fuck you, peachy | skins

13. Pandora

"Pass the jam please Ayla" Ayla's mum, Jenna, says politely. Ayla's head is resting in her hand, as she twirls her spoon through her cereal glumly.

"Ayla" Jenna repeats trying to keep her cool. Ayla sighs as she rests her spoon on the side of the bowl and passes her mother the jam.

"Thank you" Jenna raises her eyebrows. "I love Sunday breakfast's" she beams spreading jam over her toast. It's abnormally quiet because Katie is at Danny's, which means no blabbering around tits and boys.

"How come Katie is allowed to skip out on Sunday breakfast?" Ayla asks softly, taking her first spoonful of cereal having twirled the spoon around for several minutes.

"Because she doesn't spend the night at other peoples houses without telling me" Jenna replies bluntly, referring to the night Ayla spent at Freddie's which was about two weeks ago.

"Leave the girl alone" Ayla's dad, Rob buts in. Jenna looks up at Rob in annoyance.

"Rob!"

"We all know Katie's the favourite, it's fine," says Emily, genuinely not fazed as she took a spoon full of cereal. Jenna puts her toast gently down on her plate and breathes in and out slowly.

"Katie is not the favourite"

"Well, then it's James," adds Ayla. Jenna goes to say something before James cuts her off.

"Of course it's me! I'm mega-cool" he says with a grin on his face.

"There are no favourites!" Jenna concludes loudly. Everyone munches away quietly for a few moments. Ayla leans closer to Emily who sits next to her.

"Course we aren't the favourites. I'm the 'skanky fag smoker' and you're the 'muff-muncher'" she whispers with a grin on her face. Emily covers her chuckle with a cough. If it was anyone else that had said that to Emily she would've slapped them.

-

Ayla walks through the dreary streets Bristol towards Pandora's house. She was going to be there a little early but she had to get away from the Fitch household. Emily was back home spending an unusual amount of time getting ready, which made Ayla assume Naomi was coming.

As Ayla drifts into the backstreets of Pandora's suburb she lights a cigarette, away from the judgemental eyes of the elders she had just passed on the Main Street. Her ears were ringing with 'Jolle Fille', the last thing Thomas had said to her as the group were kicked out of his apartment by his furious mother. The next morning, Thomas and his family were on a plane back to the Congo. That was a week or so ago now and none of them had heard from him. In general, the group was a little scattered right now.

Freddie had been acting pretty bland and awkward towards Ayla since the night they spent together, yet she continuously found herself trailing back to his comforting presence. Effy was struggling with family issues and was finding it hard to open up to anyone. Naomi and Emily were seemingly becoming closer, yet this was made difficult by Katie's vocal disapproval. Katie had been staying at Danny's most of the time to keep away from Emily so she could ignore the fact she was gay. Panda was a little downtrodden after Thomas went back to the Congo, but was now more than ever simply focused on losing her virginity. JJ was split between Cook and Freddie and worked tirelessly to keep the three musketeers together but according to him nothing had been the same since Cook fucked Effy on the first day of College. Thank god Cook didn't know about Freddie and Ayla because Cook and Ayla had been on good terms of late and she didn't want anything ruining that.

Ayla knocks on Panda's front door gently as she puts out her cigarette, chucking the butt in the garden. After a few seconds, the door opens to reveal a woman who has a bright smile spread widely across her face.