LITMIR.BIZ

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as it is, you’ve made me a better man.’

      Chelsea snorted, raising an eyebrow. ‘Well, stop improving. I can’t imagine you being any more of an angel than you are now.’

      ‘Then let’s hurry up and get to that kingsize bed in the hotel on the Grand Canal so I can prove you wrong.’ His blue eyes gleamed and Chelsea grinned, kissing him.

      ‘Sorry bub, you’re always going to be a Prince Charming, no matter how much you want to play the bad boy. Some guys are just made that way.’

      She took his hand and they walked through the terminal, him taking her bag from her without a word.

      ‘See?’

      ‘You want me to stop doing all the stuff I do automatically, because it’s too nice?’ Kit laughed, head tilted as he waited for her answer.

      ‘No, what am I, fourteen? Bad boys have nothing on the nice guy.’ She kissed his cheek, wondering how on earth she had managed that perfect transition, from the angry girl with nothing to the one who had it all.

      ***

       ‘What happened?’ Ruby’s eyes had this way of glowering.

       ‘It’s nothing. I gave as good as I got.’ Chelsea stood, hand on hip as Ruby seemed to suddenly take up the doorframe. ‘You coming in or what?’

       ‘You’re letting the cold in! Shut the fucking door!’ her mum’s voice called from the living room over the sound of the TV blaring.

       Chelsea rolled her eyes, winced, and gestured for her friend to enter. She slammed the door loudly and pounded up the stairs, Ruby following her silently.

       ‘So?’

       Ruby closed the door behind her and leant on it, as if afraid that her friend would make a run for it. Instead, Chelsea sat in front of the mirror, gently daubing at the angry purple bruise forming around her eye, ugly and angry.

       She shrugged, eyes still on the bruise. ‘Tina Davies said something about my mum, so I started something.’

       ‘Naaah,’ Ruby made a buzzer noise, ‘try again.’

       ‘Tina Davies was trying to get Johnny so I decked her.’

       Ruby rolled her eyes. ‘Chels, come on. You’re not even trying to sound convincing.’

       Chelsea looked past her in the mirror. ‘One of mum’s fellas was drinking in the kitchen when I came down for water at 3am. Apparently Mum hadn’t worn him out.’

       Ruby shot across the room to her, reaching for her shoulder.

       ‘Don’t crowd me, and don’t feel sorry for me.’ Chelsea’s lips were a thin line, and she refused to make eye contact, simply looking at her own reflection, the tightly pulled back blonde hair making the purple of her skin look even more painful. She loosened the ponytail and fluffed the hair around her face, covering her cheekbone on one side.

       ‘This is concern, bitch.’ Ruby’s voice was stone. ‘That’s what’s happening here. Look at me.’

       Chelsea could feel the fight in her friend, and she couldn’t decide whether to stay mad and aloof, or crumple and let herself be comforted. She set her jaw as she turned around.

       ‘Don’t you dare feel sorry for me.’

       ‘I don’t,’ Ruby said, ‘doesn’t mean I can’t be angry for you.’ Ruby’s eyes seemed to be hollowing her out, trying to hypnotise her. ‘Did he –’

       ‘No,’ Chelsea shook her head, ‘I stopped him.’

       ‘Hit him over the head with a bottle or something?’

       ‘Didn’t need to.’ Chelsea laughed hollowly. ‘The bastard tried to stick his tongue down my throat so I bit down. Hard.’ She started to giggle, a little manic, eyes blinking rapidly. ‘I bit off the fucking tip of his tongue! He ran out of there screaming!’

       Ruby watched as Chelsea collapsed into giggles, holding her stomach, wheezing as she tried to breathe. Somehow the shaky gasps became sobs, tears rushing down her cheeks and Ruby collapsed onto the floor next to her.

       ‘You know what the worst part was?’ Chelsea hiccuped, not thinking about where his hands had been or how dark his eyes were, breathing deeply and slowly until she felt calmer.

       ‘Almost swallowing a bit of someone’s tongue?’ Ruby made a silly face and Chelsea snorted.

       ‘No. It was my mum. Once I told her what happened she said, “You can never stop competing can you? You want to take everything I have”.’

       Ruby’s eyes darkened and her fingernails dug into Chelsea’s arm. ‘Bitch.’

       Chelsea shrugged. ‘That’s Carly.’

       ‘What’s Ty say?’

       ‘He doesn’t know what’s going on, I just said I got drunk and walked into something,’ Chelsea shrugged. ‘The old bag next door heard me scream though, keeps looking at me in horror and giving me all her fags. It’d be sad if it weren’t so funny.’

       ‘I think that’s the other way round, babe.’

       ‘Nope.’ Chelsea’s mouth set, lips pressed together. ‘I get to decide. And I have decided that this is one more horrific fucking adventure on Chelsea’s road to awesomeness.’

       ‘You get to decide,’ Ruby nodded, loosening her grip, ‘but someone has to make sure there’s justice.’

       ‘I’m not going to the police, Ruby.’

       Ruby raised an eyebrow and looked unimpressed. ‘You know me, right? And I know a very important man named Jez.’

       ‘Jez who runs the estate? Who keeps the gangs sorted? I don’t even want to know why you know that guy.’

       Ruby grinned. ‘He’s a sweetie really. All the oldies are. London gangsters, old school. They break the legs of bad men, but they look after their women.’

       ‘I’m not their woman. I’m no one’s fucking woman.’ Chelsea felt the rage building up, her hands shaking from anger or shock, she wasn’t sure.

       They sat in silence, Ruby waiting for an answer, waiting for permission she was sure Chelsea was too proud to give.

       Suddenly Carly’s shriek of laughter cut through the house, matching the noise from the television. Chelsea’s eyes hardened.

       ‘Give me his name, Chelsea. That’s all you’ve got to do.’ Ruby’s eyes held hers, wincing a little at the sound of that screeching laughter, like salt in the wound.

       Chelsea gave her the name.

      ***

      The flight was easyJet, and there was something immensely comforting about that. Kit apologised, said it was the only thing he could get last minute. She stuck out her tongue and called him a snob. In retaliation he ordered a bottle of Heisdeck, which Chelsea assumed must have been one of the few times anyone did that. Why pay half the price of your flight for a bottle of Champagne to drink it from plastic cups? And who’s the snob now, she laughed to herself, and thought about what Evie and Mollie would say when she told them about this trip. They were already convinced Kit was a Disney prince, and so far he was only adding fuel to

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