Afflicted

"Thanks Dad," I jumped up and gave him a hug.

"No problem. Just have fun today and I should be back home tonight too." He gave me a kiss and I hugged him again.

"We should get going," I said as I beckoned Lacey to follow me.

"Thank you for the breakfast," she said as she stood. "And the shower."

"You're welcome sweetheart," my mom said kindly.

"Do you have a hairdryer here?" I asked, indicating my wet hair.

"In our room, there's a dressing table-"

I headed into their room to find it and started work to fix my hair. Lacey quickly took over and I did hers for her once I looked human again.

We practically ran out of the apartment and rode down to the Walkways whilst discussing what kind of clothes we needed most. Prom wasn't a million miles away and we both agreed that it was worth investing some time in looking at the dresses they had in the city so that we could start to figure out what we wanted.

After a long walk through the city, we finally made our way to the mall. The people who lived in the city full time had started to give things slightly different names to their equivalents on the outside. Instead of calling it a mall, they called it a 'garment building'. The names were a little silly but they added to the modern feel of the place and I didn't mind them for that reason.

There was a queue outside the building and we joined it excitedly, still trying to decide which department to hit first.

"Where was my invite then bitches?"

We turned to find Demi joining the queue behind us. She was wearing a skin tight, nude coloured dress and her platinum blonde hair was styled perfectly as usual.

"Hey," I said with surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"That's nice, I thought you'd be pleased to see me?" Demi raised an eyebrow at me, feigning irritation.

"Don't be silly, I'm just surprised to see you here," I covered quickly. If Demi really did want to join us then our shopping trip was as good as ruined. I always felt like a shadow of myself when I was with her; she second guessed everything and read into everything I said. She had a knack for tricking people into revealing their secrets too and stored them up to use whenever it suited her. The last thing I needed was her probing further into my love life or asking more about Lincoln.

"Well I wasn't gunna go another day without a shower," she said as she pulled her cellphone from her purse and started texting someone. "And my uncle has a penthouse here so I thought I'd come and stay for a bit. Until the water's back on anyway."

My cellphone buzzed and I pulled it from my pocket to see a text from Demi. Lacey was looking at the same message on her phone too and I opened it to see why she was texting me whilst standing right in front of me.

Demi 8:48 - Cinema Thursday at 2

"There's a new movie out that I wanna see," she said as I looked up at her. "And I think the squad and football team need some more chill time together after that whole scene with Devlin the other night."

"I don't suppose you've heard anything about him?" I asked. I was disturbed by the fact that he still hadn't been let out of hospital. As far as I knew, no one had been allowed in to visit him either.

"Well Spencer went over to Devlin's house and tried to speak with his mom but she was really cagey. He thought someone had told her not to speak about it."

"It's not a conspiracy," Lacey scoffed.

"Whatever it is, someone doesn't want information getting out about it. I guess it's because he was attacked by one of those crazy people." She shrugged and leant around me to look towards the front of the queue. She wasn't fooling me though, I knew she'd be the first to find out any information about what was going on.

"So are you gunna look for a prom dress?" Lacey asked.

"Oh no, I'm not shopping today. I'm just waiting for my uncle to come back out; he's confirming the food order for his party tonight. It's going to be amazing. They're celebrating the completion of the city and everyone who's anyone is going to be there."

I nodded along interestedly but I was holding back a grin as she said she wasn't staying with us.

"I'd try and get you guys an invite but it's totally exclusive, sorry." She went back to checking her phone as she was speaking and I glanced at Lacey briefly.

"You'll have to tell us all about it," Lacey said. "It sounds great."

"I will. Thursday, don't be late." She gave us a dazzling smile and headed off to meet her uncle.