She's a Bitch

3: I'm Just Here to Hold Bandages, Like Usual

As I ride along the dark street, I begin to feel as though in being watched. Which isn't a pleasant feeling. I start moving faster, while still being careful not to fall.
"Eddie." The familiar voice says, scaring me so much I wobble and hit the curb, causing me to hit the ground with a thud, skidding a bit, which is definitely going to cause some gravel burns.
"Jesus Christ, Emily!" I yell from my position on the ground, I roll onto my back to see her standing over me, her hand extended to help me up. I hit it away and slowly get up, feeling all spots that will turn into dark bruises in the next few hours. Where the hell did she come from? I shake my head and begin checking over my body for anything broken. I feel her stare on me as I asses my 'wounds', I sigh seeing my knees covered in grazes, blood starting to slowly run down my shins. "What do you want?" I say, spitting after tasting blood in my mouth. She no longer wears the blue dress from earlier and instead wears her usual training attire.
"I see that you've moved on quick. The both of you." She says gesturing to the street I just came from. I glare at her.
"Does that bother you? Maybe you should have thought about that before you did your, whatever you did." I hesitate, choosing to skip over the word, it seems stupid to actually say it out loud. I walk over to pick up my board from the road a few metres up, leaving her standing alone, I keep going on my way, hoping that she'll leave, but I have no luck.
"I really thought that you guys had figured it out." She says after catching up to me,
"I'm sure we did. But I'm not going to humour you by saying it." I tell her, wiping my lip clean of blood. I don't need to look at her to know she's wearing her signature smirk, I can practically hear it from beside me.
"Look, I'll offer you a deal. You say what I am, and I won't put another charm on you. How does that sound?" I roll my eyes, before stopping to look at her,
"How about you shove it where the sun don't shine, bitch?" I tell her, I turn and continue walking, limping, down the street. Emily once again follows me, I roll my eyes once again,
"No thanks, Eddie."
"Can't you just piss off? Leave me alone, it's not that hard. You managed it for a few years." I say, pushing myself to walk a bit faster to get away,
"Look, it was easy to leave you alone when you loved me, but now you don't and I can't." She says seemingly distressed. I clench my jaw.
"Your logic is so fucking flawed, Emily." I try to not be angry, but I can't help but to be hurt, there was a time in my life when I loved her innocently, and she loved me back in the same way, it was just when my love changed she had to use it as a way to manipulate me and hurt me before leaving me by myself. "Just go home and I'll convince Laura to call off her witch hunt."
"Hmm, does that count?" She teases with a smile, I stop walking,
"Just go!" I snap, pointing back in the direction we came, she looks up, her face clearly conveying her shock from my outburst, quickly the shock morphs into something dark.
"Fine, but you can definitely count on the fact that you'll see me around, a lot more than usual." And with that she turns, her lips pursed, and walks away, towards her house that is much closer to Rachel's than my own.
I sigh and finish the short walk back to my home, I choose to bypass the interrogation from my mother and go straight to the back gate, I painfully jump over it and walk into the room where my friends are passed out on the couches despite me being gone for about half an hour. I close the door and take off my shoes. I drop my board to the ground with a loud bang, causing Abi to wake up, the other two hardly disturbed.
"Ed? Shit dude, what happened? Oh, this is why Pete didn't want you out there." She says as she scrambles to her feet, still disoriented from her nap.
"Just fell off my board, no one touched me." I say, forcing my smile a bit. Something in my head says not to tell her about my confrontation with Emily, maybe the small bit of empathy I have for the girl. My friends hate her just as much, if not more than her friends hate me, and something tells me that the peace that had recently settled between the two groups could be shattered, sooner rather than later.
"Lets go inside to the bathroom. You've still got your first aid kit in your room, right?" I nod and let her lead me inside to my own bathroom. "You do your thing, I'm just here to hold bandages, like usual." She says with a sad smile, her mind obviously going back to the several times over the years where Emily's friends, or as Abi like to call them, gang of bitches, had managed to get to me after school or in between classes when I wasn't with anyone. I look in the mirror and see the gravel rash on my chin, something that I absolutely hate looking at, knowing that it's bound to get me suspended from work until it heals.
"Anything broken?" Abi says, I make eye contact with her in the mirror, her eyes filled with worry. I shake my head and watch relief pass her face.
I take my time cleaning myself up, slowly wiping up blood and patching up my forearms and knees with some gauze as accurately as I can. I help Abi pack up in silence, noticing her spare worried glances every now and then.
"Thanks, Abi." I tell her, as we exit the bathroom, she smiles,
"No worries, hoe, what am I here for?" She says heading to my room at the end of the hall,
"A good time." I say, getting her attention. She smiles. "And not a bad view either." I finish with a wink, she laughs and flips me off before disappearing and reappearing from my room, the first aid kit stashed back in its usual place under my bed.
"Let's get some frozen peas for that shoulder of yours, charmer." She says purposely smacking me on the sore one, softly, but still enough for her to have a laugh when I groan.
"Funny." I say to her, stopping at Bea's open door. "Yo, Bea. Where's Ma?" I ask, she looks up from her book and shrugs,
"She went out." I roll my eyes and continue to the kitchen, I open the freezer and throw Abi a bag of corn, she catches it and holds it while I get a glass of water. I lean against the counter and look at my best friend.
"Rachel kissed me." I say, taking a sip,
"What?!" She yells, her eyes nearly popping out of her head,
"It was just on the cheek. But still. Plus she told mum that she likes me, so that means I have a chance, right?" I say, she stares at me for a second, a stupid grin on her face.
"My gay baby Edwina has a crush, and it's not on a bitch. Oh, I'm so proud." She says crossing the kitchen floor to throw her hands around me, she starts sobbing loudly and obnoxiously into my shoulder.
"Yeah, whatever. Get off me loser." I say, tipping what's left of my water on the top of her head. She jumps back with a small squeal,
"You bitch." She wipes her sleeves across her face, moping up the water, smudging her eyebrows in the process. I smile at her and she smiles genuinely back. "You're lucky I love you." She says walking away, probably to my room to clean her self up. I wipe up the kitchen floor. I throw out the paper towels just as Abi comes back, her face clean of make up, wearing a pair of my pyjama pants and one of Pete's old shirts I'd stolen a while ago.
"So you're staying the night then?" I say,
"Duh." She says nodding, I pick up the bag of frozen corn from the bench and follow Abi back outside to the shed.
"Get up, Ladies, time to make some beds." I yell, both Pete and Laura groan into the cushions under their heads.
"Ah, a match made in heaven." Abi says, walking into the room to pull on Laura's sleeve.
After a long twenty minutes of struggle, both couches have been folded out into beds, and blankets and pillows have been provided for each one. Abi quickly places her hand on her nose, shot gunning the single one.
"That's fine. The more the merrier." Laura says, diving onto the bigger one.
"You're staying too?" I ask, pulling off my pants, Pete looks up from selecting a movie to put on,
"You say that now, but just wait until you have to share with Eddie. She's so clingy, and never lets me be the little spoon." He says grumpily,
"Good thing I fuckin' love being the big spoon then." She says smiling at me, "Just no funny business little one." She finishes,
"You aren't my type." I tell her, climbing into the middle of the bed,
"I have never been more offended in my life." She says pulling me onto her and I laugh.
"Fuck this, Pete, you get the single for being a grumpy boy, Eddie is really good at spooning." Abi says ditching her made up bed and launching herself onto Laura and I, I groan loudly and they both laugh at my pain, once she finally climbs off me, I join them.
"What?" Pete exclaims looking hurt, "How come you get to be the little spoon with her, Abi?" He finishes, standing to watch us three get situated under the covers.
"Because she's only 5'3. It's easy spooning her. Unlike you, fat bitch." I say, Abi laughs as she makes herself comfortable in my arms. Pete glares at me, smiling at the same time.
"This must be something from one of your wet dreams mini dyke, in bed surrounded by hot bitches." Laura says, snuggling into my back more, I laugh at her comment but don't reply. It's still kind of weird having people so accepting of me, not even just by words, the fact that both of them are sharing a bed with me is something that I would have only hoped happening with my old friends, but there was not enough trust and too much disgust on their behalf after me coming out, which they managed to prove when they beat me for admitting that I had a crush on Emily. Pete gives up on the movie and climbs into the single bed still sore from being replaced.
"Now I'm cold without a cuddle buddy." He says after about 10 minutes of him tossing and turning.
"Let Winston in, he's pretty into cuddling." Abi chuckles at my comment.
"You know what? I will." He says,
"Hurry up and do it, just shut up will you." Laura says into my shoulder, "Let me get my beauty sleep."
"Yeah, because you need it." Pete mumbles, throwing his covers off and opening the door. I look over my shoulder to see Winston sitting on the step waiting to be loved.
"Hi Sunshine." I say, he stands up and comes in, his big tail wagging and hitting the wall. "Hi, my beautiful, come here." I say, Winston jumps up onto our bed, spinning a few times on the spot before dropping down, huffing loudly once his big head is on my legs. He stares up at me with is tongue hanging out, I pull my hand out of the covers and scratch his head as much as I can reach.
"I'm feeling so abandoned right now." Pete sniffs, climbing into the bed on his own.
"You'll get over it." I say, lying back down in between the two girls.
As cliche as I know this sounds, my brain can't help but to think that today could definitely be right up there in best days ever. Having people there for me is always amazing, and Pete and Abi have been here for a few years, but now I have Laura to count on too, as well as the something that could be with Rachel. I smile and sigh,
"Thanks guys." I say, Abi taps my leg, and Pete grunts in acknowledgement.
"Yeah, no worries, baby dyke. Just shut the fuck up, yeah?" Laura says. I laugh and nod, relaxing into the warmth of the bed, my mind drifting off into thought.