He ran his fingers through my hair and put his face close to mine. He spoke softly.
"Little Elektra". He seemed to be grinning, but perhaps it was just a smirk. The other guys snickered.
"Dres". I stared straight back into his green eyes. I knew what was coming next- I knew the ritual all too well.
"Tomorrow" Dreslin began with a totally patronizing tone to his voice. "I want you to pop over to the convenience store and get me some ciggies and a bottle of vodka. I'm craving both." We both knew that what he meant by "get" wasn't casually ambling into the shop and paying for the goods. Oh, no. The rest of the gang were still sniggering, but he stopped the patronizing tone all of a sudden. He looked into my eyes once more. "You got that, babes?"
I nodded. "Got it." Dreslin stepped back.
"Good." He looked at the rest of his gang who signalled that they should leave. "We'd better go, Elektra. Remember, tomorrow- same time, same place, you turn up with the goods, and everything will be better- for the both of us." He didn't embrace me; just turned and left the bridge with the rest of his gang following closely behind.
It was getting dark, and I knew I should be getting back. So I started to make my own way back to the Home. Well, it's not much of a home, but it's somewhere. We care kids call it the dumping ground. When I first arrived at the D.G. I wasn't expecting it to be up to much- I anticipated padlocks on the food cupboards, overcrowding, other nasty, rowdy teenagers and staff that kicked us around in the dirt, but it's not like that at all. Some of the kids are annoying- Gus is often pestering us with that blooming notebook, and Carmen acts like we're BFFL's. Dream on, sweet pea...
But the most annoying one is Liam. God I can't stand him. He's always playing tricks on me. Why me? It's always him that starts it. So I generally get revenge. One time he sneaked into my room and nicked my diary. I entered the games room to find him and Frank hunched over and laughing at the things I had written. But I got my own back. I knew all along that Frank was only an accomplice and felt it would only be worthwhile to prank Liam. So I told him I needed a chat with him in the toys cupboard. Liam seemed quite overwhelmed by the idea for some reason. Well, before he knew what was coming to him I'd pushed him into the tiny, cramped cupboard, shut the door and locked it. Bear in mind it was a hot, stifling summer at this time. To make it a little more interesting, I turned up the heating. Boy was he begging for mercy after 3 and half hours! Mike discovered what had happened, and as usual I got the blame.
Could do nothing but grin fondly at the recollection of that memory, as I walked swiftly back in the ever growing darkness of the evening. Liam and I certainly weren't the best of mates but we sure knew how to amuse ourselves.
When I arrived back that Tracy girl was at the door with her arms folded and a somewhat irritated expression on her face, as if she was saying "I told you not to stay out so long, you naughty girl!" I grimaced as I noticed a resemblance of my mother in Tracy's expression. Tracy broke my line of thought.
"Where were you? Gina's made me stay up for an entire hour just to wait for you to come back!"
"Sorry, Tracy- I guess I didn't realise how late it was. I, um... just thought I'd nip over to see how Cali was doing" I said guiltily, although I actually haven't seen her for months (But Tracy could be none the wiser as I have used Cali as an easy excuse on several occasions!). I glanced at the clock in the hallway. It was 12:30. No wonder she'd been worried.
"I'll let you off this time" Tracy said. "But don't expect to be let off this lightly again. Now, bed. Go." I obeyed. My entire body suddenly felt overcome by tiredness by the time I reached the top of the stairs.
"Why are you up so late?" It was Liam. He too, had his arms folded and was leaning against the wall, but instead had a rather amused expression on his face.
"None of your business" I muttered, turning away from him and slumping off to my room.
"Ooh, has Elektra done something naughty?" he mocked. I chose to ignore him. I was too tired to put up a fight anyway.
I was relieved when I entered my beautiful blue bedroom. It's quite a luxury that we get our own private place- rather hard to believe actually. I just fell onto my bed and looked up at the blue fairy lights I'd arranged across the ceiling and wall and I turned to look across to my blue matching desk and at the Blondie and My Chemical Romance posters I'd stuck up next to it. I'd really done my best to make it my own, and right now it was the safest place to be.
I fell asleep without another thought.