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The cool night air hit me and was a shock to my drink-addled senses. Keira, however, seemed impervious.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing! He just wants me to go with him and I’m not sure if I want to. He’s having a hard time understanding it,” I told her as confidently as I could, but even to my own ears it sounded like bullshit.
“Okay. I’m going to say this right now. My best friend alarms are ringing. You look upset and kind of scared and I’m wondering why the fuck you didn’t tell me?”
“It’s your night?—”
“Bollocks to that!” She cut me off. “When we were fifteen I cancelled a date with Tommy Bradshaw because you called me all upset about one of your boobs being bigger than the other. We’re best friends. Your drama is my drama, and my drama is your drama, you dig?”
“‘You dig?’ What the hell is that?”
“I’ve been watching a lot of 90s TV.” She waved a dismissive hand.
“Well, it’s doing wonders for your vocabulary.”
“Shut up and talk to me.” She took my hand and looked at me the way only your best friend can. I felt this well of emotion bubbling up, a well that I kept buried when I was with Alfie, and which seemed to get fuller whenever I was with him. My lip trembled, and just as I was about to burst the pub doors swung open and Alfie stormed through them looking beyond pissed. I braced myself for impact but I needn’t have worried as Keira turned on him.
“No. No way. Fuck off. Right now!” She grabbed a beer mat off a nearby table and threw it at him. He froze, stunned. He looked from her to me, sizing up the situation. I waited for the battle but it didn’t come. Instead, he turned and went back inside, but not before giving me a look that sent a shiver up my spine.
Keira turned her fierce gaze back on me. “Why are you scared of him?”
“I’m not, I’m just…overwhelmed by him.”
Keira arched an eyebrow, clearly not convinced. “Okay. So, he wants you to go with him? What’s the hold up? You’re mad about each other, maybe literally. What’s stopping you?”
What was the hold up, she wanted to know. The door to my dream had finally been opened to me. That was the hold up.
I’d made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t tell her tonight, but suddenly I was desperate to. The voice in my head that told me not to tell Alfie just didn’t exist with Keira.
My eyes darted back to the doors that Alfie could burst through any minute. I took her hand and dragged her around the side of the building so that we’d be hidden away from any prying eyes belonging to a certain someone.
“Ow! Bloody hell, Lo!” she protested as I dragged her into a tiny space between the building and some bushes. “Do you mind telling me why we’re hiding in a hedge?”
“Can you keep something to yourself?” I whispered.
Her round eyes widened, serious and curious.
“Does it need to go in The Vault?” she whispered back. ‘The Vault’ was a place where we kept each other’s secrets, a place where no one was allowed but us. Putting something in ‘The Vault’ was as good as taking it to the grave.
“Yeah.” I took a breath and went for it before I could change my mind. “I got in.”
“Got in? Got into what?”
I just looked at her, waiting for the penny to drop. After a moment it did, and the look on her face was everything I hoped it would be. I had no proud parents to share this moment with, only her.
“No…”
“Yep.” I giggled. She let out a screech and I clamped a hand over her mouth to keep us from being discovered. She licked my palm and I snatched my hand away, wiping it on her dress. “Ew! Keira!”
Then she attacked me, hugging me and kissing every square inch of my face.
“Have you lost your mind?” I squealed whilst trying to fight her off.
“You did it, Lo!” She was hopping up and down, which was no easy feat in skyscraper heels.
“And you’re congratulating me by covering me in tears and saliva?” I laughed, wiping her wet kisses from my face.