When rainbows fall

Chapter 2. Tommy

"I swear that if I hear one more person talking about the bloody new boy, I will behead them myself" Cosette grumbles, dissecting her sandwich, to make sure there aren't any unpleasant surprises

"There's nothing wrong with being excited, nothing much has happened in this town in ages" I point out, "besides, don't you think you're overreacting just a bit?"

"Excited? They are obsessed. It's sad, you would think that they have been isolated from the rest of humanity for the past hundred years, and are only now being reintroduced"

~~~~~~

I hadn't planned on going to the party, I had realised long ago that I would be better off staying far away from her, and her suffocating nature.

Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful for what she did for me, but she's gone off the rails lately. She's the real-life evil queen. As if her life was the one she obliterated, not Sarah's. But as I stuffed my mud-coated clothes and my footy boots into my bag and looked over at Max, with that charming smile, the team loved him, they would follow him off a cliff. But for me? They'd push me off it.

Looking at him made me realise how much I missed them and how it used to be before it all came crashing down. It was just us four, and we were okay with that. At least Poppy and I were.

I took it for granted, and I held on when I shouldn't have and instead of losing one, I lost both. I didn't want her to be alone and be even more dangerous, and I was concerned because she wasn't acting like herself. I wanted to get to the bottom of it; I wanted to help her. By doing so, I chose her side. It was a mistake, this was always what Cosette was, we were just blind, oblivious, to it, she was hurt and she was angry but most of all she wanted people to fear her. She wanted to claim the throne for herself. Some part of me still hopes that she feels guilty and that she never intended to cause such destruction, but as every day passes it seems unlikely.

Max, despite our history, was the nicest of the boys on the team, he always made offers to hang out with me and invite me to stuff but I'd reject, feeling suspicious or I just couldn't. This fuelled their opinions of me.

If I went, I could get an opportunity to talk to Poppy again, if I didn't then there would be less chance of getting arrested again.

I silently tagged along with the boys as they strolled up to the mansion, once so welcoming, now haunting.

Cosette hid her shock well, and I hid my surprise at how unwell and upset she looked. She looked like a ghost of herself.

It didn't really matter how I got, or why I really came. I don't belong but man

"Oi! Tommy, why do you have a knife? You psycho" Nelly yells out, Poppy's behind her, with a small and amused smile on her face.

"To stab people with, duh" I respond lightly, I don't why I have it or why Cosette gave it to me. Poppy laughs. Her eyes are greyer than ever now, a stormy colour now.

"Don't hurt yourself" she mumbles to me as she passes, hand in hand with Sienna. It's funny how quickly you can replace people. In her grief, Poppy found Sienna, the dumber version of Cosette. Nelly, as sensible as Sarah was and Isla, who has turned up to school drunk quite a few times. She's a laugh.

The party feels like it's going on forever, and ever. Nobody talks to me and I don't talk to them, I just watch as they puke into the same poor, innocent plant.