Chapter Fifteen
Kimberley laughed at her, in that half playful, half flirtatious way that only she could, and half the time she didn’t even realise she was doing it.
Cheryl smiled, she felt at ease. It had been a long couple of months and for a few weeks of those months she had been more than sure that her and Kimberley’s friendship wouldn’t have been able to survive, but somehow, despite the odds, it was slowly starting to go back to normal.
She had pushed the thoughts of regret and missed opportunities out of her head, of course they were still in there somewhere, buried deep down with the guilt at cheating on her husband and the shame of having to tell Kimberley she was going back to him, but thankfully, in the past few weeks, she hardly had time to know what day it was, let alone how she was feeling.
She didn’t dwell on how the older girl must have been feeling throughout it all, she couldn’t let her self think about it because she knew it was sure to break what was left of her heart.
She had hurt her terribly, and although Kimberley had seemingly forgiven her, she knew that forgiving herself would be much harder.
“I’ll call you tomorrow” came Nadine’s familiar twang, she was already half out of the front door, looking back in Cheryl’s direction. She watched the younger girl go before letting her eyes fall on to Kimberley who was sat at a table by the window, looking out to the garden.
Cheryl sighed quietly to herself before walking over to the girl who was sat on a chair with her upper body leaning on the wall. Her eyes flickered over to Cheryl, registering her presence before going back to the tranquil spot in the garden.
“Penny for your thoughts” Cheryl said quietly, mimicking Kimberley’s action by leaning against the wall.
“You were stood in the garden” Kimberley mumbled, resisting the urge to look at Cheryl as she spoke.
“What?” Cheryl asked with a frown, her eyes danced across Kimberley’s face, even though they had barely said a word to each other, she could sense that the atmosphere had changed when Nadine had left.
“When I first realised that I wanted you…you were stood by the trellis over there with a tray full of lemonade, you looked at me and my heart melted. Its funny though because a part of me knew on that day that I’d never want anyone the way that I wanted you then”
The calm in the younger girls voice unnerved Cheryl, she swallowed hard before sitting on the chair next to Kimberley.
“You never told me that” Cheryl replied simply, she reached her hand over to Kimberley’s hand which was resting on the table and took it in her own.
“It wouldn’t have made a difference” Kimberley replied with a sigh.
“You don’t know that” Cheryl said softly, finding herself interlocking her fingers with Kimberley’s.
Kimberley looked down to the ground and smiled softly, the sadness in it was not lost on Cheryl as she let go of the younger girls hand.
“We slept together and you still went back to him Cheryl…it wouldn’t have made a difference”
Chapter Sixteen
The wind had begun to pick up outside, in fact it was already trying to make itself known by rustling the trees so much that they banged against the windows in Cheryl’s home.
It had been such a calm day that it had taken Cheryl by surprise, she glanced down at Kimberley who was still looking out of the window towards the garden.
“It looks like its going to rain” the older girl said after a minute or two, the simple statement caught Cheryl off guard after the contrast of the previous statement she had made.
As if by magic, the first few droplets of rain began to fall from the sky, hitting the dining room window and making their way down slowly until they mingled with more drops, coming to a halt on the window frame.
Cheryl looked up to the sky, breaking off her contact from the back of Kimberley’s head, she could tell it was going to be a stormy night. The wind was already howling, it was beating against the wooden fence that defined the parameter of her garden and somewhere in the distance she could hear a gate swinging shut.
“I should probably get off home” Kimberley said, breaking through Cheryl’s silent thoughts. She pushed herself up from out of the chair and finally broke her gaze from outside and flashed Cheryl the smallest of smiles.
Cheryl gave a laugh of incredulity before shaking her head, “You can’t drive in that weather Kimberley”
“Well I can’t stay here” Kimberley replied picking her bag up and scanning the room for her coat.
She walked over to a chair in the corner of the room that she had thrown it on earlier, Cheryl followed, getting there a moment before her and putting her hands over the coat so that she couldn’t pick it up.
“You can stay in the spare bedroom, were both going to the same place tomorrow anyway, it makes more sense” Cheryl said calmly as she tried to think up reasons of why it was a good idea to have Kimberley stay in her house.
She watched as the elder girl smiled thoughtfully but shook her head, “I can’t be hear when Ashley gets home” she protested, resting her hand on the chair next to Cheryl’s so she could grab her coat.
Cheryl didn’t say anything, she wasn’t sure if there was anything she could say. Kimberley had made a point of avoiding Ashley at all costs since the day Cheryl told her she was going back to him, if ever they were likely to be in the same room, it would always be the older girl who would phone to cancel.
It saddened Cheryl that her friends didn’t get along with her husband, there were never any occasions when they all just went out, if they called around they could never just chat to him whilst she got ready upstairs, but she had come to get used to that over the years.
“He wont mind you staying you know” Cheryl assured her.
Kimberley stopped and looked at her for a long moment, her eyes searched the younger girls who found it increasingly hard to meet her gaze.
“If you want to play happy families Cheryl, then I wont stop you, but don’t expect me to join in”
She grabbed her coat from off the back of the chair and headed for the front door, Cheryl followed behind her but did nothing to stop her from leaving.
Kimberley opened the door and felt the wind hit her face immediately, it whipped up both of their hair around their faces and sprinkled the rain against their cheeks.
She looked back at Cheryl one last time before stepping out in to the front garden and headed over to her car, the wind and heavy rain making it hard for her to walk.
“Kimberley…”
She was just about to open her car when the sound of Cheryl’s voice caught her off guard, she turned around to look towards the front door to find Cheryl making her way up the pathway.
The wind blew her hair in to a frenzy and the rain had already soaked her thin clothing but it didn’t seem to be bothering her as she made her way towards Kimberley hastily.
Kimberley looked at her quizzically, her heart was in her mouth as she watched the girl coming towards her, normally she was so easy to read but this time, in that one moment, she knew that anything could have happened.
She stopped a couple of inches from where Kimberley was standing, and for the longest moment, or what seemed like the longest moment to Kimberley, she said nothing, instead she wiped the heavy rain from her face and slicked her wet hair back.
“Wherever you’re going…wherever it is” Cheryl said, her voice cracking with emotion as she wiped away more rain from her lips.
“Take me with you”
