My Favourite Part

36(b): mean girls

"Darling," Kitty clasps me by the shoulders in a way that's become familiar, as she presses her cheek to mine with a ginger air-kiss. My back's to the bar, and with the three of them stood lined up before me, it feels like being initiated at the popular kids' table for lunch, except with a few more complicated details. "Oh, you look positively adorable."

When she smiles, her layered hair falls against her defined cheekbones, and there isn't a singular crease in her visage, but to my mind her glamour's muted, and all I can see is her opaque eyes. She has Faith's eyes. Or Faith had hers, I guess.

"Nelly, don't you think so? Don't you think Evangeline looks adorable?" When she's asked, Nelly's smiles a tight-lipped grimace, and, looking pained, turns her attention away from me in an instant, like she can't look away fast enough. I don't blame her, though. It's my fault all her memories of her sister are dredged up on a night that she should be enjoying. I wouldn't want to look at me either.

"I think you look precious, Jelly," Louisa says. She's been burning a hole in the side of my head since I came over, and I can't tell what she has planned. Eric says that I can trust her, that we can trust her, but tonight, under low lounge lights without him by my side, I don't feel so sure. Her upturned eyes are thickly lined, and I find myself hoping that it's just shadows turning her irises black.

"How've you found the night, darling?" Kitty shakes her full curtain bangs, and that's her third 'darling' of the evening.

"It's been go-"

"God, I'm sure it's been awful, hasn't it?" Kitty cuts me off with a pout. "A load of people you don't know talking about things you've got no clue or care about; I imagine you've been so awfully bored."

I laugh, out of politeness and nothing else,

"No, it's been alright! The food's been wonderful - and Eric's introduced me to a few lovely people."

"You've enjoyed the sushi! Oh, I'm so glad. It's a bit of an acquired taste, but," she leans into me to whisper, and I'd take a step back if I had enough space for one, "I'm sure you'll have an opportunity to try it again at some point."

"Oh, this isn't actually my first time – I have it pretty often at home."

"Oh yes, I'm sure, darling! I only meant real sushi. You know, the first-rate kind."

I blink a few times, and I'm sure I've misheard her, but before I've even fully understood what she's hinting, Kitty's flipped hair over her shoulder,

"I'm sure Aubs would take you for some if he wasn't so busy." Kitty and Lolly's heads are turned to watch Eric, horsing about with suited men, and as I go to answer, Nelly jerks her neck slightly. The movement's too minute, and the lights too dark for me to make it out, but it looks like a terse shake of her head. In this dimness it could just as easily have been nothing. 

"It's alright," I shrug, "he said things would be busy out here. I'm sure we can find sushi somewhere back home."

Once 'home' leaves my lips, Kitty's gaze whips around, and trains on me with owl-like severity. I watch her with still breath as her skin tightens over a clenched jaw, and my pulse quickens almost instantly. Fuck, did I say home?

"Home being...?" She asks, her neck rigid.

"Um, i-in London?" I don't know what the right answer is, but her glare compels it. Her hard eyes soften, and she holds a close-lipped smile before she speaks.

"London... Yes, I suppose you could. Wasn't Auby's last girlfriend from London?"

I tense. Kitty's opaque owl eyes finally release me, turning aside to Louisa, and as much as I want to go somewhere where I can see clearly, where I can breathe freely, the line of ladies barricades me in with my back to the bar, and I get the impression that I'm supposed to be here – supposed to shut up and listen.