Femme Fatale.

06

♥♥
Orientation day.
What a damned day it had been. She had chucked their friendship away as carelessly as one might discard a thoroughly chewed bone.
Worse actually, for did not a bone often have a scrap of nourishment in it and was therefore to be cherished in another hungry moment?
Tanu wipes away the guilty tears.
Dammit! Jealousy had,for a couple of wild, insane hours,taken over her and she had let the womanly excitement incredibly enter her blood and her brain until she had been incapable of coherent thought.
"But no,regret is not my portion," she decides.
♥♥

Songs for the chapter:
i. Kilometre - Burna Boy
ii. Big Girls Cry - Sia

We are in my room after a very awkward dinner. Rhoda is spending yet another night here, with me. Rhoda and Shawn chat animatedly while I sit there, sad and withdrawn.

Rhoda puts her glass down on my study table and crawls up on the bed so that she is on her hands and knees, with her face just inches from mine.

"My little best friend," she purrs.

My face softens at her intimacy.

"My little love," she whispers. Gently she kisses me on the nose and then the lips. "Don't be a shrew with me," she begs me. "We all know that you are hurt, but be sweet to me, Carla. We'll all be so much happier if you are sweet to me."

Unwillingly, I smile. "You must support me," I warn her.

"I will always be by your side," she promises.

"Then you can come here and I will be sweet to you," I say.

She leans forward and kisses me again. My eyes close and my lips smile then part. Shawn watches as she presses closer and her finger goes to my bare shoulder and strokes my neck. He watches, quite fascinated, quite horrified, as her fingers go into my smooth dark hair and pulls my head back for her kiss.

Then I open my eyes with a little sigh. "Enough." I push her gently off the bed. She returns to her place at the chair beside my study table and we all pretend that it was nothing more than a friendly kiss.

♥♥

The next day at school Tanu is confident as ever. She smiles at Rhoda and I as we walk past her to our first class.

"I would have thought you would have been displeased this day, Carla." Sauda, one of notorious school spies whispers to me.

"Why?" I turn to her.

"The news," Sauda says.

"What news?" Rhoda asks, so that I do not appear curious.

Sauda answers her but watches me. "Tanu is dumping Joe."

I stagger for a moment and go white.

"Oh!" Rhoda cries, to draw the attention to her and from me. "What a scandal! Why would she dump him? What an idea! How very wrong of her."

I recover but Sauda has watched me. "Why," Sauda says, in a voice like silk. "She says there was a precontract. She says that all along he has been promised to you."

My head goes up and I smile at Sauda. "If she is unhappy in her relationship then I am sure that we all grieve for her." There is a little murmur from Rhoda, more like avid curiosity than sympathy.

I walk away from her but some girls hold back, circling Sauda for more scandal.

"Sauda, I am sure you will find gossiping is forbidden in this school," Rhoda says spitefully. "And you happen to be a prefect. I would imagine you have lots of duties."