She looks around the flat with a face that would have fit had she walked into a sewer. Tentatively, she takes a seat at the kitchen table.
‘Seriously. You need to move.’
‘It’s fine here.’
‘No, it’s a shit hole.’ She holds up a paper bag before dumping it on the table. ‘Mum sent me with fairy cakes.’
‘She could have just brought them on Thursday like she usually does.’
‘I was passing anyway.’ Ellie’s nose scrunches as she eyes the bare walls studded with cracked plaster. ‘So… are you offering me a drink?’
‘I’ve got tea or beer.’
‘No coffee?’
‘Nah, machine’s on the blink.’
‘It smells like coffee in here,’ Ellie raises her brows.
‘Yeah, it worked earlier.’
‘I can have a look for you…’ The seat scrapes as Ellie slides it back.
‘Ellie, just take a tea,’ I groan. She pauses before pulling her seat back in. Letting it go. Thank god. I can’t serve her panty-tainted beverages.
‘You’d better share your fairy cakes at least.’
I nudge the bag to her while I make the tea, and shetears it open, revealing six perfectly baked cakes. The tops were sliced off and split before being fixed back into the icing. One of my favourites, despite them looking ever so dainty.
‘So, how are you? Mum said you looked like you got in a fight when she saw you last.’
‘I’m fine.’
‘You always say that.’
‘Mmm.’
The look she gives me makes me feel more like a true sibling than anything else ever has. Withering, and like she doesn’t believe an ounce of what I say, and not a bit of politeness about it.
‘How’s uni?’ I’m burning to ask about Kat. But she doesn’t know that I know she exists.
‘Good. Looking forward to graduating and getting a job. I’m so over being a student now.’ I pass her the tea, and she wraps her hands around the mug. ‘My roommate’s been a bit weird though.’
It takes everything not to press her about Kat immediately.
‘Weird how?’
‘Super jumpy lately.’ Ellie frowns. ‘She thought someone broke into the flat a few nights ago just to leave a rock in her bed. Isn’t that wild? I suppose you can’t really blame her, with the car and all.’
‘What happened?’ I dig my nails into my palm and remind myself to breathe.
‘Someone vandalised her car. In the university car park.’ She shakes her head. ‘They slashed two tyres and scratched words into the door.’
My pulse feels like it’s going to burst out of my skull.
‘What words?’
‘You’re next. How creepy is that?’
