Closer to Heaven With You

With a smile on her face, Leigh placed the drinks and cutlery onto her tray and carried it over to the group of six girls sat in the end booth.

“Here you are girls, two diet cokes, a regular coke, two sprites and a fanta; is there anything else I can get you?” Leigh said passing out the drinks to each of the girls.

“Um, no I think we’re fine thanks.” One of them said with a warm smile. Leigh gave them a nod and walked over to another table that needed clearing. She took the dirty dishes over and passed them over to Paul who washed the dishes.

“Um, excuse me, so service would be nice.” Leigh chuckled at the sound of a familiar voice.

“Val, if you’re going to do that you should really try making your voice sound different.” Leigh replied turning to face her and Leana.

“Damn it, I thought I did make it different.” She pouted.

“So are you guys really in here for food or just to annoy me?” Leigh said walking over to lean against the counter opposite to where they were stood.

“We actually came here to abuse your generosity while we wait for you to finish up.” Leana said with a sly glance over at the ice cream machine.

Leigh rolled her eyes with a smile and turned to take two bowls off the counter. “Here, just be glad I’m in a good mood” she said passing them two spoons.

“Love you!” Val yelled as she and Leana ran over to fill their bowls.

“Why you in such a good mood anyway?” Leana asked as she sprinkled jelly tots over her mound of ice cream.

“Carla has just promoted me to supervisor.” She replied with a wide smile.

“What? Really? Oh Leigh that’s awesome news.” Val replied sprinkling candy strands over her ice cream.

“Yeah, and it gives us something to celebrate tonight, we’re still coming over right?” Leana said as they took a vacant table close enough to the counter so that they could still talk to Leigh.

“Yeah of course.” Leigh replied as there was a shout of an order being ready. “And this is a better excuse to celebrate than one month down, three to go” she laughed as she took the pizza over to the waiting customers.

“Yeah, and it’s also a good chance to get Val talking about her new boyfriend.” Leana replied as Val began to blush.

“She’s still not spilling?” Leigh asked as she walked back over to the counter to refill some glasses.

“No, she’s not told me anything.” Leana replied.

“Um, hello! I’m sat right here you know.” Val yelled waving her arms.

“Oh hey Val, sorry didn’t see you there, we we’re just talking about how we’re going to get you talking about your new boyfriend later.” Leigh said with a sarcastic tone.

“Ha ha very funny.” She replied turning back to her ice cream.

“Sorry sweetie, but we will get it out of you later.” Leigh replied as she took another pizza over to a customer.

“How long ‘til you finish anyway?” Leana asked.

“About ten minutes.” She replied with a quick glance at her watch.

“Cool, enough time for a refill then.” Val said getting up and heading for the ice cream machine.

Since the guys had been on tour the girls had spent a lot of their free time hanging out with each other. They all missed the guys like crazy and looked forward to the phone ringing so that they could talk to them. Not that they could talk for long; money was scarce and couldn’t be wasted on long phone calls.

Most nights the girls would meet up at one of their houses and hang out for a couple of hours just to pass the time and most weekends they would have a slumber party involving films, booze and junk food.

Leigh was also finding it odd sharing her flat with Michelle. She’d spent so long living with Brian she found it strange having to adjust to living with Michelle. For one she found it peculiar that she didn’t have to wait half as long for the bathroom when she’d been certain that Michelle would take longer than Brian.

“Ok, so what have we got for our viewing pleasure tonight girlies?” Val asked as she settled down onto the sofa.

“Well I brought over Back to the Future.” Gena announced.

“Cool, but we’ve got something more important to do before we start talking about films.” Leana replied with a mischievous grin.

“Yeah, congratulations Leigh on being made supervisor.” Val said quickly.

“Oh congrats dude, well done.” Gena cheered raising her glass towards her.

“No, that’s not what I meant Val and you know it – but yeah congrats honey, you deserve it!” Leana replied.

“Val! It’s time that you spilt the beans and told us all about this new guy you’ve been dating.” Leana demanded glaring expectantly at her. Val turned a deep shade of scarlet as Leigh Gena and Lacey turned to stare expectantly at her as well.

“I think we should wait until Michelle gets here!” Val said quickly.

The girls glared at her for a moment before turning to look at each other. They all nodded and relaxed back into their seats.

“Ok, but as soon as Shell is here you’re telling us everything!” Gena said.

“Where is she anyway? She’s always late home from work these days” Lacey asked glancing at her watch.

“Yeah, she should have finished half an hour ago.” Leigh said, also glancing at her watch. “I’ll text her, see where she is.” She replied grabbing her cell of the coffee table.

“So other than Back to the Future, what other films have we got to watch tonight?” Val asked as Leigh typed a message.

“I brought over Dawn of the Dead and American History X.” Leana said holding up said films.

“Oh I love that film, we’ve got to watch that first.” Leigh yelled as her phone vibrated with a reply from Michelle.

“Michelle’s stuck in work, she’ll be here as soon as she can.” Leigh announced reading the message.

“Guess that’s what happens when you’re an intern.” Lacey replied as she pulled the duvet around her as the movie began to play.

Tears streamed down Leigh’s face as the credits came onto the screen at the end of the film. She adjusted herself in her seat and wiped her eyes, noticing that the other girls were doing the same.

“Hey, what were you watching?” Michelle’s voice made them all jump, none of them had heard her come in.

“Sorry guys, didn’t mean to scare you.” she chuckled dropping her shoulder bag onto the floor and slumping down on the sofa between Leigh and Leana.

“Hey, we’ve just finished watching American History X, but now that you’re finally here, Val can tell us everything.” Leana said turning to face a defeated looking Val.

“What’s she got to tell us?” Michelle questioned turning to face her twin.

“We want to know about her new boyfriend.” Gena chimed.

“New boyfriend? When did this happen?” Michelle asked with a confused smile.

“Mich, you’ve been working too much. She’s been dating this guys for almost two weeks now, but she hasn’t told us anything about him. We don’t even know his name.” Lacey explained.

“What? Oh man, come on sis, we need to know.” Michelle ordered, making herself comfortable.

Val sighed deeply before she started talking. “Ok, so his name is Ben and I work with him. He only started working with us a couple of weeks ago and I was asked to train him up.” Val started as the other five girls listened eagerly for more information.

“We got along really well and then he asked me out for a coffee after work. After that he took me to the movies last weekend and we’re going out for dinner tomorrow night.” She concluded.

“And when do we get to meet him?” Leana demanded with a smirk.

“Oh how about at my birthday next week?” Leigh yelled excitedly.

“Yeah, that would be perfect.” Gena seconded and again Val sighed deeply.

“Ok, I’ll ask him.” she said sounding defeated.

“Good, now how about we watch Back to the Future? The guys will probably be calling soon.” Leigh stated, getting up and putting the film on.