Page 166 of Inbetweeners
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Nix lay next to Emmett on cushions arranged on the bow of the yacht. They were moored in a small bay, an arc of sandy beach backed by craggy cliffs. The beach looked inaccessible except by boat. There was no sign of anyone. No noise, no dwellings, no other vessels. This was all theirs. A new day was beginning and sunrise was going to be magnificent. A blaze of red and orange and purple was spreading across the entire horizon, the colours intensifying as they watched.
“I remember Orion asking me why we can only see skies like this at sunrise and sunset. I had to look it up. But telling him the light had to come through more atmosphere made no sense to Orion or to me. Until he got it and drew the world, him standing on top with the sun overhead, then another diagram with the sun to the east and finally, I understood. Helping him learn taught me too.”
Emmett threaded his fingers with Nix’s. “I read a fantastic book once by an author called Arlene Webb. She’d imagined that one day, dawn really did break and the seven colours went into seven different…beings. Hmm, I don’t want to spoil it. I always thought it would make a really good film.”
“What happened in that book you were reading about the guy in the hotel?”
“It had a happy ever after. I’m not going to spoil that either. You should read it. It was a lesson in patience and endurance. And love, I guess. Oh God, the sky is so beautiful.” Emmett jerked upright. “Whoa! Was that a dolphin? Or a shark?”
Nix sat up and put his arm over Emmett’s shoulders. “Did it jump out of the water in joy?”
“Fuck yes. It must be a shark imagining eating you for breakfast.”
Nix laughed. “It’s a dolphin, you idiot. Do you think they’d put sharks in the water to eat us on our perfect day?”
“That’s true.”
Emmett rested his head on Nix’s shoulder and they sat and watched until the colours began to fade, then finally leach from the sky, leaving only blue overhead.
“Breakfast,” Emmett said. “Weirdly, I feel hungry. Must be all that sex. Do you want to stay up here and I’ll go down and rustle something up?”
“I’ll come with you.”
The boat was about thirty-five feet long and now, when it was fully light, he could see it looked new. When Nix had been a fisherman, one of his mates had taught him how to sail a dinghy. Nix had always hoped he’d one day get a boat of his own. Not that this boat was theirs.
The vessel had been well provisioned. There were a few items of clothing—shorts, deck shoes, trunks and T-shirts, along with toiletries, and enough food and drink for a few days. There were even beers in a cooler.
“Plain and almond croissants!” Emmett held up a paper bag. “You’d think someone knew we’d be coming.”
“I’ll make the coffee.”
They ate on deck, and when Emmett scraped the crumbs from the croissants into the water, a shoal of tiny fish came up and devoured them in seconds.
“Tell me they’re not piranhas,” Emmett said. “That’s sort of put me off swimming. At least without clothes.”
“Ready to go for a sail?”
Emmett shot him a look of horror. “You’re going to move the boat?”
“That’s the general idea of having one. The wind is picking up. It should be fun.”
“Did I ever tell you that I get seasick on boating lakes?”
“You’ll be fine.”
“I didn’t see any sign of a map down below.”
“We won’t go out of sight of land.”
“What if there are rocks? Whirlpools? Sandbanks? Mermen?”
“Put some shorts on. I don’t want you giving mermen any ideas.”
“I’ll bring you a pair up too.”
Fifteen minutes later, after a fair amount of hand flapping from Emmett, and a small amount of anxiety from Nix, largely because of Emmett’s flailing hands, they were sailing, the boat cutting through the water with the wind filling the sails. They sat at the stern and once Nix had shown Emmett how to use the wheel, he thought Emmett had started to enjoy himself.
