London 2001
"For fuck's sake!", Michelle growled. "He was a hot bouncer! A hot bouncer, I'm tellin' ya!"
Clare, Erin and James continued to stare blankly at her, faces flushed red from the mini-feckin'-marathon they'd just ran to get themselves back to the apartment in one piece.
"Wasn't he a total ride, Orla?"
Maybe the group's resident cloud-cuckoo-lander wasn't exactly the best person to seek support from under the circumstances, but Michelle wasn't spoilt for choice.
"Ridin'!", Orla hummed to herself, tasting the word several times over like it was some totally foreign and unimaginable concept. "A bit weird, isn't it? Like stickin' yer finger up someone else's nose."
Michelle rolled her eyes, not even bothering to piece together how Orla had come to such a conclusion. She rounded on the others once again, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Well, what else did yous expect me to do?"
Erin huffed, wobbling like a baby deer towards the couch—anything to take the pressure off her monstrously high heeled shoes. "Maybe tellin' him the powdered laxatives in your handbag were Semtex wasn't exactly yer brightest idea, eh Michelle?", she sniffed, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"It was a joke!"
Clare, as per usual, looked seconds away from a cack attack of epic proportions.
Although, who could blame her after the night they'd just had—legging it out of a nightclub and down the street, anything to get away from that huge and frankly terrifying looking bouncer who Michelle had needlessly provoked. It was the whole fucking hullabaloo with Fionnula all over again times ten!
"People over here have a different sense of humor, Michelle!", Clare hissed. "You can't go 'round London jokin' about carryin' explosives in yer bag!"
"To be fair", James chipped in. "I'm quite certain that you can't do that anywhere."
Michelle only scoffed in response, waving a dismissive hand in her cousin's direction.
"Wipe yer eyes, Girls", she replied cockily. "It's a new millennium. Our lot are more likely to be associated with...I dunno, Dustin the Turkey or some shite these days."
Erin flopped theatrically down on the couch, sighing as she looked up at Michelle.
"At least you didn't go gettin' yourself arrested or anything", she admitted after a moment, kicking off her shoes.
As per usual, Erin was the first to accept Michelle's behaviour, especially if said behaviour was so easily explained by the presence of a fit (albeit scary looking) lad!
"Imagine what our mammies would've said!"
Michelle grinned smugly, glad to have dodged that particular bullet. The collective wraths of Mary Quinn, Deirdre Mallon and Geraldine Devlin were not something she fancied being on the receiving end of any time soon.
"Aye, there you go. Let's look on the bright side."
Clare strode across the room, clearly unhappy with the resolution they were heading towards. "How's there a bright side to you almost gettin' us arrested?", she sqwaked, eyeing Michelle angrily. "You've definitely definitely spent too much time with that Hughes fella."
Michelle's face fell somewhat at the mention of Buster.
That prick had left her with a bigger mess than she was ready to admit to, not even to her best mates. She glanced around, making sure the others hadn't noticed her change in demeanour.
Erin had moved on to loudly wallowing in her feet's misery, Orla was in the midst of cracking open a box of Cheerios and James was busy putting on the kettle.
They'd clearly missed the split second change in her, thank fuck!
Michelle hitched on an almost overly enthusiastic grin.
"Don't just look at me when we're talkin' bad choices", she lorded, clawing her way back to her usual mask of bravado and piss pulling. "Look at Lucy. Ya know yer wan who works with me down at the pub? Asked me if James was goin' out with someone. Always knew there was somethin' seriously wrong with that doll."
Erin head shot up in response, whirling around to face James who'd scarcely registered Michelle's comment in the first place. "He can't go out with Lucy!", she declared, on high alert at the drop of a hat.
Michelle snorted in amusement.
Clare frowned in confusion, "Why not? What's wrong with her?"
Fumbling and red faced, Erin was a deer caught in the headlights trying to come up with even a halfway decent excuse. "She's much too-too...too English!"
Seated on the kitchen counter, James supposed it was time to chip in—the conversation did, after all, quite obviously concern him.
"Surely you haven't forgotten that I'm English?", James asked, almost teasingly.
Erin huffed smugly. "Yeah, but you're on the more tolerable end of the spectrum."
"There's a spectrum?"
"Of course, James! Keep up, will ya!"
Michelle rolled her eyes at the whole carry on. She'd never quite understood the downright fucking bizarre dynamic between James and Erin...but in all honesty, she had more pressing things to be doing than trying make sense of either of them.
"Ach, they're some dopes. Y'know that?"
Clare shrugged. "Give 'em peace, Michelle. They'll figure it out in their own time."
Smirking knowingly, Michelle realised that it was as good a time as any to let Clare know that she'd copped onto her early mornings and late nights in and out for the flat.
"Is that what you're doin' as well, eh?"
Panic immediately dawning on her face, Clare gulped nervously—looking almost comically like a goldfish. "What?"
"Are you figurin' it all out too, Clare?"
Clare shifted awkwardly, for the first time realising how much she wanted Michelle's approval and support despite their obvious personality clashes. "Aye, I suppose that's what I'm doin' as well."
Michelle snorted, bumping her shoulder against Clare's...a silent show of solidarity. She tried to ignore the awkward twinge in her gut at the thought of Clare with a full time girlfriend. After all, it wasn't really something that should be concerning her at all!
Together, Michelle and Clare returned their gaze to their friends, two of whom seemed to be stuck in the middle of some insane blend of bickering and flirting and the third who was rediscovering the glorious wonders of breakfast foods.
"Ah well, I s'ppose that makes five of us."
...
The bittersweet between my teeth
Trying to find the in-betweens
Fall back in love eventually
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
~The Naked and Famous, Young Blood.
...