Page 6 of Falling for You

Annie

Our door rattles open, warped from the constant autumn rain that has been lashing the streets of London all day for the past six weeks.

Outside, the leaves are starting to change from the cooling shades of olive, moss and fern we have throughout the summer to a rainbow of juniper, cherry red and fiery orange, and although the rain has been lightly splattering my shoulders since I ducked out of Clapham Junction station, it’s still slightly warm outside.

Too warm for me to comfortably be wearing my cable-knit jumper and oversized scarf, not that that’s going to stop me.

I’ve shoved my reluctant summer wardrobe under my bed – I am not pulling it back out.

Tanya, Penny and I live in a maisonette, and by that I mean, we live in half a house. It’s a tall townhouse which has been sliced down the middle and given to two landlords who barter it off to people who are desperate to live in London.

The obsession with London that seems to burn through the veins of so many people makes complete sense to me.

The constant buzz, the fizz of languages you collect when walking down the streets, the feeling that every bar, café or shop you walk into could be filled with people from the other side of the world, from a completely different walk of life. It’s exciting.

And yes, the majority of these eclectic, exciting people don’t talk to each other and barely make eye contact. But ten years later and I’m still here. All of us are: Penny, Tanya and I. Sworn into a secret pact.

Tanya is easily the most beautiful person that I know. She has smooth, dark skin, high cheekbones and bright, warm brown eyes. Her Afro hair springs out of her head in tight curls and reaches her chin. She also has legs up to my armpits and, to top it all off, she has a lovely personality too.

Penny and I look more similar, which makes sense as we often act like squabbling sisters.

With her blonde hair, pink cheeks and bright green eyes, she’s obviously beautiful too, but not like Tanya is, more like me.

We both cried about this when we were hungover at university, looking back at pictures from the night before where Tanya looked like a supermodel and we looked like we’d just won a competition to meet her.

I met Penny and Tanya when we were all slotted together in identical rooms next door to each other in our university halls.

The three of us were a bit different. Tanya, tall and beautiful.

Penny, painfully brainy and technical, and, well, me.

The kooky one who loved making costumes and still made all her own clothes.

But we just fitted together. Tanya made us cool, got us into all the parties and was fiercely defensive of us if we ever had a guy not treat us well.

Penny was dependable; she could drink us under the table but also make a fantastic stew with eight of your five-a-day and a strong cup of tea.

She’s also a total wind-up and is possibly the most annoying person I’ve ever met.

And I made their Halloween costumes every year, and any other fancy dress that a uni night out demanded.

We were the best-dressed, best-fed, most empowered threesome on campus.

So, when we all graduated, we moved into our own flat in Clapham and haven’t moved out since.

There have been boyfriends over the years.

Tanya has moved out a few times, and Penny’s long-term boyfriend Mike semi lives with us, but we’ve all clung to each other like sleeping otters.

I know our days are numbered, though, as at thirty-two, we’re officially creeping towards the decade filled with marriages, babies and mortgages, and I don’t think the three of us could all find partners who’d be happy living in a commune.

But for now, it’s still the three of us.

I kick the door shut and immediately begin to charge up the stairs.

‘Hello!’ I shout. I can hear the TV pattering in the background and I look up and see a horrified Tanya, and an amused Penny.

‘Oh my God, what happened?’ Tanya says, uncurling herself off the sofa and rushing to help me. ‘Did you get made redundant or something?’

I drop the bags with a thud. ‘What? No – much better than that, I got us all these amazing Halloween decorations.’

Penny grins, her eyebrows raised. ‘How come?’

‘Work didn’t want them – isn’t that mad?’ I say, slumping down onto the sofa in our living room and ripping my jumper off before I combust.

‘Oh my God,’ Penny scoffs, pulling out my string of inflatable cauldrons. ‘What is this?’

‘Annie,’ Tanya says, her mothering tone taking over. ‘What’s going on? We don’t need all of this. We still have the decorations from last year.’

‘We don’t have one of these,’ Penny points out, holding up a paper skeleton mask to her face.

‘Well, I thought you can never have too many decorations,’ I say.

‘I’ll make us a tea,’ Penny says, getting to her feet.

Tanya tucks her feet under her on the small armchair and I busy myself looking through the decorations.

Crikey, I did buy a lot … but it’s my weak spot.

Everyone is addicted to something. Tanya is obsessed with anything miniature (which I find odd as she’s taller than everyone) and Penny is obsessed with recipes.

Pam is obsessed with … well, work. I’m obsessed with Halloween decorations.

So, when a shop window drapes itself in light-up pumpkins or flashing bats, I can’t help myself.

And really, I don’t think anyone can blame me for that.

‘Here we are,’ Penny says, handing me a steaming mug and plonking herself down next to me.

‘Also, this means that our Halloween party this year will be epic . I mean, our house will look ridiculous. We might even end up on the news!’

Penny and Tanya exchange glances and I suddenly feel as though they’re communicating telepathically.

‘What?’

‘I don’t think I can come to the Halloween party this year,’ Tanya blurts, half hiding behind her mug of tea.

My mouth drops open. We’ve been hosting our Halloween parties every year since our first term at university.

We spend the entire week leading up to it decorating the house, making it as creepy as possible.

Last year, Penny did this incredible trick with a mirror in the bathroom that made it look like there was someone standing behind you while you were washing your hands.

We had to take it down until the night of the party, as we kept falling for it in the middle of the night and waking each other up screaming.

‘You can’t come?’ I repeat. ‘What do you mean? What else are you doing?’

It’s the one night of the year which is etched into our diaries in blood. The Saturday of Halloween is our party. I mean, friends of ours start talking about it in August.

‘I have a work event,’ Tanya mumbles.

‘On a Saturday?’ I cry incredulously.

‘It’s a PR event for a new perfume,’ she says. ‘They’re holding a masquerade ball. It’s one of my clients, I kind of have to go. But I can bring you guys along with me.’

I force myself to pause. Stop being a brat, Annie.

‘Oh wow,’ I say. ‘That’s really cool … sorry, I just really love our party. It’s like our thing, isn’t it?’

I look at Penny who shrugs back at me. ‘Yeah, it’s a lot of work though, isn’t it?’

‘Don’t you like it?’ I cry. Penny reads my expression and quickly corrects herself.

‘No, of course I do. It’s like, the best night of the year.’

‘The best,’ Tanya agrees firmly.

‘But, like, work is insane at the moment,’ Penny says, pushing her fingers through her hair. ‘I could do with not having to spend so much time organising it all. I have to work late every night this week.’

‘Ew.’ I grimace.

‘And this way we can just go to a cool party instead. Like, it’s still fancy dress, right?’ She looks to Tanya who nods happily.

‘Oh yeah,’ Tanya says. ‘People will go nuts for it. It’s a really high-key event too,’ she adds.

‘I’ve seen the budget for it. It’s huge.

They have performers there and everything.

You could get snapped up!’ She points at me.

‘There will be so many people from the fashion world there, you should take some business cards. I bet you’d sell loads of costumes. ’

I smile. Tanya is always offering to introduce me to fashion colleagues to get me in the door as a seamstress or designer of some sort.

But what I make isn’t fashionable. It’s cartoonist and grotesque and a bit weird, and not in a cool way.

Nobody is going to go to Zara and buy a jacket with manoeuvrable bat wings.

Tanya and Penny are both smiling, and I can feel how desperate they are for me to agree, which suddenly makes me feel like a spoiled child. Have they been planning this conversation?

‘Yeah, of course,’ I say, forcing a smile on my face. ‘That sounds great.’

Tanya claps her hands. ‘Oh yay! I’m so happy! But we’ll do the party as normal next year.’

Penny nods. ‘Definitely.’