persia.
"Christ, Persia! If you don't hurry up we're goin'-ta miss the bus!" My twin Kya yelled up the stairs to me.
"Give me a sec!" I yelled back down the stairs. I put the small, tattered diary back under the mattress. There was an ident in exact spot I had out it for as many years as I could remember. This wasn't my bedroom anymore though, so it remained unopened for a long time, and the pages crackled as I had turned them for the first time in almost three years today.
I left my childhood bedroom and bulleted down the familiar staircase of my families' summer home.
"What in the world took you so long?" Kya snapped as she grabbed the house keys off the table.
"I was just, um... Reminiscing?" I said, unsure of what else to say.
"And people say I'm the sensitive one? Huh. Leave the reminiscing to me from now on, yeah?" She said matter-of-factly and then the two of us rushed out the door.
The sea air assaulted me instantly as we made our way down the steep hill the the road the bus stop was on. The road had a railing because it was on the edge of a cliff, so that you don't slip and fall to your death trying to run for the bus.
The stop stop was ancient here, it was like a little small grey house with a little bench inside. Buses were few and far between here, because the town was coastal and in the middle of no where. But it was nice out here, an it was filled with happy memories too.
We waited under the shelter if the bus stop. I pulled a red box out of my back pocket, opened it up and pointed it in Kya's direction.
"Ciggy, sis?" I shook the box slightly, making the thing cigarettes rattle a bit.
"You know I'm trying to quit, you fuck." She snapped.
"Suit yourself, hun." I said, balancing one in between my teeth.
She huffed so I handed her the box again. She took another cigarette out and tutted to herself as she shoved it in between her two lips.
I took the lighter out of my pocket and lit both of the cigarettes up. We stood in silence, blowing smoke out of the grey-brick bus shelter. In the back arse of Wales in the middle of no where. Kya had to text the bus company so that we would know when the bus coming. Everything was so... Rural?
Having a summer house here might give people the idea we were rich, but it was quite the opposite. We weren't rich, just lucky. When we were seven our parents won one hundred grand in the lottery and spent every penny on a house here. They didn't want to keep the money, so both of them agreed to buying a house in South Wales, by the sea. Funny thing is we already lived in Wales. But they loved it here so they wanted to buy a place they could visit whenever they wanted to get away.
After they bought it, we went there every summer. But other than that, life was completely the same.
Eventually the bus came and we got on. We zoomed through lots of little villages by the sea, all kind of the same in a way.
We eventually reached a town, where we got off to get the train. We waited in the station for a bit. The train to Cardiff wasn't for another hour. The station was run down, because it was regional. Just a stop on the way. Most of the other people waiting were old biddies off into the city for a Saturday outing. Middle-aged mums with bratty children whining about having to wait.
There was one chap, sitting on a creaky seat, shaking his knee impatiently, fiddling with his cap. He got up off the seat and went round to the platform, pulling a black box out of his pocket. He was a few years older than me, but he had these wise eyes, they looked like they knew a lot more than most people his age.
"I'm getting a pastie, P. Want something?" Kya asked, getting up to go over the the little bakery inside the station.
"Uh...no I'm alright, thanks." I said, shaking my hand to dismiss her. She scurried off into the station. I decided to venture out onto the platform to follow the lad in the cap.
He stood on the deserted platform, cigarette in between his lips, but it wasn't lit. He looked a but bummed out.
I pulled out my box of fags, and my lighter too. I lit up a smoke and put it in my mouth. He looked over at me.
"Need a light?" I asked, and he nodded, coming closer to me. I flicked the lighter and moved it up to his mouth. The cigarette caught the flame and smoke started blowing furiously in the wind.
"Thanks, lass." He smiled a bit.
"S'alright." I smiled back.
"Have you got a name, love?" He asked me, clearly finding some sort of entertainment in our conversation.
"Persia. And yours?"
"Johnny, but I usually go by Bondy." He nods.
"Ah, nice. So what brings you to a place like Bridgend, Bondy?" He didn't look like the usual type from around here, then again, neither did I.
"Not really sure, ended up here by getting on the wrong train, now I'm trying to get back to Cardiff for a gig." He explains, and I nod.
"A gig? So are you like, in a band then?" I ask, he has that look about him. Long hair, cap, wise eyes.
"Yeah, I only just became a member a few months back, the other lads have a been trying to make it for a while now, I think we're on to something good though."
I was interested. He continued on.
"What brings you here then, lass?" He asks.
Just then Kya comes around the corner with a plastic bag.
"Wow, Persia. Thanks for letting me know you were going off." She says dramatically, and both Bondy and I chuckle at her.
"It's your lucky day anyway." She pulls something out of the plastic bag. "Pasties were two for one." She hands me a small packet. I take out the box from my back packet. She huffs again, but takes a cigarette anyway. How was she expecting to give up smoking with absolutely no willpower?
"I appreciate it, sis." I tell her, then I turn back to Bondy.
"Me and my sister here." I gesture my sister who is now stuffing her face with a pasty while holding a lit cigarette in the other hand. "We're doing a little cultural expedition. Getting to know our home land a bit better, you know? Like a weird sort of pilgrimage."
He laughed again, I was glad I could amuse him. He seemed awfully interesting. I hope I sounded interesting to him too.
"How would you two lasses like to end your pilgrimage with some homegrown music, then?" She throws a nod to my story.
"Sounds brill!" Kya shouts, mouth half full, cigarette burning down quicker than a church on fire.
"You gonna smoke that, Ky? Or just inhale the smoke along with your pasty?" I laughed at my unfortunate sister.
She scolded me with her eyes.
"Great." Bondy says lightly. "You'll love it, I'm sure." He smiles happily.
The train pulls up at the station. We all get on it together, as some sort of weird trio, like the powerpuff girls, only less cute.
