Author's Note:
I apologise for this taking a while, I've been sick still and so sleeping has been more of a priority. Once more your reviews are always greatly appreciated. This chapter is more of a Michelle chapter but I swear the next one will have more Carla (and maybe a little Tina and Rob stuff)
Carla got in her car and she drove without another thought to where she was headed or what she would possibly do when she got there. Soon the cobbles of the street were a distant memory and the terrain changed more to one of a motorway. Before Carla could stop her driving she was on a one way trip to wherever the fuck her petrol filled car took her.
At the factory everyone stood around the entrance with confused looks upon their faces. Sean was giving the door a good tug and pull to no avail.
"She's only gone and left without opening up." Sean complained, giving up his efforts.
Eva rolled her eyes and took some polished steps on her heels to the door, "Maybe you're not opening it 'ard enough. This door's always been a toughie." She informed him, as if she knew better.
After a few tugs on the door she turned and looked more apologetically to a very smug looking Sean.
"You were saying?" He asked, hands on his hips.
Eva's nose poked high into the air, "Yeah, well y'never know with your arms."
A hurt Sean went to ask what that possibly meant when it was interrupted moments later by a more-so level headed Julie.
"Guys, what should we do? Shall we go find Mr. Barlow and ask 'im to unlock it?" She asked now, eyeing the flat that was tucked away around a corner.
"And by 'we' I presume you mean one of us lot?" Sean pointed to himself and then a few others. Then shook his head. "With the mood he was in I'm going no where near him."
"Ey, but you could get s'more gossip outta 'im if you go." Beth piped up.
"Yeah, or he could get 'imself murdered with the look on Mr. Barlow's face a minute ago." Izzy said now, glancing to Sean.
Sean had a frown etching his features, it had fallen dramatically more since the comment of him getting murdered, "Since when did we all decide I'd be the one going?" He asked, pointing to himself.
"Since you volunteered yourself for it, obviously!"
He froze, looking to the cobbles as cogs turned in his mind, then looked up surprisingly quick with a thought, "What about Michelle? 'm sure she has a spare key." Sean offered out, hopeful.
"Oh, aye, yeah." Sinead's eyes rolled, in almost a squint thanks to the sunlight. "She looked more ravin' mad than Mr. Barlow did. Besides, I saw on a documentary once that women will snap quicker than men." The girl rambled on.
Beth looked to her with an unsure look on her face, "Oh yeah? What rubbish was that then? I'm sure there are far more guys who kill than girls." She rested her hands on her hips with the challenge.
"Maybe that's just 'cause we're all better at hiding the body and getting away with it, Auntie Beth."
"Yeah, well-" Beth began to talk, but was cut off by Eva's next words.
"Guys, Michelle." She said, a hand rising to rub at her forehead. As if that would make her words vastly more subtle to the raven-haired woman now storming across the street.
Michelle had stormed to the back of the pub after hitting Steve. She was seething mad. Rough, angry, breaths went in and out of her lungs as she tried her hardest to not scream or throw something, even if the fruit bowl on the middle of the dining table looked very appealing to her and she wanted nothing more than to see it smashed to pieces against the wall.
Instead she leant heavily against the oak table letting herself calm down as best she could.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.
Before she could even reach ten in her head Steve entered the back, looking apologetic and on the brink to beg for forgiveness. It was the final straw for Michelle.
"'Chelle. I'm sorry. 'Chelle." Steve was pleading now, walking behind her.
Her arm reached out and whacked the bowl. It didn't smash against the wall as Michelle had intended, instead it fell to the floor in a dull thud. The fruit rolling away from it gently.
"Don't you apologise. Don't you dare, Steve. You should have told me the moment you found out and you didn't!" Her voice got louder. Michelle spun on her heels to shoot him a strong glare. Steve shielded his face as if he expected another slap from the woman.
"'Chelle." He huffed once more, taking in the tears in her eyes that seemed masked by madness.
"Whatever, Steve. I'll deal with you later." Michelle scrambled to grab her jacket, throwing it over herself before she left the back.
A pin could be heard dropping in the pub as she walked through it. The door flinging open so hard it vibrated from hitting the frame outside. Her heels clicking up the street at such a quick pace was what alerted Eva to her entrance at all.
"What's going on?" Michelle asked now she finally reached the group. Suspecting the worst.
"T'doors locked." Izzy informed her with a cock of her head.
"Yeah, I flamin' well figured that one." Michelle fiddled in her pocket to grasp her keys, "Please tell me Carla 'asn't gone and locked 'erself in here."
"Worse." Sean said, "She's gone AWOL."
"You what." Michelle plucked the factory's key from the others, stepping forward to unlock the doors. "What do you mean 'she's gone AWOL'?" The woman snapped, looking at Sean just as she opened the door and removed her key from it.
"Yeah she just drove off, dunno where she went." Beth informed her.
"Right," Sighed Michelle, fiddling to release the key from it's keyring. She passed it over to Eva. "Lock up at closing time." She said swiftly turning and heading back over the street.
"What are we supposed to do?" Beth called after her only to be ignored. She sighed deeply.
"Just carry on with the order." Julie informed her, everyone heading inside now.
When Michelle reached the pub once more she headed straight through to the back. Steve was frantically picking up the fruit bowl and its contents. He looked to his girlfriend without saying a single word now.
Michelle fished her phone from her pocket, pressing it to her ear in an attempt to call her best friend.
Voicemail, of course.