It was going to be a long, LONG day. I finally got to leave home. Ditch all my friends and start a new life at uni... I wasn't quite bold enough to leave everything I knew behind. I applied for the same university as my big sister.
'The university of Sussex, little sister!' Charlotte called out to me. 'I'm so excited to see your halls! Eeep! I'm so sad I've got my last year in uni. Then it's travelling the world with friends, before having to get a real job and be boring assed shits like mum and dad... Ooooh I'm going to miss uni. And now my baby sisters coming! I get to corrupt you! You'll have no idea how much fun we're going to have.'
'No corrupting me Lotta.' I smiled back' You have been away for years. I can drink you under the table! Speaking of which... Are you sure I shouldn't pack my little foldaway table for course work? What happens if halls don't have one? I don't think I'll be able to afford a new one...'
Charlotte laughed at me some more.' Babybell, I'm telling you now. You will fail your first year. There's so much drinking, drugging and dicking. It's OK though. Chalk it up to an experience that you get paid to have. Then the next 3 years will be tougher but hey. You'll never forget your freshers year.' Charlotte continued to chuckle to herself as she left.
Let me introduce myself. I'm Rebecca, although I hate it. It makes me sound so old. My friends call me Belle, because I have deep blue eyes. My mum is a photographer and her Facebook picture for the last billion years has been of a picture of me and my sister as kids, looking for fairies in a bluebell wood. My eyes match the colour of the flower so in secondary school, as friends starting getting FB and insta and stuff, someone mentioned it and it kinda stuck.
My sister is called Charlotte, although again, my parents named us like 40 year olds before we were even born so she likes being called Lotta. It used to be Lottie, until after she discovered boys. Then some cow in school called her Lottacock, but she laughed it off and adopted the name for herself.
'Don't worry Belle,' she told me one day. 'If I embrace it then people can't hurt me with it. Also. I fucking love dick, so I'm OK with it on that level too!'
She's the best. We're both the same, looks wise too, I guess. Both blonde, blue eyes a pert handful of boobs and, although we're not sporty, we're fit. We live up on the coastline of Scotland. My dad moved us here 10 years ago as he hated the commute to and from the North Sea oil rigs. So I still have a southern accent, at least according to the locals around us. However, if we go down south to visit family, they love it as we have a very soft Scottish lilt to our words. I've always struggled with thick Scottish accents, but find slight accents exotic.
The only major difference between me and Lotta is this. She's a size 10 instead of an 8 now, because uni and drinking go hand in hand and, I have two very annoying dimples in my cheeks. It makes me look cute. It's why people still ask for my ID despite that fact they know, I'm 18.
Anyway, I'm off to uni. It's an 11 hour journey, but we're doing it over 2 days. Dad's off shore so mum will be driving, which she hates, and also because we live in the ass end of nowhere we'll be stopping at in Manchester for dinner and a stop over before continuing. Hence the long, Long day... Not complaining, I guess, but I just want to get there.
***
It's departure day and I may have fucked up. Lotta has a duffle bag as she's packed light while I, on the other hand, have packed everything I think I need. I decided to take my little foldaway table as I really wanted to make sure I had somewhere to do my coursework... Of course Lotta couldn't stop laughing at this as she'd already told me: I was going to fail my first year... I didn't want to believe her so I chose not to.
Anywho, the reason for my fuckedupedness... We have
A) a lot of stuff
B) 3 people
C) 2 seats...
'I'm gutted mum!' I called out 'I literally need everything here. Can't we send Lotta by train, or make her walk or something?' I laughed, Lotta smacked me, and mum smiled. 'Sorry Rebecca, you're going to have to leave something... Leave the table and stool and a few more bits, then we can repack it all again and get the 3 seats.' Me and Lotta groaned. It would take FOREVER to get it all out, and besides, there was nothing I didn't need. I was being stubborn on my table, but I'd used to to pass all my GCSEs and A levels. I felt it was almost a good luck charm by this point.
I finally had a great idea! 'Muuuummmmm'...
'Yeesss' she answered back to me sarcastically.
'Why doesn't Lotta sit on my lap. We're mostly hidden from view. If we crash, we're packed in like sardines so nothing will move, and I can have her on my lap for 5 hours easy!' Lotta piped up ' You sit on my lap you little midget. I weigh more than you now so it's only fair!'
Mum shrugged, told us to have our toilet breaks now and we'd leave. I hugged Lotta for putting up with my shit dragged her to the toilet, then the car talking her ears off all the way. Before I knew it we were on the road.
...
Sat in the back, surrounded by piled stuff I gave up talking to mum as the car was so loaded her replies were often muffled by crap. I knew I was taking too much, but hey, we were traveling from North Scotland to southern England, I could hardly grab anything I left at home on a weekend trip.
I was on my phone, texting my old friends, Lotta on hers texting her boyfriend. She looked like she was having an argument. There were a lot of capital letters her side and emojis on his... 'boy troubles?' I hedged. 'it's nothing.' Lotta was abrupt, but I figured she just didn't want to talk.
About 15 minutes later and 45 minutes into our journey Lotta started fidgeting. I tried not to wiggle, as I knew my bum was a little boney, but I didn't realise I would make my sister so uncomfortable so quickly. 'You OK Lotta?' I asked. She looked a little flustered but smiled 'I'm good Babybell. Just hot in here is all'. I didn't find it hot. I was in my summer dress, but it was below the knee, and Lotta had her shorts and t-shirt on. Both loose, so it must've just been the confined space.