Top Girl

6.

'Look I know you said you didn't want me but I was just passing by'

Lydia granted access to Sully, knowing full well his daughters house wasn't near her own.

She waited for him to say something but he didn't, he looked at the girl before him as she looked back.

'You've come at 10 o'clock at night to have a staring competition with me?' She was the first to break the silence.

'I think you should go to the doctors'

'Oh wow.' Out of all the things she could've thought he'd say that wasn't one of them. 'And why is that?'

He inched further as if it would soften the blow of what he was going to say. 'Look Lydia, the way your emotions are constantly up and down, it doesn't seem normal. I mean you're normal, and don't feel like you're not normal. But you know, after everything you've been through in life, mental illness may be something'

He jumped over his point several times trying to make his words seem gentle and relatable. Lydia's eyebrows raised before a smirk played on the corners of her mouth. Sully didn't find it amusing.

Her eyes diverted down to his hands which were stained with red blotches. She grasped the limbs in her hands inspecting the details before he snatched it away.

'Thought you went to see Tash?'

'I did'

She scoffed at him. Her hands reached to his jean pocket where she felt the outline of a knife. 'Stabbed your daughter, or the baby mum?'

He pushed her away gently, but firm enough to make her budge.

'Don't be sick in the head'

'Then don't lie' A Mexican stand off endured whilst she waited for him to spit the truth out.

She tutted at the quiet air. 'Okay, you don't wanna tell me. You're just scum anyway, going round with these knifes and guns. Makes me sick'

Vile words kept falling from her lips uncontrollably. She didn't mean anything she was saying, but she wanted it to hurt.

'Doctors. Book yourself in or I'll do it for you. Maybe I'll even ring the mental hospital and ask if they've got a bed free'.

He was used to her venemous outburst, at some point they'd all been on the receiving end of her hurtful tongue.

The man let himself out and Lydia pondered over her words.

Scum.

That swirled around her head for the whole night, she knew Sully hated that word, that's why she used it.

'Gem, you alright?' The younger boy looked solemn as he roamed the streets with Ranell.

The day had rolled into the next already and Lydia was dreading seeing Sully after last nights events.

'No. They killed my dog.' He confessed making the girls eyebrows raise.

Lydia knew who 'they' was. Anger seethed through her at his revelation. The men had their hearts set on Gem being the snitch and so they killed his dog as a consequence.

Whatever guilt she had felt for her words had vanished. Pure fury seethed through her veins.

'I'm really sorry about Marnie.' Sincerity covered Lydia's voice. Wherever Gem went that dog followed, he loved her.

'Hey yo! Gem come here bruv!' Dris's voice hollered from a few steps away.

'You don't have to.' Ranell's comment fell on deaf ears, everyone knew it wasn't smart to ignore Dris.