Eternally North by Tillie Cole Page B

using his ‘fuck me’ voice.
    OMG. I’ve died and
gone to Fruit-Fly hell!
    A string of seriously
pissed-off grunts and curses brought me back to my own situation with
a bang, as the human dumbbell lifted itself off my oxygen-deprived
body.
    “Shit. In future
watch where you're go– Tash? Tash, is that you? Shit! ”
said my personal bulldozer, as I felt rough fingers fumble across my
face.
    “Tink, isn’t it?”
the bulldozer asked someone beside me.
    “Yeah,” Tink
answered excitedly.
    “It's Tash, I think
she’s hurt.”
    I felt body heat appear
near my left ear, and smelled the familiar scent of ‘Fantasy’
perfume by Britney Spears. Tink.
    “Wilbur? Wil, babe,
are you okay? Talk to me!”
    I could hear Tink begin
to flap. Oh no, this was no time for a fairy meltdown.
    “Calm down, sweetie,
she’ll be fine. Check her head, buddy,” I heard the gentle voice
from before instruct.
    I felt the surprisingly
cautious hands again from the bulldozer, this time on my head, and
light breath falling on my face. I could smell him. Mmm …
delicious.
    I began to come around,
eyesight re-focusing, shapes becoming sharper, sounds becoming
clearer until–“ Oww! ”
    Someone had just pushed
something painful at the back of my head. My eyes began to water
profusely.
    “Tash? Can you see
me? Can you hear me? Does it hurt? Fuck, there’s a huge bump… aww
man, it’s bleeding,” the unbelievable-smelling person said. I
tried to sit up to see who it was. I felt a hand grasp mine and a
second hand push my chest back to stop any movement.
    “Wil, it’s Tink.
Talk to me, please.”
    “Tin–”, Pathetic
cough , “Tink? Wha-what’s going on?” I struggled to speak.
    “We had a little
accident. We crashed into some… joggers,” he said, sounding
sheepish.
    “My head. It hurts.”
I whined.
    “Hold still, Tash,”
the deep voice said. “Just wait until you come around a bit more.”
    “Who- who are you?”
I could only hear his gruff voice. He was too close to make out a
face.
    I heard a small laugh
and felt warm breath against my cheek. “You’ll find out in a few
minutes, just stay awake, okay?” he urged.
    “Mmm,” I felt
something being put under my head, something warm and soft like a
pillow. It smelt like my bulldozer. Wait, my bulldozer? It was
woodsy, musky, and just… lovely, it reminded me of home somehow.
    Fingers kept stroking
my hand – Tink. I could feel it was him, but another finger was
running repeatedly down my cheek and brushing away my hair, it was
lulling me to relax.
    “What were you doing
on skates in this weather?” the voice asked harshly.
    I went to answer but
Tink jumped in, “I bought them for a surprise. We were only trying
them out." I realised the question had been directed at him in
the first place so I settled back into the pillow.
    “Fucking hell, look
at what’s happened! What were you doing when we crashed into you?
Do either of you have any common sense? Any at all? Jesus-”
    “We were dancing! Sor-ry, Dad. Is that a crime? Anyway for your information, it
was a simple two-step swing that we had already completed several
times before!”
    He huffed, and, knowing
Tink, he would have dramatically looked away and crossed his arms.
    I chuckled to myself at
Tink defending the roller skate dancing. What was he like? Feeling a
little better, I broke the strained silence, eyes still closed. “At
least we hadn’t progressed to the death-defying ‘head banger’,”
I muttered dryly.
    Hands stilled and
voices came at me simultaneously.
    “ Tash? ”
    “ Wil! ”
    I opened my eyes one
lid at a time, my vision coming back to me quicker now. But I was
still unconscious and dreaming. I had to be as I saw... I saw,
well, a vision .
    “Tud–, Tudor? Tudor
North?” Was it really him? Tudor North? Moody, Tudor bloody North!
    Giving a slow,
disbelieving head-shake and that devastating lopsided smirk, he
replied. “We need to stop meeting like this, Tash. How are