LITMIR.BIZ

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give up the fight.

      Evie knew they could do this, and she wasn’t quite ready to give up the fight for Ruby’s dream. Yes, that was selfish, but there it was. She brushed her hair, covered up the dark circles under her eyes with some foundation and started walking into town. All around, the high street seemed to be back to normal, as if they hadn’t buried a superstar yesterday. Evie pounded down the street, noting the pound shops that seemed to have multiplied, the chicken shops and empty shop fronts. Badgeley was not a town that was improving any time soon, and the desperate need to escape was burning away inside her.

      She marched into the Banner, the only decent hotel in town, and saw Mollie and Chelsea already sitting with coffees in the restaurant. Mollie’s eyes looked red, and Chelsea’s mouth was a thin line. Something had happened.

      ‘Anyone else’s heads pounding this morning?’ Evie asked as she slid into a seat next to Mollie.

      ‘You have no idea,’ Chelsea said carefully, looking at Mollie, ‘I haven’t eaten a fry up in about four years, and that’s exactly what I’m after today.’

      She looked a little less intimidating today, Evie noted, her hair was softer, make-up was more natural and she was wearing jeans. If she’d put on some more eyeliner and some massive hoop earrings from Argos, she might have looked something like the girl they’d known.

      ‘How about you Molls, fry up?’ Evie tried to get Mollie to look up, but she tapped her fingers on the table.

      ‘Yeah, sure… whatever.’

      ‘What did she do now?’ Evie asked, straightforward. Mollie’s head whipped up. ‘Your mum?’

      Mollie’s hands clenched on the table, her whole body tense. The waiter arrived to take their order, and they waited until he disappeared before talking.

      ‘I got home last night, and not only was she drunk as usual, but she was smoking weed in the living room. With my baby girl upstairs. Esme said she came downstairs because something smelled funny and she thought the flat was on fire.’

      ‘Is she okay?’ Chelsea asked.

      ‘Oh yeah, she’s fine,’ Mollie said bitterly, ‘it was only when this morning she mentioned that Nanny was dancing around and tried to make her smoke some of her funny cigarette that I lost my shit. I can’t stay there any more, I can’t! I’m out for one night, one night in years, and she can’t act like a normal human being.’

      ‘Oh Molls,’ Evie clasped her hand, and Mollie looked up.

      ‘I think I can do this. If you have a plan, if you think we can make Ruby’s dream work, we’ll come with you. Six months to make the place viable, make it make money. I can’t stay in Badgeley. I can’t live here and die here and know I never did anything with my life.’

      ‘For real?!’ Evie’s face threatened to crack with the power of her smile.

      ‘It’s got to be planned Evie, I’m talking military precision. I’m not leaving till we’ve got an income and a home lined up,’ Mollie said seriously. ‘At least it’s the summer so I’ll have ages to register Ez with a new school…’

      Chelsea looked back and forth between them, silent as the food was put down in front of them. Suddenly her stomach numbed. They were going to do this? Without her?

      ‘Isn’t that a bit of a one-eighty from last night?’ Chelsea said. ‘Maybe you should think about it, there’s no rush, is there?’

      Evie frowned at her, and Mollie shrugged, ‘It’s been ten years. Things happen when they’re meant to.’

      Evie cleared her throat, finishing buttering her toast before she shared her latest realisation.

      ‘I may have done something… well, not bad, not really, but…’

      ‘Evie.’ She looked up to find her two old friends staring at her with exactly the same look they’d given her at seventeen when they found her sucking face with that guy who used to sell cigarettes in the pub.

      She huffed, holding up her hands, ‘I called Evelyn on the way here. The woman who owns Ruby’s arts centre place.’

      ‘You did that without us?’ Chelsea frowned, ‘Way to be secretive, Eves.’

      ‘I was going to tell you this morning what I found out, that was always my intention. I was just… curious. You guys have lives and reasons to go back to them and, well, I don’t. I wanted to know if there were options.’

      ‘And?’ Mollie’s blue eyes radiated hope, as if smiling desperately could make it into good news, ‘Where is it?’

      ‘London,’ Evie grinned, ‘near Camden Market.’

      Chelsea froze, not entirely sure what it meant but feeling as if suddenly she was standing at the end of a long tunnel. London. Home, her home.

      Mollie tried not to look disappointed, ‘Well, it would be a great place for an arts centre. A shitty place to try and pay for rent while working for minimum wage though.’

      Evie tried to hold back a smile, ‘Mollie, what if I told you that this nice lady Evelyn asked us if we’d be using the two-bedroomed flat that Ruby had also been renting? That is completely paid for along with the studio.’

      Mollie’s eyes shone, and she broke out the huge white grin that got her the lead role in Annie with absolutely no audition, ‘For six months, like she said in the letter? Along with the studio?’

      Evie paused, then nodded, her grin matching Mollie’s, ‘We can do this, Molls.’

       Come on…. come on. Let’s do this. We’re meant to do this.

      Mollie’s eyes bulged, ‘London. We can easily get the centre going in six months, and even if it’s struggling, six months to save would let us save up for rent. I’ll put in a transfer form at work today. They can send me to a London store, so I’ll still have an income.’

      ‘How long will that take?’ Evie bounced in her chair, grinning.

      ‘Two weeks, max.’

      Chelsea looked between the two of them, ‘Seriously? That’s it?’

      Mollie and Evie shrugged, looking at each other. ‘Ruby has decreed. We need to get out, and we’ve got a chance to make our dreams come true. Why not?’

      Chelsea’s eyebrows skyrocketed, ‘You just used to be so… cautious, Moll.’

      Mollie snorted, taking a sip of her coffee, ‘I think if I was cautious I probably wouldn’t have a ten-year-old daughter. This is our chance. The question is…’ she delicately put down her cup ‘… are you in or out?’

      Chelsea’s mouth twitched briefly into a smile, shaking her head and rolling her eyes, ‘Sure, I’m in.’

      Evie looked at her doubtfully, but smiled all the same. ‘Bucks Fizz with our breakfast then?’

      ‘Urgh, how can you even think that?’

      ‘Hair of the dog. Besides, Ruby would love it,’ Evie justified, and waved over a waiter.

      A little niggle of doubt gnawed at her, a tiny bit of guilt at the white lie she’d told. Evelyn had been telling the truth, Ruby had paid up in advance for the space and the flat. But she’d written that letter months ago. They had three months left paid on the lease. Three months to make it a success and survive. They could do it, they could. It would be just like that school trip again. Evie would work out all the crap behind the scenes to make it happen, and in the end, they’d never even know there had been a chance of failure. Three months. It was barely a lie. She looked at Mollie’s face, almost splitting with happiness, and clinked her champagne glass in determination.

       Chapter Three

      Life

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