The Stronghold

Sass Battle

Seated on my bed with my head on my hands I took a deep breath. The Super Glitches had come into the interview in their reckless, arrogant way - by 'their' I mean Shaade's - and promptly ruined it for me.

Shaade had ended up confused about what was going on and blurting everything out to Amalia. Josh's face slowly drained of colour as he saw the fury building in my eyes and Emmi and Sophie stayed quiet, nervous of my reaction.

The police were called and had spoken to the journalists to find out the full story from a tertiary source, sending me out of the room with a warning that they would be up to speak to me later. I'd stormed away, trying to keep calm and not punch anyone. I'd been followed by my friends but they had wisely stayed back when they heard my bedroom door slam and a glass table crash through it.

"I'm sorry," Shaade said for the billionth time. "I didn't realise."

"That much is obvious," I growled, the muscles in my forearms standing out from the tension.

"Me and my big mouth," Shaade said with a weak 'eheheh'.

"I'll make it bigger by ramming a chair into it if you like," I offered.

"No thanks."

All went quiet again and I heard Shaade leave the room. People kept on coming to check up on me every so often, walking randomly into my bedroom to interrupt my 'calm' time.

"You're really quiet," Georgina noted, wandering in and dragging a chair to sit opposite me.

"Nobody plans a murder out loud," I muttered back.

"Even your head's quiet," she continued.

"Get out of it," I snapped.

"I'm not in it. Tom is."

"Tell that bastard to get out of my head."

"Do it yourself," Georgina retorted, standing and walking away. She paused in the doorway of the room and I could see in my mind's eye the anger and irritation radiating off her.

"By the way," she said, "I was only trying to help you."

The door shut with a sharp click and I closed my eyes, rubbing my forehead with aching hands. The sound of hinges creaking told me someone else had come to annoy me.

"Go away," I said without looking up or opening my eyes.

"Don't push away your friends," Emmi said softly. "Or even your enemies. You need someone to keep you sane right now, someone to pat you on the back and tell you everything's okay, even when you don't think it is. I had everyone doing that to me and I'm still here. My boyfriend especially, Morgan, he's helped loads. So don't push Georgina away. She's only trying to do good when you're down and in trouble." With that speech she left.

I raised my head and looked at the door just as it swung open. Tom folded his arms and stood in the doorway, waiting for me to say something. So I did.

"Piss off."

"Emmi's right. You need to be nice to people right now or we'll all leave." There was a note on impatience in his usually calm voice and that made me sit up a little straighter, to be a little more alert.

"You wouldn't," I said, narrowing my eyes.

"We would. And guess who said that first, back out there?" He jerked his thumb back towards the main area. My bedroom was separate from everything else, down a sort of side corridor. It was a wide open space, tiled with marble with random cushions, rugs, pillows and just general things scattered everywhere. IPods, iPhones, laptops, chargers, all sorts of gadgets covered the floor in one corner. I noted with some concern that the pile was edging closer to the en suite.