C H A R A D E

Tony's Girl

Well, Chelsea was waltzing. Me, I was just walking, feeling like the whole world was watching and knew about what had happened to me three days back, whispering amongst each other things like,

"Oh, so that's the girl who almost got raped. Pity."

"Look over there, that's the girl that almost got raped. Oh, poor thing."

"Earth to you, girl. You de listen to me sef (are you even listening to me)?" Chelsea snapped her fingers in front of me.

"What?" I blinked. "I'm sorry, what were you saying?"

She shook her head, her mass of dark curls bouncing with the move. "Do you want us to do cloths shopping first or..."

"Cloths," I said quickly.

"What were you thinking about?" She raised her eyebrows at me.

"Nothing, come on, let's go. I don't want to spend my whole day here."

"Sure, sure."

She took my hand and pulled me over to the cloths section.

After checking out a few denims and shoes, I settled for dresses, two pairs of sneakers and heels.

Surprisingly, Chelsea didn't get herself anything.

"You're not buying?" I asked as we walked out the door to the cloths section.

She looked at me, smiling. "Nope. Today's your day. Bills on me."

"But it's not my birthday," I chuckled.

"It doesn't have to be. And, anyway, as you already know, my birthday's in a week. When it comes, you can repay the favour," she simpered.

"Can't wait," I smiled.

And I really couldn't. Chelsea would not believe the surprise party Brian was planning for her.

She just wouldn't.

We headed over to a different section which said, Crunchies and Snacks.

As we went through the sliding French doors and into the large, air conditioned hall, I grabbed a cart from the rack.

"Our icecream's finished. Do you think we should get two tubs?" Chelsea piped up when I had pushed the cart over to the neat rows of icecream encased in a long, cold showcase.

"Two tubs?" I stared at her. "We've already spent enough on clothes, Chelsea. You don't have to..."

She cut me short by placing a hand on my forearm.

"It doesn't matter, Sabrina. And besides, I came prepared."

She smiled and waved a credit card in my face.

"Dad doubled up this time. And what better way than to spend it on my best friend," she shrugged.

I sighed. "If you say so."

"Yeah. Now we can get vanilla and strawberry or just strawberry..."

As she chattered animatedly on what icecream to get, I looked around.

The hall was teeming with people, both in solos and duos and even groups, pushing full or half-full carts around.

The atmosphere buzzed from the sound of the indiscriminate chattering.

Too many people.

"You keep zoning out on me, Sabrina." Chelsea's voice brought me back.

She dumped two large tubs of icecream in the cart and fixed her gaze on me.