Leaving London

Chapter One

Chapter One

"So, what can I get you, girls?" The Starbucks barista asks, glancing past our scuffled hair and skewed ties...the results of another long day at school.

"A tall vanilla latte please and...what was it you wanted, you two?" I pipe up, directing the question towards two of my friends, Kayla and Amy. They place their order too, and we collect our drinks, paper-wrapped straws and go and find our usual spot.

Once we're all crammed into our regular seats (the corner where there's a collapsed-yet-comfy sofa and easy access to the cutlery and napkins), we can all finally wind down. It's been a long Friday at school, and all we want is to chill out together for a bit before heading off to our busy weekends. We do this a lot, which is a major perk of attending school in London - we can wander down to the shops or grab a coffee on the walk back up to our houses, which is something to look forward to once our lessons are finished.

However, on this occasion I don't quite think it's going to be as relaxing or enjoyable as we're hoping it to be.

"Guys," I sigh, slicing through my thoughts and forcing myself to speak, "There's something I ought to tell you." I take in a large gulp, wiping the palms of my clammy hands on my school skirt and trying to still my heartbeat. I really need to get this off my chest.

"Wait, one second Fearne," Kayla announces, who's busy recounting every single detail of the text messages she received from her crush, "C'mon, what does 'See you later' really mean?"

Amy taps her paper straw nervously against the lid of her frappé. She shoots an apologetic glance in my direction, but is so engrossed in discussing Kayla's love life that she grabs the phone from Kayla to read the messages, gabbling on about the amount of kisses he's been adding onto the end of every message.

"I don't know about that, but what I do know is that he's definitely into you." Kayla snorts her dismissal so ferociously her Starbucks almost threatens to resurface and dribble down her school tie (a rather unfortunate mustard yellow colour with a sickly blue stripe).

"Guys," I interrupt again. I can't help it. I have important news. And anyway, they aren't talking about anything interesting, just the usual gossip from the corridors; something I'm not particularly bothered about. And it's time I told them, anyway. I've been putting it off for way too long. I can't keep it from them for much longer, because in two weeks I'll have left. I have to tell them.

"Go on then, Fearne," Eve encourages, "Although don't be telling me you've stopped liking vanilla lattes, because then I will have to buy my own, and I will disown you!" We can never afford a whole drink each, so normally me and Eve share a Vanilla Bean Latte, and Amy and Kayla split some sort of frappé. I laugh, reassure her it's not that, however, accounting on my news, she'll have to be buying her own soon anyway.

"Well, basically," I stutter, and strands of my hair flutter down over my eyes. I look down at the stained table, and quickly gabble, "Well, my Dad, you know what he's like, he found this new job. It's in a different sector of the company. A job he'll enjoy." Whilst I pause and slurp a mouthful of vanilla cream, my friends nod their approval; Amy smiles, and Kayla exclaims "Say congratulations to your dad from me!". I was about to finish, I was about to tell them, but suddenly we all seem to be gathering our school bags, bustling through the door, and giving our last advice about the French homework. I wait for Kayla to catch up, and we wander back to our side of town, in a comfortable silence, our vision smattered with hazy street light glares and a grey-washed horizon. Typical London weather.

It's getting to be quite late; by the time we'd wandered aimlessly to the welcoming glass doors of our local Starbucks it was already past five o'clock. By now the usually-bustling streets have reduced to barren, lifeless walkways, decorated with the odd chocolate wrapper or jogger running past in neon colours.