Chapter 25
Nadine gripped the wheel tightly as the needle of the speedometer inched higher and higher by the second. As they left the flat, Nadine had decided that she would drive to Cheryl's as Kimberley was far too wound up. But, upon the realization that this scenario might not actually pan out the way they had both hoped, her nerves weren't much better than her friend's.
Cheryl had become a part of all of their lives since she and Kimberley had become an item and watching the demise of their relationship had hurt all five of the girls. Nadine just hoped beyond hope, that this valiant race wouldn't be in vain.
She tutted as the vehicle in front of them slowed slightly, forcing her to reduce her own speed; a string of expletives leaving her lips as she pressed firmly on her horn for longer than was absolutely necessary.
Kimberley placed her hand on her shoulder softly and shot her a small smile. "It's alright Nads" she told her friend quietly. "It won't be your fault if we don't make it in time"
"We'll make it," Nadine told her firmly, pressing her foot on the accelerator again as the impeding vehicle turned off onto a side road. Moving the car into fifth gear, her brow furrowed in concentration.
"We have to make it"
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Having turned onto Cheryl's street, Nadine barely had time to pull over before Kimberley was out of the car and making her way quickly on foot towards Cheryl's locked gate. Glancing across the street she noticed a man that looked awfully like a paparazzo fidgeting in his car boot. Fortunately, he hadn't seemed to notice Kimberley's dramatic arrival. The last thing they needed was to be photographed at such a crucial moment.
As she reached the gate, she gave it a push but, it was locked, as she assumed it would be. Luckily, Cheryl had an intercom installed so that guests could announce their arrival but with the added bonus of keeping intruders out.
Striding purposefully towards it, Kimberley pressed the buzzer firmly. It was only after she had done this that panic seemed to set in again.
What if she doesn't want to speak to me?
What if she listens to what I have to say but still leaves anyway?
So many different thoughts and scenarios ran through her head as she stood waiting, so engrossed in the multiple possibilities that awaited her, that several moments had passed before she realised that Cheryl hadn't responded.
A little less confident now that she had given herself a mental run-through of all the possible outcomes, she pressed the buzzer a second time with a shaky hand. Waiting again, she turned away from the gate as Nadine jogged up to her.
"I had to park around the corner," she told her slightly out of breath before gesturing to the intercom. "Have you pressed it?" she asked.
Kimberley nodded sadly. "Twice," she informed the Irish girl. "She's not answering. She obviously doesn't want to speak to me"
Shaking her head, Nadine walked up to the device. "No way. The way she was talking this morning, she would have given anything for you to turn up here like this" She pressed the buzzer herself a few times in quick succession , glancing nervously at the house as she did so.
Kimberley was about to denounce her friend's optimism when a male voice rang out from across the road.
"Oi! If you two are lookin' for pictures of Cheryl Tweedy then you're too late!" he shouted to them.
"She left about twenty minutes ago"
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The rain had started to fall as the girls made their way back to the car, making it there just in time before it really started to pour. The sky was black and the air was heavy and, honestly, the atmosphere in the car was no better.
After the photographer had told the girls that Cheryl had left, Kimberley seemed to go numb. Unable to speak or move for several minutes, Nadine had left her at the gate and approached the man to find out what he knew.
Cheryl, it seemed, had left in a hired car driven by a chauffer, but not before placing a large suitcase in the boot first. The pap had assumed that she was heading to an airport, but as for which one, he had no idea. Usually, he had told Nadine, he would have followed the car, but, with the weather taking a turn for the worse, he decided to call it a day. Thanking him for his information, Nadine returned to Kimberley and, after a long embrace, coaxed her back to the car.
The journey back to the flat seemed far longer than the trip to Cheryl's had been and the sound of her best friend trying to choke back desperate sobs caused Nadine's heart to squeeze and her stomach to lurch. She knew it wasn't her fault but she couldn't help but think that if she hadn't pushed Kimberley to go after Cheryl, she wouldn't be facing this devastation now.
Casting a sideways glance at her friend while still trying to concentrate on the road, she noted that she had never seen Kimberley this upset.
She was always the composed one. The one that she and the others went to with their problems. And when Kim herself had a problem, she never ceased to appear calm and collected even when she was crumbling on the inside.
Even in the week since her fight with Cheryl she had maintained a dignified gloom, never truely acknowledging the devastation she was obviously feeling, even to her closest friends. Now, however, it seemed she had given up on her facade.
"I shouldn't have pushed it!" Nadine scolded herself, tearing her eyes away from the crying girl, more so to prevent herself from welling up than anything else. "Yes, she would probably always wonder what might have been but would that really be worse than what she's going through right now?"
Sighing, Nadine shook her head lightly from side to side, concentrating instead on the large, fat, raindrops pounding on the windscreen as she weaved the car through the traffic and back to the flat.
It would be a long night.
