Trust No Bitch: Part 3

Gemma Akintola: Tuesday, 20th January, 2016

"Alice! Oh my God, I've missed you so much!"

Gemma had been waiting assiduously for the day she was permitted to visit Alice in the psychiatric hospital since Tim Robbins and Sasha Evans had first turned up on her doorstep to let her know that Alice was in there. Gemma had to be careful not to squeeze her friend too hard; her pale skin was still stained purple in some places and there were prickly, reddish-brown scabs running across both her neck and the palm of her hand. Both Clara and Lilly were noticeably absent. Clara's claim was that she needed to check up with a doctor that it was okay to stop using her crutches, and then after that, meet with a member of the student union to resolve the rent problem that had come about as a result of her being fired by her chronically high, and therefore paranoid manager. Lilly's, on the other hand, was that she had her first shift back at work since her stillbirth. The disappointment was patent in Alice's face but she hadn't commented on it, instead hugging Gemma back and pulling out a chair for her.

"I'm sorry Clara and Lilly aren't here." She said, sitting down opposite Alice, who was perched on the end of a rickety looking single bed. Sleeping in that thing was something Gemma privately supposed that Alice, with her family's superabundant wealth, was probably not used to. "Lilly's got her first shift back at work today and Clara's..." Gemma floundered; she couldn't be honest about where Clara was, since it would necessitate her telling Alice about the break in, which would only serve to exacerbate the stress that had probably resulted in Alice ending up where she was in the first place. Instead, Gemma grimaced and continued uneasily. "...Clara's sorting something out to do with her job."

"That's fine." Said Alice, though despite her attempt at concealing it, Gemma could point to every movement of her facial features which had betrayed her skepticism. "How's uni? You started back yesterday, didn't you?"

"Yeah. Everybody's a hot mess." Gemma replied grimly, silently recalling the previous days' events. Meeting Lilly, Clara and Naomi for brunch in the morning, she had observed the whispers that seemed to follow them like a noxious odour. The taut faces of every person that spoke to both Lilly and Naomi, unsure of whether or not to express their sympathies about Tess Rowe. The agitated glances over shoulders of students terrified that they too were about to have their necks slit open, or be pushed off a building by a fellow student. Well, at least they know how we all feel now, Gemma had thought with a bitter smile. "Think you're going to miss it?"

"Well, the thought that I'll be behind on work for the first time ever feels no way near as liberating as the people back in secondary school used to make out that it did." Alice replied. "I'll need one of you to send me the lectures now you're back so that I don't fall even more behind. I mean, I know we're all failing at this rate but..."

"I can do that." Said Gemma, smiling and resting her hand on Alice's arm reassuringly, in spite of the fact that she hadn't planned to attend any of that week's lectures. "How have things been going?"

"Well..." Alice drifted away for a moment, leaving only a cold eyed, motionless body behind. "His...uh, I mean, Louis...His parents came to see me this morning."

"And? What were they like with you?"

"They told me that they've spoken with the police and that they're sorry about what he did. They said they don't blame me but..." She shook her head. "It doesn't matter. I have something really, really important to tell you and the others. I would tell you now but I might as well wait until you're all here."

"Yeah, I'll get them to-"

"But, Gem, no offence, don't bring Naomi with you. I don't think she should know." Alice said, Gemma's vehement head shaking prompted by her memory of Clara and Lilly's full confession of everything that had been going on with the Supplier to Naomi a week or two before. Now, she told herself, is probably not the best time to let Alice know that Naomi now considers herself the 5th member of the fucking mystery gang. "And that's not just it. I'm sorry but the excessive kindness I feel like I have to employ around that girl is to my sanity what watching Geordie shore repeats is to my intelligence. Every time I suppress my inner condescending bitch a little part of me just withers and dies."