Black Poison

14. 'Favor' ?

14. 'Favor' ?

Mollie was the first to react as she leapt out of our embrace and sprinted after Megan. I rounded a the corner and found Mollie pinning Megan against the wall by her collar.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Mollie demanded, the fierce, arrogant side of her persona returned.

"Tried to keep your little affair secret?" Megan goaded "Didn't want to tell anyone so you would still be popular? So you would still win battle of the bands?"

"Course not," Mollie scoffed, but slightly less confident than she had been before.

"Well they're all going to find out now," Megan grinned, and I felt my stomach drop nauseatingly.

"No they aren't," Mollie remained confident "what evidence do you have?"

"I-I saw you," Megan realised the flaw in her idea.

"Not gonna work," Mollie chuckled, releasing her grip slightly "Your word against both of ours, and it's hardly going to go your way."

"I don't understand why you don't just tell everyone," Megan switched the subject swiftly

"It's complicated," Mollie countered.

"Fine," Megan tore herself away from Mollie and dusted herself down "Just wait until I do get some evidence; some real hard evidence," she stormed past us and out of the corridor.

"We still can't tell anyone," Mollie turned to me.

"Why?" I found myself questioning her for the first time

"Just-just no," she stammered, then hurriedly past me and followed out of school after Megan.

What was wrong? Something was not right, otherwise Mollie would not be so adamant against telling everyone. For the first time I found myself reliving a conversation I had had with Anna. 'Mollie has- has a problem' and I was starting to wonder if this problem was creeping up to the surface of her resolute facade.

I returned to the changing rooms where the team were still celebrating boisterously, and I had to put a smile on my face for their benefit. Even Mr. Mines was grinning merrily, and he collared me over to a quieter corner of the room.

"We did it," he raised his voice over the strongly audible shouts of the others "we leave for London next week, you good for that?"

"Yeah," I responded "let's hope my passport isn't out of date."

I managed to sneak away quite easily through all the joyous commotion; I was pleased we had won, but I wasn't in the mood to celebrate. As I walked home on my own, bag slung across my back, I checked my phone and realised I had a message from Mollie.

sorry about earlier, come to my house tomorrow night, let me explain X

The message sent a sensation of worry coursing through my veins; explain? Let her explain what? I masked my anxiety behind a calm and collected response through text;

sure thing X

As I reached home I realised that I didn't know where Mollie lived, and I may meet her parents, which suddenly seemed like a nervy thought. Suddenly my thoughts switched to her older brother - the guy she said would beat me up if he found out about us, and I found myself brooding in a worried silence for most of the night. So it transpired that I couldn't sleep too well, so I lay awake in bed through the early hours of the morning, and felt depressingly tired when my alarm called me out of my sleep all too early the next morning.

I couldn't reach Tom by phone, so I presumed he wouldn't be giving me a lift to school, so I walked. Evidently Tom had slept in, judging by his late arrival and bedraggled appearance half-way through the morning.