Her Fiancé's Son

chapter two: this is not nothing, ms hepburn

chapter two: this is not nothing, ms hepburn

If you Google Audrey Hepburn, you'd receive some of the following autocomplete suggestions: 'audrey hepburn movies', 'audrey hepburn quotes', 'audrey hepburn costume' and so on. If you were to click the second, one of the first quotes you'd find, without too much struggle, is the quote 'Nothing is impossible, the word itself says 'I'm possible!''.

I'm going to admit it – when I was 13 and I'd received my first proper mobile phone of my own, my wallpaper was this quote with Audrey Hepburn stood next to it, holding her iconic cigarette holder to her oh-so suggestively pouting lips.

That quote got me through the first year of GCSEs (or so I told anyone who cared to ask). When conjugating reflexive verbs in Spanish became a real pain in the 'arse' (pun very much intended) and I'd listen to my friends call the subject 'impossible'. I'd always recite, almost as if Audrey herself hired me, her famous words.

"For fuck's sake Li, how much does Audrey pay you to say that any time someone says impossible?" I remember Cara rolling her eyes at me once in Maths class.

In high school, I managed to bond with a group of 4 other girls – Cara, Priya, Hope and Ellie – still my best friends to this day. Cara and Priya both could not and would not tolerate any bullshit or cheesiness and any time that quote came out, one of them (if not both) definitely tried to shut it down.

"It's free because it's true! Look at the word 'impossible'!" That was the only argument I could really make whenever the quote was shut down.

"Aaliyah, shut up!" Priya snapped. Priya was, and is, by far the most unapologetically blunt member of our friendship group. I hated her for it, but far more, I loved her for it.

"Priya, chill." Ellie rolled her eyes. Ellie, well Elisabeth always tried to keep the peace between us all. She hated seeing arguments between friends – not surprising since she was a child of divorce.

"So, today's the last day of exams for most of Year 13..." Hope delicately started, giving me her signature small comforting smile.

It was absolutely stupid but I thought myself in love with Jamie at the time and the fact that today was his last day of school, absolutely broke my heart. Even 13 year old me knew that this couldn't really be heartbreak but it was the saddest situation that I had ever faced at that point and it was all I knew.

"I know, Hope." I kept my tone light enough but with the clear 'drop it' in there. Hope either didn't notice my tone or chose to ignore it.

"Are you okay?" Hope asked, her big doe eyes looking at me sympathetically.

"Relax. She's hardly in love with him. She barely knows him, not really anyway." Cara replied before I could even open my mouth to reply.

"Okay but like, she's had the biggest crush on him since Year 7. That's over two years!" Ellie helpfully reminded the group and unintentionally, sprinkled a little metaphorical salt into my metaphorical wound.

"Okay but it's hardly love though. Don't be silly, Ellie." Priya rolled her eyes at Ellie.

"I'm not saying she's in love with him!" Ellie huffed at Priya's sass.

"Then what's your point?" Priya lifted an eyebrow at her.

"All I'm saying is that Li has every right to be upset!" Ellie explained.

The exchange between two of my best friends was not helping in anyway; Jamie was going away forever and none of them were being particularly nice about it. With this in mind, I thrust my hand into the air aiming to get the teacher at the front's attention.