The Dumped Club

2- Back to Prison/Hell/School

The seafront was only fifty meters from my house so I had a pretty good chance of not being cursed by the time management gods. I was finally meeting Alice and Sav. I wasn't sure how I felt about it, on one hand I was excited, on the other I was strangely nervous. I waited for them at the benches, fiddling with my phone and checking people's comments on my latest poem. They were starting to get late. Five minutes passed. Ten minutes passed. I started writing Sav a text when my back straightened, the sense of someone creeping behind me increasing.

"What the-"

My phone was knocked out of my hands and my friends were grinning up at me.

"Surprise!" Alice shouted and they both hugged me.

"How are you feeling? Have you really lost five months' worth of memories?!" Savannah exclaimed. I nodded and we sat down on the benches. They filled me in about their holidays and I tried to not let my confusion show. I was either a really good actress or they were blind because Sav kept going on and on about Love Bonneville, Amethyst Gabbotts and Kaydence Simons, the year group's popular girls.

Perhaps you're imagining really mean and jealous girls but they weren't that terrible, or at least Love wasn't. She was supportive and a good leader but Amethyst and Kaydence didn't really understand the 'respectable and humble' vibe their friend had.

"Amethyst is so nice! I swear that people are just judging her because she's serious about school." Alice chimed in.

I restrained myself from snorting because perhaps Amethyst had changed. Maybe she was more serious about school.

It was like Alice and Savannah were talking to each rather than to me because I felt like an alien. They were talking about eye shadows and lipsticks when all they cared about a few months ago was getting to see movies right when they were released and obsessing over 'The Dream Catchers' with me. It was our favourite band and it was all we talked about; who our favourite singer was, favourite song, favourite music video. We even started writing a fandom bible at the end of Year 8 but we got too carried away with exams. People change, I knew that, so I couldn't be blaming anyone. We grabbed hot chocolate before they left to meet up with Kaydence and I went home.

I wanted to have a nap and watch some TV but Mum said I needed to tidy up our room. Amy was out with Jessica and Jessica's twin brother, Ryan, so she probably wasn't coming back until 5 or 6. Saying that our room was the average teenage boy's room was belittling it's honour of being the filthiest, dirtiest thing I'd had to clean in years. We had a fairly large room, considering that there were two of us. Mum had left it up to us to decorate it since she wasn't in the fancy decor. We decided to keep the beach theme, blue and white walls with a few underwater paintings but other than that, it was an explosion of fandoms. Amy's side of the room was plastered with posters of Chace Crawford, Harry Styles, Justin Beiber and other celebrities she worshipped. My side of the room was filled with posters of bands that I liked, two shelves of books and small table to work at. It was kind of a bummer that Amy had the desk but I knew that she was leaving for college in September.

I started gathering up her dirty clothes and underwear, sweet wrappers and crisp packets, scraps of paper that we no longer required and other rubbish. I put on music while clearing up, and shut myself out of all my problems. I was doing well shutting out my problems until I had started decluttering our wardrobe to find our memory boxes. We'd both had one since birth and had stored pretty much anything exciting in there.

I lifted the top off mine and tipped out the contents. There were a few embarrassing baby pictures which went from innocent, cute, chubby-cheeked Hope to something more graphic where Amy and I were having a bath and Mum washing my bum in the sink.