I was giggling at his antics and never even thought to look at the floor as we raced down the hill or considered what could be coming our way around the sharp bend. As I expertly pushed out of a spin, my foot slipped, and kept slipping. Tink grabbed me around the waist and we kind of shuffled awkwardly against one another, shrieking and screaming in a soprano pitch… and that was just the fairy!
Unsurprisingly, with our pink plastic wheels we couldn’t gain any grip, any traction; we were going down and down and boom! We were taken out by an unseen force and we hit the ground hard, my wrecking ball of destruction now situated heavily on top of me, pinning me to the floor and crushing my chest. I couldn’t really take much else in as a dull throbbing in my head was making me lose focus.
“What the f**k?” exploded the deep voice of my human tackling-machine. I then heard a similar ruckus to my left.
“Oh my God. I’m so sorry! Wait, Tink? Is that you?” exclaimed a gentle voice next to me.
“Well, well, well. Nice to see you again, mister, but if you were that keen to get on top of me you should have at least asked me out to dinner first, you cheeky scoundrel,” Tink replied.
The other voice laughed shyly. "If you’re being serious, then that, I can do."
"Oh, really? Then it's definitely a date, mister," Tink confirmed, with excitement in his voice.
Too disorientated to make sense of what the hell was happening, I decided to just give in to the sleep that was looming, and it all began to go temptingly dark. I could hear bits of talking around me, most prominently Tink giggling and 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.