As soon as I saw her running towards me with her arms full of packs of cellophane wrapped cookies and giggling I knew how we were going to spend the time until my mom picked me up. Five minutes before, Erin and me were laughing and flicking through a playlist, sharing headphones, one earpiece each which meant that we had to stand close to each other. I could smell her breath, sweetened by the hot chocolate which we had both just drunk standing on the pavement outside Subway. It had been Erin's idea to go into Subway on the way back to her house.
Fine by me I'd said. I was always hungry anyway, my mum sometimes said that I had hollow legs and she didn't know where I put it all. She always laughed about me being a string bean, and I am. Naturally tall and skinny I can still wear my Hello Kitty pajamas from when I was five. Not that I did very often, only when we'd run out of clean stuff if my mum was working away. They were a bit short on the legs but just looked like three quarter length which a lot of girls wore anyway.
Carrie bounced up and down on the spot clutching the cookies to her chest. You'll have to buy the coke she said to Erin, grinning.
Carrie was always moving, even when she was sitting in class she would be jiggling her legs and if the teacher told her off she would tap both feet up and down, glancing at the teacher from under her fringe so she could stop if she came over.
Mrs Morris, our teacher, was sweet and I hated the way that Carrie smirked behind her back when she turned to the whiteboard. She also called her a fat cow and would mimic the way she walked. An exaggerated waddle with her cheeks blown out and chin pressed to her chest to make as if she had a double chin. Everyone laughed, even me, even though I felt horrible about it. I liked Mrs Morris and didn't think that she was that fat. Carrie called everyone fat and would make gobble, gobble noises when we sat down at lunch opening our boxes, looking forward to the sandwiches, crisps, biscuits and fruit. We sometimes do swapsies, but Carrie would just give her lunch away, claiming not to be hungry.
I was certain that she ate in secret though because although she was skinny she wasn't that skinny and anyway, wouldn't person pass out if they didn't eat all day?
I didn't know that Carrie was meeting us. Erin was such a push over, Carrie had probably invited herself. Erin pulled out her purse and checked what money she had. I wanted to say that she didn't have to go and buy the coke. If Carrie wanted coke she could go and get herself, and for that matter she'd just bought the cookies so why hadn't she got the coke at the same time?
I knew why she wanted to Erin to go get it. Just like I knew why she didn't ask me. I wound the headphones back around my phone watching Erin as she skipped up the steps into the shop. Carrie was babbling away about something that her swimming teacher had said and when I didn't reply she poked me with her foot. Her hands being full.
'Hey,' I said. 'Don't do that! I don't want your feet on my clothes.'
Carrie rolled her eyes mimicking me in a fake, whiny baby voice, moving her shoulders in time to the sing song 'Don't do this. Don't do that.' Her blonde ponytail swinging.
Anybody glancing over would just think that she was singing a cute rhyme or pop song.
I looked away. 'What time is your mom picking you up?' I asked her.
'I'm just going to text her when I'm ready.' She replied. 'She thinks I have band practice.'
That was the other thing about Carrie. She was a liar. She even lied about stupid stuff like her cat being sick so she hadn't slept all night.
Erin came back with a clear plastic carrier bag, two big bottles of coke visible behind the Subway green and yellow Subway logo.
Carrie glanced at it then set off running in the direction of Erin's house. I followed, a sick feeling in my stomach. Walking suddenly felt like an effort and I wished that I'd gone straight home. Instead I trudged after Carrie and Erin, hands deep in the pockets of my blazer.
Erin's mom was always home. She ran some sort of Internet business and had an office at the back of the house. They also had a cool family room with big squishy sofas, a TV, a games console and a Wii. But we weren't going there.
Erin's room was on the third floor, up a set of narrow stairs. It was the only room up there apart from her ensuite bathroom. She had big skylights instead of windows and the ceiling sloped down over the double bed which stood on the right as you went in. There was just enough room to sit up in bed at its lowest point. Erin had adhesive stars sprinkled over the ceiling and sets of fairy lights twisted around the book case, dressing table and a huge floor standing mirror. The door to the bathroom stood ajar, facing us as we went in.
Carrie tossed the cookies onto the bed and then threw herself backwards after them. Arms and legs flung out as she were on a trampoline. 'Put some music on Erin!' She called as if it were a party. Erin went over to the her iPod dock and scrolled through before settling on some boy band that everyone was crazy about.
I dropped my backpack onto the floor and then sat down, my back against the wall between the door frame and the mirror. I hugged my knees to my chest watching Carrie as she started tearing open the cookie wrappers and making a pile on the bed, using one of Erin's T shirts to catch the crumbs. She had impressed on us before that NO ONE MUST FIND OUT what we were doing. I thought there was no way I was going to tell anyone what they were doing and anyway kids ate cookies all the time so the exaggerated secrecy was pointless.
Afterwards she would gather up all of the wrappers and push them deep into her or Erin's bag to be thrown away in a litter bin on the street. She always left a wrapper though, just in case Erin's mom wanted to know what the crumbs were. She also left the empty bottles, squashed into Erin's waste paper bin. 'No one will notice those', she would say. 'It's normal to drink coke.'
Within half an hour she and Erin had eaten all of the cookies and drunk most of the coke. Carrie had even sent Erin downstairs to get ice cream out of the big, silver, double fronted freezer in the kitchen. 'Don't forget the spoons!' She yelled down the stairs after her. 'And don't take too long!'
Carrie came back into the room pushing damp strands of hair out of her eyes. They both got flushed and sweaty as they stuffed themselves.
I stared at my knees, miserable.
'Who died?' Carrie said to me as she swirled in front of the mirror before collapsing on the floor clutching her stomach. 'God. I feel so sick!' She said. 'Maybe I won't need to use my fingers this time. I read about this girl who can throw up just by leaning over. How cool is that? Hope I'll be able to do that one day.'
I climbed to my feet. 'Maybe I'll just go home.' I muttered.
'Party pooper.' Said Carrie as Erin came back into the room. 'We're almost finished anyway. Doesn't look like much ice cream.' She said to Erin.
'It's all we have. My mom hasn't been shopping yet this week.' Erin looked pale and little beads of sweat stood out on her forehead. She seemed out of breath too, but then she had just climbed three flights of stairs.
Carrie started on the ice cream without sitting down. 'This is good.' She said 'Have some.' She stuck the square plastic container under my nose and I could see the glitter of tiny ice crystals and the thousands of tiny cracks and ripples across the surface. There were irregular dips and peaks where scoops had been taken previously. Most likely while Erin, her parents and her brothers had watched a movie at the weekend. Erin had told me that that was her favourite part of the week. They each took it turns to choose a movie. The only rule being that it had to be suitable for the whole family which included Erin's seven year old brother.
Carrie had said that meant that all they could watch was lame stuff. Not like the films she watched when her sister was babysitting. She claimed to have watched all kinds of gross stuff. Like one film about a doctor who had sewn people together so that their mouths were attached to the other peoples' bottoms. I couldn't see why anyone would do that or watch a film about it, but then I couldn't see the point of a lot of stuff that Carrie did and said.
I preferred Frozen and Shrek, stuff that Carrie called babyish. Me and Erin sometimes watched a film downstairs in the family room after school and today we had planned to watch Glee for about the millionth time before Carrie had arrived.
I wished we were downstairs now, cross legged on the floor and singing along as the lyrics danced across the screen, a box of freshly microwaved popcorn and a can of coke between us. Instead here we were, in a room that was suddenly too hot and close. I could smell the sugary, sticky sweetness of the coke and the ice cream, and hear the slurping and the noise of the spoons bumping against the plastic sides of the container as Erin and Carrie finished it. Spoons moving quickly along the edges and into the corners, competing to get the last of it like little kids did.
I wanted to get out of there but I realised that I didn't want to leave Erin on her own with Carrie. Maybe it was just jealousy. Erin was my best friend after all and I was tired of Carrie always crowding in and taking over.
I sat back down on the bed. 'Can we watch Glee after, like we said we would?' I said to Erin. 'Sure.' She said. And that was the last thing I ever heard her say.
Her mom and dad still hope that she'll wake up and they go everyday to see her. She's been moved into a long term care home for people with head injuries and stuff. I go every week too and tell her all about school and our favourite bands and TV shows. Sometimes I run out of things to say and then I just sit and stare out of the window until my mom comes to pick me up.
If I had known I would have stopped her I told my mom when she sat me down and asked me what had happened that day. Everyone says that I saved her life, but I don't know I really did.
