Fallen

A Shelby suprise {1908}

Ditching class{1908}

If you were to ask Eve when these feelings for her best mate began, she could tell you the exact moment, date and time without even having to flick through her diary. It was the 9th of March 1908 2pm, they were supposed to be in English class, but instead they were skiving.

It was the moment he stepped out from behind the bike shed, into the tiniest fragment of light in polluted sky, that she noticed him as male and not just her friend. It seemed to her even the universe must really like him, since it choose to cast the only bit of sunlight on him and only him. It caught the blue of his eyes, the same shade of cerulean of which their grey sky should have been. It hit his hair, before then Eve had never noticed how the red amongst the blonde resembled the copper pulled out from the mines.

And it hit her where it hurt, the centre of her naive teenage heart. She tried to speak, but all that left her mouth was a groaning puff of air, empty of her words or meaning. A hoarse squeak, that could be mistaken for a cough. He'd noticed her by then, stood a few feet away from him, a note clutched in the palm of her hand. He pulled out a box of cigarettes offering them to her.

She shook her head slightly, disappointed she'd been dragged from class for this. "This is daft, you've dragged me out of class to smoke ? If Mrs Changretta finds out, she'll only go an put me mum on the phone, and heaven knows I can't sweet talk her the way you do Polly."

"It's not the only reason, but light up first." He waved the box cautiously, Eve plucked one from the packet and gave a nod of thanks. Her mother would kill her.
If I just hold it away from my blazer and if I keep the ash off my shoes, maybe she won't know.
John pulled out a match, and swiped it against the rough side of the box. Igniting a little flame. He lit his cigarette, then reached over and lit hers. Eve remembered reading, that there was something romantic in lighting another's cigarette. Like Nora had done for Dr Rank, in a Doll's House, it was symbolic of being the other persons light or something like that. Eve knew John wouldn't know about that, he wasn't much of a reader.

He dashed the match, on the gravel lent back against the metal railings and inhaled the smoke. Eve copied his actions. She'd never smoked before, the thick dirty smoke, making it's way down her virgin lungs, felt suffocating. She spluttered out a cough. Spit and smoke left her mouth, as she heaved. John laughed, coming closer, to pat her on the back. "You alright, chick ?"

He waited, till she recovered. Soothing her back in small round circles. "I don't know, how you smoke that? It's proper, rank John." She stubbed the cigarette on the bike post, and passed it back to John. He treated them like jewels, never wasting a single one. She thought after finally tasting one, she'd understand but she didn't. He quirked his brow, asking if she was sure. In return she nodded, a yes.

"I'm not gonna touch that." John slid it back in the pack along side the other sixteen. The only difference was this on was right side up. "It'll be waiting for you, when you want it."

"What if I never collect?" They say the cigarette left the wrong side up, is meant to be the lucky one. If that were the case, she'd leave her luck with John.

"It'll just be a reminder of you, then the girl who can't hack a smoke. You ain't asked about the surprise?"

"Sorry, it was the last thing on my mind, while I was choking to death."

"Christ! You're dramatic today. It ain't that time of the month is it?" Eve lifted her hand to whack John one, but she was stopped by a eerie noise coming from behind the shed.

"John, what was that?" She said panicked.

The gurgled groaning continued. He'd gone and done something stupid hadn't he? " I told him to keep shut !" John lept up from the bike rails, and crept behind the shed to unearth Eve's suprise. The way Eve's heart was racing, it felt like he'd been behind there for years. When in reality it had only been a few seconds, before he returned dragging out a body.