He's an inspiration

“Oh my God Lau, thank you so much for making me do that. I mean, that was amazing. The whole place was clapping! The whole place! That never happens Lau! Oh my God, that was so cool. Lau, we have to do that again. It’s made me so happy. Thank you Lau, thank you so much! It means so much to m-”

“Okay, okay! I get the point Edd! We’ll do it again some time, okay?” She laughs lightly at my over-excited expression and I embrace her tightly in a hug, lifting her up and spinning her round. I put her down and grin like kid on ecstasy at her.
“Love you Lau,” I grin.

She laughs, “Love you too Eddyward.”

- - -

It’s been three days since me and Lau got everyone at the club clapping us, and I have yet to stop bragging about it. Lau just laughs every time I mention it, and tells me to ‘stop bragging and work on my next set!’ I just smile and shrug, saying that I’m happy.

Looking at my children’s Pingu watch on my wrist, I see that it’s almost 2.30 - time to meet Lauren’s friend! “Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, Lau, La-”

“What, Edd?” She sighs, obviously annoyed, at me.

I grin cheekily and reply, “Where is your friend? And what is her name? I wanna know her name!”

“You’ll find out…” She pauses, and looks briefly to her right. Squealing, she shoots up and runs towards a slightly taller girl with redish, black hair. I mumble to myself, “I’m guessing now then.” I reach down to grab my bag but get caught half way by a small blonde person sitting on my arm.

“Nice try Eddyward. This is Ash, Smash, Bintfacé; whatever you fancy calling her. Either way, she is my friend and you will not grab your bag and walk away - like I knew you were going to do!” She quickly adds that on the end as she sees me open my mouth in protest. I sigh in defeat and turn to Lauren’s friend; Ash. I smile and greet her nicely. I’ll only get in trouble with Lau later if I don’t.

“Hi Ash, I’m Edd. As Lau so blatantly pointed out,” I smile cheekily at Lau and hold out my hand. Ash gives me a odd look and takes my hand, pulling me sharply into a hug.

“I’m Aisling, pronounced like Ash-ling,” she smiles. “But call me Ash!”

I smile back at her and she hugs me again. We let go and Lau is grinning at the two of us. I laugh and roll my eyes at her, “So easily amused.”

- - -

“Bintfacé! Where the hell are you? You, Eddyward and I are going to the park! ASH! A-S-H!”

“Lau, stop screaming. She’ll be here,” I attempt to calm her down whilst rubbing my ears. This girl has one mighty set of lungs on her, I’ll tell you that much.

“Shut it Eddyward! I want Ash,” She almost growls at me. I stare at her, slightly scared, worried, and slowly edge away. She really does scare me at times, Lau.

“Lau, I could hear you screaming at me from the other end of the street! You’re like a bloody foghorn!” Ash walks up to us, laughing lightly. I smile and hear Lau scowl in return.

“You two shut up and hurry up. I wanna get to the park already!” With this, she jumps up, grabbing us both by the arm and walks in the direction of the park. Already, we can both tell that this is going to be a fun day. We look at each other briefly and burst out laughing. Today is definitely going to be a lot of fun.

- - -

Well, I can honestly say that in the last 45 minutes, Lau has cheered up, quite a fair bit. All it took was a trip to the ice-cream man! And she calls me childish…

“Eddy-ward” Lau calls me from the swings, drawing out the end of her favourite nickname for me. “Come push me on the swings!”

“Can’t you do it yourself yet Lau? You are only 17, I know…” I cut myself off by laughing at her face. She’s scrunched up her eyes and nose, poking her fat pink tongue at me, childishly, may I add. Nevertheless, over I walk to push her on the swings. She removes the hilarious look from her face and smiles widely at me.

“I knew you would, Eddyward! It’s because you love me,” She grins, tilting her head backwards. I roll my eyes.

“Of course, Lau! I’m madly, deeply in love with you! Everytime I see you, talk to you, touch you, my heart flutters and skips a beat!” I confess dramatically, laughing. She smiles and replies with a ‘awwh, I love you too’ and all is well again in the friendship; all strops and tantrums over and done with.

“Edd, how comes you will push Lau and not me?” Ash asks, a playful pout playing on her lips. Lau grins and tells her that it’s because I love her more. I just roll my eyes and move over to push Ash.

“You two are so childish, you know that? My love belongs to one person, and one person only!”

“Who’s that then? That stuffed bear you keep on top of your wardrobe where you think no-one will see?” Lau grins knowingly at me and I feel my face go a lovely shade of bright red - blushing.

“Shut up Lau, I don’t have a stuffed bear,” I mumble pathetically. Suddenly the dirty floor of the park has become extremely attractive. I feel a light punch on my arm and look up through my hair to see Lau looking at me.

“I was only kidding Edd, I’m talking about myself,” She says lightly. It cheers me a bit, so I laugh.

“I always knew you were the stuffed bear type, Lau..” I lift my head and smirk at her. She rolls her eyes and jumps up.

“Edd is back, people! His cocky, sarcastic self is back! Praise the Lord!” She screams, walking briskly around the park. Me and Ash crack up laughing. Yep, I’m cheered up now.