Rising | Thomas Shelby

in love

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We walked Finn back to the betting shop where he ran off to find comfort in Polly. Most of the shop had been cleared up. Tommy guided me up to his room, I took my jacket off and sat down on the bed. This time really taking in the room, the other day when I was here I didn't take much notice. It hadn't changed much since I left all those years ago.

Still the same blue wallpaper all over the four walls and all the picture frames still up, his bed stuffed up in the corner. On his bedside there was an ashtray that was in major need of clearing out, a bottle of drink and a glass. Next to it was a small picture, as I neared I saw it was a picture of us when we were younger, I was around 16 so Tom, 22. Tommy had his head back in laughter, whilst I looked up at him. I sat down on the bed picking up the picture to look at it closer, whilst Tommy cleared somethings away quickly, opening up the blinds to let some light into the dingy room.
"Ive always loved that picture" Tommy speaks noticing what i'm looking at as he sits down next to me. Our thighs slightly brushing against one another. "I forgot it existed." I had a few pictures of the boys, we used to have a photo taken before the start of a school year, all of us together but I wish I had more.

Tommy gets up and makes drinks, both of us still slightly shaken from before. "Why were you so angry with John?" Tommy asks, intrigued on what she had worked herself all up about. So what if he wanted to get married?
"It's not that i'm angry, I feel disrespected. Yesterday, on our date John proposed to me." Tommy was shocked, letting out a laugh of disbelief. "He fucking what?"
"He proposed, then today he comes in engaged to a whore? Is that what I am? Is that what John sees me as? What did he have a fucking list of women to propose to until one of us finally accepted? Tommy, he told me he loved me. He's such a lying bastard. Been beating myself up and feeling guilty since for him to be engaged to another woman." I scoffed. What a bloody cheek.
I grabbed a cigarette. "I'm relieved, I am. I hated that I thought I had broken his heart. That I couldn't help him the way he wanted me to help him. But to come in engaged to a whore, that just does wonders for my self esteem. To tell me loves me when he evidently doesn't, was he trying to emotionally blackmail me into marriage? Ugh, he is just such a prick."
A few moments of silence had passed, Tommy taking in all that I had said.
"Love, you are so much more than Lizzie Stark in every way. You're so beautiful, I can't even begin to put into words. You're the smartest girl I know, I sometimes even think you might be smarter than me! You're so kind, the fact that you had spent all this time worrying over the fact you mightve hurt his feelings shows you are a much better than person than he. You're so strong, since we were kids you haven't been afraid to stand up to me. You're seriously like no one else I've ever met. To have you, is an honour alright? to have Lizzie Stark is a quid.
I hate that he's made you feel like this, he's just a desperate prick."
I would've swooned if I didn't know that Tommy had also gone to Lizzie Stark. I just smiled at his speech, "Thanks Tommy, you're very sweet for saying that."
Tommy saw that I wasn't completely convinced by it so he had told me his plan, his plan for John.