Facing The Future

At 8:30am I heard Amelia shuffling around upstairs. I the heard a thud and what I though sounded like a muffled curse. I was busy preparing breakfast in the kitchen; scrambled egg & bacon bagels to be washed down with grapefruit juice and a freshly brewed cup of Italian coffee. If there’s one thing I do not compromise on, it’s coffee; it has to be top quality. It’s the only drink I obsess over, so much so that I would rather not drink anything at all if I hadn’t got coffee. Anyway, that’s my one of my OCD moments.

When everything was prepared, I took our breakfasts and drinks to the small dining table in the living room. My flat’s open plan so luckily no doors for me to bump into (which I do a lot). I love the fact that everything’s in one place apart from, of course, the bedrooms upstairs. I went to the stairs door to shout up to Amelia that breakfast was ready and practically got my face smashed in. Amelia opened the door just in time for me to step back. I’m proud to say that I managed to hold back guffaws of laughter when I saw the heavenly image that was presented in front of me.

Amelia stood there with her hair sticking up in every direction. The phrase that came to mind was something my Nan, God rest her soul, used to say: “Looks like you’ve been dragged through a bush backward!” Of course, I didn’t dare utter the words for fear of succumbing to fits of hysterical giggling. My eyes travelled down her body. Her (well, my) bed top looked like it had offered her our out for a fight and the pants, oh, the pants. The right leg was rolled up almost to her thigh; the left one down to her ankle. I was really struggling to keep my cool now but could see that Amelia was not in a joking mood.

“G’morning Mol,” she yawned and stretched.

“Hu….hu…. hey honey,” my salutation close to cracking, “You ok? Only I heard a thud when you got up and you didn’t sound too pleased.”

“Top marks for observation!” she said sarcastically. “The thud you heard was my foot coming into contact, quite forcibly, with that stupid bloody vase thing you keep on the landing! Why do you keep it on the floor?”

“Errr, because it looks nice?” I was seriously having to stifle giggles now.

“Well, it may look nice, but jeez, it’s not entirely practical is it? I mean, come on, it’s quite obviously in prime place for me to go and stub my toe on it.”

“Amelia, it’s been there as long as I’ve lived here and you know it, and anyway, I’ve never walked into it.” I said and oh, what’s this, do I see a faint smile upon her lips?

“Yes, but your eyes are open when you wake up. Unfortunately for me I’m still like an extra from The Walking Dead when I wake up.” We both broke down laughing. Even Amelia could see the funny side. After the hysterics subsided Amelia sniffed the air.

“Oooooh, something smells delicious!” she drooled.

“Well I thought what with it being your first morning here and all; I’d make you a good breakfast to set you up for the day.” I led her over to the dining table and pulled out a chair for her.

“Here you are Madam,” I said with a pretty bad excuse for a French accent, “Breakfast is served.”

Amelia wolfed her food down and was completely silent. I ate mine slowly enjoying watching her devour hers.

“Hungry?” I asked obviously

“Bloody hell, not half Mol. I could have eaten a scabby horse! There’s nothing like a great breakfast; best meal of the day if you ask me.” She picked up her grapefruit juice and gestured for me to do the same. She raised her glass to mine and chinked them together in order to toast.

“Here’s to best friends forever and new starts.”

“Here, here.” I agreed with a smile.

We sat for quite some time after our breakfast sipping our delicious coffee and talking about college and whatnot when I decided that maybe I should tell her I was going to visit her Mom. There’s that word, “maybe”. Maybe it was best if I do it first then talk later. Yes, that’s definitely what I was going to do.

************

After we’d washed and changed our conversation turned to our plans for the day. It turned out that Amelia had to go the library, not to work but to research for her thesis on William Blake’s poetry and what effect it had on the English language. I on the other hand had got a free study day. Even though we were doing the same course, we were in different groups and had different lecturers so we never really shared the same timetable. It was an advantage though because we were studying the same modules, just at different times, we pretty much could always help each other out with our studies.

At 10:30am, Amelia grabbed her rucksack from the hall, slung in on her back and walked over to me as I washing up. She came up behind me and planted a kiss on my right cheek.
“Right I’m off now.” She said, “I probably won’t be back until about six ‘cus I’ve got quite a bit to do. Will you be here when I get back?”

“Most likely not,” I said and thought quickly of a white lie I could tell, “Harry from The Gargoyle text me whilst I was getting changed and asked if I could do a shift at short notice. One of the girls has phoned in sick …….. Again.”

“Oh, ok then honey,” Amelia sounded slightly disappointed, “What time do you think you might be back?”

“Shouldn’t be too long hun. Tuesday is normally a pretty quiet night so Harry said if it was still not picking up by about nine, I could get off.” I really hated lying to my best friend and what was scarier was that I was doing it so easily.

“Ok then sugar. I’ll be waiting for you when you get back with popcorn, red wine and a good old horror film. It’ll be lots of fun.”

“Sure will,” I replied and smiled at her as she pretty much skipped through the front door.

************

After spending a couple more hours drinking far more coffee than I really ought to and going over again and again in my head how I would approach the issue of confronting Amelia’s Mom, I finally made my way out just before 1pm. I decided that I would speak to her Mom first and even if it meant making multiple visits to and from my flat to get all of Amelia’s belongings, then so be it. If it took forever I would still do it! I’d got just until after 9pm to get everything sorted so there was plenty of time and I’d covered my back pretty well. Amelia would know that I’ve been back to her old place as soon as she walks through the door of her new bedroom and she’d find out then that I was lying to her and I would say that it was meant to be a surprise and all would turn out happily ever after, hopefully and then when I tell her I’ve approached her Mom and told her exactly what I think she’ll thank me and throw her arms around me – that’s if my older self was right, of course. All I could do was believe; this is all for the best. Some study day this turned out to be!