Die A Believer

Chapter Nine

Ellie's POV

Lilly and I sat on Belle’s bed while she sorted through her clothes. It was the night before she was meant to fly to Sydney and she has only just started packing now.

“You know, even I would be packed in this situation. You know that’s saying something.” Lilly said, still showing a hint of jealously in her voice.

“Well I was busy working on those.” Belle looked up and pointed to the drawing scattered on her desk. I picked one up and saw a sketch of a faceless figure in a black, solid leotard with wide shoulder pad and black, towering shoes.

“What are these for?” I asked.

“Well, I was thinking about the video and I drew those for the girls that get killed halfway through and those are for them to wear. I know some good places in Sydney that I can get stuff from to make them.”

“Oh, okay. What’s it meant to look like?” Lilly said, grabbing the sketch off of me.

“Have you heard of Natalia Kills? I modelled the sketches after her and the music video for ‘Nobody’s Perfect’ by Jessie J.” Belle stood and collected up the sketches into a purple folder, tucking them away in the top of her suitcase.

“Okay I think that is everything.” Belle said, stepping back to look at the two suitcases that sat against the wall. They looked so full; I wasn’t sure how she was going to get them all the way to Sydney.

“It’s getting late and I should be going.” I said, standing up off the bed and stretching out. “I’ll be over tomorrow after school to pick you up. What time does your flight leave?”

“I need to be there at 9 so you don’t have to drive me. You need to go to school!”

“I thought you left at 5?” Lilly questioned.

“It got changed for some reason.”

“I’m still driving you to the airport and I won’t take no for an answer!” I insisted. This would be the last chance I would get to see Belle for three weeks and I was going to keep insisting until she said yes.

“I wanna come too!” Lilly said, lying down on Belle’s bed.

“No!” Belle insisted. “You can’t miss school. All I am doing is going away for a few weeks and that’s hardly worth it.”

“No. I will be here at 8 o’clock tomorrow morning to drive you to the airport and you have no say in the matter.” I said, turning around to and walking out the door before she could attempt to reject my offer.

True to my word, the next morning I found myself driving up the hostel driveway. It was earlier then I would usually be up, but I wasn’t going to pass up my last chance to see Belle. As I pulled up, I saw Lilly come running out dragging Belle’s smaller suitcase behind her. She started laughing as Belle exited the hostel with a massive suitcase on tow. I popped the boot and helped them haul the luggage into the car. As we shut the boot, I noticed what Belle was wearing. She was always someone to dress up for no reason and today was no exception. She was wearing a white baggy singlet with ‘Call Me Kills’ spray painted on the front, black high-waisted shorts, fishnet tight and black knee high boots with studs all the way to the top. This would make quite the first impression Short Stack; I wish I could be there to see that.

We climbed into the car and drove most of the way to the airport in silence. When I looked around to see why, I saw the Lilly had fallen sleep and Belle was about to. I was so jealous that they were able to sleep as I hadn’t slept last night at all. I had gone over this situation between Belle, Sophie and Stacy so many times in my mind and I was not feeling any better. I hated being in the middle of it, especially when I knew that Sophie and Stacy were only using me as a way to piss off Belle. I had considered just blowing them off, but I had seen what they’d done to Belle and I don’t think I could deal with that too.

Belle and Lilly woke as we pulled into the airport. It wasn’t very busy at this time of morning; mainly just men in business suits that flew to Wellington for work. Belle headed into the terminal first and walked straight up the desk to check in. This was probably something so routine to her as every term she had to fly home from school and back again when school started back up. When she had her boarding pass we sat down and waited for her flight to be called. I took her flight details to look over while she rested her head sleepily on my shoulder. I usually didn’t like it when she did this, but right now she was allowed. As I looked down at the paper in front of me, I saw that she would have to fly to Auckland before she got on her plane to Sydney.

The loud speaker called Belle’s flight a few minutes later, but she made no attempt to move from my shoulder.

“Come on Belle, time to get on the plane.” Lilly said, trying to motivate her.

“Okay.” Belle mumbled, standing up slowly. “But I am not happy about leaving you guys.”

We said our goodbyes and after Belle promised to Skype us when she got to Sydney, she boarded her plane. As I watched her disappear into the cabin, I felt tears start to fight for freedom. I wasn’t going to let them though. Besides, it was only a few weeks. I repeated this to myself as Lilly and I left the terminal.

“And as Belle flights off to the opportunity of a lifetime, we return to hell.” Lilly stated dramatically.

As I slipped into the front seat of my car and put the key in the ignition, I thought to myself how words could not express how true that was.