Shit happens ✧ *:✧･ﾟ* Skins gen 2 • James Cook • Effy Stonem • Freddie McClair

Season 3 - 2.

I woke up to the sound of ruffling and yesterday,s events slipped into my mind. I opened one eye and peered around the room to see Cook dressed messily and scrambling for his stuff.
I sat up abruptly, causing his head to snap round to look at me.
"You skipping out on me?" I asked rubbing my eyes.
"Look, this is stupid, I'm just gonna leave before one of us gets hurt." Cook sighed, pulling a jumper into his rucksack and zipping it up.
I swallowed, hard, I didn't want him to go, but he's a grown man and I can't tell him what to do.
"So you weren't going to say bye?" I asked.
"I don't do goodbyes." He replied, reaching for the door.
"Wait, can you take me to Bristol, I want to see Freddie...I'll leave you alone after." I begged.
I could see he was fighting an internal battle, he couldn't even look me in the eyes.
"Please Cook." I added.
Me saying his name seemed to have put his gears into motion. He nodded.

****

The car journey to Bristol was silent, until my boss called to tell me I was fired.
"Well, I'm sorry Ruth, something got in the way!" I pleaded.
"You've made us miss out on the opportunity to be the first newspaper to publish the story, I'm sorry India, but you're fired." She voiced angrily down the phone, the line going dead after she finished her sentence. I sighed and slammed my phone down.
"Fired?" Cook asked.
"Yep." I replied.

We arrived in Bristol 2 hours later, we pulled up outside of a square white house that I did not associate with Freddie at all.
"Um, is this it?" I asked.
Cook nodded his head.
"Thanks." I said, I smiled at him but he didn't look at me.
"So, did you want to keep in contact with me?" I asked.
"I don't keep personal numbers on my phone because of my job, I'll find you when I need to." He spoke, looking out of the car window at the house.
"How will you know where I am?" I questioned.
"I'll know." He replied.
Getting the hint, I turned to grab my bags and jumped out the car.
"Bye." I said, swallowing my doubts.
"Bye." He replied.
I shut the door and watched him drive off.
What happened to him?
I fight back tears, having a very strong hunch that he will not be coming to find me at any point.
I'd basically lost my job for no reason too.

I turn on my heel and knock on the door to the house. After a couple of minutes the blue door swung open. A red haired girl had answered the door.
"Uh, hi...Is Freddie here?" I asked.
A skeptical look crossed her freckled face, but she turned and called Freddie's name, seconds later he appeared at the door.
"India?" He said, a smile appearing on his face and his arms widening to give me a big hug.
"Hi Fred." I chimed into his arms.
He pulled away to get a good look at me. "You didn't tell me you were coming, we've not spoke for about a year." He smiled.
"I didn't know until this morning, I've got some explaining to do." I answered, turning to the red head that answered the door.
"Oh sorry, this is Grace." He said.
"Hi grace." I smiled.
She smiled back and uttered hello.

We sat down on the sofa in the living room and spoke, I explained my job situation, how I bumped into Cook and told him how strange Cook was acting.
"Yeah well he's just been through a break up," Freddie said. "He'll probably be back with her soon, they're up and down like a yo-yo him and Tasha." Freddie spoke in a matter-of-a-fact tone.
I blinked at him, a weird strain occurring in my mouth.
"Tasha? he's- what?" I voiced.
"Tasha is my best friend." Grace told, walking into the room and handing me a cup of tea.

Of course she is.

I smiled at Grace and took the cup from her hands.
"So you guys are dating?" I plucked up, trying to swallow my emotions.
They both have different answers, Freddie saying kind of and Grace adamantly saying yes.
They both looked at each other as I looked around the living room at the pictures of Freddie and his friends. I spotted one of me, and then finally by eyes fell on a picture of just Effy I'd never seen before.
I stared at it, hard.
"Ah, maybe you can tell me who the girl in the photo is, Freddie won't tell." Grace smiled.
I swallowed.
"Effy, my best friend." I replied, taking a sip of the tea to avoid awkwardness and trying not to spit it out because of how hot it was.
"I'd love to meet her, she looks cool." Grace says, admiring the picture. I looked at Freddie who was looking at the ground.
"She's not alive anymore." I whispered.
"Oh I-I'm..." Grace started.
"It's okay." I smiled, twiddling the ring on my finger that Effy had bought me. Grace excused herself to use the toilet 5 minutes later so I turned to Freddie to ask more questions.
"So, Tasha...is she nice?" I asked, trying to make it sound like an innocent question.
"She's alright, I suppose...quite a fiery character." He commented.

I'll bet she is.

"So I've kinda got no where to stay...can I crash here for a bit?" I asked.
"For as long as you want." He replied.
"Um Freddie, don't you think that's a bit disrespectful to me?" Grace said, strolling back into the room, interrupting a conversation that had nowt to do with here.
I try my hardest not to pull a 'bitch please' face.

"She's a sister to me, we've been through thick and thin, you do not need to worry about India." Freddie replied.
Grace nodded and picked up some car keys.
"Well, I'm going to comfort Tasha, she's really going through it right now." Grace said, giving me and odd look and kissing Freddie on the cheek goodbye before strolling out of the room and shutting the front door unnecessarily loud.
"Sorry about her, she can be a bit territorial at times, she's my first since...." Freddie spoke.
I nodded understandably.
"How's JJ?" I asked.
"He lives with this nice girl named Lara and her baby, they've been together about 2 years."
"Lovely." I spoke.

We chatted the rest of the day, but truthfully I wanted to see where my room was so I could gather my thoughts alone. Around 9 o'clock Freddie went to bed and showed me where my room was. It was quite a big, white room with grey curtains and double bed in it.
"I'm surprised it's clean, Cook normally takes that room." Freddie says before saying goodnight and disappearing into his bedroom.

I slopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling.
I couldn't believe that Cook had lied to me about having relationships. To make it worse, the bedsheets smelt like him. I wouldn't have even cared if he had been in one because we weren't even together. I admit I would have felt a pang of jealousy if I knew he was still basically in one, but I decided to just close my eyes and drift off to sleep.

****

I woke up early in the morning to find that Freddie was not awake yet, so I decided to go out out and find somewhere to eat breakfast. I roughly remembered the area so I managed to walk into town and find a cute café called "Lavender Lab".
It was painted a lavender colour and had ivy growing all over it. There were careful drawings of cakes in the window and a sweet smell oozing out of the building. I immediately walked in and eyed the menu.
"Why hello there darling." A tanned man with a strong italian accent spoke.
"Hi." I smiled back.
"Aren't you absolutely gorgeous?" He smiled.
I awkwardly laughed and took a step back from the counter.
"Oh don't worry mi amor, Cassio is very gay." He said, nodding to a man who was stood at the back of the coffee stop kitchen. She figured that he was Cassio and he was referring to herself.
"Well thank you, you're shop is beautiful." I smiled, looking around.
"Isn't it just? we're hiring at the moment actually." He replied.
"Are you? how do I apply?" I said excitedly.
"You're hired." He smiled, whipping out a business card from his back pocket and passing it to me.
"Text this number and I will tell you when you will begin." He hummed.
I shoved it into my pocket and proceeded to order a croissant and a pot of tea.

As I ate I noticed a platinum blonde walk into the shop. "Cassio! I'm sorry I'm late, the bus wasn't on time." She exclaimed, walking behind the counter.
"Oh don't worry princess-a! your new colleague is just over there." Cassio replied, pointing over to me. The blonde turned to face me and I recognised her immediately.
"India?" Naomi spoke.
"Oh my god, hi!" I called as she walked over to me and gave me a big hug.
"I've not seen you since the funeral, you look great!" She exclaimed.
"Yes, been about three years." I smiled back.
"How've you been doing? you working here now?" She asked, sitting opposite me.
I explained everything that went down from me leaving bristol to the day before.
She nodded knowingly.
"Cook'll come to his senses, he's never loved like he's loved you." She comforted me, putting her hand over mine.
"Well it's not like I want him back or anything." I chuckled, not actually sure that I was telling her the truth, or myself for that matter.
"Bollocks! you two were like posh and becks - besides, I've met the girl he's on and off with now, she's proper cunty." She explained.
I scoffed and looked out the window.
"She's a regular here, if you're working here you're sure to bump into her, none of us like her," She leaned in, "She's got a tiny bit of a moustache...so we all call her moustasha behind her back." Naomi giggled.
I laughed as she got up to go and start her shift.