Shaken and messed

Chapter 1

Hey, guys this is my first wattpad story. Please comment and review so I know whether my sotry's worth continuing or not :)

London weather had a reputation for being cold and dark, so on late winter's night, there was nothing expected except harsh rain and brutal winds.

For the locals this usually meant taking refuge in warm houses, snuggling up with a mug of warm cocoa, and pitying those unfortunate enough to be caught  in the season's downpour.

Carrie Edwards envied those people beyond belief. She was being pelted unmercifully by rain, and trying to make out exactly which street she was on. She squinted through the rain, trying to make out a nearby sign.

A quick flash of lightning revealed an old sign in peeling letters reading 'oak street'. Carrie pulled her coat tighter around her, and trudged as fast as she could through the puddles down oak street.

She stopped at a rundown looking shack, and entered it, grateful she had been delivered home safely.

She had only just closed the door when her three friends bombarded her with hugs and delighted squeals.

When they finally released her she sighed and collapsed into a moth eaten sofa.

"Were you able to get anything?" Melissa asked, taking a seat next to her. She pretended to ignore the disapproving looks Hanna and Bonnie were giving her. She knew they were thinking the same things, but were to polite to ask anything.

Carrie removed one slightly damp parcel from inside her coat, her smile weakened by the rain. "Enough for all of us"

The parcel was treated like gold. It was lowered carefully onto the small wooden table where the four girls ate their meals (whenever they could provide it for themselves) and unwrapped slowly and carefully to reveal a cheap cut of fish sitting on top deep fried chips. They gazed at their dinner as if it would disappear if they blinked our turned their backs.

Within 5 minutes the only thing left on the pacel were grease stains, and one by one, the four girls all lay down on their stuffed sacks and pulled their patched, thin quilts up to their chins.

Carrie was the last one to fall asleep. She wrapped up the paper and put it aside, then climbed onto her sack. She was on the verge of sleep when the photo she had placed on the dirty fridge when she fisrt moved in caught her eye. She sighed, and rolled over. The warm contentness that had filled her moments before was filled with a cold pain  - the pain of longing. It felt as if she had spent a few moments living a dream, and a freezing wave of water had brought her back to reality.

The photo of Carrie's mother and younger sister now had a thick layer of dust covering the glass. Carrie had never taken it down to clean - it was far too painful to remember them. Carrie couldn't shake off the pressing feeling of guilt that she should have done something.

Carrie remembered her sister well. She was almost a linear opposite of Carrie. While Carrie was quiet, shy, and bubbly around her friends, Penny was loud, funny, and loved being the centre of attention. Despite their differences, they got along really well. They were also fairly identical in looks. They had the same round faces, large brown eyes, long, wavy brownish black hair, and beige skin.

And then there was their mother. She was almost never home, the assumption being she was out working. She would disappear for long periods at a time, and was cold and distant. Both sisters didn't see her during the day, and on the off chance they saw her during the night, she wouldn't acknowledge them. Carrie and Penny were the main money earners for as long they could remember, doing odd jobs for loaves of bread.

They had never met their father, and had never bothered to ask their mother what had happened to him. She rarely said hello to them, let alone spoke about the past.

Carrie and Penny didn't let that bother them, though. They became independent fairly quickly, and learnt how to feed themselves from a young age. Despite thier lack of money, Penny had a knack for making even the most boring jobs fun. She could light up a room just by walking into it, and was admired for hmore than her good attitude by everyone she knew.

Then came the accident.

Carrie didn't know exactly what happened that summer's night. It had happened in a flash. All she could remember was that Penny had stumbled inside and collapsed on the floor. Lucky, this was one of those rare occasions when their mother was home, and she leapt up instantly, and dragged Penny's unconscious body out of the house, slamming the door loudly behind her.

They were gone for three days. When they came back carrie couldn't get a word out of Penny. She wouldn't tell anyone anything. She lost her former brightness, and became almost as distant as their mother. She became shaky and would jump at small noises. She wouldn't leave the house alone. Soon, she started disappearing once a week with their mother. This just worsened her condition. Carrie decided to put her foot down, so she confronted her mother the next time she saw her. This resulted in a shouting match throughout which Penny started crying. After that, their mother took Penny and left. That was the last Carrie had seen of either one of them.

Carrie waited two weeks before concluding with a heavy heart that they weren't coming back, and then started living with her friends.

Carrie still missed Penny, and spent many nights wondering where she was, and if she still was around.