Trust No Bitch: Part 2

Gemma Akintola

"Christ, it's almost quarter past, where the hell is Clara? I did say 2, didn't I? Can someone confirm for me that I said 2? That's what I have on my planner. Did she tell either of you two she was going anywhere before this?"

Gemma couldn't take much more of Alice's hysteria. They'd been stood outside Little Chef for almost half an hour with Lilly, waiting for Clara, the pencil skirt that Alice had lent to Gemma as part of their faux interview get up so tight she felt like she was ready to get shoved into a sarcophagus.

"Alice, will you please chill out?" She finally snapped, Alice replying with only a roll of the eyes and an exasperated sigh. "Sorry but we're about to steal something from private property which may I remind you, I never wanted to do and-"

"Orange is not the new black." Lilly interjected, her lower lip still protruding like a rebuked 9 year old. "If anybody within a 100 mile radius sees me in handcuffs and a jumpsuit, forget the Supplier, I'll have to kill them myself. I do not spend hundreds of pounds a month on clothes just to look like utter dog shit in public."

"Do you not want to find out who murdered our friend?" Alice snapped. "Do you not want to find out who the person texting you is?" Gemma saw the pot she had inadvertently stirred coming to a bubble as Lilly, looking more and more sullen by the minute, opened her mouth again, and intervened.

"Let's just do it." She said. "Now. If we don't go in soon, somebody's going to notice us lingering out here and report us to the manager or something." Her eyes flitted to the front door before resting on Alice. "Don't you think?" She prompted. After all, Alice ultimately made the decisions. Lilly just watched, open mouthed.

"Without Clara?"

"It's not like she was going to help get the disk anyway. She was just going to wait in the restaurant with Lilly. I think we should just go in." Said Gemma. Lilly's eyes, full of trepidation, swept from Gemma's face to Alice's nervously; she looked like a puppy experiencing its first thunderstorm, her body language skittish. Of all of them, she was by far the worst at hiding her fear. Alice just nodded. Close up, she probably looked just as apprehensive as Lilly, but for her, Gemma had always thought, fear was like the sun; it powered her every move. You didn't dare try and try and look directly into it.

It would burn you up.

Had to be shit having that kind of energy fizzing about inside of you. Had to be exhausting. Gemma didn't, however, wait for Alice to voice this fear. She knew that it wouldn't happen. She didn't wait for a vocal seal of approval either. As soon as Alice's head bobbed down, Gemma was moving towards that entrance, Lilly's arm slithering around Gemma's, coming to a rest and clamping around Gemma's bicep.

"Where do I sit?" She asked as they walked through the front door, her nails clinching on to the blazer Gemma was wearing.

"Anywhere. But order something, or you'll draw attention to us." Gemma muttered out of the corner of her mouth before parting ways with Lilly, her and Alice heading towards a door on the far side of the restaurant. "Where are we going again?"

"Through this door." Alice murmured. "Then once we're down there..." With a glance over her shoulder, she pushed it open to reveal a long, stark corridor in front of them. It had the feel of an abandoned hospital, the kind the protagonist always seems to find themselves in at the beginning of zombie apocalypse films. "It's the second door on the left." Alice finished, striding past the first door and coming to a halt at the second, pulling down on the handle. "It's locked." She hissed, Gemma, already prepared for that scenario, pulling a hair grip out of her pocket and bending it out, before depositing it in Alice's palm.

"When did you get so canny?" Alice said, grinning before bending down, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear and peering into the lock.

"I learnt from the best." Gemma replied, watching Alice's eyes tauten in the corners, that inimitable gaze of concentration. "How did you actually learn to do this?"