As the music faded and the sun drowned, Mae got to her feet and ran from the crowd before they could turn and see her.
She sat alone on the sand and drank down the bottle of wine she’d taken from the side table.
Drank till the world began to swim.
‘Are you okay?’
She looked up. ‘It’s been a long day, rich boy.’
‘But it’s almost over now. They’re all almost over.’ In his hand he held a service book.
‘Maybe the sun won’t rise tomorrow. Maybe it won’t see the point.’
She drank more, determined, her face tight, like it was medicine she could not live without.
She lay flat on her back, arms and legs out.
He lay beside her and looked up.
‘Are you okay?’ he said, again.
‘That’s a shit question.’
‘Why?’
‘Because okay should never be enough.’
‘So what is enough?’
She turned, her face in the moonlight. ‘The time we have left, we strive for brilliance. Nothing less.’
‘So, are you brilliant?’
‘Maybe I was once but I’d just forgotten.’ And then she leaned over and pressed her lips to his.
She held his face tight, and kissed him so hard and desperate, like that kiss alone could carry her away.
‘Boys make everything worse.’
‘Okay.’
‘People were crying,’ she said.
‘They still are.’
‘It was supposed to be joyous.’
‘That’s the thing about goodbyes, they rarely are.’ He held out his wrist. In his other hand was a pen.
‘You don’t want to do this,’ she said.
He stared at her with those dark eyes. ‘I want my Forever.’
‘There is no –’
‘Tell me you didn’t mean it. A place for everyone, for the people who don’t fit anywhere else. Tell me you didn’t mean that.’
He saw the truth in her eyes.
‘A place for everyone who’s ever felt alone. We’ll collect them like strays and we’ll give them a home.’
‘I want to go home.’
‘You already have a home. It’s the biggest home I’ve ever seen.’
‘It’s empty rooms for empty people.’ He took a syringe from his pocket and snapped the needle from it.
Mae gripped his arm, his flawless skin, and she watched the ink swim into his blood.
She knew nothing about him.
She knew enough.