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~ CHAPTER SEVEN ~
Emma could finally sense that there might be a light at the end of the tunnel. She was now twenty and working. In fact she had been working for well over three years having managed to neatly sidestep the subject of staying on at school to do 'A' levels by getting a job which allowed her to go to college on day release. She would have a full university degree in only nine years!
At least that’s what her parents thought, in actual fact she had no intention of staying long enough to get the degree, but the subterfuge had got her out of school which had been her primary objective at the time.
Her next goal was a place of her own. She had managed to save almost enough for a deposit on a little terraced house in the cheaper end of town and since she was now earning an adult salary the rest of the deposit wouldn’t be nearly as hard to come by.
She had hoped, when she had first mentioned getting a place of her own, that Jack would have offered to move in with her and help with the mortgage. They would have been able to live in the not quite so cheap end of town if he had been willing. But no such luck there.
Jack was far too comfortable at home. He didn’t get any grief from his parents who quite literally allowed him to do as he pleased, a fact which Emma found quite bizarre considering Fiona had all sorts of rules to live by. Even down to things like household chores. Fiona would get a list of jobs to do on a Saturday morning when her Mum went to work, and so would Emma if she had stayed over on the Friday night but Jack didn’t even have to make his bed. He was firmly convinced that the washing fairies collected all his dirty washing from his bedroom floor and washed it, ironed it and quietly returned it to his wardrobes.
Emma had been somewhat disappointed in Jack’s reaction to her suggestion that they live together, especially as he was already at least partially aware of why she was so desperate to move into a place of her own as soon as she could. But Jack was Jack and there was no point trying to make him somebody else. She still loved him dearly and knew that it was just a matter of time before he asked her if he could move in. After all, once he had sampled the delights of living without parents his opinion about moving out was bound to change.
Glancing at her watch Emma was startled to find that she had been daydreaming for nearly half an hour.
“Shit, I’d better get this gunk off my hair before it all falls out or turns green or something!” She exclaimed leaping up and heading for the bathroom repeating over and over in her head.
“I hope it looks OK, I hope it’s not a silly colour!”
The colour was, according to the box, ‘Light Ash Blonde’ which was several dozen shades lighter than her natural light brown hair. Most colour charts called her natural hair colour ‘dark blonde’ but she had always felt that was just wishful thinking. However, she had decided it was time for a change and all the glossies were full of blondes of varying shades. Even her mum had gone for blonde streaks.
What Emma thought it would change about her life she wasn’t really sure, but the general consensus seemed to be that blondes had more fun and her life could very definitely do with more fun.
She was almost finished rinsing the conditioner out of her hair when there was a loud banging on the bathroom door. She froze.
The banging came again and then a voice said, “Emma...Why is this door locked? I’ve told you not to lock it, why is it locked?” Emma relaxed, it was her mother’s voice.
“Sorry Mum, hang on I’ll open it.” She shouted back as she wrapped her dripping hair in a large white towel. Draping another towel round her naked shoulders she opened the bathroom door and couldn’t help breathing a sigh of relief to find just her mother standing outside, despite the cross look on her face.
“Sorry.” Emma repeated. “Just forgot.” And with that she hurried back to her own room where for the first time she dared to sneak a look at her hair. She was very surprised if not a little alarmed, even wet it was very obviously considerably lighter than it had been an hour ago.
“Oh God, I hope I don’t look like I’ve been dipped in bleach when this is dry.” She said to herself as both the towels slipped to the floor. At that moment her bedroom door creaked as it always did when opened.
Emma turned expecting her mum to have come to inspect what damage she had done to her hair but she came face to face with her father. Realising instantly that she was standing in just her bra and jeans Emma’s heart was in her mouth as she spun round again to present her back to the unwelcome stares of her father, only to realise that she was standing in front of the mirror and he could still see her whether she faced him or not.
Not daring to cause a scene, aware of the fact that her mother was not ten yards away in the bathroom, Emma just froze, closed her eyes and hoped he wouldn’t dare do anything with her mother so close.
After what seemed like an age, the door creaked again and her mother’s voice said, “Come on then, let’s see what you’ve done to it!”
Relief again flooded through Emma’s rigid body and she slowly let out the breath she had hardly realised she had been holding. When she finally dared to open her eyes, her father was gone.
“It looks an awful lot lighter than it was before, and I’ve got to dry it yet.” Emma replied with a chuckle. “But, what the hell, I’ve done it now! If it looks really awful I’ll just have to dye it back again won’t I?”
“Well I did tell you to go to the hairdressers to have it done, at least they can tell if it’s going to suit you before you get this far!” Said her mum trying her best to be stern but failing badly.
“Oh, come on Mum, where’s your sense of adventure? Nothing ventured and all that.” Emma was doing her best to convince herself as much as her mother that she hadn’t just made a huge mistake. “Let’s face it, what’s the worst that could happen?”
“You could end up looking like some mad Marilyn Monroe look-a-like!” Her mother was laughing now, the thought of a blonde bombshell for a daughter had quite tickled her.
“It’d take more than bleached blonde hair to make me look like her, forget the face but I haven’t got either the boobs or the bum!” Emma was still staring at her wet hair in the mirror but didn’t fail to notice the disapproval which swept across her mother’s face at the mention of Marilyn Monroe’s curves. She was quite sure other girls talked to their Mum’s about stuff like that but had, yet again, to resign herself to the fact that her relationship with her Mum was apparently no more than skin deep. She had always harboured the hope that things would improve as she got older, perhaps her Mum would like her more as an adult than she ever had as a child, but she had to admit, it wasn’t looking likely. She ploughed on regardless. “Oh well, suppose I’d better dry it, the suspense is killing me. And anyway, if it looks really awful I’ll have to ring Jack and make some excuse not to go out tonight, or ever again for that matter!”
“I’ll go down and put the kettle on then. D’you want a cup of tea bringing up?”
“Yes please, I might just need one in a minute!”
Twenty minutes later Emma was in the kitchen drinking tea with her mother. Her hair was a very respectable shade of blonde, any lighter and she would definitely have been heading for ‘bimbodom’ but she had always been a good judge of what suited her and what didn’t and this had just proved that hair colour was no exception.
“Jack’s going to be stunned when he sees you. It really does look great. It’s just the right shade. I don’t know how you do it. If it had been me we’d have been right about the Marilyn Monroe bit.”
“I have to say, I’m quite pleased with how it’s turned out myself. I was a little worried there for a while.”
“So, where are you going tonight then?”
“We’re starting off in the pub and then some work mate of Eddie’s is having a party so we’re going on there after.”
“Staying at Fiona’s?”
Emma shot a sideways glance at her mother, she had been staying at “Fiona’s”’ for over four years now, she was convinced her mother knew what really happened, but she chose not to mention it so Emma went along with the deception. After all, what was one more deceit, one more unspoken truth within this twisted family unit.
“Yes, I’m staying at Fiona’s.” She confirmed.
~ CHAPTER EIGHT ~
“So what do you all think? Great Idea? Crap Idea? Too expensive? What?” Sam was looking hopefully into the faces of all his friends having just delivered his best pitch for selling the idea of all of them going on holiday to his Aunt’s villa in Spain together. “Emma, what do you think? It would be a riot wouldn’t it?”
“Absolutely! I think it’s a great idea. What about you Jack? You up for it?” Emma said eagerly, sliding her hand a little higher up his thigh. Jack grinned and winked at her over the rim of his pint glass.
“Sounds like a top idea to me. Just one problem. There’s no way I can afford it. Can you?” He raised a questioning eyebrow in Emma’s direction.
“Well the villa doesn’t sound like it’s too expensive and if we all go it’s not that much and I should be able to spare it out of my savings for the house, and your mum has been asking for ages what you want for your twenty-first. You could have this.” Emma was on a mission. The idea of the six of them spending two weeks in the sun together appealed to her immensely and she wasn’t going to let Jack’s financial uselessness stand in her way. “Don’t you think?”
“It’s a bit of a strange thing to ask for a birthday present but I reckon you’re right, I’m sure Mum would go for it.” Jack was thinking out loud and Emma and Sam beamed.
“Great. What about you two?” Sam said turning to Tommy and Eddie. “You fancy two weeks in the sun?”
“Yeah, definitely, I’m in!” They chimed in stereo.
“Good, well that’s five, my aunt’s villa sleeps six, question is do we ask Paul or Fiona?” Sam wondered out loud looking pointedly at Emma.
“Well, much as I like Paul I’d rather spend a fortnight with Fiona. But it’s up to you guys, I don’t really mind.” Replied Emma, pleased to have been asked but doubting her opinion would carry much weight with the others.
“I think I’d rather have Paul.” Eddie said almost dubiously. “Not that I’ve got anything against Fiona but I want to spend two weeks on the pull and if Fiona’s there she’ll expect me to be with her all the time. You know how she throws herself at me.” He was looking at Emma with an expression of gloom on his face.
“And you what? Just have to oblige to be polite?” Emma was laughing at him. “Stop, you’ll have me feeling sorry for you in a minute!”
“Well...” Eddie continued defensively. “I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings or anything.” He was still trying to look downcast but couldn’t hold the pose for long, Emma was laughing too hard.
“So it’s nothing to do with getting a shag whenever you want one then?” Quipped Jack amiably.
“Well it does have some advantages I suppose. Still, I don’t fancy her cramping my style for two whole weeks! Anyway, surely you don’t want your little sister there do you? Let’s ask Paul.”
“Yeah, sorry babe, I have to say I’m with Eddie. I know she’s your friend and all that but I don’t much fancy trailing my kid sister around for a fortnight. I vote for Paul too.” Jack shrugged as he lit another cigarette.
“Tommy, do you have any preferences?” Asked Sam.
“Nah, whatever. I intend to be too drunk to care either way!” Tommy replied with a grin.
“Nothing new there then?” Emma said with a chuckle turning back to Sam. “Look’s like Paul wins then. He’s supposed to be coming out tonight I think, you can ask him then. Jack, Paul’s out tonight isn’t he?” She raised a questioning eyebrow in Jack’s general direction.
“So he said. I rang him before we left and I think he was going somewhere else first but he said he’d be here later.” Jack confirmed. “Time for another pint, you want one babe?” He said as he headed for the bar.
“Sure, I’ll have another pint.” Emma replied with a smile. She was looking forward to spending two weeks in the sun with Jack. She would have really liked to have been going with just Jack, they rarely spent any time alone together. On the odd occasion that they weren’t in the pub with the lads they stayed in at his house with his mum, dad and Fiona. But she was excited about the holiday none the less, if only for the fact that she would get to wake up next to him every morning. Emma smiled to herself at the prospect.
“What you grinning at?” The questioner was Sam and he startled Emma out of her reverie. She blushed slightly, she could hardly tell Sam she had been thinking about sleeping with Jack.
“I was just thinking about how much fun a holiday will be.” She fibbed smoothly. “When can we go?”
“The villa is available for the first two weeks of June or the first two weeks of July, so we just need to find out who can have which weeks off work. I can have either of them, nobody else has booked anything yet. The sooner we can all find out the sooner we can get some flights booked.” Sam replied with his usual attention to detail. Emma hadn’t even thought about flights. She was too busy wondering where to go for new bikinis and what factor sun lotion she would need.
“Oh yeah, flights – they’d be useful!” She shot a sideways glance at Sam and they both laughed. Again Emma was struck by the ease with which she and Sam could talk, whatever the subject, there were never any awkward silences like there could be with Eddie and Tommy. She was still puzzled by the veil of sadness she detected behind his eyes from time to time.
Outwardly he always appeared to be happy, full of laughter and jokes and she was unaware of unhappiness in his life outside their little circle of friends. She had asked Jack about it once but as usual when it came to matters of the heart he was about as much use as a chocolate fireguard. He had just shrugged and said Sam was fine. So she had let it lie, deciding that if there was anything wrong Sam would confide in her when he was good and ready. Again Sam’s voice broke through her thoughts.
“So your dilemma now is, do you go topless or not?” Sam was grinning devilishly at her.
“Not!” She replied defiantly. “Not with you five gawping at me all the time.”
“Awe, we won’t even look, honest!” Tommy laughed, picking up on their conversation as soon as he heard the mention of naked breasts. “What do you reckon Jack?”
“What do I reckon to what?” Jack had just returned from the bar and had missed the topic of the conversation.
“Emma wants to go topless but doesn’t think you’ll want her showing off her assets!” Tommy had an aptitude for twisting the facts somewhat.
“If you want to babe you can flash’em to the world. Let’s face it, nobody would hardly notice the difference, I mean - Eddie’s got bigger tits than you!” Jack, Eddie and Tommy all thought this was hilarious in the extreme and laughed heartily at Emma’s expense. Emma forced a smile onto her face, lit another cigarette and wished, not for the first time, that the ground would open up and swallow her.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Sam wasn’t laughing but was staring at her, his face half hidden behind his hand. Silently she thanked him for not laughing and started again to persuade herself that Jack didn’t mean to embarrass her, it was just his way of joking around with his mates. She realised sadly that as long as they laughed he’d keep telling the jokes. She resolved to toughen up, after all, despite the fact that the joke had been at her expense Jack did have a valid point, she was not particularly well endowed in the breast department. A fact she could lament all she liked but nonetheless could not change.
Read Chapter 9 from Monday 12th June
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