Diamond Bay

Sapphire

~ Lucy ~

~ Sunday~

“Dear diary, sorry for being absent the last couple days, Friday was hectic, but at least I caught glimpses of him, Saturday, well Saturday was just some boring, I hate when I work Saturday’s Elliot’s not there to stare at, anyway enough about him before I seem obsessed..not that I’m not.

I’m really concerned about Britney, she hasn’t been herself, we are hopefully going to meet up later, I hope, we need a chance to forget all the weirdness from the other day, anyway I need to go start my day, talk to you later diary xo”

I sat my diary back under my mattress and went and jumped in the shower.

I was enjoying the water running the conditioner through my long brown hair when I heard my phone ring, this is just typical isn’t it? I finally get five minutes to myself and my phone rings.

I poke my head out of the shower to see if I can read the name, great, I sat my phone upside down.

“oh well.” I think to myself, waiting to hear from me won’t kill anyone, I pull my head back in and continue to enjoy the feeling of the hot water running over my body, I’ve always liked showers hot enough to melt the devil, there is just something about that level of heat that I love.

When I got out of my shower I checked my phone, it had been Britney, there was no voice mail or texts, I decided to sent her one, “you called? Xo” I went downstairs and grabbed some fruity cereal for breakfast, I loved Sunday mornings, my parents went to their church, I don’t think they actually believed or anything like that, Mom was just convinced she had to go for networking with the community. I remember the day I stopped going, I’d just turned fifteen, they didn’t overly care but it took them a few months to stop waking me for it in the morning, now just over a year later it finally feels normal to them I think. It’s not that I don’t believe, I just don’t see the point, it’s all so….empty, anyway.

I’d just finished my breakfast and was trying to decide on an outfit for the day when Britney called back again, “Hey Brit” I answered.

“Can you come over?” She was sobbing, a lot.

“Of course I’ll be there asap!” I replied.

“Thankyou.” She whimpered, and then the connection ended.

I quickly threw on some denim shorts and a t-shirt and headed downstairs and towards Britney’s house.

“What could have her so upset?” I wondered.

It would be unlikely to do with Menzie this time, Menzie would be at church, Britney can be a drama queen, but this felt different, this felt…real.

I arrived at Menzie’s house and the door was wide open, I headed straight up to Britney’s room.

She was huddled up in bed with blankets wrapped around her, tears streaming down her face. She pulled up part of the blankets for me to get in. I went over and climbed in next to her and she just buried her face in my chest. I stroked her hair and kept whispering “whatever is wrong, I’m here and it will be okay.”

After about fifteen minutes of her crying into me she finally wiped her eyes and sat up.

That’s when I noticed the bruising around her neck and shoulders.

I couldn’t stop myself from staring. “What happened?” I squawked.

“I got mugged last night.” She said.

“Why didn’t you call me hun??” I replied.

“I didn’t realize it was bad until this morning when I seen the bruising.” She whispered.

“Did you go to the police?” I asked.

“No, they didn’t get anything some guy came and stopped them before they could grab anything, they just threw me up against the wall and roughed me up a bit. I’m okay, just sore and scared.”

“I’m so sorry Brit, I’m right here for you, I can’t believe this happened here in the bay.”

“I wasn’t in the bay Lucy.” She interrupted.

“Where were you?” I asked inquisitively.

“In Diamond Borough.” She stated, clearly embarrassed.

“Why did you go there??” I asked more accusingly than I meant to.

I should probably explain at this point, Diamond Borough is technically part of Diamond Bay.

But everyone who lives in the Bay would never consider the Borough to really be apart of the Bay.

It’s inland and away from the ocean, run down and were all the ruffians life that can’t live up to the standards of the Bay, plenty of them work on the wharf. I mean it is part of Diamond Bay, but “the bay” always refers to this side of the Diamond High, we do share the same school. It’s not like we are segregated but the Borough is definitely known as being different, the only time people from the Bay really head over there it to go to Hijinx, the local club where less than honorable things go down.

“Jasmine needed to meet someone, I went with her. But she disappeared and left me to go with the guy she was meeting.” She replied.

“It’s okay.” I said, this wasn’t the time to point out that Jasmine is trouble. “Does Menzie know?” I continued.

“No and she can’t find out Lucy.” She replied.

“Okay, but how are we going to hide…this.” I said pointing at the bruising.

“That’s what I need your help with.”

“How can I help? I asked.

“I need to borrow some of your turtlenecks.” She replied.

I started laughing. “Those turtlenecks you’ve said you won’t be caught dead in that are “Boy repellant””. I said using air quotes.

“Yeah those ones.” She said smirking at me. “I made a mistake going there last night, I shouldn’t have gone, I should’ve listened to you and Menzie, but I can’t have her know, she’ll laud It over me forever, so Boy Repellant it is.” She started laughing as well. We hugged and in that moment everything was back to normal between us, all the crap we had been having in between our friendship was gone, we were back to Brit & Lucy like we had always been.

“I’ll go home and see if I can find them at the bottom of my closet, you know I haven’t worn them since we were twelve when you called them boy repellant.” I said slyly, I was lying, I still often wore them when I was at home curled up with a book or writing in my diary.

“I still think we should go to the police.” I said, staring at her in my turtleneck I could finally see why she had called them boy repellent.

“We can’t, Menzie would find out.” She replied in a voice that said to drop it. I let it go, things were finally good between us, we’d been hanging out all day and she seemed to finally be getting over the shock of the bruising, of course I was curious to what had actually gone down but maybe I would just never know.

“Can we go hang out at the beach?” she asked casually.

“In a turtleneck, in summer?” I replied.

“Oh yeah, I forgot.” She said sadly.

“Hey.” I said placing my hand carefully on her shoulder. “It’s going to be okay, the bruising should fade in a few days, this isn’t your fault. You didn’t ask to get attacked.”

She just stared longingly out of her window.

“Come on, lets go and get something to eat from Sapphire” I said.

“Really?” Her eyes lit up a bit. “You always say we shouldn’t support Menzie’s competition?”

See Sapphire was this new popular restaurant that had opened a few months ago that had definitely but a dent in the Diner’s business, but Britney had been wanting to go, everyone at school had been raving about it, I’d always wanted to be supportive of the Diner so had always suggested we don’t go, but Britney wasn’t going to go to the diner with Menzie working there today and something fresh could be a nice change for us too.

“I know but it could be nice for a change.” I said smiling.

We done our make up and went down, it was nice for the two of us to just be us again, we were laughing and smiling and nothing in the world could bring this moment down.

We got to Sapphire and went through, and wow. I could see why the Diner was suffering, this was something else. It was modern and sleek, not that the Diner was run down, it was definitely up to the Bay’s standard, higher than anything you would see in the Borough, but this was something you’d expect to see in a resort. Everything was sleek and shiny, you could practically use the walls as a mirror, this was very upmarket. I noticed a lot of old regulars from the Diner, and in that moment I couldn’t blame them. A young muscly waiter came over and seated us upstairs, with a view right over the beach, this view was breathtaking and reminded me why I loved the Bay so much, this place was truly our own slice of heaven. We were given a couple of menus and wow, everything here was such high quality. Not just the food, but even the menu itself, the cutlery, the glasses, everything. How did the Diner stand a chance against an establishment like this? No wonder Menzie was stressed lately, the last thing she needs is to find out about what happened to Britney last night.

We had just about finished our meals when my ears picked up, I overheard an older lady a table over from us making conversation and asking one of the wait staff who the owner was, this was something Menzie and I had always wondered but never been able to work out.

“Mr. Smith, but I haven’t met the man myself.” Was the reply.

“Oh how mysterious, I don’t know any Mr. Smith and I’ve been here my entire life.” I heard the older lady say.

“Well I can assure you he pays well and has great attention to detail.” The waiter replied.

“How mysterious indeed.” My Mom said later when I told her about the conversation I’d overheard at Sapphire. I wanted more information, everyone knew everyone that owned anything here in the Bay we didn’t have anything owned by outsiders, the council had strict bylaws that never even made it possible.

I thought Mom might have some answers being in real estate, there were only two real estate companies in Diamond Bay so the chance was she should know something.

“I remember Jennifer snatching that listing off me about a year ago and I never heard much about it after that. I know the owners were extremely happy with the price they got for it though. Well above market price from what I heard.” My mother always thought carefully before she spoke, like she was pondering the best words to choose. “Mr. Smith must be a local, the only other way he would be able to own a business in the Bay would be if Jennifer pulled some strings with the council, or if he lived in the Borough.” She scoffed a little bit as she said Borough. She loved Diamond Bay and was always adamant that Diamond Borough needed to be demolished to bring the Bay’s value and image up to a higher standard. “No one from the Borough could’ve afforded a place like Sapphire though.” She said in her matter-of-fact conversation ending voice. My mother was far from cold, but any mention of the Borough was one thing that would always shut her down, she hated that the schools weren’t separate, she couldn’t stand when she had to have a listing in the Borough, most of the Bay felt this way about the Borough. It’s reputation was deserved from what I had seen at school too, not many people really lived in the Borough, but it was enough that there was a presence, but not enough for it to become its own town with it’s own stores, the population of Diamond Bay sits at around six thousand of that the Borough probably makes up little more than one thousand.

All the kids at school from the Borough generally kept to themselves, sometimes I had felt sorry for them, they are looked down on, but they are also the ones who cause trouble so I’m not sure exactly what they expect to be treated like.

But this thought crossed my mind, what if Mr. Smith could be from the Borough? Could one of them make it out of that life? And if they did what amount of respect would they have for the life that we live in the Bay. The other thought was too scary to think of, if Jennifer had been pulling strings with the council could our council have become corrupted? And if that happens how long can Diamond Bay survive? My Mom has always said “If outsiders were allowed to own businesses in the Bay we would run the risk of becoming another tourist trap.” See my Mom was 3rd generation of living here in Diamond Bay, my great grandparents helped settle the Bay, they put in place many of the bylaws, they wanted to keep this little slice of paradise for future generations. I can’t imagine things changing here, hopefully Mr. Smith really is just a local, I can’t deny the appeal that Sapphire had, surely one establishment couldn’t mean everything my Mom feared.

My phone buzzed and snapped me out of my daze, it was Britney, “Thanks for today Babe really needed it xx”. Us being good again meant the world to me, whoever Mr. Smith is isn’t my concern. I cant’ change whatever is going on. Britney is my concern, she’s going through a lot, and she needs me, and that is something I can do something about.

“Anytime Brit, I’ve missed us hanging out like that, Luv Ya x” I replied.

“Me too, we need to do it more, I’m sorry I pulled away, and I’m sorry for going to the Borough.”

“It’s okay, lets just make sure we fix it, lets make sure we make this a summer to remember, we only have one week left of school and then we are freeeeeeee xo.” I replied.

I lived for our summers, I had been scared of what our friendship was going to be this summer, but now I felt confident again.