Playing Truant {Part Three}

12:30 pm



“Oh, this is tight,” Lydia said, manuvering herself in her seat.

“What’s tight!?” Prue choked, not hearing her properly.

“Sitting here is tight, I’m squashed”

“Oh”

“What did you think I meant?”

“Ahem, nothing,” Prue answered, a little to fast.

Lydia suddenly realized what she had been getting at. “You thought…you thought I was talking about certain aspects of me weren’t you,” she stated rather than asked. “Oh, you’re disgusting!”

The Myer Center food court at lunchtime was not the most comfortable place to have lunch. With it’s many food outlets spanning over two levels it acted as a magnate, pulling every imaginable officer worker, shopkeeper and shopper through its doors. Prue, Lydia, Jane and Sebastian were caught in the middle of it, sitting at a four-person table that had been pushed rather snug in-between two other tables that were dangerously overfilled.

“I wasn’t thinking that!” Prue defended herself whist trying to stab a piece of ravioli with a blunt plastic fork.

“Yes you were,” Sebastian said.

“Uh-huh,” Jane agreed, unable to say anything else as the rice from her sushi roll had glued her mouth closed.

“Stop ganging up on me!” Prue said, faking a trembling lip. “You’re making me wanna cry”

“No we’re not,” Sebastian said all knowingly.

Prue poked her tongue out at him. “What if I had been? Huh?”

He considered this for a moment, then said. “Well, hopefully we wouldn’t be making fun of you”

Prue narrowed her eyes and batted him across the arm. “As punishment,” she said.

“Yeah, ow, that really hurt!” he said sarcastically.

“Would you like me to do it harder?”

“NO!”

Lydia cleared her throat. “Erm…sorry to interrupt your argument but…I think my salads moving,” she said, peering into the salad container where a lettuce leaf was slowly moving up and down. The others exchanged looks and then joined her in scrutinizing the food.

“Um, why is it moving?” Jane asked.

Lydia looked over at her. “If I knew I would tell you”

“Maybe there’s a bug in there,” Prue suggested helpfully.

“What!” Lydia stared at the salad, wide eyed. “I friggen well hope not, I’ve already eaten half of it!”

“What’s that grainy white stuff in there?” Jane asked.

“The bug's eggs,” Sebastian said, knowing all to well that it was Parmesan cheese.

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Its cheese, dork!” Well, she hoped it was because she’d already eaten a lot of it. She picked up her fork and brought it down on the moving lettuce leaf. There was silence for a moment, until:

“Seb, what are you doing?” Prue asked as Sebastian began to pick at the leaf.

“Finding out what it is...was,” he pealed the leaf off and uncovered the remains of a green caterpillar, yellow liquid oozing out of it where Lydia had stabbed it.

“Ok, ew, that’s disgusting,” Jane said.

Prue turned to Lydia. “What is it with you and bugs?” she asked, referring back to the time in 10th grade when Lydia had found a cockroach smooshed into a Tim Tam biscuit, but only after she had taken a bite.

“Shut up,” was all she said.

1:15 pm

The bright sunny day that Brisbanites had woken up to was no longer. Instead heavy gray rain clouds had started to roll in from the ocean, cooling the already chilly winter air and bringing on a premature twilight. Prue, Lydia, Jane and Sebastian weren’t worried about the rain and welcomed it along with the rest of the population that lived in the drought-ridden city. The urban vibe was still in full swing, lunchtime shoppers still strolled the shopping district, street buskers and dancers entertained the crowds, lovers walked, statements were being made and a protest for student rights was being held at King George Square outside City Hall. Music could be heard coming from a small market and cultural fair in the same location.

Prue, Lydia, Jane and Sebastian strolled the market stalls, joking, laughing and acting the way every teen did. It was easy to see that they were close and loved to live life to its full potential.

“Ya know what,” Prue said skipping a twirling in front of the rest of them. “I never want this day to end! I love it!”

“We hear you, Prue!” Jane said agreeing with her. “We should do this once a month. Just go out and take a break from school”

“We can start a tradition,” Lydia smiled.

“Playing truant,” Sebastian laughed happily and watched Prue dancing around like the free spirit she was.

Lydia strayed away from them and wandered over to a stall that caught her interest, a stall that seemed out of place in a market like this. Herbs of every description hung from the roof of the green tent, candles of various colors, shapes and sizes were arranged on a shelf along with spell books and a large variety of other Wiccan items. Vibrant tapestries with the Triquetra, Pentagram and other symbols hung from the canvas walls. Lydia stood before a shelf and ran her fingers along the books spines, whispering the names as she did and pulling out various books that she found interesting.

“Can I be of any assistance?” a woman asked from behind her.

She spun around, startled. “Oh, Im just browsing, thank you”

“Well, let me know if you need anything,”

Lydia thanked the woman and continued browsing, she found a pack of tarot cards that she liked and bought them. She’d been meaning to replace her old deck and she had figured that now would be the perfect opportunity to do so. She paid for the cards, put them in the inside pocket of her coat and went to meet her friends whom of which were calling her name.

“What is it?” she asked curiously as she jogged up to where they were standing at the edge of the protest.

“Look, it’s Amanda!” Prue said while pointing to the leader of the protest up on stage.

“It is too!”

Amanda was a girl from their school that let nothing and no one get in her way. If she wanted to do something, she did it, no matter what the cost. Her attitude was very blasé when it came to life but if needed she was ready to defend her rights as well as those of her fellow students. She noticed them and gave them a wave.

“You have to admire her courage,” Prue said whilst digging for her phone that was admitting chirping sounds from her pocket. The conversation lasted no longer than a minute and once she hung up she announced that she had to go and collect an order from a bookstore down the street. “I’ll be back before you know it!” she yelled to them as she ran down a set of steps that led to the street.

Sebastian and Lydia

2:10pm

As lunchtime came to an end the crowed at the cultural fair began to thin out a little. Those people who had come to the fair to while away their lunch hour began to stream back towards their steel, sandstone and glass towers, back to their prisons for another three hours.

Sebastian and Lydia left Jane at the student protest and wandered through the rows of market stalls to a small lawn green where other people were lounging around, they were playing twenty questions as they walked. At first the game had been just lighthearted time filler while they waited for Prue to get back but after a while it had turned to a more serious and personal nature. Lightening flashed along the clouds and thunder rumbled.

“Ok, Sebastian. What is the one thing that you’ve always wanted to do?” she asked, whilst looking at the sky.

“Kiss you”

Lydia flicked her eyes back to him and ignored a raindrop that had just landed on her cheek. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was serious. “Kiss me?”

It was beginning to rain harder. Sebastian moved his fringe out of his eyes and answered. “Yeh,”

“Ok,” Lydia’s soft whisper was barley audible above the rumble of thunder that mingled with the sounds of ‘Return To Innocence’ by Enigma.

Sebastian was nervous and it showed as he slowly lowered his mouth to her's, hesitating for a moment an inch from her lips before kissing her mouth tenderly. He could taste her vanilla lip-gloss mixed with rainwater and when she kissed him back it sent spirals of ecstasy through him. She slipped her tongue into his mouth, he gathered her closer to him, and they explored the recesses of each other’s mouths whilst the rain continued to pour. He softly bit her lip as they pulled away.

Lydia laid her head in the crook of his neck, whispering against his skin. “Wow”

They both started when Jane came running up to them. “Somethings happened to Prue!”