Cassie felt a cold hand clutch her stomach. A conversation like this promised to be all shades of shite.
Break time arrived, and in an attempt to delay the dreaded confrontation, she checked her phone, only to see four missed calls from Ramona. What the hell? Ramona never called her. Alarmed, she hit call and waited – she was ready to ring off, when a voice answered, ‘Well, hey, do you never check your phone?’
Cassie could tell she was attempting her usual sass, but her voice sounded muffled and downbeat.
‘Where are you?’
‘Mater A&E, thanks for asking.’
‘What? Oh my God, I’m so sorry, Ramona, I didn’t even know you weren’t home. I feel terrible.’
‘Then that’d be two of us, so chill. Point is, they won’t let me out alone, so either you come to collect me or I sit here like part of the furniture.’
‘What happened?’
‘Long story – so, can you come?’
It was funny that out of all of Ramona’s legion of followers, there didn’t seem to be anyone else she could call in an emergency. Cassie could see Marisha eyeing her across the desk, tapping her manicured nail impatiently. Well, feck her.
‘Yeah, course I can. See you in half an hour.’
Filled with a burst of righteous courage which trumped any intimidation, Cassie marched up to Marisha and announced she had a family emergency and wouldn’t be back until lunchtime. Marisha didn’t look one bit pleased – she’d likely been rehearsing the roast she was about to deliver – but Cassie realised she didn’t give a shite. Let her stew.
‘I’ll be back as soon as I can,’ she said, without waiting for a reply.
* * *
Ramona had a black eye and some pretty angry-looking bruising down one side of her face.
‘Hey, kid, thanks for showing up.’
‘I’m sorry, Ramona, I didn’t even realise you were missing. Are you OK?’
‘I’m fine. Can’t you tell?’
She looked exactly the opposite to fine.
Cassie helped her down to the car and, once inside, she took a breath. ‘What the hell happened? Was it that Tinder date? Were they a psycho?’
‘Naaa, it wasn’t them. They were OK but the guys gave it a thumbs down, so they had to go.’ Cassie nodded, trying to appear neutral.
‘But then I got talking to these two guys in the bar.’
Seriously, Ramona, most people would’ve called it a night at that point, Cassie reflected.
‘They were on holiday .?.?. They seemed fun .?.?. I think. So, we were doing shots, having a laugh .?.?.’
Cassie was starting to feel like her mother, but forced herself to keep her trap shut.
‘What went wrong?’
‘I was stupid, I know .?.?. I went back with them to their Airbnb .?.?.’ She seemed to be trying to reconstruct the scene in her brain. ‘It all seemed pretty chill .?.?.’
‘Chill?’ Shut up, she warned herself. The last thing Ramona needed right now was to be reminded that the whole situation hadn’t been the world’s greatest idea.
‘We were goofing around and having fun .?.?. then I don’t know, the atmosphere changed somehow. One of the guys was kind of sitting behind me, and I thought he was OK .?.?. but the other guy started to creep me out and then I spotted the two of them exchanging glances .?.?. I’d had a few drinks, but I’m not stupid. I shot to my feet and made for the door. The creepy guy grabbed me by the arm, but I shook him off, pushed him as hard as I could and just ran .?.?.’ It seemed like she was struggling to reconstruct the events. ‘And I made it out into the hall, but I must’ve whacked my head on the way, even though I don’t remember feeling any pain. Hurts like hell now, though. Anyhow, I got out onto the street and .?.?. it was busy, they didn’t try to follow me.’
Cassie realised she had both hands covering her cheeks in horror.
