Part 2 – Jez

I have to admit, everything about her approach completely startled me.

It was the way Claudine's face, usually so perfectly lined and controlled, seemed to light up sort of uncontrollably. It was the way that there was so much life in her as she bounded down the stairs. It was the way she wore let alone no heels, no shoes at all, and it was the way that there wasn't a scrap of make up on her face.

I'd expected Claudine to have changed.

But not in this sense.

I hadn't heard from her almost at all since Britannia High. Phone calls about once a week during the summer, and then they sort of faded until by October she'd probably forgotten I'd existed.

I stayed firm friends with everyone else. BB and I were still close, I saw him about once a week, though now he had his radio show and I was working as a lyricist we were both busy a lot of the time. I stayed in touch with Lola, and had been to see her in Australia a few times in the last two years; she'd come to stay with me as well. Danny and Lauren were married now, and we'd all come to their wedding last summer.

All of us, that is, except Claudine.

It wasn't that we all fell out with her or anything. It was just after Britannia High, when she got the record deal, things changed. She became more distant, and other things were more important than us. By now, the only way I found out what Claudine was doing was from TV interviews and magazines. And even there, she wasn't the Claudine I knew.

Of all of us, it was Claudine that really made it. I mean, we'd all done well I guess. Danny had been in a few movies; Lola was a background dancer on TV and in the odd music videos. Lauren had been in a few west end shows, BB had his own radio show now and I was working as a song writer, mainly writing for other artists.

We'd all stayed in touch apart from her, who as soon as she found fame seemed to completely forget about the rest of us.

So you can understand why I was sort of replied when I received a letter from her saying that she wanted to meet up.

I don't know exactly what I was expecting. I wasn't expecting her to fall into my arms so warmly. I wasn't expecting the moment to be so happily imperfect. And I really wasn't expecting tears to be in her eyes as she moved away and I saw her face.