Pacifier

🌼 Isabelle 🍒

Something shook the house early in the morning. I didn't hear it but I felt it. Whatever it was the initial shock had woken me up, but it was the after effect that I felt.

I heard a car alarm, and the sirens a little later, but that was all.

Id seen my brother for all of five minutes when he'd stumbled into my room, mumbled something like "Izzy thank..." only to be cut off by Benjis grumbling from not so far behind him.

"Fuckin 'ell" he yawned stumbling across the hallway, grabbing my brothers collar and tugging him along with him.

"Get ready for school tink," yawned Johnny, thinking I wouldn't see his fingers flexing around the gun behind his back as he followed his friend downstairs.
But I did and it was all I thought of until Camille tapped on the door, slipped through and asked me why I wasn't dressed yet.

It was all I thought about whilst she was picking out my school uniform, shaking it out.

It was all I thought about the whole time, whilst Camille moved about the room in silence, doing the buttons up on my blouse.

It was cold that morning.

She didn't speak and I didn't speak. I just sat there and let her get on with it.

I just sat there, at the edge of my bed, sullen eyes, trying to hide my turmoil from Camille as she buttoned my school blouse, fixing the collar, unbuttoning the top three buttons again. She took a step back to take me in, stepped back up to me to make another adjustment, but she remained quiet and bristling just as I was.

As if we both could sense that something, somewhere else was very wrong.

"You should wear your hair in plaits Iz," she said taking a lipstick out of her pocket, smearing a little across her thumb before smudging it across my bottom lip. "Smudge,"

"There's nothing to smudge," I shrugged, "plaits make me look like a little kid..."

I watched Camille smirk, smudging the lipstick across my top lip too, pushing my pout. She said no, they don't.

"Plaits are good," she said, "just innocent enough to leave em underestimating you, just unique enough to lure them in.."

"Whos them?"

"Whoever," she shrugged, "lads, Reid lads, Bottlemen lads... Keep your hair out your face too, makes it easier to fire a gun,"

"I don't have a gun do I," i said, growing more and more sullen than ever.

"No," she said, "not yet," she said her lips twitching a quick smirk as she straightened my collar and brushed me down. Took a step back to admire her work.

And then she turned away, about to leave, about to nod for me to follow her, her hand on the door handle, fingers about to grip and twist it down. But in the moment she touched the mental I opened my mouth, called her Milly and stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Izzy?" she turned slowly, her brow raised, one look at me from across the room all it took for her to let the door creak and click quietly closed behind her.

"Johnny really loves you doesnt he..."

She smirked, hands behind her back, watching me with dark eyes from across the room. Her smirk the slow forming clever smirk. Almost impressed, like she knew which question came next.

"Yeah," she said. She must have known what I was going to ask next.

"How do you know?" I asked, feeling a slight blush in my cheeks, burning my skin only slightly as I shied from her gaze and bit my lip.