It might be something to do with the fact that there's more dialogue in it as well.Any suggestions?
Can You See Me? Chapter One/Prologue
Can You See Me? Chapter Two ~ Part One
Can You See Me? Chapter Two ~ Part Two
Can You See Me? Chapter Three
“Shit,” I muttered, as a minuscule drop of liquid fell into my mouth.
I looked at the empty bottle carefully, hoping that it would somehow magically fill back up. To my disappointment, nothing happened.
“Hardly anything in there for fifteen ninety nine,” I slurred, pulling myself up by using the large tree trunk behind me. “Stupid thing.” I said, accompanied by a foul word.
After finally managing to stand up, I looked at the scene around me. The sun had almost set now and there didn’t seem to be anyone around.
I felt as though I was on top of the world, nothing could beat me now; and all it took was a little bit of something bitter. I smiled as I threw the empty bottle onto the soft ground below me. As I stepped forward, I stumbled slightly; which resulted in me having to grab another tree trunk for support.
“Oops!” I laughed, standing up straight again.
I continued to walk down the pavement, humming loudly as I did so.
As I neared my house, I noticed a few people walking along the road. After looking at them carefully, I realised that they had been in my parents' wake. I didn’t know who they were exactly but I’d definitely seen them in my living room. The God damn thing must be finally finishing, I smiled to myself.
As the people passed, I noticed them look at me strangely for a few seconds. Laughing loudly at their reaction, I practically began to skip along the pavement. It wasn’t long until another group of people passed. Except this time, I knew who they were.
It was a tall, young woman with honey blonde hair. She had her arms linked with a dark haired, slightly older, man. The woman, who I recognised as my cousin, noticed me almost immediately.
“Maxxie?” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“Yes Alice dear?” I grinned.
Alice was standing in front of me by now. After I spoke, both she and her boyfriend looked at me strangely. Weirdos.
“Maxxie, are you drunk?” Alice sounded astounded.
I suddenly burst out laughing. She’d said that in such a funny way! Her voice had literally gone three octaves higher. I continued laughing while she and her boyfriend simply stared.
“Yeah! You should try it some time!” I could hear myself slurring as I spoke. “You look like you’ve been sucking on a blooming lemon!”
Alice clearly didn’t find it half as funny as I did. In fact, her reaction was the complete opposite to mine.
She unlinked her arm with her boyfriend, who clearly just wanted to go home. Not taking her eyes off me for a second, she spoke again.
“Come on,” she gently grabbed my arm. “Let’s get you home.”
I mumbled something to myself as Alice led me back towards my house. We had to walk slowly though because I was practically falling all over the place.
Around five minutes later, the three of us were walking through the front door. Looking around the house, I noticed that everyone had gone. Well, everyone except for my uncle and my sister, of course.
“Lisa!” Alice called, leading me into the empty living room. “Lisa! Where are you? There’s a bit of a...” she glanced at me as I plopped myself onto the sofa. “There’s a bit of a problem!”
Waiting for my sister’s reply, Alice sat down on the wooden coffee table in front of the sofa I was sitting on. Her boyfriend soon followed.
Before either of us could say anything, I saw my uncle pop his head round the living room door. He looked at Alice and her boyfriend as he spoke.
“Alice? Jason?” he began. “I thought you’d left?”
“We had, but then we found Maxxie,” Alice nodded at me.
I had begun humming cheerfully to myself again by now. The second Damien saw me, his plain brown eyes immediately widened.
Without any hesitation, he walked towards me, eventually sitting beside me. He then loudly called for my sister like Alice had just done, making me jump.
“How much have you had to drink?” Both his tone and his face were dead serious.
I tried - and failed - not to laugh. For some reason, I found the fact that everyone seemed so serious pretty hilarious. The second I began to laugh, Damien spoke again.
“Maxxie? How much have you drunk mate?” his voice was stern and raspy.
Why was everyone taking everything so seriously? Honestly, they needed to loosen up a bit. I did, and now I was pretty darn happy.
“Cool 'ead!” I chuckled. “Just some vodka, that’s all!”
My uncle sighed, before rubbing his head and closing his eyes. It looked as though he was about to cry. What was his problem? Actually, what was everyone’s problem? Why were they all so serious?
Fair enough, it was the day of my parent's funeral, but it still seemed stupid. They were the ones who told me that funeral’s are all about celebrating life. They didn’t seem to be celebrating it very well.
“I can’t be doing with this right now,” Damien muttered under his breath.
Before I had the chance to comment, my sister suddenly came rushing into the room.
“What’s wrong?” She asked.
Her face was red and blotchy and her two deep brown eyes were bloodshot. It wasn’t very attractive at all; she’d clearly been crying.
Looking at everyone’s faces, she scanned the room. The second her eyes met mine, her facial expression turned even worse.
“I don’t know how much he’s had,” Damien stood up, looking at Lisa. “And I don’t know where he got it from. I’m not even sure if he even remembers where he got it from, to be honest with you.”
“You don’t have to speak like I’m not here you know,” I slurred. “And I got the vodka from the drinks table, for your information!”
I didn’t like the way Lisa looked at me then. Her eyes were sad and the distraught expression on her face made her look as though she’d given up, like there wasn’t any point in anything anymore.
She turned to my uncle and sighed heavily. Damien headed towards her, wrapping his arms around her kindly. He then began speaking with her. I couldn’t make out what they were saying to each other, they were talking too quietly. But I saw them glance at me a few times. I had a fairly decent idea about what, or who, they were discussing.
I stared at the room around me as Lisa and Damien spoke amongst themselves. There were empty packets of crisps left on the coffee table, obviously by the children. There was also an awful lot of empty cups, and the odd half empty cup, dotted around the room.
“Is it okay if we leave?” My cousin's boyfriend spoke, interrupting Lisa and Damien’s chat.
“Yeah, of course Jason,” Lisa forced an obviously fake smile. “Thanks for bringing Maxxie back, by the way.”
Both Alice and Jason stood up, and headed towards the door. Alice smiled kindly at me before saying goodbye and leaving the room.
Once they had gone, I turned around so that I was lying on the sofa. My head had stopped buzzing now, and had been replaced by the feeling of exhaustion. The electric feeling had turned into a soft numbness, my eyes felt heavy and my entire body felt limp. Damien and Lisa were still talking, but their voices were slowly beginning to sound more and more muffled. As every sense, every feeling slowly drifted out of my body, my eyes gently closed. Seconds later, I was fast asleep.
