fuck you, peachy | skins

21. Naomi

Ayla waltzes into a deserted English class with a box of rubbish secured in her arms. She sighs and plops the box down on an empty desk, her entire body aching from fatigue. Its 4:07 pm and even though school had finished, Ayla had decided to stay behind to help Thomas clean up. Although Thomas was now going to school at Roundview, he continued to get some extra cash by working as a janitor after hours. He had a little extra work today because Cook trashed the boy's bathrooms so Ayla stayed to help him.

"Hi," says a familiar gentle voice. Ayla's eyes shoot across what she thought was an empty classroom and over to Effy who is sitting at one of the corner desks, typing away at a laptop.

"Hey" Ayla answers. She wasn't bothered to confront her about Cook, she knew that it truly meant nothing to Effy and had seen it coming anyhow, despite it being a pretty fucked thing to do. So they don't talk about it.

Effy slams the laptop shut and looks up at Ayla with her wide ethereal eyes. Ayla gulps and silently begins sorting the rubbish into recyclable and non-recyclable as Thomas had told her to do.

"What are you doing here? It's after hours" Ayla asks. 

"I'm designing Cook's badges for election."

"Huh?"

"Cook's running for student president and he's trash with aesthetics so I'm helping him with the visual bit. I don't think he will win tho."

"Oh, he will win alright. He can do anything he sets his mind to. It's annoying."

"He never did you"

"Maybe that's why he ended up hating me"

"Because you aren't something he can set his mind to?"

Neither of them speak for a few moments. Ayla leans against the back wall and begins folding a paper crane out of the last piece of rubbish, procrastinating getting another box of rubbish to sort from Thomas.

"You know Tony taught me how to make a paper crane," Ayla says as Effy packs up her things.

"Tony forgot how to make a paper crane" Effy replies bluntly as if Ayla had forgotten all about his accident.

"No. He taught me... before the accident. And then he forgot after the accident so I taught him." Ayla replies, chucking the paper crane she had just made into the recycling bin.

"You taught Freddie too," Effy says, walking toward the door. 

"How did you know?"

"You showed him how to at Kayleigh's engagement party. But you used a napkin. Not surprised you don't remember." 

-

"Just gonna go out for a cig break lovey" Ayla's boss, Darren, smiles pinching her cheek and walking away from the counter and into the kitchen.

"Right" Ayla replies pursing her lips. She hears the back door close behind him as he lets out a monstrous sigh. Darren barely worked, mostly just smoked and perved on Ayla. Ayla didn't mind work so much when the other employees were there, but she always seemed to be the only one working. Probably because the shop was so deserted they rarely needed more than one worker at a time.

The door swings open making Ayla look up from her phone.

"Oh hi, Aylie poos" Panda gulps, clutching her big pink and yellow purse in her hands. Why the fuck did all her friends suddenly need to go to the butcher whenever she was working. 

"Hey Panda. What do you want?" Ayla asks, putting her phone down and putting her gloves back on. Panda glances behind her through the shop window and to the boy waiting patiently outside with a cigarette. Cook. Ayla should've known.

"Oh well, actually its the only shop for miles and well I bloody well wanted a Vimto" Pandora blurts out, trying to keep everything cheery when it wasn't.

"I know you don't drink Vimto Panda. Makes you hyper. It's Cook that wants it, isn't it?" Ayla asks. Panda nods. Ayla snaps off her gloves, not needing them when handling drinks and pulls out a Vimto from the fridge.

"Two pounds," Ayla says slamming the Vimto down on the counter. Pandora slides two pounds across the counter and Ayla secures them in the cash register, looking out the window at Cook who doesn't even seem to notice she works here. Panda shuffles her weight, holding Cook's Vimto tightly in her sweaty hands. She looks as though she is contemplating saying something, but Ayla just wants her to get the fuck out.

"Ayla I didn't know you liked him at my party I..."

"You guessed it" Ayla cuts her off calmly. "And I confirmed it."

The door creaks open and Cook pokes his head in.

"And what about Thomas?" Ayla quietly asks Panda 

"Hurry the fuck up will you," Cook says to Panda, whose attention is immediately drawn to him. "It's fucking freezing out here". Panda nods, manoeuvring out the door and past cook without another look at Ayla.

"Seeya," Cook says brightly, closing the door gently without looking at her.