A Secret To Be Kept Chapter One A New Start.
I was flustered, the train was late getting to my stop, not that it was a rare occurrence, but today of all days, just my luck. I had to take a taxi from the station to home, I could walk it in fifteen minutes but I didn't have fifteen minutes to spare. I'd arranged to meet my two best friends Lisa and Jen for a drink in town at 8.00 o'clock, and that was only one and a half hours from now.
There was no way I'd make it unless I booked another taxi. I cringed at the expense. It would cost ten times the tube fare but there was nothing I could do about it. Fucking trains!
I showered as fast as I could. I usually like to let myself relax under the hot spray, washing the dirt of London from my body and the stress of another day of hell at work away. I'm a teacher, I teach secondary age pupils in a run-down London comprehensive. It's not the worst school in the area, but it's damn close. But hey, we haven't had a pupil arrested this week. A record I believe.
To my pupils, I'm Miss Gilligan. To the staff I'm Sarah. 28 years old, short dark hair, no children, and living with a completely selfish bastard named Jez. It's Jeremy really but he hates being called that. So from now on in this story of mine, it's Jeremy. We have been together for nearly five years now, meeting in our final year at University and I'm cursing the day we ever met.
Jeremy had promised he would give me a lift to the station, not the bar in town of course, that would mean he would have to make some effort. He'd sent me a text while I was still waiting for the late train. His message said he was going for a drink with the lads after work so couldn't give me a lift.
That was it. Not even sorry. He knew I was going out tonight and he'd done his best to mess everything up. Oh, his Idea of a drink with the lads was. Ten pints of lager. A trip to the nearest curry house and then a competition to see who could fart the loudest, usually while still in the curry house. Classy chap is Jeremy. He'd finished work, then driven home so he could leave his car at home so he could use it the next day. Then went back into town to get drunk.
Finally dressed and a little bit of make-up slapped on and I was at the door as the taxi pulled up. At least he was on time. Thank heavens for small mercies.
I arrived only two minutes late. I could see Jen at the bar, I breathed a sigh of relief.
Lisa would be parking her car so wouldn't know I was slightly late. Lisa hated that. If she said a time, she expected you to be on time, preferably early, even if those rules didn't apply to her. I knew Jen wouldn't tell her. Jen couldn't care less really, but, she played by Lisa's rules even if it went against her own natural inclinations.
Lisa and Jen were a couple, they'd lived together while at Uni. But had kept it their secret.
In fairness Jen was Bi at the time, I knew this for a fact as I'd had the misfortune to share a flat with her for a short time, very short. I'd moved out after only a month, in that month from hell I'd been treated to the sound of her fucking in the room next to mine. She was loud too. There was no escape from her howls, and shouts of " I'm cumming" and "Fuck me" coming from her room.
I could probably have put up with all of that if it wasn't for the fact she was so fucking messy. Dirty underwear on the floor of the bathroom, dirty dishes, clothes left in the washing machine for days, the list goes on. Even so, she's still one of my best friends and I love her to bits. All the time we were at Uni. Lisa and Jen had already been sleeping together and had been since their first year, and no one knew. It was only in the final year that Jen moved in with Lisa full time and everyone found out, including me.
After a hug and peck on the cheek, I helped carry the drinks to a table. Jen had ordered white wine for all of us. If I was being honest I'd have preferred a large G&T. I think I deserved it.
I asked where her ladyship was. Apparently, Lisa had bought a new car and was still getting used to having to park it on the street, fretting like a mother over her newborn child. We were still laughing when the lady in question arrived.
Lisa always attracted attention wherever she went. Nearly six-foot-tall, long black hair that cascaded down her back, and the strangest colored eyes I'd ever seen. Sometimes they were the palest blue, in another light they were grey, not the colour you'd expect given her black hair.
Today she had chosen a long black dress, it looked casual on Lisa but I knew it would have cost a fortune. Lisa had picked low-heeled shoes so she didn't tower over us mere mortals. I always had to look up to her given my own lack of height. I was barely five feet on a good day. Jen wasn't much taller either.
When Jen and I jokingly called Lisa, 'her ladyship' it came from the fact that Lisa comes from money, and old money at that. Lisa was a couple of years older than both Jen and me. She'd ended up in the same year as us at Uni because she'd spent nearly two years travelling the world before deciding to enrol to get her degree. While we'd had to share various properties, Lisa always had her own flat that her parents had bought for her to live in. No rent to pay and Lisa had never had to find a part-time job to make ends meet. She was also a teacher now but she taught at an exclusive private school. Music mostly but did fill in when needed. A far cry from my school.
Well now you know a little about Lisa, Jen, and myself, my story can move along.
Once the hugs and kisses were over and done with, we moved on to catching up with our respective news.
Jen had a new job, she was working in a shop selling records and t-shirts, something that didn't impress Lisa. It did explain Jen's dress for the evening. Distressed jeans and a t-shirt with the name of some band I could barely remember. She'd also cut her blonde hair short, it was all spiky, probably what should be called punk. More earrings than normal and to finish her new look off, she'd a tiny diamond stud in her nose. I quite liked the look, it suited her. I don't think Lisa shared my view on that. She kept looking at Jen shaking her head in despair, but opposites attract, so they say.
I'd switched from wine to my well-deserved G&T's as the night went on. The bar had filled up during the evening with a mixture of people. Hippsters rubbed shoulders with office workers stopping by for a drink before going home, along with various locals. Music played at a volume that still allowed conversations to continue without the need to shout. I liked the place.
