Rock Paper Killers by Alexia Mason

Author:Alexia Mason
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2022-02-17T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Back at the hotel, Kelly was propped up on her bed, wiping off her make-up with cotton wool pads.

‘I know the whole thing looks bad,’ she said, ‘but I did not do that on purpose. I swear to God. Like, that would be so dangerous. She could have whacked her head on something and died.’

‘You’re really lucky she’s all right,’ said LB. ‘She used to do gymnastics and stuff – that’s probably why she knew how to land.’

‘Oh, you know everything about her now,’ said Kelly. She got up and went into the bathroom. ‘You were talking to her for ages,’ she called out.

‘Not ages,’ said LB. She could hear the pedal bin opening, the tap running.

‘Tadhg was so cute,’ said LB, quickly changing the subject. ‘Do you think he’s gay? Did you see Rupert?’

Kelly walked out of the bathroom, zoned out, focused on getting into bed. She paused. ‘Can you imagine, though? You’re dancing like crazy and suddenly you’re standing there with your arms wrapped around someone you absolutely hate and you’re both like, “What the—?” ’

‘I know,’ said LB.

‘So it was like she just… slipped through my hands,’ said Kelly. ‘Not in a slippery way, just…’

‘You were drunk, and your co-ordination was off,’ said LB.

Kelly glared at her. ‘As if you’ve never been drunk.’

‘I know,’ said LB. ‘But…’ She didn’t finish the sentence, leaving ‘but never that drunk’ unsaid. Because maybe she would get as drunk as Kelly if she wasn’t always so conscious of someone taking a photo and posting it somewhere. When she’d been on holiday in Italy two years earlier, on a beach in the middle of nowhere, she was papped, and didn’t even know until the photo was up online and there were all these horrific comments about literally every part of her face and body, and she read the first few, and tried to never let her thoughts go there again. She was really good at that. Hearing something horrible then Slam, the gate goes down. And if she did it quick enough, she’d never remember. But she hadn’t been quick enough that time, and she’d cried and cried and she didn’t know how she would have coped if it hadn’t been for Kelly, doing all her Kelly things – making her laugh, bringing her random silly toys, junk food, teddy bears, telling everyone at school she was totally fine with the photos and had laughed it all off. Even though Kelly knew that she hadn’t, that she’d gone to her mom’s nutritionist and worked out every day for a year straight, until her parents had had a talk with her. Now, she just ran every day, and did whatever other exercise she felt like whenever she felt like it. She was still waiting to love her body, but all the compliments Kelly gave her really made a difference.

LB turned to Kelly and smiled. ‘Look, everyone’s fine.’ She pulled back the covers and got into bed. ‘And Réiltín knows it was an accident.

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