Page 2 of Tricky Girls

Multiple pairs of shoes are visible through the bottom of the hedge, and I hear a boy laugh, the lilt suspiciously familiar.

‘Ryan?’

I wait a beat, huffing at the lack of response.

The boy’s always been a bit deaf. We’re under orders to evacuate halls if the fire alarm goes off and I’ve had to drag him from his slumber more than once.

The first time I told him I loved him, I whispered it under my breath figuring he wouldn’t hear. It was only later the fucker told me he did, just hadn’t felt ready to say it back. A year later and I’m still waiting.

I hasten to the end of the tunnel but there’s no left turn. Turning right will only take me further away from whoever’s on the other side. With only a brief thought to my tights, I push my way through the bottom of the hedge, grunting when the branches pull me back like hands.

I should have been thankful to them, the spook on this side way worse than any chainsaw-wielding crazy.

It’s Ryan alright, and Natasha, and they’re kissing.

‘Of fucking course,’ I laugh out before really making sense of what I’m seeing.

They turn to me, eyes bleary and unfocussed, twin smiles frozen on their faces.

‘Tilda, fuck,’ Ryan breathes.

The bastard’s hands are still on Natasha who’s finally lost her smile. She tips her head back and sighs into the air, as if me interrupting is far more vexing for her than me. ‘Tilda…’

I hold up a hand as I take a step away. I’m probably drunker than I should be, my mind a little slower to react, but I know it should be fury I feel right now. And sad, I suppose, but that can come later.

‘Are you for fucking real?’ I look between the two of them. They appear kind of hazy, far away—my mind doing that coming away from itself thing. ‘So this is why you were both busy earlier?’

Natasha steps out of the circle of Ryan’s arms, brushing straightened hair behind an ear. ‘We were actually going to tell you—’

She shuts up when I fall back to the ground, groping for my discarded cup. It might be empty but the plastic’s cracked and sharp enough to draw blood when I raise it to her face.

Her lack of reaction shows just how drunk she is. That and the fact she was just snogging my boyfriend. She catches blood on her fingers, staring at it dumbly.

‘Tilda!’ Ryan hisses, caught between dealing with me and all the red gushing from Natasha’s cheek.

Fuck, she’s actually bleeding, like a lot. I’ve never hurt someone who isn’t myself before.

‘I feel weird,’ I chuckle, taking another step away from them.

‘You’re a fucking psycho,’ Ryan shoots back.

Ah, and here comes the anger, that scary rage that’s been descending over him more and more lately—something I was planning on breaking up with him over, but the bastard doesn’t need to know that.

‘And you’re a cheatingrat.’

I turn away from them both, hastening my steps when Ryan calls out my name. As I turn a corner, I spot a couple of girls leading Natasha away, cooing over the blood that’s kind of everywhere now.

Shit.

‘Tilda!’

‘Touch me and I’ll wreck your face too.’

‘Oh, come on.’ Ryan sighs in frustration, his steps halting for the moment before speeding back up. ‘We’ve been bad lately, you know that.’

‘And you thought making out with my best friend would solve that, did you? Shit, Ryan. I’m fucked up right now but this is going to be messy.’ I feel something wet on my face and wipe away a tear, looking at it on my fingers the same way Natasha had. ‘We all live together.’

‘I think we’re all fucked.’ He makes a grab for my arm. ‘Would you stop walking!’

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