Jessica Allen
Standing on the Doorstep...
Was not so certain that this was a good idea. She stood at the door and her finger was on the button of the doorbell. And that was as far as she had got. She froze, her mind in a turmoil of thought and emotions. She put her hand down and then put it back up. Finger on the doorbell. "Push the bloody thing!" A voice inside her head said.
"No!" Said another voice scarily sounding just like the first voice. "Runaway, go home!"
"Christ I can make up my own mind!" Jessica said out loud.
Just then the door opened and a tall elegant woman in a grey dress stood there with her dark hair over her shoulders and with one eyebrow raised in a quizzical way.
"Are you Jessica Allen by any chance?" The woman asked her.
"Yes, I am." She replied.
"Well, you better come in then, unless you're going to stand on my doorstep all day and night." Said the woman in a rather cutting tone of voice.
"Yes, I will." Said Jessica and walked in through the open doorway. One of the voices was trying to say "Run!" But Jessica was already inside the house and the door closed behind her.
One Week Before...
Someone is typing...
Said the message on the screen of Jessica Allen's laptop.
She waited and the little dots on the screen flashed on and off. Then the screen changed and a new message was there for her to read.
"Hello J. Thanks for the reply. You sound nice. Are you looking for someone? I am in Margate. K."
The message was like an old written telegram, short words, short sentences and clipped in meaning. Jessica had to read it several times before replying.
"I am single and like you K. Like Margate. Like to know more. Wish I could meet." Jessica replied in the same clipped short way.
In truth, Jessica was not entirely sure what she was doing, she thought she knew but really she was out of her depth and being rather naive about this whole message App thing that she was using.
Jessica Allen was twenty-three years old. Black straight hair cut short. Five feet, three inches tall. Single. Bi. Seeking like-minded friends for fun and days out.
That was a shorthand version of who Jessica was, is, well as she wants to be, should be, and all the other things that a twenty-three-year-old, single confused, lonely woman.
Someone is typing...
"K here. Great. Why not meet soon. Email address is."
Jessica got out a pen and notebook and wrote down the email address that 'K' given. Now she had to open her email account and send yet another message... This was all becoming very complicated... Jessica persisted and got her email sent to 'K'.
Then nothing...
Then more nothing...
Yet more nothing...
And finally, a message came back.
"At last!" Jessica said out loud in exasperation at the laptop.
The Meeting...
Jessica was sitting at the corner table of a cafe waiting for 'K' to turn up. She now understood that 'K' was for Karen Turnbull, the girl that Jessica had been messaging on the LGBT App thing, that she got from a magazine article. 'Are You One of Us' Was the title of the article and as she read it Jessica had decided that she was one of them, or should that be us? Anyway, Jessica was nowhere and waiting. She had arrived early, half an hour early, and was already onto her third cup of coffee and chocolate biscuit, when 'K' arrived, five minutes late!
"Hello Jessica, I'm Karen. Great to finally meet you in person. Karen said and began to take off her jacket and put it onto the back of a chair.
Karen was twenty-two years old. She had dark black hair cut in a boyish way that framed her face. She was about the same height as Jessica, five feet, two inches, or four inches if she wore high heels. She was already in a relationship. She was bi, or a lesbian if you want it spelled out for you, and was lonely and wanted a friend. This is why both Karen and Jessica were sitting across from each other in a cafe.
"You don't look like you sounded in the messages." Jessica blurted out.
"No! What did I sound like then?" Karen asked.
"Different!" Jessica said and then changed the subject to something less awkward. "Coffee or tea?"
"Milk!" Said Karen.
"Milk?" Asked Jessica just to make sure she heard correctly. "Just a glass of milk?" Jessica asked again.
The milk duly arrived and they began to chat. While Karen talked and Jessica listened.
"I live with this older woman. Her name is Bethany, Bethany Armstrong, and we live together in this big house in Margate. She moved out of London a few years ago and got a good deal from selling her flat and buying the house in Margate..." Karen went on...
"I left my home when I was 19. My family didn't understand me, so I left home and went to live with friends from school and they helped me get on..." She went on...
"I really like Margate at first but then I started to miss all the things that London had and well Bethany is ten years or more than me so we were into different things..."
Jessica took a chance and said something about herself. "I just left home for a job, I never really left, more moved out, for my job you understand." She said.
It was a bold move and once she had paused Karen managed to say something more about herself.
"It was a magazine article I read and I realized I was a lesbian so I joined the App and you answered." She got out before Karen could say anything else.
"So!" Karen began and hesitated. "You have only just discovered that your... A lesbian by reading that article in the magazine then?" Karen asked.