Two Friends have recently arrived back in Birmingham, both trying to create a new life for themselves in style and riches. Jazz clubs and nightlife are typical scenes to them until one night they bump into the Shelby's.
Both the girls wish for a...
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On an icy cold winter morning, I stood patiently in Birmingham train station, waiting. Waiting for a train, a late train at that. Tapping my foot ever so often to not get bored and always glancing at the big clock, waiting patiently.
With each train pulling into the station, people pilled off, running towards friends and family. Train by train it still wasn't the one I was waiting for. My foot began to tap quicker every time a new train pulled in. I was getting fidgety, possibly from boredom, or trying to ignore my hands stinging from the cold.
Finally, after half an hour, the train arrived at platform two. Wrapping my shawl around me tighter, I followed the crowd onto the small tight platform.
Doors clicked open as people rushed off, steam hissed out of the train, and chatter and smiles filled the air of the station. Walking down the carriages' length, I kept my eye peeled. They were scanning each person as they got off the train till I could find her.
But I couldn't find her, no matter how much I pictured her in my head, I saw nobody who looked like my friend. Should I shout her name out? No, I would look silly.
"Freya? "
Turning around, I saw her. Bonnie. But she didn't look like how I remembered her, she was wrapped in a long white mink coat, and her hair was short and curled. Her face was still young-looking but more mature, with a deep red lipstick plastered across her lips. She held a suitcase and sunglasses in one hand, with her other arm spread out for an awkward hug.
"Freya-" she wrapped one arm around me, pulling me tightly into her mink coat, that was drowned in sickly perfume. "You look... Well, you look the same, " she pulled away from the hug.
"You look different-" an awkward giggle escaped my lips, "What's the hair all about? "
"oh, it's big down in London, " she gently pushed it up, "You never thought about cutting your hair? "
"No... how was the train journey? " I asked, trying to change the subject quickly.
"Oh, the same old from London to Birmingham-" Bonnie looped her arm through mine, as she put her sunglasses back on, even though it was the middle of winter, "Jesus is that your coat? "
Looking down at my shawl, I nodded.
"you must be freezing, you can borrow one of my fur coats... I brought two, just in case. "
As she led me out of the station by my arm, I kept glancing over her, wondering how she had changed so much in only six months. The last time I saw Bonnie she was a plain simple girl, with long brunette hair that she was proud of, she hardly ever wore makeup and never dared to wear anything too frivolous or revealing. As we walked out of the station, she unlooped her arm from mine and started to rummage around her pocket. Taking out a cigarette packet she waved it my way, "Do you want one?"
"Bonnie!" I exclaimed, "I know everyone smokes, but it doesn't mean you should."
Her nose wrinkled as she lit a cigarette between her lips, "Alright, calm down," she giggled, "You sound like my mum!" linking her arm back through mine, a trail of smoke followed us like a steam train. Tobacco stank, but I didn't have the heart to tell Bonnie that the cigarette mixed with her perfume did not smell pleasant. As we walked in silence for a few minutes, she finally stubbed the cigarette on the floor before muttering under her breath, "If you're uncomfortable with me smoking Freya, I won't do it,"
"That would be good, but it won't make a difference, everyone in my household smokes,"
"Where are we going anyway?" Bonnie laughed, looking at me with her deep brown eyes.
"To where I stay of course." I smiled at her laughing, hearing the old Bonnie felt nice. So I squeezed onto her arm more, in hopes of holding that innocent sweet girl for a bit longer as we walked through the bustling streets of Birmingham, together.
***
A
s we walked through Small Heath, I kept looking at Bonnie and her reaction to the streets of Birmingham. Surprisingly she seemed unbothered, apart from dodging the occasional sludge on the edge of the road.
"Did you move here when... " Bonnie's voice trailed off, "You know... "
She was talking about when my mum died. "Yeah... One of my Dads friends from back in the war took me in, "
I hardly had anyone to go to after my mother's death, my father had died during the war while fighting alongside the Shelby brothers. They promised to look after me if anything happened to my mother. And they did so, for the past few months I had been living on Watery Lane with the Shelbys and felt more and more like one of them every day.
"You know, " Bonnie cut into my thinking, "You could've always stayed with me after the incident, surprisingly I am twenty now... "
Twenty yet she couldn't say the words about my mother's death. She called it an incident. Although I was fifteen, I always thought of myself as more mentally mature than Bonnie.
"Yeah... But I wouldn't want to interrupt your new life, "
A sharp laugh escaped her lips, "Just because I dress differently it doesn't mean I have forgotten about you-"
"Better not, " I giggled as we turned down onto watery Lane, "How are you able to afford clothes like that anyway? "Last time I checked, Bonnie was working alongside her mother as a seamstress, did she make the clothes? Buy them? Steal them?
"oh... I just came into some money-" she muttered.
I turned to my accommodation, as I began to unlock the door, "You came into money? "
"yeah... Is this your house-? " She asked, stepping into the small terrace house.
"Yeah... Why is it not up to your new standards? " I chuckled, hanging my shawl up next to the bustle of coats.
