#leithly

[twinsimskeletons]

“Only two are up for grabs?” Papaver asked.

“Every point matters,” Coffea returned, his grin widening. “Feel free to go when you’re ready.”

Papaver, with a shrug, was the first to walk across. At the end he was thankful for the bucket of cool water that Coffea had kindly put there. Cydon tried to keep his cool but, halfway across, ended up breaking into a hobbling run. With a face he, too, dipped his feet into the water. Mer made it across, looked at the water, and then at Coffea.

“Every point matters, huh?” he asked, going back for another round.

“And that gets you two, joint first with Cydon.” Coffea waited as Mer hissed a curse word and let his feet cool in the water. “Pap, you’re two behind.” His friend acknowledged this with a worried nod. Coffea tried to keep his expression devoid of any emotion when announcing points. His decision may have been made, but the likeliness of that person getting immunity and a date was a third. And there was still all to play for in the third challenge.

[twinsimskeletons]

Coffea shielded his eyes from the low sun. Today was finally at a heat he enjoyed, though he didn’t doubt that by the time the sun had reached its zenith, he would be sweating buckets. Unfortunately for him, the competition they had planned around this time required him to do some moving.

He clapped his hands in front of the three men to get their attention. “I see you all eyeing up these pretty machines, here.” He patted the coloured plastic box. “I think it’s fairly self explanatory what’s going on, but just in case, let me make it a bit clearer to you.” He picked up a basketball and shot it through the hoop. The machine dinged. “Two minutes, as many hoops as you can. Good luck.”

[twinsimskeletons]

“Yeah, well, I guess I got through it for Urtica. I had to... I had to show her that what dad did was wrong, that there could be other ways around the anger. And it was hard. I don’t regret it, at all, I don’t regret how hard I worked or how badly I did at school, any of it. I had to show her a better life.” Coffea stared at the sky and felt old anger surge, and on the surface was his new anger – or maybe it had been there all along, and he had finally realised what it was over. “I did it all for her. Everything I’ve done, it was for her. I don’t regret it. I just – I just wish I could have taken a break sometimes. That someone could have taken over or me for a little while. Christus, you don’t understand exhaustion until it’s your everyday reality. I... I love Urtica, but I wished sometimes that it didn’t always have to be me that fought for her. I wanted someone to fight for me, for once. Not just for a break, but to show me that I was worth it too, I guess. But in every fight, Cocos would turn his back on me. I needed him, so much, and he turned his back on me every time. All I needed was him to fight with me, and instead I was fighting alone.”

[twinsimskeletons]

The group of them – plus Rhody and Urtica, who Coffea had coaxed along – took up a large table in the centre of the room. The quiz wouldn’t start for another half hour yet, but they wanted time to get settled and grab drinks. Coffea had insisted that no one give him presents since he was now officially old (in Dau’s words) and had plenty of luggage to fit on the plane already, but was pleasantly surprised to learn that they had all chipped in for good quality coffee in different flavours, and some accompanying alcohol to have with it. That was right up his street – and he let them know that after a round of hugs and thank yous.

Usually, pub quizzes were something that brought Coffea amusement and embarrassment. He enjoyed them – and enjoyed being in a pub – but it always served to remind him that he was never as smart as he thought he was, and he didn’t think he was that smart at all. However, they were in an entirely different country where Coffea could not be expected to know most of the answers, though this had the unfortunate side effect of having a sports round that was almost entirely foreign to him.

[twinsimskeletons]

“Of course,” Merremia said, sitting up also. He placed his hand on Coffea’s arm, warming the chilled skin. “I hope I haven’t overstepped, or anything?”

“No, no. Not at all.” Coffea nudged his friend. “Sometimes you need to be told things even if you don’t want to hear it.” He yawned, surprising himself at how tired he felt. “I think that’s my cue to sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Of course,” Mer smiled. “We should do this again. I know a few other constellations.”

“Sounds good, Mermaid,” Coffea said, squeezing his friend’s shoulder as he passed.

[twinsimskeletons]

Coffea squeezed his eyes shut. Truthfully, he didn’t want to go down this route. Cocos didn’t deserve his forgiveness and he’d never tried to convince Coffea any differently. “This is different,” he protested, trying his best to keep the petulance from his voice.

“True, it is.” There was a long silence. Just as Coffea was about to assume the conversation was over, Mer softly added, “but it’s similar in some ways too.”

Coff sat up and finally turned to his friend. “I know you’re trying to help, but I don’t really want to talk about this. Is that okay?”

[twinsimskeletons]

They went inside after the time was up, dodging the drizzle that had begun. 

“Cydon let in two goals, scored one. That gives you nine points in total. Mer was the same, leaving you with nine as well. Papaver – you pulled it back, buddy,” Coffea said. “You scored a whopping four goals, and only let in two. This and darts, eh? Your secret talent. Anyway, that means you end on a score of ten, and get the date.”

Since the scoring hadn’t been a secret, Papaver had already calculated the result. He rewarded Coffea with a small, secret smile for the benefit of the cameras.

The good mood quickly deflated – or for Coffea, at least – as soon as he saw Cydon and Mer’s faces. “Right,” he cleared his throat. “The elimination. Um –“

“Now, please,” Mer said quickly, giving Cydon a last minute questioning look. “If that’s alright with you, I guess?” There was no verbal answer, only a small nod, and Coffea sucked in a deep breath.

[twinsimskeletons]

Coffea shrugged. “From the little I’ve seen of those matches, the rules might be involving beer drinking. But since it’s only just passed noon I think we might skip that one.”

“Giving the Scots a bad name,” Papaver said with mock regret. Coffea stuck his tongue out in reply. Since he was already in position he went first, attempting to get the feel for the darts before quickly realising there was a reason everyone played the game drunk in bars. Somehow it seemed so much easier or – more likely – the drunk player didn’t give a damn if they put a hole in the wall.

“Oops,” Coffea muttered. His friends’ laughter filled the room. His second dart wasn’t much better. “Okay, that one was because you guys are being too loud. You’re distracting me!”

“Oh right, of course. So sorry about that,” Mer said, wiping at his eyes. His chest was still shaking but, by some miracle, they both managed to keep it down.

By another miracle, his next dart landed almost perfectly in the centre. Coffea gave a whoop. “See? I know what I’m doing.”

“A fluke,” Mer teased. In response, Coffea slapped the retrieved darts into Mer’s waiting palm.