𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐋𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧' 𝐆𝐮𝐲 ➺ 𝐵𝓇𝒾𝒶𝓃 𝑀𝒶𝓎 & 𝒬𝓊𝑒𝑒𝓃

(7) 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘦

"Do we know where we are going?" Brian asked as we got on the road, flicking his eyes from ahead of him and back to me every now and then.

"I think John wrote the address down..." I said, turning to him in the back. He raised his eyebrows and immediately looked guilty.

"I was supposed to get the address?" He asked.

"John, darling, how are we supposed to know where we're going if we don't even have the address of the place?" Freddie huffed, waving his hand about.

"Hey, it's okay." Brian hushed them, moving one hand from the wheel and to the glove compartment in front of me, struggling to get it open without crashing. I grabbed his wrist and moved it away gently.

"I got it." I said, not paying attention to how his muscles stiffened when I touched him. I opened up the compartment and there laid a map. "Great, did anyone take orientation ever by any chance?" I asked sarcastically, unfolding it. Why are maps so complicated?

"It's upside down, Maria, dear." Freddie corrected me, his face appearing besides me from the back.

"How am I supposed to know? The whole thing looks like the human nervous system." I mumbled, flipping it round and trying my best not to hit Brian in the face with it. I looked around us for any type of sign of whereabouts we were. "Oh, you need to take the second left up here. It's more South of Kensington." I pointed towards a junction in the distance.

I became the party's guide. Being the one with the map gave me responsibility to make sure we got to The Britannia. Freddie and John started up their own conversation revolving around their game on scrabble when John won, leaving Brian and I to form a conversation of our own.

"How old are you, Maria?" Brian finally broke the silence in the front of the car.

"I'm 22." I answered, but immediately furrowed my brows. "I don't like saying that. I feel old."

"Does that mean I'm ancient? I'm 25." Brian retorted, giving me an offended look briefly.

"I didn't mean it like that... I just meant that it doesn't seem that long since I was 18." I looked ahead of us, watching all the other people around us. People watching was one of my favourite things to do. It made me wonder who we were and how we came to be like that.

"I know the feeling. How long have you been doing your course at Imperial?" His voice was so soothing to me. I felt very much at ease in this conversation.

"Oh, I've only been doing it for a year. I'm not that far into it." I shook my head, looking down at the map.

"How do you like it?"

"It's alright... You need to turn right here." I pointed to the turn ahead of us.

"Is it the career path you're choosing? Because it's brilliant that women are getting involved with business aspects of showbusiness. It's a huge step forward to me, it really is." Brian nodded, seemingly impressed with the thought. But I had to disappoint him, unfortunately.

"Um, I don't actually know what I want to do after uni, to be honest. I mean, I've always loved animals and taking care of them, but I don't think my mum and dad would be too pleased about me doing something like that." I laughed half-heartedly, wishing it was some type of joke.

"Why the hell not? It's a wonderful thing to take care of wildlife and nature." He exclaimed, passion dripping from his words. "What's your favourite animal?"

"I've always had a fascination with guinea pigs for some reason, I have no idea why." I giggled, warmth flowing in my stomach as I finally got to talk about something I genuinely love with someone. "What about you?"