The Three-Month Rule

Chapter 29 - Red

A few days later...

Lucy opened the front door and knocked as she entered the hall of Allegra's apartment.

"Allie?" she called, shutting the door behind her.

She walked through into the living room to see Allegra and Naomi sitting on the floor in front of the sofa. Allegra had a blanket loosely wrapped around her shoulders with Naomi's arm around her.

"Oh, hello, Naomi," Lucy said, not expecting to see her best friend's sister there. "I brought you some flowers and chocolates, Allie." She offered them to Allegra who didn't look up. Instead, Naomi looked at her.

"Put them in the kitchen. Thanks, Lucy," Naomi said, a concerned look in her blue eyes.

Lucy put them on the side in the kitchen and joined them in the living room again, sitting on the sofa beside Allegra, who remained on the floor next to her sibling.

"Has she heard?" Lucy whispered to Naomi, who gently shook her head.

Suddenly, Naomi's phone lit up, alerting her to a tweet.

She unlocked her phone and eagerly scrolled through her twitter.

"Ooh!" she said happily. "Kylie Jenner is releasing more new lipsticks!"

Ignoring her with a delicate roll of her eyes, Lucy slid down to sit next to Allegra on the carpet.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

Before Allegra could respond, Naomi interrupted them, a frown focused on her phone screen.

"Allie, sorry to ask, but..." she paused, her eyes still glued to her phone. "Where are those red letters you got?"

"Under my bed," Allegra replied dryly.

She ran through the open living room door and into Allegra's bedroom, her phone in hand. She shuffled boxes around under the bed until she found the letters.

"I knew it!" they heard her yell.

"What?" they asked at the same time.

Naomi came storming through again, letters in one hand, phone in the other.

"Look," she said, shoving both items under their noses. A picture of Taylor Swift from her tour dates in Scotland had been released, a bright shade of red painted perfectly on her nails. "Same shade." Naomi pointed to Taylor's nails and to the colour of the words on the letters, that had been written, oddly, in nail varnish.

"Oh my God," Allegra gasped.

"Right? Red nail varnish is popular," Lucy shrugged, rolling her eyes impatiently.

"It's not just red. It's the same shade," Naomi told her sourly.

"It's a photo," Lucy shrugged. "It's been edited a hundred times."

"I knew I had a hunch," Naomi grinned, ignoring Lucy's comments.

"Oh, come on Naomi. Don't be ridiculous!" Lucy laughed.

Naomi grabbed some coats, passing Allegra's coat to her.

"Come on, Allie. We're going to see Saoirse," she told her younger sister.

"Where are you going?" Lucy interrupted, following Naomi as she grabbed her things.

"Police station," Naomi replied as she pulled her long dark ponytail out of the back of her coat. "Saoirse is a policewoman."

"And you're going to give them the letters and show them a generic picture of Taylor Swift?" Lucy asked, laughing again.

"You said it yourself," Naomi began, turning to her abruptly. "The photo is edited a hundred times. They can analyse the photo and tell us if the nail varnish is the same shade."

"This is ridiculous," Lucy said as she watched Naomi grab her car keys and pull Allegra to the front door.

"She's involved in some way," she was saying. She stopped and turned to Lucy one last time. "Are you coming or not?"

Lucy scoffed again, looking at her feet.

"I think you're being overdramatic and Allie doesn't need that right now," she said.

"Right, ok," Naomi said with a smile. "We'll see you later. Thanks for the flowers and the chocolate. Come on, Allie," she said as she shut the front door behind them.