The Tribe (fanfic)

Chapter 9

Trudy knocked on the wall that curved into Amber's room. Amber looked up from her book and smiled. "Hi Trudy" she said.

"Can I come in for a minute?" She asked.

"Of course" she gestured her inside, placing her book down on the bed. "Come in."

"Wow, this place looks great Amber" Trudy said as she sat on her bed. "It's important to have a place of your own."

"Anything the matter Trudy?" Amber asked.

Trudy sighed. "It's Natalia"

"What about her?"

"She said some pretty hurtful things to Bray and I this morning" Trudy started.

"Oh yeah, I heard about that." Amber sighed. "But you have to admit Trudy, though Nat might of been a little out of line, she has a point."

"What do you mean?" Trudy asked, suddenly getting all defensive.

"Well the fact, for one, that you don't take care of your baby properly." Amber said.

"I try Amber, I do try" Trudy said. "I just...don't know where to start."

"How about you start by giving her a name."

"I guess so." Trudy slumped her shoulders. "But I mean, it's not just Natalia it's Bray."

Amber sighed, and pushed herself to a more comfortable position on the bed. "What's going on with Bray?"

"He left Amber." Trudy's welled up with tears, "he just left and I don't know if he's coming back."

Amber stretched out an arm and hugged Trudy.

****

"Have you seen Trudy?" Zandra asked as she held the little baby close to her chest.

"Not recently no" I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Uh, I need some time to do my hair, I'm disgusting I mean look at me!" She sighed.

Zandra and I were sitting in the cafe, the bowl of cereal I had poured was untouched. "You look great Zandra, like always." I said. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Zandra smile for a split second, then she slumped her shoulders.

"What's the matter?" Zandra asked.

"Nothing, last night just took a lot out of me, that's all." I said, moving my spoon around  the bowl.

"I'm not an idiot, I know something's wrong." Zandra said, pulling tha babies hand away from her hair.

"Nothing's wrong Zandra, I'm just tired." I said to her, "but the days not slowing down so I better get moving." I pushed the bowl of cereal away from me as I stood up from the chair.

"Okay." Zandra said. "Do you wanna take the baby?" Zandra asked.

"Sorry, I can't go to much to do." I walked out of the cafe before she had room to protest.

I walked out onto the roof of the mall, and watched the city below. It was busy with people fighting each other and screaming. The Loco's passed a few times, and I watched in fascination from how small and different they looked from up here.

"Sorry." I turned around to the female voice, and saw Salene with the baby.

"No, it's okay." I said, backing away from the edge.

"Were you. . . were you going to jump?"

I looked back at the edge of the building and down at the streets below. "No." I shook my head frantically. "I thought Zandra had her." I pointed to Trudy's baby in her arms.

"Yeah, but it's Zandra. She had to fix up her hair." Salene laughed lightly.

I hadn't realised I had been up in the roof for so long, "well, I'll leave you to it." I smiled, already making my way to the door.

"You don't have to leave on my account." Salene managed a laugh, adjusting the baby in her arms.

"It's okay, I've got things I need to do anyway." That seemed to be my major excuse for everything at the moment. Salene was so weird, mostly because she hated me one day and was nice to me the next. I trudged down the steps and back to the mall.

"Nat, can I have a moment?" Amber asked, watching me as I reached the last step.

"Sure. . ." I said, a little uneasily.

Amber led me to her room, which I didn't really understand why it was so important. It had no doors, no privacy. "Trudy came to see me earlier." Amber said.

I sighed, "of course she did."

"I'm not bagging you out or anything, but. . . She's pretty upset about the whole Bray thing." Amber. "What you said last night hit some nerves."

"Yeah?" I said, sudden to getting agitated. "She's been hitting every single one of mine since I got here."