We Who Are Jaded

Chapter Eight

"You could sleep through a war," Beth concluded when I turned my dripping scowl on her. I levered myself up in bed and examined the damage. You would have thought by the well placed hand on Beth's hip and her pursed lips that she had a right to have an attitude with me and not the other way around.

Bethany Phillips was not the one shivering, nor has been interrupted from a rather wonderful kiss from her boyfriend...even if it has been as good as make believe.

"Because a gentle nudge wouldn't have done the same?" I muttered, watching as Beth placed the empty glass in her hand on my bedside table. She arched her brow and smiled with the lips of the devil himself.

"Oh I did Chris." She giggled to herself and shook her head. "I'd ask what you were dreaming about but I don't think that's necessary." She reached into her pocket, retrieved her phone and laughed again. "And just on time, the spell broke as the clock struck twelve."

"That can't be the time," I groaned. My mother must have been beyond angry at me to not even want to wake me up. It was a sin to be idle in the Evans' household and here I was at midday, still in bed. It would have been a miracle if I hadn't known any better.

"So are you going to ask why I'm here or are you going to sit there and mope?" Beth asked, searching my face for even a scrap of attention. She shouldn't have been surprised in my lack of focus, it wasn't unlike me to have my mind somewhere else. I peered up from the distraction that had been my soggy pyjamas and smiled sweetly at my best friend.

"Why is it that your here Beth? Please tell me so I don't have to sit here and mope all day?" I gnashed my teeth and hoped I wasn't about to receive a well aimed back hand. Instead Beth rolled her eyes and puckered her lips.

"I thought you'd never ask," Beth muttered. She brushed down her demin shorts and adjusted her blouse as though to pay me attention wasn't a priority. "Well for a start your mum let me in. She seemed a little mad, is she on her period or something?"

Oh Beth.

"We had an argument last night, but I'm sure that might also have something to do with it too," I replied, trying not to mirror the cheeky smile breaking on Beth's face. "Anyway, hormonal mothers' aside...why are you here?"

The mischievous spark in Beth's eyes winked at me as she drew her face unnecessarily close to mine.

"We're going out for a picnic Evans and Mandy and Jude are..," she stopped, checking her phone in superficial shock. "Well what do you know, they'll be here in ten minutes, you'd better get a move on Chrissie!" Beth now presented me with her perfectly pearly white teeth, taunting me. I glowered at her, in a shockingly ridiculous way that could only be shared between friends.

Ten minutes? I couldn't be showered and dressed in ten minutes.

I rose from the bed, crouching to scoop up clothes before I headed for my bedroom door.

"Where are you going?" Beth asked sweetly. I threw a stray skirt at her and prepared to exit.

"For a shower, not that you didn't have the initiative to try and give me one already." Beth's reply of joyous laughter followed me to the bathroom while I jokingly cursed her. Best friends were strange things but I wouldn't have changed her - not for anything.

Beneath the warm spray of the shower I washed away the cold sweat that coated me. I couldn't decide if I was unsettled from dreaming of Kieran or that fact that Tom was coming. Should I have said something to Beth or was this a secret best kept to myself?

I'm sure Indigo Boy would have something to say about that, Evans...

Three minutes later I was out of the bathroom, dressed and barging through my bedroom door. Beth was perched quite happily on my bed, engaged in her phone before looking up to inspect me.