First Light

60 heart body soul

Sunday 24th of April 2022

Marlo:

Mine and Faye's 3 month anniversary is kind of a relaxed one. We went to watch the new Fantastic Beasts movie, and then headed back to my house. My dad told me to keep the door open while she's in the room, but I wouldn't want to make out with her anyway, even if the door was closed, knowing my dad is only a couple doors down. The thought makes me shudder.

We decided on a movie to watch: The Maze Runner, but we are talking, instead, now that it's finished. Her dark curls are over her eyes and she is laughing at something I said, her smile putting the sunlight slanting into my room to shame. I could talk to her for hours. And listen to her talk for hours. I don't think I could ever get tired of her at all.

She's quiet for a second, her face returning to its natural expression, her eyes focused on her lap, on her hands picking at one of the folds in her jeans.

"This is really random, but could I tell you about the girls who I used to be friends with? I feel like I owe it to you to tell you about them."

"Faye, you don't 'owe' anything to me. If you want to tell me now, you can, but you don't have to. It's your business." I reply.

"Yes, I know. I just meant that I want to be more open with you about things that happened in the past. I'd be okay with telling you now."

"Okay, it's up to you. I'll listen."

I smile and she returns it.

"I had this friend called Kristy in sixth-form. She was my best friend for years, since we were 13. We were inseparable."

"No Georgina?" I ask.

Faye shakes her head. "I wasn't properly friends with Gia at this point. I just kind of knew her."

"Okay."

"I had a really big friendship group in secondary school, all girls, about 6 of us including me, but there were others that kind of floated in and out sometimes. Kristy kind of took me in, they were her friends first. She didn't mind that I was quiet, because she was able to be confident enough for the both of us.

I liked most of her friends but some of them were really loud, but there were a good few who were always nice to me, always made sure I was included even though I was the only one that was shy. They were all quite similar, they liked similar things, talked about similar things. I felt a bit out of place at times when we were 15 because they would constantly talk about meeting boys and going to parties and clubbing - they had fake IDs. A few of them looked 18 as well, in the way that they dressed and their makeup.

Kristy was like that, too, by that age. She would get drunk nearly every weekend either at her house or someone else's. She has an older sister who was able to buy them alcohol, and her parents were out a lot.

We went to the same sixth-form, on purpose, because we didn't want to be separated. The other 4 in the group didn't but we still kept in contact. I was always around lots of people because Kristy knew lots of people. She would always try and invite me to her parties or to go out with her and the other girls, but I knew I would hate them because there'd be too many people, and there was no way my parents would let me.

One of the girls, Ingrid, has her birthday in early October. She's the oldest out of us. I decided to go, with much convincing from the rest of them, because I knew their plan was to get really drunk and I was a bit unsure about it. None of them forced me to drink, but Kristy offered me some of her's, just to try it. The only alcohol I'd ever tasted before was wine, because my parents always have it at Christmas, and I hated it.