Chapter 3

Making the “fake laughs and smiles show” took very little time, Ally just found herself in the parking lot of the mall. She had no recollection of the route she had taken, and time just flew by. Ally parked her car in position and sat back pondering on the fact that her face would have to go through the horrid, atrocious exercise of smiling and laughing. She adjusted her seat and practiced her smile glancing at herself in the mirror then quickly looking away realizing that the face looking back was too difficult to deal with.

She pulled the keys out of the ignition and put them in her small Dolce & Gabbana handbag. She stepped out of the car while simultaneously gazing eyes turned towards her. Ally knew that was her cue to look up and flash her incredibly perfect, blindingly white teeth. She had performed her opening act with ease- “easy” she thought to herself. However, the part that worried her the most was spending two to four hours looking at shops with a group of naïve, giggling girls who couldn’t tell the difference between pink and blue- that was worth the nerves.

She entered the mall , headed to a nearby café, took a seat and ordered a frappuchino.

She sipped the icy cold frappuchino contemplating her escape, it was all set… she would window-shop for an hour or two with unnaturally high-pitched laughs every few  minutes to keep up her act. Her phone would then suddenly (and conveniently) ring announcing he mother’s ‘emergency’ flight, showing the necessity that Ally had to go and bid her good-bye. She would then take a few minutes to pass good-byes and insincere apologies to her disgustingly cheery bubbly ‘friends’ .

Just then three incredibly perky, unnaturally happy figures stood by her side- Jess, Mandy and Amber. “here we go,” mumbled Ally to herself, her voice too low to be audible to anyone but her inner demons. She got up and then the real show began.

After countless minutes of squealing hello’s the girls walked up and down the halls of the mall. It had been a while since Ally had spoken to them and that meant plenty of meaningless gossip- just what Ally despised. Mandy kept going on and on about her break up with her boyfriend of two years Ben, to Ally’s ears  Mandy spoke too fast in a language she couldn’t understand.  Jess and Amber spoke about different cliques and groups babbling about who’s dating who and dishing out the latest fights and fall-outs . Each minute seemed to pass slower than the one before it, it was unbelievably excruciating. Ally’s mouth felt sore and numb from all the fake gestures and laughs she was giving and her body longed for its dosages of intoxicators aching and moaning in pain. The pain was too much to bear so Ally decided the time had come for her mother’s surprise flight.

The plan went smoothly and in a matter of minutes Ally was making her way up to the car. She climbed into her red sports car and sat contently, proud that she had made it through without eruptions of tears or antagonized moans of pain. She drove through the roads and somehow wound up  home. She couldn’t remember the roads but her subconscious seemed to  remember and that was good enough for her. She put her car into park mode and then fumbled through the glove case till she found her remedy: small bottles of assorted various alcoholic drinks. She had snuck them of her many first-class flights around the world, that’s the reason they were small. The other reason for their lack in size was a cover up, she didn’t want to get caught so she had concluded that smaller bottles were harder to spot than full- size bottles. She grabbed the bottles and shoved them into her hand bag, then got out of the car.

Ally rushed through the front door eager to commence. The household was empty providing opportunity… she climbed up the stairs and entered her room, locked the door, shut the windows and pulled the blinds down. There was place and time. Finally motive, great motivations were available one of the many was her depression because of her parents’ divorce.

Place, time, opportunity and motive the perfect setting… utter bliss… for criminals and addicts alike.