Trust No Bitch: Part 3

Gemma Akintola

"Akintola! Fancy seeing you around these parts."

"Oh, shut up."

Gemma and Josh's first exchange since the whole doping debacle 4 days earlier was not so different from any other one. His sardonic comment was, as always, accompanied by a wide grin, her eyes rolling in response, stony expression lapsing swiftly into a reciprocal smile. Hopping up from the pavement into his car, Gemma frowned and turned round to inspect the new leather seats in the back.

"How did you find me?" She asked, attention back on her phone to dial Lilly's number for what had to be at least the 15th time. After leaving the school, in searching the streets for Lilly, she'd only managed to get lost, dazed by the endless rows of red brick two-up, two-downs. Knowing that Josh was supposed to come and pick her up after the fashion show had finished anyway, the idea being that he would take Gemma back to his family home for lunch, she had resorted to giving him a call, telling him the street name and hoping for the best. It was to her utter delight that he showed up to collect her only 20 minutes later, for in that short time she had began to find something quite inadvertently maddening about suburbia. It was the way almost everything looked the same, she supposed, the twists and turns every few houses in the form of a random cul-de-sac or avenue giving it the feel of a sort of spartan labyrinth. "I was so lost out here."

"My new ride's got a sat-nav." Josh replied, with a smug smile. Once satisfied Gemma had done her seatbelt up, he then began showing off, performing a markedly involute and frankly quite unnecessary 3 point turn, before speeding off down the street. "Come on, Gem. Having a BMW is like a prerequisite of being a classy fucker."

"New ride? BMW? Prerequisite? Classy fucker?" Gemma repeated, eyebrows raised. "Somebody needs to get pulled down several posts. Call your car your-" She added in some air quotes, "-ride again and I will personally crucify you." Then, she paused, the houses on the roads outside blurring into thick, orange lines beside them. "How did you afford it?"

"Ah, just some work here and there." Josh replied flippantly.

"Dealing?" Gemma suggested, watching his reaction carefully out the corner of her eye.

"What? No!" Josh scoffed. "I don't do that shit, Gem. Stoop that low and a man gets dirty, right? I'm not about that life." He shrugged, eyes narrowed as he pulled onto a busier-looking high street. "I bet I'd be pretty good at it, though. Luca Stone...That bloke's got the charisma of a floppy knob and he still makes a killing selling stuff, apparently. Tried to sell me drugs once. He was like a used car salesman, telling me all the advantages and disadvantages. Like, I know what bloody steroids do, mate! Yeah...if that pillock can make decent money doing it, I'd be balling." Upon seeing Gemma's steely countenance, however, Josh's enthusiasm was swiftly wiped away. "Of course, I'd never actually do it though, babe." He added sheepishly, Gemma receiving his comment with a satisfied smile. "What happened, anyway?" He asked. "What were you doing wandering around outside the school?"

"Lilly....something just happened during the show and I thought she was going to have some kind of a break down, so I went out to look for her. I couldn't find her anywhere but..." Gemma heard her voice speeding up and sat back in her seat, breathing deeply before finishing her sentence. "I'm sure she's okay. Probably with one of the others, or Luca or something."

"Don't get me started on Luca again." Josh replied. "What was it that I said he was? A limp dick? Or was it a saggy-"

"A floppy knob." Gemma interrupted, trying Lilly again and sighing loudly in frustration as it went to voicemail. "Why is she not answering for Christ's sake?"

"Chill, Gem." Josh said, glancing sideways at her disgruntled face and reaching across the gearstick to turn the radio on, where he began to campily sing along to Drake. In spite of her vexation, Gemma laughed aloud and rested her head on his shoulder.