You're Welcome

Chapter 2

Sally sighs to herself, her nimble fingers twiddling the straw as she watches the first drops of rain race down the window pane. The song fades away and she closes her eyes, humming along. 

Tough... You think you got the stuff... 

You're telling me and anyone, you're hard enough...

The song makes Sally think of her home. Her wonderful loving home where people are begging her to go back. She won't go back. She can't. Daniel is here and he always will be, he can't leave and neither can she. In the meantime, she'll keep up the masquarade that she is perfectly fine, she's getting along great when really she's falling apart at the seams. She blinks as the familiar sting of tears betrays her carefully put on cold bored face.

Sometimes you can't make it on your own...

"S'cuse me but can I join you?" a soft voice wrapped in a thick Manchester accent asks and she snaps her thoughts shut as she turns to the owner of the voice. She narrows her eyes ready to turn him down immediately but she stops in her tracks as she looks up at him. He's smiling shyly at her, his face crinkling quite handsomely. His eyes are a startling bright blue that look at her with intensity and earnest. Sally is taken aback by his eyes and her mouth opens and closes in an almost stutter before she manages to gesture with a wave of her hand to the seat in front of her for him to sit. She blinks a few times, surprised by her reaction. It wasn't often someone caught her off guard.

"Hello," He says and she mumbles a hello in return, trying to recapture her cold calm facade. He fidgets before sliding over a tall glass in front of her, the ice chattering against the side with a lime floating on the top and Sally eyes it suspiciously. 

"I got you a drink, I hope you don't mind," He says and she looks at him, ready to decline it when his eyes catch her off guard again. They're the same perfect pale blue as on a sparrows egg. She doesn't know what to do. Something about him made her... She wasn't sure what it was, it was an alien feeling but she wasn't hating it. She studies his expression, finding only pure honesty on his features. She knows she should't accept it, after all he could have done anything to it but... Her instincts are telling her that he means no harm. So she takes it and really looks at him. 

He's in his late 30's, maybe early 40's but it's hard for her to tell, Sally's terrible at age guessing. He's clean shaven with a mop of purposely messy dark chocolate brown hair, a streak of silver at his fringe. He takes a sip of his beer and his lips around the bottle both surprise and fascinate her. Not many men have full lips, certainly not like his. His nose is kinda thin with the familiar crook on the bridge from it being broken once or twice before. His eyebrows are crazy thick but they suit him, he would look strange without them Sally reckons. She looks him up and down, average build, probably a few inches taller than her at least. He's wearing a white shirt with black skinny jeans and a pair of adidas trainers. She approves of all she sees and when her eyes lift to meet his, she can't stop the warm smile spreading across her face. He returns her smile with a grin and she finishes her first drink, transferring her straw to the new drink. He extends his hand across the table and she hesitates before shaking it firmly, his skin rough and calloused against hers. Her elegant fingers squeeze around his hand as they introduce themselves and Noel feels her skin is soft and silky notices a few pale faded scars across her hand to say that she has worked. 

"I'm Sam," He says warmly,

"I'm Sally," she says with a small smile and takes her hand away. 

The music changes and Sam groans inwardly as his own voice comes flooding across the room. He peeks at her over the end of his bottle of lager as he drinks and he's relieved. Sam thinks that she doesn't recognize him, what a blessing. She's looking out the window again and he really sees the true colour of her eyes. They're a light green, clear and deep like an ocean of peridot gems. Her eyelashes are so long that when she blinks they brush her cheekbones with no sign of fake eyelashes. She hardly notices Sam as she stares out that window and he can't help but notice again how sad she looks. It was like someone had stolen the sun and left her with endless grey skies. Yet when she smiled, there were embers of warmth and all Sam had to do was fan those embers, get them to burst into flame. That's all he wants to do, see more of the girl behind the bright smile not the shell of sorrow before him.

"Knock knock," He says with a grin and she looks at him apprehensively. 

"Who's there?" 

"Twit," 

"Twit who?"

"Fuck me an owl!" He says with perfect mock surprise and although it's super cheesy and really quite terrible as far as jokes go, Sally finds herself laughing. Not a forced laugh but a light laugh and Sam finds himself laughing with her. She smiles at him, shaking her head and he smiles back, shrugging. 

"That was horrendous," She says dryly with a raised eyebrow and he leans across the table, beckoning her forward,

"Yeah but you think I'm good-looking so you laughed anyway," He whispers and she pulls away, shaking her head and chuckling. Sally is amazed, she was enjoying herself and not having to force it either. Laughing felt almost alien to her in these times and to laugh genuinely without pretending at all was astounding. She smiles to herself as she realizes how wonderful it is to have fun sometimes. She finds herself singing quietly along to the music, staring into her glass and Sam stares at her open-mouthed. Her voice is high and silvery like the tinkling of bells. 

Sally barely notices Sam's panic as she tries to sort her thoughts out. She's making a mess of this. She's accidentally letting him in and she doesn't want that. She just... She feels her misery is contagious and she doesn't want to infect this lovely man. She detests the idea of taking away his smile. Coming up with a plan, she decides to act cold and uninterested and he'll soon get bored and walk away. Its a great idea, only she doesn't want that either. Sally's entirely surprised and confused at her feelings towards this guy, she doesn't even know him. She looks up at him and the sides of his eyes crinkle when he smiles at her and she finds herself automatically smiling back, looking away as she feels sadness run across her features. She can't bring him down too, its not fair on either of them. Infecting him with her misery would just further add to her sorrow. Needing fresh air, she stands up and hides behind her hair for a moment as her cheeks burn from the blush as he looks at her with a soft smile. From the seat next to her she pulls on a black 3/4 length parker with thick white fur around the hood. 

"I'm going for a fag if you wanna come?" She asks softly, her almost finished drink in her hand. It was an assumption that he smoked, but a good one because he nods, smiling at her. She curses herself as she walks away, why did she invite him? Now she would have to work twice as hard to either pretend to be happy or be cold and bored again. She steals a glance at him as he stands up, waiting by her side and though there's a normal amount of space between them, she blushes brightly. He smells nice. She leads the way to the pool room, weaving around the lads and heading for a back door taking them to picnic tables and big umbrellas that represent the beer garden and smoking area. 

"Heavy lad, that lass fobbed you off for an old man," one of the lads says and they laugh loudly at their friend who Sally had earlier flat out rejected. The lad scowls at Sally but she ignores him as she heads outside and Sam decides to do the same although he doesn't appreciate the old man comment or the look he gave Sally. Sally, the girl who when she smiled lit up an entire room. The door closes behind them as they leave and the sounds of the bar are muted.