Regicide
Sinister Spiders
THREE
"It's obvious, isn't it?"
Your face colours as you realize that you said it out loud. You hadn't meant to. You wanted to talk to her, but not like this- not whilst hiding in the bushes! You want to kick and curse but now they are looking at you. They are looking at you as though you are from another planet. With a pang of sadness you realize you probably do look that way. Your jeans are too small, your coat is too big, everything looks as though it was pulled out of a garbage bin after being run over by a lorry.
"What's obvious?" She asks, looking at you. Her pretty green eyes narrow and you are suddenly speechless. Tuney looks at you with disdain, her eyes simultaneously drinking in the sight of your shabby clothes while mocking you with their very gaze. You take a deep breath and focus on the Nice One.
"I know what you are."
Not even five minutes later the two girls turn and walk away from you and you plonk onto the leaf litter below with a loud oompf. A bullet of pain shoots up your spine at the impact but you don't care. It doesn't hurt as much as the knowledge that you well and truly messed things up!
You had been watching them – not spying- watching, for two whole weeks! Two weeks! And you even had the perfect situation planned out. You were going to approach the Nice One- Lily- when Tuney ran off to the bubbler, as she usually does several times during the hour they spend in the park. But you couldn't help it- you couldn't keep your daft mouth shut. Maybe Father was right after all. You are an idiot.
You feel an uncomfortable tightness in your throat and chest and you rub your eyes furiously. You will not cry.
But as the memory of the sound of Tuney's cold laughter trickles over you like winter rain you are not so sure you will be able to hold the hot tears back.