Every rose has its thorn.

Chapter Three: Agree to disagree

January 19th

"Come on lover boy, let's hear the plan!" Teased Lauren, tousling my hair as we made our way to the metro station. We had been close friends from pretty much the minute we met, and I always found myself cherishing every second spent with her. She was slightly taller than me at around six foot, and had radiant blonde hair which hung down at just below shoulder length, which seemed to shine even more powerfully than the sun. She wore a mischievous smile which was equally as stunning, and had the ability to light up a room of it's own accord.

"Since when have you been so interested in my love life?" I replied, laughing.

"Since you and Anna decided to flirt at any second you get!" She joked. I smiled and shook my head lightly, putting my hair back into place and making it look somewhat acceptable.

"Fine, if you must know, I'm going to take her to Marcelle's. It's this little French restaurant that she loves down by the seaside.Then i'm going to take her for a romantic, sunset walk along the beach. If all of that goes well, I'll take her back to my house." I finished, grinning broadly.

"Nice plan! How long has it been since you started seeing each other?" She questioned as we neared the tunnel leading down to the station. A distinct smell was forming, the smell of sweat and other things that didn't bear thinking about.

Oh how I loathed public transport.

"One month tomorrow." I replied after a short pause. Lauren seemed almost stunned at this statement.

"Christ, that's pretty long, especially considering Anna's...track record." She said, trailing off and sounding slightly unsure about her wording. I sighed heavily.

"I've been getting enough of that shit from Daniel. Anyway, it's our day out, can't we change the subject rather than lingering on possible events?" I asked, not wanting to think any more on how Anna's relationships tended to end.

The train arrived around ten minutes later, by which point we were already deep in conversation about what to do in town.

"Cinema?" I suggested, stepping onto the train and quickly finding a pair of seats before someone else took them.

"There is absolutely nothing good on." Replied Lauren. There was a brief moment of silence, before suddenly Lauren seemed to notice something.

"Look over there, the two slags in the matching shirts.It's those girls from the other week, the ones that tried to get Daniel jumped!" She said angrily, staring daggers at them from across the compartment.

"Don't bother Lauren, nothing even happened." I said reassuringly, but she didn't seem convinced.

"That's only because you, Ryan and Jack stood up for him. If you hadn't been there, he'd probably be in hospital right now." She spat, looking as if she was going to attack at any minute.

Our not-so-secret conversation had attracted the attention of a group of teenagers standing by the girls. One turned to the nearest girl, and began to talk to her. She was fairly short and unattractive, the kind of girl that covers themselves in an entire bottle of fake tan and several layers of make up before she leaves the house every morning. Her face was rough and narrow, with badly concealed spots popping out from every angle. After a short talk, the two girls turned to face us, before standing up and advancing angrily.

"The fuck did you call us, whore?" Screamed the other girl, walking over and pushing Lauren who had anticipated her anger and stood in preparation. I followed suit, cracking my knuckles in the process. The girl swung for a heavy handed slap, but Lauren reacted instantly, grabbing her arm in her left hand and driving a punch into the girls face with her right.

"I can do a lot more than that, so you'd better fucking run!" She screamed as the girl clutched her face. One of the males from the group launched a fist Lauren's way, but I intercepted it at just the right time. His fist ricochet off my palm, diverting it's course and slamming directly into the steel wall of the train. Terrified, the Chavs scurried to the back of the compartment, clearly at a loss for words. I looked at Lauren and smiled triumphantly.

"What do you know, all those years of Karate paid off."

After our little show, we were eager to get off the train. Despite their earlier withdrawal, the Chavs had grown in number a few stops down the road, and they seemed to have gained a few formidable looking cronies. We reached the Monument station and hurriedly departed, leaving them in our wake.

"Right," She began looking around. "I'm hungry, can we go to Beckelberry's for an ice-cream or something?" She asked, and I readily agreed. A short walk later, we arrived at Beckleberry's. Once we had our ice-creams, we found a quiet spot down one of the streets near the town centre and sat down.

"So you think tomorrow will be the night, you know, you and Anna?" She asked, smiling softly. We always talked about relationships when we were out together, and I was more than willing to open up in front of her.

"Yeah, I hope so. I think I might be in love with her." I admitted. She simply kept smiling and rubbed my arm.

"Just..don't let her hurt you like she did the others. I know you say she has changed, and I don't want to be the sceptic, but let's just agree to disagree" She said, almost pleading. I smiled back and hugged her, feeling her silken hair against my cheek.

"I won't, I promise."