friend she could remember ever having was Jia Li, the one who had so kindly tried to help her get away from Jin. Oh, Jin. She had wanted so much for things to smooth out with him. She had tried so hard… why had things gone wrong? Before he found out about her speaking English, before the plane crashed, what had happened? Who did he kill that night, why? Sun felt a headache coming on. If she didn't think about it, maybe it would solve itself in time. She had told herself this a hundred times since Jin had stopped talking to her. She swallowed with difficulty the lump that had been growing in her throat.
"My husband and I were going to Los Angeles… on vacation." She told Hurley. "Jin had been working so hard, and I thought he needed a break. I told him we should go to America, and he agreed. We were going to go for a month or so, and stay with a friend of mine." Sun wondered to herself why she was lying. She hadn't meant to, the words just seemed to fly out of her mouth. Then she realized – she was ashamed. She was ashamed of her failed marriage, she blamed herself. No, she thought, it's not my fault. He's the one that hates me. He's the one that ignores me. He's the one… but she continued on.
"We planned the whole thing. We would explore the city in the day and then go out to dinner at a fancy restaurant at night. It would be like… a second honeymoon." She smiled softly, watching the fire. She wished so much that what she was saying was true, her heart ached.
"And now we're here." She looked around at them, then hung her head. "And he hates me." She murmured this so quietly that she wasn't sure anyone had heard. Kate did, and she put her arm around Sun's shoulder comfortingly. But Sun stood up. She crossed her arms across her chest protectively.
"I'm tired. I'll go to bed now."
"Goodnight, Sun." Kate said in a sad voice, then turned back to the fire. Sun tried not to cry noisy tears as she retreated into the darkness. She bit her lip, clenched her fists and stayed silent. That's what she had always done.
