A random idea that popped into my head and I had to scribble it down.
Chapter one – Birthday wishes.
I can hear my phone go off. But bollocks to whoever is calling me, I'm not waking up to take their damn call. I sigh, my eyes still closed. The problem now, is that I'm awake. Wide awake. I groan and lean over to my bedside table. I grab the damn thing and flip it open.
'Ello?' I say groggily.
'Karra! Up! Up! Up!' A thick Scottish brogue reaches my ears.
'Chase! It's like too early in the morning for this shit,' I complain sitting up and rubbing my eyes. 'Go bug someone else,' I add.
'It's like two in the afternoon you lazy mare,' she replies. I yawn and sigh. 'Come on Karra, get ya fat, lazy arse out of bed,' she says in a really nasal voice. I roll my eyes and groan.
'All right you naggy bitch, I'm getting up,' I say rolling out of bed and onto the floor. 'Where are you? I can hear something whistling,' I look for my glasses. Then I realise that the whistling is in my house and down the phone. I sit cross legged, finally locating my glasses. 'You're in the house aren't you,' I state.
'Coffee's ready!' She said in a shrill tone, I wince hearing her voice echo up the stairs. With a sigh I get up shakily and open my bedroom door. I'm dressed in a onesie, which is covered in tiger stripes, it has a hood with ears and a tail. My hair is still in last nights braid, I can't be bothered to find my contact lenses and I'm just gonna stick with my glasses. I pad down the stairs, still rubbing my eyes as I do so. I turn at the bottom and walk into the kitchen, where Chase; my best friend and next door neighbour is making coffee.
'I hate you,' I say plonking at the table. 'Why the hell did I give you a key?' I sigh yawning again. Chase merely laughed at my insult. She was dressed in her leathers, she had clearly just come back from work. She was a mechanic with a passion for motorcycles and even had her own club: Hell's Exiles. She took off her leather jacket and I could see her jumpsuit underneath. She, like me, had long black hair and we were often mistook for sisters. Her hair was in a messy bun and she was covered in grease and oil.
'You love me really,' she grins and puts a full mug of coffee in front of me. 'You know what day it is today?' She asked with a bigger grin, she sits opposite me at the table, putting her boots up on the other chair. I shrug and sip my coffee.
'Tuesday?' I suggest.
'What damn time did you get in this morning?' She says raising a brow. I yawn and look at the clock above the fridge.
'Uh about five? I think,' I say mentally counting back. 'There was a difficult birth up at the Hoad's farm. Their mare was having real trouble. Turned out to be twins. Seeing as I drew the short straw, I was oncall last night.' I explain. 'Although it would have been nice if Dale told me about the damn horse carrying twins. I just thought she was carrying one.' I sigh and take another sip of my coffee.
'Are you at work today?' Chase asks with a glint in her eye. I raise a brow, but shake my head at the same time. She claps her hands and gets out her chair running into the front room where she usually dumps her stuff. I ignore her antics and drink in the life giving elixir that is; coffee. She returns with a glittery bag, I almost choke on my gulp of liquid.
'Ah, fuck,' I say through a burnt tongue.
'Fuck indeed, Karra,' she smirks. She places the bag on the table. 'Happy birthday you grotty old cow,' she says with a chuckle. I sigh and reach across to grab the bag after giving her the finger. She takes her place at the table and watches as I pull out random bits of tissue paper and finally get a hold of a small box at the bottom. I pull it out and open it up.
'Aw, Chase,' I say smiling. 'You ditzy thing. You didn't have to,' I hold up a delicate silver chain with a tiger pendant. It had little emerald eyes.
'To match your pyjamas,' she teased. I laugh and clip it around my throat. 'See, perfect.' She drinks her coffee. 'Are you at work tomorrow?'
'Na, I'm pretty sure that I have a week off, if it's my birthday today,' I say with a happy sigh. 'Although no doubt I will get called in sometime this week, seeing as a nurse is on maternity leave which leaves Dale with... Jason and Susanne, I think,' I reply having to concentrate. Chase nodded and her grin got bigger, making it look like someone had shoved a piece of watermelon in her mouth sideways. 'What's crawled up your butt?' I ask with half a laugh.
'Oh nothing, just my friend here,' she said putting a litre bottle of tequila on the table. I pale at the sight. That's what she had been hiding. She looked too shifty for a start.
'No fucking way! I'm not starting my week off with being taken to the hospital for a stomach pump.' I protest.
'Ach come on! It's in ya damn blood!' She replies pointing at me. 'I thought you were Irish,' she says her Scottish accent accusing me. I have a thick Irish accent and I am the typical dark haired woman that is so fair, that after a couple of minutes in the sun you would think I was a baked potato.
'Yeah okay, so maybe when I was a teen I got pissed every other hour, but I want to enjoy this week off. Not wake up and find out I've lost four days,' I shake my head.
'Ach come on!' She repeated. 'Cornwall is sooo boring! Let's live tonight up a bit,' she pouted. I looked at her, but she had turned on the damn puppy eyes. I tried to resist but her bottom lip began to tremble.
'Oh fucking hell,' I mutter. 'Fine,' she whooped in happiness. 'As long as this time I don't find myself sleeping in the damn lake,' I say remembering last years birthday celebrations. Our houses are detached, but the both share the same back garden, well, they do now. We tore down the wooden fence that kept them apart. Our gardens back onto a lake. So you can guess what happened. I continue to drink my coffee while she natters on about what we're going to be doing for the rest of the day. I met Chase at university, in London when I was eighteen. She was taking mechanics, I was taking veterinary science. Believe it or not, we hated each other. Made to share a dorm and everything. But one night we both got drunk, had a massive argument, a couple of split lips later, we were the best of mates. Have been ever since.
'Oh, I got your post,' she says reaching over to the counter and throwing me a couple of letters. I nod my head in thanks and tear them open.
'Eh, one's a bill as usual,' I say dismissing it. I look at the other envelope. My face paled more so than when I saw the litre of booze.
'Karra?' Chase said leaning forward. She took the letter from my hands, 'oh shit,' she muttered. 'Do you want me to open it?' She asked. I nodded. She opened it and scanned over the letter. 'Bastard!' She swore.
'Is it what I think it is?' I reply with a sour tone.
'Aye. The bastard has filed for a counter claim,' she said in a hiss. 'Seems he doesn't want to give you up.' I sigh and bang my head against the table.
'Fucker!' I swear loudly. I should probably explain this bit. Today is my twenty-sixth birthday. When I was eighteen, in university, I met a guy. Brian. Blonde hair, brown eyes. Training to become a doctor. Long story short, I fell for him. Hard. He was sweet and lovely, everything I dreamed for in a man. When I was twenty we got married. Then it all changed. He convinced me to stop studying, move to Kent with him. Cut off all contact with Chase, but that wasn't the worst of it. He beat me. Whenever I displeased him. I put up with it for three years, thinking that it was my fault because I had done something wrong. It's another reason I love Chase, after three years of me avoiding her calls and emails, she moved from Scotland to a hotel in Kent and damn well found me. She then discovered my little secret. She convinced me over about six months that this ''relationship'' was poisonous. One night, when Brian had discovered that I had been meeting Chase, he beat me so hard that I had to go to hospital and have my jaw relocated, as well as my collarbone reset. That was the day that Chase convinced me to speak up. Brian was arrested that night.
With a lot of help from Chase, I was packed and ready to move within the week. We chose Cornwall, just because it was far away from him and anyone that could bother us. Brian's been in jail for almost a year now, serving an eighteen month sentence. I've been trying to get a divorce, but he just won't give in. So now I'm going to have to go through court again. I sigh and thump the table.
'Want a drink?' She says with a sympathetic tone of voice. I know it's only about three in the afternoon but I don't care. I nod and she pours a shot for me. I knock it back without any thought. She pours one for herself and does the same.
'Fucking bastard,' I mutter wiping my mouth.
'Don't think about it love,' Chase says patting my hand. 'Aye, it's a pain, but the courts will take your side. You know this,' she reassures. I nod and smile.
'I should get changed if we're going out,' I say getting up.
'Don't bother!' Chase says with a giggle. 'Nope. Today is going to be a lazy day. Stay here,' she says nipping off into the front room again. I laugh to myself and re-braid my hair. She skids back into the kitchen in her own onesie. I giggle in laughter. Her onesie is that of a black panther with a floppy tail, attached gloves with white fabric claws and a hood with ears. We got them at the same time at a London market. I grin at her. 'How do I look?' She asks giving me a twirl.
'Like a prat,' I laugh. She cackles in reply and almost inhales her coffee.
'Right! I have movies and a load of junk food in my bag. We're gonna drink, eat and forget about everything apart from your birthday!' She said throwing her arms into the air. I smile and get up drinking the rest of my coffee.
'Let's do this!' I say with a chuckle.
…
'What are you doing? You silly bitch!' I laugh as Chase spins around in a circle. We're in the back garden, a fire has been made in a metal barrel that we keep just for that reason. I'm sitting in a bean bag that we've dragged out the house, music is coming from Chase's kitchen with the windows open. The table that we pulled out the shed is covered in crappy food and booze. We couldn't decide between pizza or chinese, so we got both. Chase landed on the grass and began to giggle hysterically. She got to her feet almost tripping a little.
'Oh fuck I forgot!' She said half running into her house. I try to get out the bean bag and end up rolling onto the grass. I crawl over to her side of the lawn, wobbling with every move I make. Chase returns, with a cake. On fire.
'Chase!' I giggle as I point and fall over. ''We built this city on rock and roll,'' starts to play and I begin to sing along.
'Oh shit!' She swore. 'Too many fucking candles!' She giggled blowing them out. All but one of them extinguish. She plonked the plate on the table, making it wobble.
'H-How many candles?' I ask getting to my feet.
'I kinda lost count,' she laughed. I looked at her, we had drawn whiskers and black noses on our faces with eye liner and the sight of innocence on her face made me burst into laughter. Chase poured a couple of shots, she took hers, I picked up mine, we're both a little unsteady, but on her cue. 'Yan, tyan... wait for it...' She giggled. 'Thethera!' She said suddenly and I knocked back the drink.
'That's so foul!' I giggle holding onto the table to keep me upright. I go to blow out the last remaining candle but she stops me. 'What?' I ask laughing.
'You gotta make a wish!' She says slurring her words a little.
'Like what?' I ask with a giggle. 'A new car?'
'You're thinking too small,' she replies shaking her head. 'How about, wealth, happiness...'
'Oh real cliché,' I say rolling my eyes.
'You didn't let me finish!' She says poking me, making me topple over. 'Whoops!' She cackles as she watches me land on the grass. 'You alright love?'
'Aye,' I laugh. I get up to my knees and lean my upper body on the table. 'So what was the last bit?' I ask drinking from a bottle of beer. 'Wealth, happiness...?'
'And a couple of good men!' She replies with a wink.
'Amen to that!' I say blowing out the last candle. We clink bottles and drink. Chase cuts a massive slice of cake and hands it to me in a napkin. I drop most of it and shove the rest in my mouth. Chase laughs through her own mouthful and begins to cough. After a couple of seconds though she's okay. I drag the massive bean bag over and pull her onto it with me. We half sit half lie on this bean bag looking at the sky as we continue to drink. We sing along to whatever music comes on, after about ten minutes I look over at Chase.
'Thanks for this, love,' I say giggling.
'Aye, what are sisters for?' She replied poking me. I lean on her shoulder, feeling the comfortable warmth in my stomach from the alcohol. We both look up at the stars. 'What's that?' Chase asks pointing wobbly to the sky.
'What's what?' I say looking in the direction she was pointing. It looked like a mini localised storm. Actually quite low in the sky, maybe only about twenty metres up. It was moving toward our houses. The black cloud flashed and rumbled.
'Holy hell!' Chase blurts. She looks at the half empty tequila bottle. 'Please tell me you're seeing that as well,' she asks with a worried look on her face. I nod in reply. The cloud gets closer and closer, we sober up a little at the sight and walk over the lawn till we're almost under it. Chase is still holding a candle in her hand from her slice of cake. The cloud flattens and spreads out.
'Oh shit,' I say feeling a drop of foreboding. The cloud flashes brightly causing both me and Chase to swear. Then it rumbles deeply. I hear a man cry out, without believing what I'm seeing a real guy drops from the cloud into our table. The parasol shielded him from most of the glass and food.
'Karra,' Chase says slowly. 'A dude just appeared on your table,' she says with a slight giggle. There was another flash, and suddenly a crash of splintering wood.
'Another in the shed,' I say half laughing in disbelief. My hood drops from my face as in a large gust of wind the cloud seems to break apart and vanish. Chase sees that the sudden landing from these two spacemen have caused quite a bit of destruction. She grins at me and runs over to the fire poking the candle in it. She looks over at me
'I want a Modern Triumph Thunderbird!' She says blowing out the candle. Despite myself I laugh.
'Chase! Two guys have just dropped from the fucking sky!' I laugh. I'm glad I'm drunk. 'They destroyed our shed,' I add. They also seem to be waking up if the swearing is anything to go by.
'Aye, you're right,' she says. 'Fuck it.' She pokes the candle back in the fire. She looks at me again with a cheeky grin. 'I want a dragon!' She blows out the candle. I begin to laugh more at her ridiculous request and the way that she's now looking at the sky.
'Woman. You do not want a dragon,' a deep male voice came from the shed. We turned on the spot. I couldn't see who spoke, but a loud curse came from behind us. Chase turned to look at him but I continued to look at the one in the dark.
'K-Karra?!' Chase squeaked. 'This dude has swords,' she said shakily. The one that was bathed in the shadows stepped forward. He had white hair and a big fucking blade.
'Aye,' I reply moving closer to her. 'So does this one.'
'Karra?' She said quietly, I linked arms with her, feeling my heart race.
'Aye?' I say just as quietly back.
'He's also pretty damn hot,' Chase whispers.
'A-Aye,' I reply. 'So is this one!'
Chase paused for a moment. The guy in front of me looked like he'd been through a damn war. I couldn't help but stare at him. He looked at me, with a confused face, I mimicked his expression. I was just about to open my mouth when Chase spoke.
'Can I keep him?'
Well, I hoped you liked it. I know it's a bit slow starting. Please review if you would like me to continue.