Trust No Bitch: Part 3

Lilly Philipps: Thursday, 5th February, 2016

Lilly Philipps. Last one standing. It was a rather indelicate way of summarising the situation that she, Alice, Clara and Gemma had found themselves in. The ephemeral rush of contentment that ran through Lilly's body the Monday after Clara was run down, though, as she stood outside the lecture hall with Naomi, she couldn't help. It was a feeling she wished could be achieved more effortlessly, with which she could inject herself, or something. Then she could rid herself of all those sentiments of impotence and incompetency as if they were no more troublesome than a common cold. That being said, it was probably a good thing that she couldn't. She'd be shooting that stuff up every half hour like a desperate addict. Gemma had been the one to first tell her the news of Clara, and that was the first time Lilly had heard from her since her brother's death. The first day, she had texted, telling Lilly that The Supplier was behind it and that nobody at the prison would own up; they had not managed to catch the assailants on CCTV, due to the makeshift balaclavas the attackers had worn. Following that text, there was nothing but silence from Gemma's end. She was unreachable by phone, as were her other family members, and when Lilly asked one of their professors whether they knew why Gemma hadn't been attending lectures, they said they had been informed it was due to "family trauma". It was only following the Supplier's attack on Clara that Gemma got in contact. From what Lilly understood, Clara had been left for dead in the middle of the road by the cemetery in which Cleo was buried, with an anonymous caller phoning the ambulance service, who had arrived promptly after. She had been in a medically induced coma since, Gemma said, to try and reduce the amount of damage to her brain. And Lilly supposed she should be sickened, and to some extent, she was. But there was that innate, self-serving part of her that also wanted to thank Clara for getting knocked out before herself. Because maybe, just maybe, it would reduce the amount of hair-ruffling she was due to receive once Clara did wake up. Once Gemma got over her grief. Once Alice regained her sanity. Well, assuming all those things would happen. Lilly did not doubt that they would; she had been desensitised, almost, to the horror of it all, beginning to treat the last few months like one particularly strenuous level of some convoluted video game. It showed as she watched Alice, released from the psychiatric ward that day, in fact, walking towards her and Naomi, from her mother's slick looking Mercedes. Her first thought was not whether her friend still felt like downing a whole bottle of benzos and snorting up an 8 ball of cocaine but instead, the shallow observation that all Alice's bruising was gone, and that she had substituted an expensive looking blazer-skirt combination for a cardigan and some jeans (a blouse was still worn underneath the cardigan, of course). Lilly had arranged to meet her, and though she was unaware, Naomi, outside the hospital, the intention being to go and see Clara which Alice had made her top priority upon being released. Whether it was out of pure solicitude or to try and wheedle some information out of the nurses, Lilly was unsure but either way, she had shown up. And the absence of her usual consummate confidence as she approached was more noticeable than ever, hair in plaits for the first time since in at least a year.

"Alice!" Lilly said brightly, throwing her arms around her friend as Naomi lingered sheepishly behind them. After all, Alice did not know that Naomi was now basically an interim member of the group; she had no idea about Naomi's wealth of knowledge on everything from the Supplier to each person Cleo had met prior to her demise, and Lilly wasn't about to be the one to tell her. It will come out at some point, she thought to herself, and you can deal with it when it does. As ever, she continued to excel in the art of procrastination. "Do you know if Gemma's coming?"

"I mean, I've sent her a text telling her we'd be here at this time but she's not replied...It's been less than 2 weeks since her brother..." But Alice didn't finish her sentence, trailing off at the sound of a distant car door slam and surveying the car park to find its source. Lilly was first to spot it, blanching as a drawn looking Gemma emerged from a dark BMW and began striding over to them, coiled hair blustering about in the wind, tracksuit hanging loose on her short body. Alice was the first to make a move, throwing her arms around Gemma like a soldier's wife who believed she'd never see her husband again. Smiling wanly, Gemma prised Alice off her and held her at arms length as if to inspect her.