Chapter Five
She walked down the hallway in to the hotels foyer, praying that she wouldn’t bump in to Kimberley. It had taken her almost two hours to choose what to wear and get ready, she didn’t want to look like she was trying too hard, but she didn’t want Kimberley to think that she was not coping very well either.
She settled on a short pink dress and heels and spent most of her time making sure her hair and make up looked perfect. She headed for the doors of the hotel and breathed a sigh of relief as she made it outside without seeing anybody she knew.
She didn’t want to see Kimberley hear, she wasn’t prepared for a meeting in such a public place. A driver heckled her over and she got in the car quickly. After making a bit of small talk and telling him where she was going, he started the engine and headed for the gates.
She sat in the back of the spacious car and idly looked out of the window. Her eyes immediately fell on to Sarah who was just walking out of the hotel doors.
The blonde girl walked out of the hotel first, her hand holding on to somebody else’s. Cheryl craned her neck to see who it was before her car turned off the path and obscured her view.
It had to be Kimberley.
She sat back in the seat and cursed herself for not looking earlier. If the car had been going a bit slower she might have had the chance to look at her.
Would she look different? Or would she be the same Kimberley that Cheryl had watched walk away a year ago?
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Cheryl asked the driver to pull over. They had been sat in the lay by for about half an hour, and she could tell he was getting a bit impatient to get moving. She was close to backing out of the whole thing but something within her seemed to be telling her she needed to do this.
She felt a little bit sick as he pulled back on to the road and made his way to Nadine’s house. He stopped the gates a mile off, having been here a few times since the girl had bought the house.
She looked at it with a mixture of fear and anxiety. Inside those walls was the person that she had been dreaming of for the past 7 years. Inside those walls was the person her heart ached for at night.
-
She got out of the car reluctantly and made her way up the path, stopping just short of the door. She could hear music coming from inside and the sound of laughing.
She fixed a smile on to her face and knocked on the door. It was supposed to be a confident knock, but in reality she could see her hand shaking as she pressed the bell for good measure.
She heard footsteps coming to the door which only seemed to disturb the butterflies that were flapping around in her stomach.
Nadine opened the door and swept her up in to a big hug which temporarily took her mind off just who was inside the house. They spent about ten minutes getting their hello’s out of the way before Nadine stepped aside to let Cheryl in.
“how are you” Nadine asked Cheryl, reading the girl’s feeling of unease.
“sh***ing myself” Cheryl laughed helplessly before following Nadine down her hallway. They stopped to hang Cheryl’s coat up before Nadine opened the door in to the reception area.
Cheryl hung back, waiting for Nadine to go in first. All of her strength was going in to making sure her feet went forwards instead of backwards.
And there she was…
Their eyes connected form across the room, halting Cheryl in her tracks. She sat on the floor next to a small table, her face looking so beautiful that she might have just stepped out of a magazine.
Cheryl swallowed hard and, although she realised that she had stared at her for far too long, her eyes just couldn’t seem to be drawn away.
She looked exactly the same as Cheryl remembered her, from the way she sat, reclined n the floor with her arm holding her weight to the way her face seemed to light up when she smiled.
“Cheryl” Sarah said, from one of the chairs, forcing Cheryl to look away from Kimberley for the first time since she arrived.
“Sarah” Cheryl exclaimed after a few seconds, genuinely relieved to see the girl. She went over to her and hugged her tightly before looking around the room for somewhere to sit.
She decided to play it safe and chose the empty couch opposite Nicola and Kimberley, with Sarah to her side. Nadine handed her a drink before sitting next to her.
Cheryl looked down at the floor, aware that she could feel Kimberley’s eyes on her. She felt self conscious under the close scrutiny and it was all she could do not to look back.
“I’m just getting another drink” Cheryl said after a minute, draining her glass in two gulps. She headed to the kitchen quickly, needing to get out of the room.
-
She rested her arms on the sink and took a few deep breaths to compose herself. Seeing Kimberley had left her a nervous wreck, made even harder by the fact that she couldn’t read the girl’s face.
Although she hadn’t smiled when she saw Cheryl, she couldn’t see that hurt in her eyes that she saw the last time she looked in them.
She closed her eyes tightly as something within her told her that she was no longer alone in the kitchen. She didn’t have to turn around to know who it was, that familiar smell would be with her forever.
“Kimberley” she uttered, so softly that she wasn’t sure if she had even said it. She turned around slowly, as if bracing herself for some kind of shock.
“Cheryl” the older girl replied in her broad accent. How long had it been since she had heard her voice? How long had it been since she was so close to Cheryl that she could actually reach out and touch her.
Kimberley walked in to the kitchen a little before staying near the door. She found her eyes connecting with Cheryl’s, their stare so intense that they could easily have been looking in to each others souls.
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