Cruel World (The Tribe Book 1)

11. Bad Day?

As we have breakfast in the café, everyone is quiet, only the sounds of eating and Bray and Trudy's squabbling can be heard echoing through the upstairs of the mall. Off-put by the sound, I quickly finish my food, giving leftovers to Lex, knowing he'll want them.

Suddenly, the mention of my name in the conversion makes everyone's ears perk up, as up till now the conversation had revolved around Salene and Bray's apparent budding romance. It appears Trudy is now lecturing Bray on his repeated memory loss of the fact that I helped Trudy and looked after the baby while she was ill. It's almost as though Trudy is putting in more effort to being my friend right now than Bray is.

I walk into the kitchen, which dulls the noise enough that I can hear myself think, until Salene goes into Trudy's room, and the argument gets even louder. I let out an involuntary whimper, leaning over the counter with my head in my arms, sick of the endless shouting coming from her room, and the lack of new topics within the shouting. Amber walks into the kitchen and sees me like this, rushing over and rubbing my back.

"I'm so sick of it. The constant arguing. Does Bray not know how to stay out of an argument? Or at least how to avoid it so that we can get some peace around here? Not to mention the fact that he's being a bit of a shitty friend at the moment," I confide in Amber. In return, I receive a look of understanding, as she can see how much the constant arguing over the last few weeks has been eating at me.

"I know, but Trudy insists on an argument, and Bray and Salene both keep feeding into it," she replies.

"Yeah, but can they keep me out of it? All I'm trying to do is help and nothing seems to get noticed by them," I mention, speaking about Bray and Salene more than Trudy, since she seems to be warming to me and coming to my defence.

All of a sudden Bray walks into the kitchen, seemingly not noticing us, until he starts pouring himself cereal.

"Hello," he says, after seeing us standing there. I mumble a hello back, not in the mood to speak to him much.

"Apparently you're not going out looking for some of the food and supplies today," Amber mentions to him, "at least according to Salene."

"Trudy isn't feeling well," he argues, causing me to snort, knowing very well that's not the case. Amber and Bray ignore me.

"We could do with your help though, and there's not much to get," she continues, trying to get through to him. "We need someone with street smarts, someone fast to avoid being out there with Ebony's lot for too long."

"Well that's me is it? Someone street smart and sensible?" He snarks, making me roll my eyes and push off the counter.

"Get over yourself Bray. Currently, everyone else has other jobs to do, as per the roster. You don't have other jobs to do, and we don't ask this of you all the time. And by the way, come up with a better lie next time, because we all know Trudy isn't sick, she's just over your bullshit," I rant, storming past him and Amber and out of the café to Trudy's room, finding her lying on her bed looking at a magazine while Martin is taking the baby for a walk around the mall.

"I swear to god, someday soon I might throttle him, the rate he's going," I rant, and she immediately understands what I'm talking about.

"Tell me bout it. Salene's nice and all, but I'm so sick of hearing about how wonderful she is all the time, and how much she looks after the baby for me. She doesn't! You and Martin are the only people who do, since Bray couldn't seem to give a damn about his niece, and she's only there when I'm not around," she replies, exasperated.

"Honestly, he doesn't act like my best friend anymore. I wish I knew where I stood," I tell her glumly, sinking into the armchair. She gives me a look of sympathy.