Britney sat alone at the back of J's somewhere. Her hands were shaking as she gripped her cocktail for dear life. Her back was to the main area if the pub, hoping to stay hidden from Joseph's eyes. She still only seventeen after all.
"All I'm saying is that my popularity with the ladies has only increased since we started playing in here,"
Britney's eyes snapped up at the sound of that familiar voice. She saw Spike talking to Victor and Trixie by the pool table.
"What's your point?" Victor looked at him as if he were stupid; which was debatable.
"I'm just a bit surprised that you two haven't been getting much attention, is all," Spike smugly leaned back against the pool table and raised his pint to his lips.
"Really? I'm not," Trixie scoffed.
"Hey, put yourself down all you like but don't bring me down too," Victor playfully hit her arm.
"Alright, if you're so popular then I expect you to invite me to your wedding," The brunette rolled her eyes, "Anyone have a spare cigarette they wouldn't mind me stealing?"
"There is no such thing as a spare cigarette," Spike reached into the pocket of his denim jacket for a packet of cigarettes. He had barely taken one out when Trixie grabbed it.
"Cheers," She said, already putting it between her lips.
That's when Britney got up, in hopes of following her to the smoking area. But Spike would spot her before that could happen.
"Oh! There she is!" He put a sloppy arm around the girl's shoulder and leaned in to kiss her cheek.
"His number one fan," Victor nodded, "That's what he calls you, Britney,"
"You are, aren't you, sweetheart?"
"I'm actually here for Trixie," Britney said somewhat awkwardly.
"Oh? Maybe you will get some action after all," Spike gently pushed the girl towards his bandmate.
"Fellow me then," Trixie sighed, knowing what the girl wanted.
"I... I-I can't stop thinking about it, Trixie," Britney said once they were outside and unaccompanied.
"Breathe, Brit," Trixie turned away, "What are you thinking about?"
"Someone knows and they got Fiona. It's only a matter of time before they get to me," Britney tried to breathe evenly but her words just came put an anxious babble.
"Fiona probably did worse shit than doing a short term in a whore house with you," Trixie shrugged, lighting the cigarette.
"Trixie, you left around the same time we did," Britney stepped forward, desperate to get her point across.
"So? I've got nothing to do with this," She shook her head, "You guys were never really whores. You only did it because you wanted to have sex, so you came to women who do it for a living. One client each and you didn't even take the money,"
"Trixie, I'm serious. My life is at stake here," Britney's hands were running themselves through her messy hair.
"Calm down, kid. You're scaring me,"
"The axeman is coming for me! He'll execute me for my sins, just like Fiona! He killed Fiona!"
"Calm the fuck down," Trixie grabbed the girl's face and then she saw her dilated pupils, "Brit, what did you take? What have you been taking?"
"...My sins... He's coming for us....," Britney's breathing was jagged, she could barely get her words out of her chapped lips, "He'll get you too,"
"Britney!" Trixie tried but the girl ran back inside the pub again. She followed her but by the time she caught up with her she'd already bumped into someone. Unluckily for her, Britney has bumped into Thomas.
"He'll kill me, he'll find me...," She continued to ramble, "I'm going to die,"
"What's that about?" Victor asked Trixie, handing her drink back to her.
"Nothing,"
•~~×~~•
Tamsin sat alone in her big house. Totally alone. Her parents were on holiday. No special occasion. They just felt it'd been two weeks since their trip to Florence and they needed to get out again. Tamsin's sister was away too. She wasn't sure where. Working residential in the city? She really had no idea. If she was honest, she didn't care either. The staff were gone too. It was a Saturday and her parents always gave their workers the weekend off. She was all on her own. Bored. It was partially her own fault that she was bored. She was just sitting there doing nothing. How was that supposed to help time pass?
Unable to take it anymore, she went online. She went onto Facebook. She hadn't looked at it at all since before she broke it off with Elliott. She probably should've unfriended him while she was online. But she got distracted.
She found a page with local events, all stuff going on in the town. Interesting stuff as well. Not the average coffee morning. There was one on that night. A music night in J's pub. She never went to J's. It wasn't uptown enough for her or her family. But what did she have to lose really?
The photos linked to the page from previous events in the pub showed groups of people, couples, individuals, mates all smiling and having a drink. Looking happy.
She got up from the couch and went to the coat closet, finding her favourite faux fur. She wasn't going to back out if this, she wasn't going to back out of this. No way, not in a million years
She opened the door and it was raining. It was bucketing down, as if the Heavens had opened up.
"Maybe another night," She muttered to herself, quickly shutting the door.
•~~×~~•
And it was Saturday night. And Raphina was working on a school project in her room. Just a simple slideshow/PowerPoint presentation about the growth of plants. That was the best thing about being in Transition Year in school. The work was not plentiful and the little work given was very simple.
There were three taps on her window. She looked over to see Francis waving at her. She wasn't expecting him to come over. Was he surprising her? He wasn't a very romantic boy, so that seemed unlikely.
"Francis," She opened the window, "What're you doing here? I didn't know you were coming over tonight,"
"I.. eh..," He got distracted straight away by her clothes, "You're wearing jeans... and a hoodie. You've been taking your meds?"
"Yeah, I guess so," She shrugged, sitting back by her desk again, "My parents made up a chart to follow, like a timetable for school but, y'know, for my pills,"
"Cool cool, it looks like it's helping," He nodded, pleased but awkward. He didn't come over to be very pleasant and he hated himself for it but couldn't put it off for much longer, "Listen, Raph, I... We... If we could... maybe, uh," He rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He had gone through it in his head for a week, it was far more difficult in real life though.
"You think we should talk?" The girl said.
"Yes! That's the one," He pointed at her, glad to have his words found for him, "Raph, we need to talk.... about us,"
"Okay?" Raphina started twirling in her office chair. Part of her just wanted to get her project on plants finished.
"For the past while, I've been thinking. Like, really thinking and, Raph, it's been so hard," He started to pace, trying to clear his head, it probably wouldn't help though, "This relationship is too much for me right now and I think we should just be friends,"
"What?"
It definitely wouldn't help.
"...What I mean by that is-"
"You're breaking up with me because of my condition," Her eyes bore into him, making him want to shudder.
"I'll still be able to help you if something goes really wrong but-"
"You're breaking up with me because of my condition," She repeated, but slower, "...And because you're in love with Olivia,"
"What? No, no. I'm being an asshole, I know. But I'm not totally heartless," He argued, panic evident on his face.
"It's fine," She sighed, looking back to her laptop screen. It had the picture of a daisy on it. The next slide was supposed to be the seedlings in the earth beginning to grow.
"It's not fine," He said. His words made her lean back in her chair, in thought.
"Yeah, you're right. Get out of my house," She ordered, but quite calmly, "Now Francis,"
"I'm so sorry, Raph," He looked at her sorrowfully. He felt awful. But he couldn't ignore that he didn't have feelings for her anymore, none of it was fair. He turned to climb out the window again.
Raphina tried to settle back into the PowerPoint work again. But her eyes fell on the brown bottle of medication. That was the source of her problems, wasn't it? All this medication, for some stupid illness.
She grabbed the bottle and threw it against her bedroom wall, letting it smash. Little bits of glass and pills littered the far left corner of her room. She buried her face in her hands, ignoring her parents calling up to her and she began to cry.
