This Ain't A Fucking Fairy Tale.

Hungover. Embarrassed. Dehydrated. Tired. Happy. Aching. Mess. Hungry. 

I regret nothing.

Although I probably should.

Yay job interview for working in a library =]

Hours are perfect for me, job is literally just sitting at a desk for four hours a night.

PLEASE CAN I HAS?

My evening.

Tonight has been eventful.

I went to Eastleigh with my guys to bowl, it all seemed good we were having a laugh and then something happened that would define how the night would end. A woman came up to us and in seemingly genuine earnest, she asked us for money. I don’t give money to random strangers. Brett however does and gave her two quid. She seemed happy with that and left. I thought I’d never see her again.

We continued onto the arcade and I won both games of bowling, because I’m the biggest fluke ever. Not ready to go home we decided to play some games, I won Inky and lost air hockey a few times. And then lost at pool. Brett won bubbles and entertained us with them on our walk back to the station. 

We found the right train to take us home, but would have to wait until twenty passed twelve for it to arrive. That was a good forty minutes away so we sat down to wait.

And then the woman who had asked us for money appeared on the other platform.

‘Do you know which train goes to Winchester?’ she asked. We said it was the one we were waiting for.

She crossed over to us and settled down next to me on the bench and for a while she seemed in her own world.

And then she opened her bag and pulled out a bottle of margarita. She brandished it at me. ‘Do you want some? It’s really nice, try some.’ I could smell it on her breath, it did not smell nice. She kept asking if I wanted any, I kept saying no, then she started taking the lid off and asked why and I said I didn’t drink. 

‘What are you some kind of Christian virgin?’

‘Yes, yes I am.’

All the while my guys laughed at me.

And then she sat down and shoved the bottle away, asked if any of us had money or a cigarette, we said no. She then pulled out a cigarette. 

A little later she started talking again, ‘Honey I need you to help me, and make me pretty.’

‘What?’ 

She opens her bag and pulled out some brushes and powders, ‘Just help me, you don’t need these guys help me. Do I look orange?’ she applies a fuck load of bronzer and I say no anyway because well, I thought it would get her off my back. ‘Do I look okay? Will you wipe it off if it’s orange?’

I said ‘Don’t you have a mirror?’

She shook her head and continued trying to get me to put make up on her, in the end she just went ‘Well look at you.’

‘There’s nothing wrong with me.’

‘You need a mirror then.’

Yeah. That happened. I was called ugly by a drunkard on a platform smothering herself in makeup. I could not help but be slightly offended. She saw this and began to apologise, then got annoyed and stood up. 

‘I’m cold.’ she said ‘Where’s the train. You are not cold

d tell me you’re not cold. You’re freezing.’ This she said to Jamie who had so far been kept out of the conversation.

Jamie replied, ‘I’m not cold, I’m freezing.’

And thankfully, then, the train arrived. We walked as far as we could away from her and got on the train. Annoyingly the train was then not due to depart for another eight minutes. And I knew she would be looking for us.

We set Brett on watch, and when he saw her we all hid low on our seats. I have never been so scared.

When we got off the train we hid until she had stumbled off of the platform and even then we stayed hidden a little longer. We didn’t want her asking us for cab money, or worse, following us home.

I have honestly never met a more horrid woman.

Poppy.

They sat together for a while, Poppy did not know how long. Only that it was long enough for Hugh to bring a tray of tea and then come back to take it away untouched. He was just returning with a jug of water and some glasses when Poppy lifted her head from Gabe.

                ‘You should turn in now Hugh.’ Gabe said, ‘I will see you in the morning.’

                Hugh dipped his head, murmured a thank you and left them.

                Gabe leant and poured the two glasses full of water, he held one out to her but she shook her head.

                ‘Father quite lost his mind.’ She said.

                Gabe stiffened a little; she saw it in the way his shoulders grew tight. He set the glass down a little harder than he probably meant to.

                She spoke now to the back of him. ‘I snapped at him, and well, he was angry. He shouted at me, you know as I tell you he does with Mother, but when he stopped I talked back.’

                ‘Did he hit you?’

                ‘No. No, he went to grab me, caught my collar as I pulled away and ripped it. I ran and hid in the green room and locked the door. He made such a fuss. With Mother there all the time, calling to me…’ she trailed off, feeling a sob tighten in her throat. ‘He made such a fuss.’ She said again.

                Gabe leant back and touched her arm.

                ‘I would have come sooner had I been brave enough t- Gabe, your eye.’ As he had looked at her, she had caught it in the lamp light. A darkness beneath his eye terribly like a bruise.

                ‘It is nothing.’ He said, ‘Just a knock, I’m fine.’

                ‘What knocked you? You were not in a fight?’