Page 44 of Tricky Girls

Nic chuckles, low and dangerous. ‘You have no idea. Now answer me.’

‘You’re barking up the wrong tree if you’re after my security questions. I’m scholarship.’

‘I’m aware.’ She pins me harder, hip bones digging in painfully. ‘Answer me and I’ll let you go.’

‘If you don’t get off, I’m gonna scream for Haz.’

‘Go ahead.’ She gives a small smile. ‘Haz likes her girls screaming.Answer.’

I have no desire to tell this girl a thing, but my arms are aching from holding up the glasses of water and I frankly want this weirdness over with. It’s too bloody early. ‘Fine. I had an elephant called Mr Trunkles. Happy?’

She lets me go, the movement splashing more cold water and making me gasp.

‘Did I pass your secret test?’ I call as she leaves the kitchen.

‘With flying fucking colours.’

CHAPTER 13

Nic

First night out being back on first team. Should be a cause for celebration yet I’m here listening to the grating sound of Tilda’s laugh in Elly’s room above.

Who also made first team according to Haz.

I stare up at the ceiling, seeing past Tilda, past the pine canopies, right up into the sky where I shout at the gods.

What the fuck have I done to deserve this?

Plenty, I suppose, but nothing I can’t trace back to that explosion ten years ago.

She was the dynamite then and the dynamite now if this roar in my head is anything to go by.

I can’t have her in my fucking space. I can bear a lot of shit but only if I’m fucking, smoking, drinking the shit away. Not when the shit is living in my house.

Elly and Haz eventually join me in the lounge, their straight girl experiment blessedly missing.

‘She staying in tonight?’

‘Wouldn’t you be so lucky?’ Haz retorts as she heads into the kitchen.

No. Of course I wouldn’t.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. Text from Skylar asking if I’m out tonight. Not Vipers though. The Vaults. A place I haven’t visited since clearing up my act last year.

I put my phone back without answering. These two fuckers would kill me if I visited there again.

Haz comes back with arms full of the cider cans she had chilling in the fridge.

‘So.’ She hands one to me. ‘House meeting. Tilda’s staying with us for the foreseeable future. We’ve voted.’

‘I haven’t.’

‘No need. It’s two-one.’ She eyes me as she sits down. ‘Right?’

‘I can make it one-one.’ I nod to Elly whose tucking into her cider sprawled out on the carpet. ‘Since you’re only here at my discretion.’

‘You wouldn’t,’ she replies easily.

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