*Italics - in the past.
Chapter Ten
They made small talk whilst Kimberley was at the bar, but if truth be told, neither of them particularly wanted to be there.
Justin played with his phone nervously as Cheryl twiddled her thumbs, willing Kimberley to hurry up at the bar. She had reluctantly agreed to meet up with Kimberley and Justin to have a few drinks, but she was regretting it now as she realised she had absolutely nothing to say to him.
She almost breathed a loud sigh of relief as she seen Sarah making her way towards their large table at the club. Whenever any of them met somebody new, they always went through the same vetting ritual, and although Cheryl knew straight away that Justin would be well received by the others, she herself was finding it hard to control her jealousy towards him.
It wasn’t his fault. But he definitely didn’t deserve her. There was nothing remarkable about him, he didn’t have them in stitches when he talked and he didn’t fill the silence with interesting chatter, but he must have had some good qualities otherwise he wouldn’t have been sat next to her.
“am I glad to see you?” Cheryl said in a low voice in to the blonde girl’s ear as they embraced before Sarah took her place at the table. Cheryl watched as they made small talk with each other and wondered if Sarah was thinking the same as her.
It wasn’t long until Kimberley had arrived back, although Cheryl felt disappointed when she chose to sit next to Justin and Sarah instead of next to her.
Nadine and Nicola soon arrived and it wasn’t long before everybody was getting pleasantly merry and trying to make Justin feel welcome in to their little close knit group.
Cheryl found herself staring at Kimberley who was sat across the table from her, she found herself wondering what it was that Kimberley had seen in Justin? Surely she had all the qualities he had?
She made Kimberley laugh, sometimes she made her cry from laughter…Justin hadn’t done that had he? Justin hadn’t been there in the middle of the night when Kimberley was ill, he hadn’t held her hand when she was in pain or stroked her head when he knew she was having a nightmare.
Cheryl was the one who had done all those things, but still Kimberley refused to open her eyes and see her.
-
“so…what do you think?” Nadine asked, leaning over the basins in the women’s toilets to get closer to the mirror. She applied another layer of mascara to her lashes whilst glancing over at Cheryl who she had directed the question towards.
Cheryl shrugged her shoulders as she mirrored Nadine’s stance to apply her lip gloss.
“he seems a bit… wet” Cheryl replied, puckering her lips together before standing back from the mirror.
“well you’re the one that goes for the bad boys, not Kimberley” Nadine joked in her Irish twang. Cheryl nodded her agreement and hoped Nadine wouldn’t start questioning her about the sorry state of affairs that was her own love life.
“I just think…” Cheryl shrugged, and stopped to think of an adequate word to describe what she was feeling towards Justin.
“that he makes her happy and that’s all that matters?” Nadine interjected, rolling her eyes to the ceiling.
“you took the words right out of my mouth” Cheryl replied sarcastically.
“its not up to us to point out his flaws Cheryl, she seems to be genuinely happy and that’s what we all care about isn’t it?” The younger girl said as she turned the tap on and ran her hands under the water.
“that’s the only thing I care about Nadine” Cheryl responded, handing the girl a paper towel to dry her hands.
“well then why do you look like you want to cause trouble?” Nadine asked, raising her eyebrow teasingly.
If only she knew the real answer to that question…
“don’t you think she deserves someone better?” Cheryl asked, hoping the question didn’t sound as bitchy in real life as it did in her head.
“what…someone like you, you mean?” Nadine replied, her tone suddenly changing. Cheryl felt her cheeks blush at Nadine’s words.
“no, course not” she said back to the younger girl, a bit too defensively.
Nadine looked at her knowingly before shaking her head.
“she’s happy Cheryl”
It wasn’t so much what Nadine was saying, it was the way she said it. It was a warning not to say anything to upset the other girl. Cheryl wondered just how much Nadine knew about her feelings towards Kimberley, and although they had never discussed it, she feared that it was obvious to everybody, everybody that was…but the girl herself.
“you think I’m jealous don’t you?” Cheryl laughed towards the girl.
“are you?” Nadine asked honestly, putting her bag down on the sink so that she could brush through her hair.
“no” she replied rather sharply.
“I think you’re jealous that he is going to take your best friend away from you” Nadine replied with a sigh.
Cheryl frowned to her in the mirror, although secretly she was relieved that Nadine was fairly wide of the mark.
“you’re always going to be her friend Cheryl, no body will take that away” Nadine went on, putting a reassuring arm on Cheryl’s back as they made their way out of the toilets.
-
Cheryl swallowed hard at the lump that was forming in her throat. She didn’t want to remember all this, but something inside her was forcing her to keep thinking about it, something inside her wanted those last few days to play over and over again in her head like a broken record.
She laughed sadly at Nadine’s last words to her. Words that at the time, she had believed whole heartedly. Now though, nothing could have been further from the truth.
Kimberley was in the very same hotel as her, just one floor down. They were so close to each other it was almost heart breaking.
So close, yet inside, they were oceans apart.
