Chapter Nineteen - Part 2
New romance for Cheryl that might break Will.I.am’s heart.
Cheryl Tweedy rumoured to have been dating rapper Will.I.am with whom she collaborated with for their still top of the charts, smash hit heartbreaker, has now been spotted out with a mystery man on numerous occasions, see pic above.
I looked at the picture, even though I knew I shouldn’t, I knew the media make up things to sell magazines, but there was still a part of me believing what they were saying. The picture wasn’t suggestive, just Cheryl with this man, seemingly having a joke or two, it didn’t mean anything did it?
Eight weeks, eight long weeks, that’s how long it’s been since I last spoke to her. I rang her, the night Nadine told me to, it took me ages to actually pluck up the courage and do it and then some guy answered, I’m presuming the guy in the picture, telling me she was busy, but in other words telling me she’d moved on. The other girls tell me that isn’t true, but I don’t believe them.
The day after that Cheryl rang me, but I was angry that she was with a guy already that late at night and I was upset that I had lost her, so rightly or wrongly I didn’t answer. That’s the last time there was any kind of contact. That’s how I came to be sat on my sofa on my own, on a Saturday night alone. I’d had invitations out, but today I really didn’t feel like it.
I was slowly coming to terms with the fact that I had to move on from Cheryl, that she wasn’t coming back and this wasn’t just a ‘break.’ I think it was awkward for the girls too, to see their two best friends they had to do it separately. Of course the girls for the first weeks egged me to ring her again, but eventually they got the message that it was a very sensitive subject, now it would be passing comments, that I usually ignored, to the much ‘tutting’ from Nadine, the roll of the eyes from Sarah and the long drawn out sigh from Nicola, I’m sure Cheryl was getting the same treatment, although I never asked.
I decided to settle down and pick out a good movie, scanning the rack it was so frustrating, living here, no matter what I did, it would remind me of Cheryl ,
“But Cheryl, I hate scary movies,”
“This isn’t that scary Walsh,” Cheryl tried to convince, as she pulled out a dvd from the rack.
“Cheryl,” I sighed, taking the case off her and frowning at it, “It’s an 18 and it’s called ‘Texas chainsaw massacre, it doesn’t sound not scary,”
“Aww,” Cheryl beamed, moving up from the floor and placing herself on top of me, gently putting a strand of hair behind my ear, “I’ll look after you I promise,” she grinned.
“Will you hold my hand?”
“I’ll hold your hand,” she whispered, kissing it gently.
I sighed, trying to distract myself, eventually settling down with an easy watch comedy, as soon as the starting credits were rolling, the lights went off, as did the t.v in fact anything that was powered by electric was off, great, a power cut.
I groaned loudly, this was exactly what I needed, I was alone at night, in a very dark flat. What the hell was I going to do now? Buster was running around wildly, he clearly knew something was up, Cheryl had seen him a handful of times, with one of the girls taking him to her on occasional afternoons, as far as I knew she was still living in a hotel, but with the money she must be earning with the single going multi platinum – blah blah, I guess she could afford it.
I decided to go check on Hilda, the old women who lived down the lobby, me and Cheryl would always look after her if something happened, it had been half an hour and the electric still hadn’t come back on. I made my way carefully out the door, with a torch in hand, I walked the short walk to Hilda’s door and tapped on the door. I waited a moment, sometimes it could take her a time to move around, but I still couldn’t hear anything, I knocked again, this time louder yet still I could hear no sounds of life, something wasn’t right. Hilda had no family around here and if she was going to stay with them she would always let me and Cheryl know, well I guess just me now.
I quickly made my way back to the flat, Hilda had given us a spare key years ago just in case of emergencies, I was counting this as an emergency, I just knew something wasn’t right.
After having made my way back to Hilda’s door in the dark, I slid the key in the lock, cautiously entering the flat, not really knowing what to expect, I called out for her, but to no answer, I entered her kitchen, the lay out to the flat was similar to my own, and I gasped as what I saw. Hilda, lying in a pool of blood, all swirling from a gash in her head,
“Oh my god, Hilda!” I cried, running over, I checked for a pulse, thank god there was a faint one. Pulling my phone from my pocket I dialled 999, I was told to wait with her and the ambulance wouldn’t be long.
I felt completly helpless, the operator told me not to move her, and from what I could make out she had obviously slipped in the dark and hit her head. After what felt like a life time two paramedics barged in, I moved out of the way, watching them trying in vain to stabilise her.
“Would you like to come in the ambulance?” The paramedic asked, as they stretchered Hilda out.
I looked towards Hilda, she looked so fragile led there, her family wouldn’t be able to get down here for at least the night, so I accepted, “Yes, yes I would.”
*
The ride in the ambulance was horrible, going fast, with Hilda’s fragile, pale body the only thing to look at. I was now waiting in the waiting room, it was quiet and sombre, just like any late night at a hospital. Eventually after a while, a doctor strode towards me, I stood up to acknowledge him, “Hello,” he smiled, “are you with Mrs Hilda Smith?”
“Yes I am,” I answered, “how is she doing?”
“It’s touch and go, but she seems to be stable for now, you can go in though – if you would like,”
“Yes, I’d like to,” I replied.
“That’s fine, it would be nice if she had someone to wake up to. Do you think you could try contacting her family? And maybe a friend for you? It gets awfully lonely in here at night,” he smiled.
I nodded, “of course,”
Luckily I had some of Hilda’s familys numbers on my phone, none of them answered, but I left several messages on each of their answering machines, doing no more I sighed, Cheryl loved Hilda, Cheryl ought to know what’s going on, no matter what was going on between me and her, she had to know this, I picked up my phone and dialled the number, not sure if I was expecting an answer,
“Kimberley?” A sleepy sounding geordie voice answered,
“Yeah, it’s me,”
