Chim- Sweet sixteen

Chapter 12

"OUCH!"

"Hurt youself again i see..."

"Its these boxes! I swear I have not met anyone who owns this much stuff."

Kimberley chuckled at her girlfriends antics. She slowly made her way over to Cheryl and rubbed her back soothingly, tracing concentric circles on its surface. Immediatley the pain started to numb, just from Kimberley's touch. You know a relationship is made to last when even the smallest of contact could heal an injury that has brought pain for years.

"Take a break babe, theres no point in getting you seriously hurt, especially before you girls tour."

"Nope! Not going to happen. Im helping...even if it means I tour in a wheelchair. My backs just not what it used to be."

With that Cheryl bent over, gathering the contents of the box she dropped. Suddenly she stopped...breathless.

"Cheryl?....Cheryl? Are you ok babe??? I told you not to keep going...but pigs will fly when you listen to my advice..."

"Kimba...look."

Kimberley bent down, trying to view what it was that made Cheryl stop in her tracks. A dusty red book lay before them. Its spine was near breaking point and the pages were crinkled and stained brown. However Kimberley still recognised it, how could she forget the highschool years, so long ago, yet forever embeded in her memory.

"I forgot that I even kept this..." Kimberley exclaimed, taking the book from the floor and blowing the dust gently off the cover. She handed it to Cheryl, and then wrapped her arms lovingly around Cheryl's waist, looking at the book from behind.

Cheryl cautiously opened it, not wanting to break any of the extremely fragile pages, and began to turn them scanning the book. A smile made its way onto both of the girl's faces, as it was as if they were looking back in time.

"Look at Sarah!" Kimberley said with a laugh, pointing out the young blonde to her girlfriend. Cheryl laughed along, unable to believe that one of her closest friends was once so full of youth.

"Oh and Nic and Nadine." Cheryl added, spotting a picture of the pair dressed in halloween gear. Cheryl once again turned the page and her face dropped.

The title danced in front of them, the metalic gold still shining brightly on the firetruck red pages. The words "Romeo and Juliet" jumped from the page, begging for attention. In smaller font, underneath the title were the words: "photographs taken by Kimberley Walsh". A picture of Nicola and Sarah conducting a fight scene was on the left, while another of Nadine having a heated argument with a boy Cheryl couldn't remember for the life of her was next to it. In the middle of the page was a photo of Cheryl, kissing her Romeo at the end of the play. The photo however was a little blurry. Perhaps the photographer wasn't a fan of this scene.

"That night went so well. I can still remember it you know. My little Juliet the star of the show!" Kimberley said pulling Cheryl even closer.

"Yeah it went great. You know apart from everyone forgetting their lines, the sound crew getting all the cues wrong, one of the flats falling over and Sarah falling off the stage in the fight scene." Cheryl said with a giggle, nestling herself into Kimberley's chest.

Kimberley now turned the page over. This page was pink, with small red love hearts making the boarder and a large one finding its way into the middle. At the top the words "Voted Best Couple" appeared in black cursive lettering, which stood above the large love heart. Kimberley's eyes moved down from the title and her lips curved into a grin as a picture of Cheryl and herself greeted her. They were standing in a field, Cheryl's arms wrapped tightly around Kim's waist. They were looking at each other, Kimberley laughing and Cheryl pulling a goofy face.

"We've come so far." Cheryl said, as she had also been staring at the page with a smile.

"Mmhmm." Kimberley replied softly, now stroking Cheryl's hair affectionatley.

"I was so in love with you back then, I didn't think that kind of love was possible. But now its grown even more...its weird thinking about how it all begun isn't it?"

"Weird, but beautiful." Kimberley said while leaning in to kiss her girlfriend of 20 years.

They stood like that for a while, kissing, carresing, remembering. Then Kimberley remembered why they were in their old garage in the first place.

"Right we better finish the packing. The removal guys will be here soon." Kimberley said giving Cheryl once last kiss and moving over to the boxes once more. Cheryl nodded and bent down, chucking a few books back into a cardboard box. She continued thinking about highschool, graduation, the band making it big, Nadine getting married, Sarah having a few to many at the reception, Nicola growing into such a beautiful young woman and how throughout all this time Kimberley and Cheryl were still so very much in love. A BEEP BEEP sounded from outside the small garage and Cheryl was startled out of her thoughts.

"Hello, im from the removal company. This is the correct residence i presume?" A man in grey overalls asked who had just walked into the garage. Kimberley greeted him and quickly went over the arrangments, showing him which stuff they were taking.

Cheryl watched, looking down at the red book that was still in her hands, wondering where to put it.

"Hey baby? You coming?" Cheryl looked up and saw Kimberley smiling at her, her hand outstretched to take Cheryl's to their car to begin the journey to their new home.

Cheryl didn't say anything for a moment, as the thoughts still cluttered her head. She remebered Kimberley bringing home a new puppy she had found on a street corner, she remembered seeing Kimberley's face in the front row of every concert shouting her name proudly, she remembered graduation day when all the girls were sitting together anticipating the moment they were officially adults, the little black hats flying in the air and Kimberley kissing her with such passion she could have floated into heaven at that moment. She remebered how she fell in love...and never found her way out.

"One second." Cheryl finally said to Kim, as she tucked the dusty red book into her handbag and tapped the bag lovingly. Kimberley smiled at this and took Cheryl's hand. They began walking to the car, hand in hand.

"You know what?" Cheryl said, looking at Kimberley with a cheeky expression.

"What?" Kimberley replied, anticipating one of Cheryl's jokes which she still couldn't help but love, even after 20 years.

"You were a dork in highschool." Cheryl said sticking her tounge out playfully.

Kimberley laughed and gently pushed Cheryl, pretending to be insulted.

They were still the same...even though they had grown up together, experienced the big world outside of the classroom, felt pain and joy, witnessed death and begining of something new, they were still exactly the same Cheryl and Kimberley. It was as if they were still holding hands at their sweet sixteen.

THE END