Broken Shoes

Chapter 3

Broken Shoes

Chapter 3

“Hey, are you Gwen Lloyd?” a boy with curly hair asked, I nodded. “Cool, mind if we sit?” I shook my head. As they pulled up chairs I looked over at Betty who was behind the counter, she raised her eyebrows at me and mouthed ‘five?!’ I just looked at her helplessly.

“Tea all round, yeah?” the boys had pulled up an extra table and were discussing what to have. The curly haired boy was standing, ready to go and order their drinks.

“Yeah!” they coursed back. “Hey, do they sell food here? I’m hungry!” realisation hit me; it was the Irish boy from the phone! Well at least I recognised one of them. They were all looking at me; I blushed and looked down at my hot chocolate. I realised that the Irish boy had asked me the question and blushed a deeper shade of red and said that Betty sold homemade cakes. They all swarmed over to the counter to choose their cakes while I sat and waited.

            As they sat and ate, I waited for introductions, so when none came and they started chatting I began to feel uneasy.

“So where are you from, Gwen?”

“Huh, what sorry?”

“I noticed you had an accent and was wondering where you’re from.” Alarm bells went off in my head, no way was I telling complete strangers where I’m from, not a chance!

“I – I’m not going to tell you.” They all looked at me with confusion written all over their faces.

“Why not?”

“Because you are all complete strangers, and I have no idea why I’m even here. Duw, pam ydw i ‘ma (God, why am I here)?! I started to get up but one of them, the foreign looking one, grabbed my arm, his fingers were closing around my wrist. I tried to pull my arm out of his grasp, but he was too strong.

“Let go of me! Let go of me please! Gad lonydd i mi! Gwllwng fi! Plis, gwllwng fy mraich, dwi’m ‘di ‘neud dim byd (Let me be! Let go of me! Please, let go of me arm, I haven’t done anything)! I was panicking now, trying desperately to free my arm from his grasp, switching to welsh subconsciously and started to talk really quite fast. Memories of my childhood flashed in my mind.

“Whoa, calm down, I’ve let go!” he was holding his arm in the air as if I was pointing a gun at him. An arm came around my shoulders and guided me to a chair with its back to the boys. Betty sat me down and pulled me into a hug, rubbing my back. I started to sob remembering how my mother used to do the same when I was younger. I clung to Betty and cried into her shoulder, the boys all sat and watched in silence.

            After a while I calmed down and Betty handed me a tissue then went to change the sign on the door from open to closed. I glanced at the clock, 12:00am. I stared down at my lap fiddling with the tissue, trying to ignore the boys that were talking quietly and glancing regularly at me. A hand touched my shoulder lightly and I jumped in my seat.

“Hey, its ok.” One of the boys had pulled up a chair and sat in front of me. “Sorry for not introducing ourselves, we thought everyone knew who we are, I guess not… I’m Liam.” He held out his hand for me to shake, I slowly reached forward and shook it. “Do you want me to introduce you to the boys?” I looked down and shrugged. Liam got up and offered me his hand, I shrunk away from it not knowing what his intention was. “Hey, I was only trying to help you up.” I blushed and reached out and put my hand in his, he pulled me up and handed me a crutch while holding onto my arm. He helped me over to their table and sat me down. I smiled my thanks at him, the other boys were silent. I looked at them and realised that they were all staring at me and I looked over at Liam then down at my lap.