Stained

Chapter 92

sat on his lap."

A burning sensation pricks at my chest as I move my car in front of the window and lower my window enough to pay. "Thank you," I tell the kind man, then slowly raise the window in fear of what Hannah is going to say next.

It occurs to me too late I should keep it down since we're about to collect our food any minute now. Besides, the guy shut his window so it's not like he's going to hear what Hannah says anyway.

"Those girls offered him a threesome. The things they said they wanted to do to him—."

"I don't want to hear it!" I place my hands on my ears.

Hannah gives me a knowing smile.

Frustration gnaws at my mind as I fill the empty gap of the car that was ahead of mine. I grab the food and make her hold the drinks.

Hannah doesn't waste time, she fishes out her chips and dives in.

"Continue..." I reluctantly demand, feeling nausea stir in my belly. I need to hear this. It will help diminish these stupid feelings inside me. Has to.

"Oh yeah, so they offered to—."

"No! I said I don't want to hear it!" I whine. And then I let out out a groan in annoyance, but it's directed at myself.

I need to hear this! Goddammit!

Hannah laughs at my expense. My mouth falls open. She did it on purpose. I throw daggers at her with my eyes.

"He didn't even acknowledge them. Not even when—."I send her a scathing look. I don't care right now. I cant hear it. I'll dwell on this stupid, weak mistake later.

"He just kept his gaze pinned ahead, didn't look at them but didn't push them off either. The girls' begged for a good ten minutes. One even put her hand in—."

I smash my palm against the steering wheel, the blare of the horn is barely audible over the anger pounding in my temples. "Stop!"

"You have feelings for him," Hannah simply states.

I turn to her so hard I almost swerve the car off the road. "What? No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do. You're jealous."

I can't stop the edge in my voice or the defensive set of my posture. "I just don't want to hear about his conquests."

'You were also a conquest.'

"Except it wasn't a conquest. Nothing happened, they walked away."

Something eases inside my chest at that. From my peripheral, I can see her assessing eyes on me so I try not to visibly relax in the seat.

A couple of minutes later I'm parking my car outside Sarah's house. I tell Hannah to ring her and a couple of seconds later Sarah is running outside wearing only her pink pyjama shorts and a crop top that reveals... a belly piercing!

"You got your belly button pierced?!" I bellow.

Sarah's eyes widen and she searches her surroundings in a wild panic. "Calm the fuck down," she whisper shouts, shaking her head. "My mum doesn't know about it."

"I thought you hated piercings?" Hannah went to get her ears pierced once, and Sarah was squeezing my hand so hard during it that for a second I forgot it wasn't her but Hannah getting it.

After she shrieked that she wouldn't get a piercing if her life depended on it.

"Pinterest made me do it." She shrugs as if Pinterest is the cure to everyone's fear.

"Pinterest, really?" I chuckle.

"Pinterest made me dip dye my hair pink for two seconds," Hannah reminds me.

My brows rise on my forehead. "Didn't you do it because you had a mental breakdown?"

"Pinterest inspired my mental breakdown," she says simply.

I'll have to give Pinterest a try for myself then if it is as powerful as they are making it out to be. I mean it must be if it convinced Sarah to get a piercing and Hannah of all people to dip dye her hair pink. On her own too and not by a professional.

"Seee," Sarah widens her eyes in Hannah's direction.

"Okay," I chortle. "I believe you."

"What's that?" I gesture to the box emitting a beautiful aroma.

"Chocolate cake for you guys, my mum made apple cake too but that's for me and I'm not sharing it." She sticks her tongue out at Hannah.

I angrily snatch the box off her. "You cow. You should've told me to get her something too." Her mum always makes the best food when me and Hannah come over.

She rolls her eyes. "Calm down, she was off to bed so there was no point. She has an early shift in the morning."

"Oh."

"Yeah, oh," she taunts.

She begins bouncing from one foot to the other. "Okay, I've got to get inside it's freezing."

Indeed, every inch of exposed skin is covered in goosebumps.

We exchange food then I love yous', and as always, I wait for her to be safely behind closed doors before driving off.

Did I mention I am an extremely paranoid person?

Five minutes later, I'm pulling up outside my house. "Promise me one thing." I cut the ignition and fully turn in my seat to face Hannah.

I laugh when she nods her head yes with a mouth full of fries.

"Promise me you'll make him fight for you. You're worth so much more, and I'm so lucky to have you as my best friend, and he was so damn lucky to have you as his girlfriend. Hell, he's lucky he's getting this chance to prove himself. But you need to make him fight for you because he can't just go around breaking your heart because he thinks it's what's best for you. He needs to learn his lesson."

"A pmowise," she mumbles around a mouth full of chips.

• • •

I'm dancing around to Ariana grande whilst making my favourite; strawberries and Nutella for both me and Hannah when I get a text notification. I peer over at the screen past the Nutella jar. It's a video from my mum — who is currently upstairs watching tv in her room so Hannah and I could have the living room all to ourselves.

Once I finish drizzling the Nutella on top of the strawberries, I plop the Nutella covered spoon in my mouth and pick up my phone.

It's a video of my four-month-old baby cousin whose umbilical cord I snipped.

In the video, he giggles uncontrollably every time his older brother pretends to gasp. My heart melts at the sight. I laugh a little too. Babies find the weirdest things funny.

I text my mum three of the eyes full of tears emoji and run out of the kitchen and toward the living room where Hannah is sitting.

"I want to have a baby!" I barge into the living room, startling Hannah.