I'll Take Spades (Draft)

Chapter XVI: "Friends"

"This way" she snapped, dragging me into a bathroom, the rest followed, "what" I asked stupidly, "you really think they'll let us on a train looking like this, she grabbed me by the shoulders and tugged me in front of a mirror, I stared at my little group, Ace who with her black clothes and red jacket looked like someone from a cliché movie, James, his bare arms and gold bracelets, rings and messy hair, honestly he looked like your typical "bad boy" but a bit more bruised, Diana, she honestly looked quite pretty, except for the tear in her brown blazer, Will, who was still in his same clothes from his university, white shirt with a black jumper and blue jeans, his hands and face were stained with dirt but other than that he looked alright.

My eyes flicked to Miles, his curly black hair hanging over his face, his hollow, beaten up face, still in his navy blue jumpsuit, then my eyes flickered to the boy in the mirror, his beaten and bruised face, his black gothic clothing, his dark messy hair, though his eyes still shone the same as my own, I didn't look like myself, I was practically unrecognizable.

"Miles what are you doing" Ace asked, Miles was unzipping his jumpsuit, he took it off to reveal simply a white tank top and black trousers, "better?" He asked, "yes... actually" Diana agreed, "what do we do?" I asked, still staring at the mirror, "there's not much we can do, just clean up as best you can, and wash the dirt off your face Will!" Will was rubbing his nose, smudging black dirt down his face.

A few minuets went by of everyone just washing the ash of their faces and the dirt off their hands, James wet his hair and was styling it to Ace's amusement, she herself was trying to wipe the dirt off of James red jacket, "Ace" Will said, "Just take this", he thew his jumper and Ace took it with thanks. "Why don't you just stay in your shirt, it's not that cold" I said. The moment I said it regretted it, Ace stared at me, slowly she took of the red jacket, revealing once more her arms covered in cuts and bruises, "sorry!" I half yelled through the bathroom "I forgot!" She looked at me in disgust and put on the black jumper.

One we had all cleaned up a bit we went. Towards the ticket booth, "Six please" Ace said bored, she held up what looked like it could be at least £100 and dropped her eyelids, the man at the booth flinched at her and gawped at the money in her hand, he flipped through it and took about a 5th of it.

"Keep the change" Ace said, her bored tone was droning on, the mans face lit up, "r-really" he stuttered, "Just give us the tickets" Ace demanded, "yes- yes- of course" and he handed over six small pieces of yellow paper, Ace snatched them up quickly and we headed down the the station.

We waited for about fifteen minuets before a huge train pulled up at the station, the doors opened and people flooded in, "Come on" Ace snapped, "And stay together!" We wondered on to the train, pushing past people and once or twice, almost falling over a pair of strangers feet. We found a group of four empty seats.

Diana pushed me forward and signaled me to sit, James grabbed on the the side of my chair but stayed standing, Will and Diana sat across from me and Miles next to me, he didn't speak much, Miles, he just stared out the window, playing with his hair, James hair was in a stupid little side flip from him styling it, he was running his fingers through his wet hair, funny enough even though it was wet, it looked curlier than ever.

Ace stood next to him, staring at him, a regretful look on her face as James smiled at her stupidly, still playing with his hair, we sat for a few minuets, Ace still staring at James, her hood was up so her eyes were barely visible, but she looked angry, I wasn't sure what about, but I found out about 4 seconds later when she slapped James round the face.

He stopped playing with his hair and stared at her, a few people swerve around to see where the sound had come from, "What the hell was that for!?" James yelled throughout the train car, "stop doing that" Ace said quickly. James opened his mouth to say more, but Diana stood up, "James!" She called, she gave him a stern look, people were still watching, "Ace, swap with me" She said pushing past me, Ace went to sit down next to Will and James eyed her angrily.

"What did you not understand about keeping a low profile!" I heard her whisper to James, "Show's over people!" Will said, looking around at the amount of people staring. We sat there in silence for about half an hour, Ace and James exchanging angered looks, until Diana looked up.

"when are we getting off?" She asked, "Next stop I think" Ace said, her head on Wills shoulder, she looked tired, when she closed her eyes she looked almost dead, "Are you ok?" I asked Ace, she looked at me, "yeah, why" "Nothing, you just look..." she gave me a look as if I was about to say she was ugly or something, "you look tired" I said quickly, "yeah, I am" she finished, rolling her head around to lean on the window.