The Girl With The Tattoo

4. friends? or maybe not...

Lexi

I hand a few cigarettes out to each of my friends whilst making sure to keep most of them for myself. Lewis usually gives me a new pack every few days so I have to go through them slowly so that I don't run out.

I can't wait until I have a job so I'm that I can buy my own cigs.

"Enjoy ladies!" Lewis smirks, whilst giving me a quick wink as he walks off.

I give Grace a few before hesitantly handing one over to Abby.

I hate Abby! Hate is probably a strong word but let's just say I have a strong dislike towards her. She's one of those super-rich girls that aren't afraid to brag about it every second and it makes my blood boil!

And then I hear her annoying voice asking me "What's going on between you two?"

I furrow my brows "What? Me and Lewis?"

"Yeah." She smiles "There's something going on, I can tell!"

I can't help but roll my eyes at how annoying she is "There's nothing going on! Wait, you think I'm into Lewis?! He's so not my type!"

Clearly, no one seems to be believing me, as they giggle and whisper secretively about me, clearly trying to figure out if I'm sleeping with him or not.

"Seriously, I would never go there!" I raise my voice a little because I'm frustrated at everyone assuming who I'm hooking up with "You're seriously all losing your minds if you think I would get with that loser!"

"He's only good for one thing and I think we know what that is, don't we girls?" I say, whilst holding up the pack of cigarettes that we acquired from him.

I can hear the sarcasm in Abby's voice "Sure, you're definitely not sleeping with him!"

I decide that I've had enough of her comments, so I decide to set her straight "I'm a lesbian, you freak! Do I have to keep repeating myself, or are you gonna stop with this bullshit that I'm hooking up with some guy!"

"Jeez, I was only messing around with you!" She rolls her eyes at me, and I can feel the tension between us.

I don't really know why I still hang out with her. She's clearly homophobic towards me and she always goes out of her way to make me feel like shit. If she wasn't Grace's friend then I wouldn't be spending my time with her.

"She's a lesbian?" Abby rolls her eyes.

I can feel the anger building up inside of me "Yeah, do you want me to kiss you?!" I ask, sarcastically.

She looks at me with disgust in her eyes, and I laugh to myself a little as I know that I've accomplished what I wanted to. I always enjoy making her feel uncomfortable– she deserves it.

And then, unexpectedly, Grace says "Okay, can the both of you just stop this and start getting along?"

"Sure..." I lie.

I guess she can see that I'm not serious about it, so she says "I'm being serious! We won't be able to give a convincing performance on stage if the both of you keep bickering!"

"I won't even be on stage..." I mutter.

Grace clearly heard me, despite how quietly I spoke "What do you mean?"

I sigh "I mean that I don't have the money to pay for a costume! How the fuck am I gonna go on stage without a costume?! I should probably quit right now, it'll save everyone the stress later on."

They don't respond to that. It makes me wonder if they'd even care if I left. They'd probably cry about not getting their free cigarettes but they'd get over it eventually.

But before I let myself ponder over my worries, I notice a silver car pulling up into the parking lot

I immediately know who that must be!

And my suspicions are correct when I see Sophie hopping out of her car, followed by her mom. I watch them talk for a little bit, and I can't help but smile, and then I decide to bring attention to myself.

"Sophie!" I shout, and she instantly looks over to see who's calling her name.

I shout once more "Sophie!" whilst walking away from the girls to a place that allows me to become more visible to her.

I can see her mom looking over. She looks confused. She squints her eyes a little so that she can get a better look at me.

"Sophie, come on!" I usher her over.

After a few seconds, she walks directly over to me, clutching onto her dance bag as she turns her head to her mom a few times. Her mom doesn't leave though. Instead, she leans back against her car, almost like she's inspecting the situation.

She probably wants to make sure her daughter's safe– I get it.

Sophie looks back again, before saying "What's up?"

I don't respond to her question but I ask "Is that your mom over there?"

She hesitantly replies "Uhm- y- yeah."

I don't know why but I decide to embarrass her a little, by shouting "Hey Sophie's mom!" which brings attention to myself once again.

Sophie's mom looks in my direction, her face showing just how confused she is by what I'm doing. I get it's not normal for young girls to bother grown women, but I'm bored so it feels great.

I also secretly enjoy seeing Sophie's face turning the shade of the lipstick that I usually wear.

Sophie is clearly embarrassed "Shush!" She hits me.

I giggle to myself, before shouting one last time "Looking good Sophie's mom!"

She hits me once more, and I watch as she hides her face in embarrassment which I find amusing. I decide to stop teasing her though as I'd like a friendship out of this and I'm certainly not going to get that by tormenting her.

"Can you stop?!" She asks me, still attempting to hide her pretty face.

I laugh "Okay, okay, okay! I'll stop!"

I decide to change the subject because I want her to forget that that just happened "So what class have you got right now? I'm on break."

She shrugs "Uhm... I think I have tap."

I cringe "Tap, ew! You take those classes?"

"Yeah, I do a bit of everything." She tells me, and I can't help but notice that she seems proud of that "My mum wants me to be a well-rounded dancer. She says it'll give me an advantage in auditions."

"Okay, anyway." I change the subject because I honestly hate talking about dance "What are you doing after class?"

She shrugs again "I don't know, walking home."

I see this as the perfect opportunity to spend more time with her. I mean, she trusted me the last time I walked her home so maybe she'll trust me again?

"Alright, meet me outside here at seven!" I tell her, excitement in my tone of voice "I'll wait for you and we can walk home together again! Does that sound like a plan?"

I can tell that she's confused as to why I'm so eager to walk home with her through that shitty forest "Uhm... okay?"

"Okay, good." I tell her, and when I see Abby and Grace walking over to another girl in my class, I decide that it's time for me to get back to them.

"I'll see you later, alright." I skip past her "I've got to go, but you get to your little tap lesson!"

I quickly dash past Sophie, making my way across the parking lot as I now focus on the fact that my two only friends are talking to the girl I specifically told them not to fuck around with!

They know that I'm a crazy bitch and would cut them in half if they made friends with my ex!