Chapter 9
Kimberley touched Cheryl’s arm as she leaned across her to borrow her mascara. Cheryl looked at her in the mirror and winked.
“Nobody is going home tonight till they’ve tried every cocktail on the menu” declared Sarah, as she applied her lip liner, staring at Nadine and raising an eyebrow.
“Sarah, I am not getting drunk tonight. Night out, yes. Few drinks, yes. Bit of a dance, well ok then – if I must, but I am not being hungover tomorrow. I want to make the most of our day off”, replied Nadine.
“Yeah Sarah, I’m with Nadine on this one”, added Cheryl. “Me and Kimberley were just saying before weren’t we Kimba, that we’d be heading back to the hotel after a few hours, make sure we don’t spend our day off vomiting in the hotel room” and she nudged Kimberley who was still standing next to her at the mirror.
“F*ck,” mumbled Kimberley as she smudged her mascara onto her cheek, and glared at Cheryl in the mirror for having knocked her arm. “Great - pass me the baby wipes”, she snapped. Cheryl didn’t move to reach for the baby wipes, but turned her head to stare at Kimberley in the face. Kimberley noticed and turned to look at Cheryl, noticing a look on her face she couldn’t quite read. Cheryl raised an eyebrow then tilted her head towards Sarah. Kimberley looked over at Sarah who was fiddling with her hair, a frown on her face, and Kimberley suddenly realised what Cheryl meant. “Oh yeah, we were talking about that before, yeah,” nodded Kimberley as she pointed at the pack of baby wipes and looked back at Cheryl.
Cheryl took a baby wipe out of the packet and as Kimberley went to take it, their hands met briefly before Cheryl gently took hold of Kimberley’s face with one hand and started to carefully wipe away the smudged mascara with the other. She could feel Kimberley’s breath on her arm as she very carefully removed the black mark from Kimberley’s cheek, then without letting go of her face, she scrunched the wet wipe up in her hand and traced the area she had cleaned with her finger. Kimberley blushed slightly and her eyes quickly left Cheryl’s and darted from Nicola, to Nadine to Sarah, all of whom were busying themselves with their own make up and hadn’t noticed the tender moment Kimberley had just shared with Cheryl.
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“Cheryl,” Sarah mumbled as she sipped the last bit of her cocktail, throwing her head back and shaking the glass to make sure she hadn’t left any drops in the empty glass, “it’s nice to see you…you know…” she clicked her fingers, searching for the right words.
“More upbeat?” offered Nadine, as she took the glass out of Sarah’s hand just as the other girl was losing her grip on it.
“Less narky”, declared Sarah, pointing a finger at Cheryl and pulling a face.
“Thanks, I think” replied Cheryl, pretending to be offended.
“Well, you’ve been grumpy for a couple of days now. It’s nice to see you laughing and smiling, and you know – having a good time”, explained Sarah. “Nic – your turn to go the bar”, she added, grabbing at Nicola’s arm and trying to force the girl to stand up.
“It’s okay, I’ll go”, offered Cheryl. “Kimba, give us a hand will you?” she added, taking hold of Kimberley’s hand and standing up. “Same again, girls?” she asked, without waiting for their reply. “I’m going after this one” shouted Nadine, although she wasn’t entirely sure she’d been heard.
They made their way through the crowds of dancers to the bar, Cheryl in front, pulling Kimberley gently behind her as she went. Cheryl was half dancing as she walked, sashaying her way in time to the song and Kimberley was suddenly mesmerised as her eyes fell to watch Cheryl’s hips. She put her hands on Cheryl’s hips and started dancing closely behind her as Cheryl put her hands over hers and leaned back into Kimberley. It wasn’t unusual for the girls, all of them, to dance closely, especially after a few drinks, but this time Kimberley could feel her heart racing. She leaned in to speak directly into Cheryl’s ear, to make sure she was heard over the music. “Is this gonna be the last drink?”
