Page 99 of Tricky Girls

I get the gist no other groups have even started filming yet but it would be nice to get a head start before breaking up for Christmas.

I feel like the world’s biggest idiot entering the building in my dead witch attire, especially when someone calls out that Halloween was two months ago.

‘Ignore them,’ Elly murmurs, stroking my backcombed hair. ‘You look sick.’

Haz nods silently to my other side. She’s catching some looks too, dressed in blue hospital scrubs. She’s our male nurse, returned to the town of her ancestors for a job. I’m the witch who mistakes him for her lost love.

I open my old bedroom, musty from disuse. We shove our shit inside whilst Elly sets up the camera. There’s not much to film luckily. I want to get in and out before either Ryan or Natasha spots us.

We film some shots of Haz walking up and down the corridor with a clipboard, peeking into patients’ rooms.

‘She’s getting too into this,’ Elly murmurs from behind the camera, making me smile.

Haz has her hair in a bun, the style that makes her look the most masculine. I love it on her. She has the best jawline I’ve ever seen on a girl. On anyone, to be honest.

‘What’s this?’ Elly asks, tapping a scene on the storyboard.

I glance at it. ‘My shitty drawing. That’s me and the boyf hugging. He can’t see me though.’

‘Spooky. Haz is gonna love that.’

Oh, she will judging by the smile on her face as I approach for my scene.

‘Pretend you’re an octopus,’ she says. ‘Wrap yourself around me.’

I come up behind her, winding my arms around her torso, just under her boobs, my cheek flush against her back.

I pinched the idea from a film, the name or plot of which escapes me. The guy in it is admitted to a mental institution on account of forever thinking he’s being stalked by some obsessed female entity. There’s one scene, right at the end, where the doctors leave him bent over on the bed. The camera pans out and there’s the woman, wrapped around him from behind.

It was freaky as fuck and I loved it.

I close my eyes, trusting that Elly will shout cut when she’s done. Haz’s skin is feverish beneath the thin scrubs, the material smelling mildly of chemicals.

‘This is nice.’ There’s a smirk in her voice.

‘’Tis,’ I whisper, enjoying her solidness. She could crush me with one arm if she wanted but all I feel is secure.

‘I can keep the camera rolling for a bit more,’ Elly finally calls out. ‘If you two need a further moment.’

I pull away from Haz with a laugh. ‘Dickhead.’

I’m glad we’re packing up when Natasha leaves her room, heading for the kitchen. She has to step around our strewn equipment, shooting shy looks at me the whole time.

‘You look cool,’ she says.

‘And you look like someone’s hit you in the face with a pan,’ Haz hisses into my ear, making my lips twitch. It’s mean, but Natasha really does have an unusually flat face.

She turns back around with a frown. ‘What?’

Haz’s hands clamp down on my hips. ‘Stop talking to my girlfriend, you cheating hag.’

My eyebrows shoot up at the same time Natasha sends me a dumbfounded look.

‘What? Girlfriend?’

‘Nothing.’ Spinning round, I push Haz away. ‘Leave it. We’re basically done anyway.’

‘Are you going to the Christmas meal tonight?’ Natasha asks from the kitchen doorway.

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