Page 5 of Tricky Girls

‘Right,’ she says. ‘Haz is better. Also, you’re fucking welcome.’

I’m assuming she’s talking about punching Ryan, but I don’t want to be thinking about him right now.

‘Is there booze wherever you’re taking me?’

Elly tucks me back under her arm. ‘Of course, babe. Our night’s only just begun.’

CHAPTER 2

Tilda

I figured we were going back to theirs when we enter one of the villages, a small cul-de-sac of three-storey log cabins where most second and third years reside. Halls are infinitely cheaper, but I hope to live in one of these lodges come next September. Me and Natasha had it all planned out but I guess that’s gone to shit now.

‘This is us,’ Elly says, leading us up a small path to the furthermost lodge.

‘How many of you live here?’

‘Three.’ She unlocks the door. Haz kicks it open, holding it with a palm so I can enter first. It’s a chivalrous move but the sly smile on her face is anything but.

The door opens straight onto the kitchen with panelled walls, ceiling beams and a live edge oak table. Walls of empty cider cans line the windowsills and there’s stuff strewn pretty much everywhere. I thought a bunch of girls living together would be tidier but clearly not.

‘What’s your poison?’ Elly tosses her mask and glow sticks onto the table. I place her cloak there too, warming quickly in the balmy house. Guess rich kids don’t have to worry about heating bills.

‘Anything. Vodka. That’s what I’ve been on all night.’

‘Pepsi okay?’

‘Yup.’

Haz nods her chin towards the living room, and I follow her through to the large open space, a spiral staircase to one side leading up to the first floor.

‘If you don’t like the music,’ she says, crossing to some speakers, ‘you’ll have to suck it.’

I huff at her bluntness. ‘I’m pretty easy.’

She looks over her shoulder with a grin. ‘Hope so.’

Something heavy and bassy cracks through the room and I settle on the sofa, preferring it to the shit they play at the club over on the mainland. Elly comes in with my drink, a six-pack of ciders under her arm. Haz rips one free. Drink downed, I reach out to roll one of the cans towards me.

Haz narrows her eyes, possibly pissed I didn’t ask first, but Elly only smiles, pushing a second can my way.

Cracking open the first, I drink down the sour, fizzy liquid.

Here’s to Halloween.

And here’s to forgetting wanky boyfriends.

One hour bleeds into another, and then another. I’m at that point in the night where alcohol can’t touch me anymore, no matter how much more of it I drink. My eyes blur under the soft living room lighting and I have to keep rubbing them to keep them focused, no doubt smearing my eyeliner.

A stack of sticky playing cards are strewn between us. We’ve cycled through pretty much every drinking game in my arsenal—Ring of Fire, Truth or Dare, Never Have I Ever—and I now know more about the sexual escapades of my course mates than I ever wanted to.

Back aching, I slip onto the sofa as Elly regales us about her first time with a girl.

‘It was pretty much like that,’ she says, nodding at the cards, ‘expect when I dared her to have sex with me, she actually did.’

I roll my eyes. ‘Still salty I’d rather drink a dirty pint than snog you?’

She flicks a card at me. ‘Yeah actually, I am.’

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