Gemini Falling Read Free Page A

pathetic. You seriously need to be taught a lesson. You’re not getting rid of us that easily.’
    There is actual hatred in her eyes, out of nowhere. I can’t believe this situation has gone so wrong so quickly, based on nothing. It only makes me angrier – I can up my game, too.
    ‘Look, Elyse. I gave you a chance. You should watch it, or you’ll be sorry. I don’t think you understand how it works around here…’
    ‘Are you actually trying to scare me with your sad little mean-girl tactics? That ship has sailed,
babe
. You’re not the queen bee you think you are. Even your so-called best friends hate you. It didn’t take a lot to find out all the gossip.’ She puts on a high, bitchy voice. ‘
Oh, Lexy, you’re the pretty one; everyone likes you the most, you really shouldn’t let Amie talk to you like that…
It didn’t take a lot to get your pathetic gang of mates on my side. Some of what I heard was pretty interesting, actually…’
    ‘Oh, for f– Whatever, Elyse. I couldn’t give a shit about your stupid star signs and this kind of immature crap. I just want you to get out of my house and take your weird sister with you.’
    I grab her drink from her hand and bang it down on the coffee table. OK, I do kind of push her in the process, but I’m not trying to start anything. There is no need for her to lunge at me like some kind of mentalist. I just want to get rid of her.
    She slaps me hard around the face. I’m so stunned that I don’t have time to stop her before she goes for my hair, grabbing handfuls of it with both her fists until I am practically on my knees. I manage to stop myself from screaming on principle, but my face is contorted with pain and hers is sneering right back at me in extreme close-up. I grab at her hands and dig my long fingernails in, trying to release her claws from my head.
    Neither one of us will give in, so we’re locked into a weird slow-motion ballet, and I start to think we’ll probably stay like that for ever, we are both so stubbornly clinging on for dear life. Until I hear a horrific noise that makes us both relax our grip for a second.
    It’s a second before I realise it’s coming from Mel, screaming at the top of her lungs. Elyse and I both turn around and stare at her.
    She leaps out from her corner of the room like some kind of hunted animal. As her scream turns to a weird strangled gurgle, she jerks her arms and sweeps our drinks off the table, along with Elyse’s books and my mum’s blue glass vase.
    Once she’s done that, it’s like she doesn’t know what the hell to do with herself. I’m braced for her to keep on trashing the house on some crazed rampage, but she just stands there, wild-eyed, by the wrecked coffee table while wine and broken glass drip onto the rug. She catches my eye and for a second we both pause; I can’t read her expression, but for one weird instant I think that she’s trying to tell me something.
    Then Elyse steps in between us and gives Mel a look that freezes my blood as well as hers. I feel worse than when she hit me – I realise in a flash that this is way more serious than just trading insults and a silly play fight. I hate to admit it, but I am actually frightened of her. It feels like all my power and confidence have left me and transferred somehow to her. I feel drained.
    ‘Fine,’ Elyse says to me flatly. ‘We’re going. I don’t want to stay here anyway. And don’t ever, ever talk to me again. By the way, I wanted to tell you – I was only trying to help. I could have explained if you hadn’t gone mental and attacked me. Mel had a premonitionabout you; she saw that you’re going to have a really bad accident. Soon. I’d watch that pretty little face of yours, if I were you. Just a friendly bit of advice before you start blabbing about this.’
    She grabs her books off the table and shoves them into her bag, apparently not noticing that they are splashed with wine. She glares at me before she pushes