Dream

Part 1 - Chapter 4

“Alex?” she called out softly, her throat sore but she was fine, in her own bed, in her own house, and it was the weekend. There are, perhaps, over 2000 words to describe the joy of weekends, but the phrase that popped up today was a text from Miriam,

 

‘Shopping  day!! Food & fun & only us 2!!! Meet me @11. Mine.’

 

That’s what is said, and these words mystically transported a huge smile on Janie’s face. The two best friends had not had a shopping day together in over a year, truth be told, Janie was starting to feel like her and her best friend were starting to seperate, but they vowed to be friends until the end. Janie quickly took her hair out of the plait and watched the funny little curls bounce out and bob around her head before pulling out a los purple t-shirt and a pair of khaki cropped trousers. “Mum! Mim and I are going out to town, that ok?” she shouted down the stairs to where her mother was making herself a bowl of porridge.

 

“Fine sweetie, you got money?” her mother called back,

“I got 50, that’ll be enough.” she said, smiling and grabbing herself a bowl of coco-pops, pouring them out (followed by the milk) and gulped, swallowed and chewed it down quickly. Like a lightning flash, she hurtled upstairs and grabbed her bag, a small handbag in rainbow colours from Cambodia, stuffed her wallet, lip balm and pack of tissues in before slipping on her comfy old converse boots and hurtling down the street, turning the corner, waiting at the traffic lights, crossing the road and sprinting to Miriam's house where she opened the door at exactly 11am. “Hey, hey, hey!” she called out and Miriam appeared, as if it were the call of her people.

 

On the bus they finally managed to find seats right at the back where a dodgy smell had recently been left. Luckily for them it was only four stops later that they hopped off and entered the shopping street, whee right at the end stood a fairly magnificent shopping cente. They grabbed each other’s hand and walked down the street, entering the shopping centre through it’s revolving doors. There they were welcomed by seven small men, all with their own strange personal traits. They offered to take their coats, to show them to the shops they wanted and to one of the numerous cafes the shopping centre had.

 

Wait, wrong story. Get out seven dwarves.

 

The girls looked at them weirdly and awkwardly walked away as the seven men called after them, “Goodbye, have fun!” and tootled out the door whistling merrily.

“Well Miriam… That was strange…”

“Indeed it was Janie, indeed it was!”

They looked at each other pulling very serious faces and then burst out laughing before they had to sit down at a bench to stop themselves from falling. Once recuperated, they surveyed the shops on offer. Book shops, DVD and music stores, game stores, cafes, clothes shops. So many! To start they headed into Waterstones and were sorely tempted to play in the ball pit. Instead they held back and turned to books instead. In Waterstones alone they spent £20 on merchandise and books. Janie sniffed one, “Hmmmmm, I like the smell of fresh books! It’s so fresh…” This suddenly reminded her off Alex and she began to argue with herself in her head over whether she should tell Miriam about him or not. However, before she had chance to take her nose away from the book she looked up and saw Adam, strolling towards them with his best friend Josh, “Hey girls! You um… JJ, what’re you doing?” he asked, frowning politely.