The Rumour

March 10th

“Oh my god, Violet, this would look so good on you,” Sydney rushed toward the racks, pushing the brightly coloured t-shirts out of the way of the one she shoved in my face, insisting I try it on.

We were in my favourite shop in the whole world, Grin, which was full of brightly coloured alternative clothing, gorgeous dresses, flamboyant skinny jeans, 10 inch heels and ridiculously revealing tank tops. Sydney liked to acquire most of her flamboyancy from this store, With me today was Sydney, Oliver, and Lindsay, Oliver tagging on to be with me, and me and the girls wanting to buy every piece of clothing in sight and spend hours in the changing booths trying clothes on and strutting our stuff down the aisles of the store.

Taking the t-shirt from Sydney’s waiting hand, I held it up in front of me, the gory designs appealing to me immediately. It was bright green, with pictures of various hearts and other internal organs splattered all over it in a range of fluorescent colours. Scrawled at the corner in black was “Iron Fist”

“You totally have to buy it, it’s Iron fist!” Sydney raved, staring at me and the t-shirt in anticipation, her brown eyes wide.

“Can we go to Alchemy yet?” Lindsay complained, leaning on one of the dummies with a ridiculous pink wig sitting on it’s shiny bald head. She didn’t like Grin all too much, she preferred her dark and dingy gothic shops with black velvet draped all over the walls and weird techno music blasting out the speakers. Grin was too bright and sparkly for her.

“No! You know you wanna see Violet in this tee. It’s totally cute.” Sydney smiled at me, her red coated lips glistening under the disco ball in the centre of the ceiling

“I wouldn’t say cute…” I began, eying up the kidney with a knife through it “But I like it,” I smiled, taking the t-shirt by the hanger and strolling toward the shoe racks.

“Go try it on babe,” Sydney grabbed my shoulders and lead me toward and into the leopard print covered changing booths. As I pulled off my yellow vest, I heard Sydney telling Oliver not to peek in and that he was a pervert. I giggled to myself, and internally blew Oliver a kiss. He was so adorable. I didn’t mind that he wanted to see my body.

I pulled the bright green cloth over my body, it fitting snugly around my waist and hips. I poked at my hip bones that stuck out, which I hated, and pulled the top off.

“Sydney, honey can you get me a bigger size?” I called, Sydney and Oliver’s banter coming to a halt. Stood waiting topless, I heard the squeaks of the rails outside the booth and she thrusted another top through the side of the curtain.

“Thank you,” I called, pulling it on. I checked myself out in the mirror, fluffing my floppy fringe a little. The t-shirt did look good on me, even if the fluorescent green did radiate onto my face and make my features appear green. I liked it. As I turned to see the back, I heard everything go quiet outside the booth.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” I heard Lindsay mutter. “I told you we should have gone to Alchemy,”

I stopped dead and listened. I could almost heard Sydney growling.

“Oh no, I hoped to come shopping in peace,” A screechy, familiar voice pierced the tense air. I knew exactly who it was. Madison. “Without seeing the sad sacks that are you lot,”

“So did we,” Sydney said. I could almost see her standing in front of Lindsay and Oliver, taking her Alpha-stance. “Without having to encounter super bitch and her worshipping sidekicks,”

“At least my friends don’t die on me,”

That, was when I had to pop my head out the curtain. Indeed, I saw Sydney and Super bitch in their Alpha stances, poised like panthers ready to strike. Behind Madison, were a selection of her royal band of followers consisting of Eva who was draped pathetically over Craig, Jasmine, and Frank.

“That was below the belt Madison,” I growled, seeing Sydney falter out of the corner of my eye.

“Aww look, Midget’s come to defend her pathetic charity cause,” Madison pouted, staring down at me. I emerged from the curtain, taking a place next to Sydney. I discreetly squeezed her hand, showing that what she said wasn’t at all valid.

“Who are you to call anyone pathetic?” I piped, gritting my teeth. “If you were on your own you would never start anything. You’re a total coward.”

“Like I said, at least I have friends that don’t commit suicide on me. At least they care how I’d feel if they ever did. It’s such a shame, really. Adam was really hot. If he was still alive he’d be mine by now,”

“Don’t you dare EVER talk about Adam like that!” Sydney shouted, beginning to stride toward her, but Lindsay and I grabbed an arm each and held her back. Madison just laughed, along with her followers.

“Pathetic, like I said,” She giggled, flipping her black and blonde locks behind her shoulder, whacking Frank in the face. He didn’t even say anything to her. They were all scared of her and I knew it. “But you know Adam wanted me, darling. You know it and that’s why you wanna lash out at me so much,”

“Oh don’t fucking flatter yourself Maddy, Adam hated you. I think we knew him better than you ever did,” Lindsay barked, clutching Sydney’s shoulder who looked livid. Madison was the only person that made her really angry. I took notice of Oliver behind me, who just seemed to be staring at Madison. My eyes flickered back to Madison, who was biting her lip and looking in our direction. Oliver was probably scowling, I realised. She thrived on evil glares.

“That’s what you think,” She softly purred, oddly absent-mindedly. I decided to end this now.

“Come on guys, we don’t need to listen to this anymore.” I reached into the changing booth threw off my new top and on my tank top, grabbed my messenger bag and walked away toward the pay point to pay for the tee. Madison and crew seemed to skunk off out the door, which I was glad of.

“Hey, Vi, I gotta go home. My mom wants me to cover a shift at the café,” Oliver suddenly said, slamming his phone shut and giving me a quick kiss and a wave goodbye as he jogged toward the door.

“Okay bye…” I tried to call after him, but he didn’t look back. His mother was always wanting him to work, her staff at the café she owned was always tight. I didn’t mind, Mrs. Sykes was a lovely woman and she deserved respect. She worked really hard. She deserved Oliver’s help.

“What was that?” Lindsay frowned toward the door after him.

“He had to go do a shift for his mom,” I said bluntly, handing over a $20 bill to the woman behind the counter.

“Fair enough,” Lindsay shrugged. “Now can we go to Alchemy?”

“Sure, I need to just…forget about that Maddy encounter.” Sydney muttered, pulling her big rainbow handbag up onto her shoulder and leading the way.

As we walked, Lindsay and I fell into step with her.

“Just ignore that slut Madison, she’s totally not worth it,” I soothed, placing an arm around her slender waist.

“How dare she call Adam hot. He was more than hot. He was a demi-god,” Sydney muttered. Lindsay and I concurred, nodding.

“He was amazing honey, and we both know that he hated her, so her opinion isn‘t valid,” Lindsay smiled, trying to cheer Sydney up.

“Yeah but, what did she mean when she said ‘That’s what you think?’” Sydney snapped, imitating Madison’s scratchy irritating voice, a voice like someone was constantly scratching their long fake nails down a blackboard.

“She was trying to wind you up baby, Seriously. You and Adam we’re inseparable, so nothing could have happened,” I smiled, as we walked into the black hole that was Alchemy.

“Inseperable until last month,” Sydney sighed. “Anyway, let’s forget about it now. We’re better than that,” Sydney smiled. “By the way, I told you that t-shirt looked good on you,”