Chim- Can she fix it? YES SHE CAN

Chapter 27

“Oww!” 

Cheryl winces as Kimberley dabs the fading purply-yellow mark on her left cheek with a cotton wool ball soaked in ointment.

“Sorry, you’ve got to admit this stuff does work though”

“Yeah” Cheryl grimaces, “I still can’t believe it came up in a bruise, must‘ve been your ring”

Discarding the cotton wool ball Kimberley leans forward, taking Cheryl in her arms and holding her tightly.

“I can’t apologise enough, I feel awful”

“I wasn’t looking for another apology pet.  Anyway we agreed the other night was an end to it, right?”

Kimberley nods and Cheryl runs her hands down her girlfriend’s back, giving her generous bottom a light squeeze.

It had been a week since the traumatic day of the interview.  Cheryl and Kimberley had kissed and made up all night long but that didn’t prevent the other girls from asking questions about the small bruise rapidly forming on the Geordie’s cheekbone.  Not wishing to lie to her best friend’s Cheryl had explained what really happened.  They were all shocked and Nicola, vehemently loyal as usual, had to be prevented from giving Kimberley a slap of her own.  Eventually they’d all conceded that, as both parties were under a considerable amount of stress at the time, forgiveness was the best option.

“Knock, knock…hope I‘m not interrupting?”

Cheryl and Kimberley turn from their embrace to find Sarah hovering in the doorway, a newspaper clutched in her hand.

“No, not at all come in” Kimberley smiles, loosening her grip on Cheryl as the blonde passes her the tabloid.

“Me an’ Nads were picking up some stuff from the shops and she saw this, we thought you’d best know”

Cheryl unfolds the paper, reading the headline and first lines of the article out loud.

“‘EXCLUSIVE - BRAVE KIMBA COMES OUT!  TV celeb reveals struggle with sexuality in shocking new magazine interview’”

“I’m guessing you’d not seen it” Sarah comments, a concerned look on her face as Kimberley moves to steady herself against the table, her face pale.

“Are you ok babe?” Cheryl questions gently.

“Yeah…yeah…just a little shocked…didn’t expect it to be so soon…someone at the magazine must’ve leaked it to the papers”

Taking a deep breath she lowers herself into a chair, her hands trembling as she takes the paper from Cheryl and starts reading.  A few moments of tense silence later she looks up, clearing her throat.

“Get me a glass of water please babe”

“Sure” Cheryl fills a glass and passes it to her, “how…er…how is it then?”

“Not bad” Kimberley replies, gulping most of the water down in one go, “better than I expected to be honest, they’ve just quoted bits from the interview, made me seem like quite the martyr really.  Banging on about how I was stuck in a loveless marriage, both of us struggling to come to terms with our true feelings.  It’s all crap of course but it makes me look much better than the truth would”

She pauses, studying the emotions on Cheryl’s face.

“Do you think that makes me a bad person?  Lying like this I mean.  I can’t help but think that if I’d just been brave and come out years ago I could’ve been a role model, helped people maybe”

“Don’t beat yourself up about it” Cheryl smiles, stroking a hand over Kimberley’s hair and leaning down to kiss the top of her head, “you’re out now and that’s what counts”