London Calling

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"Hey Stella, say Jesus backwards."

"Susej".

My brother stifled a laugh, cupping his chin in one hand and bending forwards, pretending to be attentive. I, on the other hand, snorted, causing people to throw me dirty looks and my mother to scowl at me in that way that Toby calls 'The Dragon's Wrath'. She smiled politely at the nosey parkers in the pew in front, before they turned back to the alter and she slapped my leg.

"Estelle please control yourself for once!" Mum hissed at me.

I opened my mouth to protest, to save myself and chuck Toby under her scrutinising glare for once. But before I could, he was staring me down with his orb-like eyes, silently begging me to keep my mouth shut.

"Don't call me Estelle" I said instead. Mum ignored me and stood up for communion, pulling Toby along with her. I watched as they slowly made their way up the aisle, Toby desperately trying to figure out what way he was supposed to hold his hands. I chuckled to myself and got up too. I headed in the opposite direction, smirking as I passed Calum standing with the choir. He winked at me, belting out the hymn at the top of his voice. I gave him a little wave before pushing at the heavy wooden door and stepping out into the sunlight.

It was surprisingly dry for the last day of October. All the Halloweens I could remember involved wearing my dad's raincoat over my costumes for fear I'd get pneumonia.

I sat down on the steps leading up to the church and lit up, sighing in relief. My phone buzzed in my pocket but I ignored it, enjoying the limited amount of peace and quiet I had. I knew I had approximately 30 seconds before the hymns would wrap up and Calum would be out the door to me, not even bothering to get communion himself. I never even understood why he was in the choir in the first place. Eloise said it was because ninety percent of the singers were girls but I didn't deem this very worrying. Every single one of those girls looked stiff as fuck anyway, with all their Hail Marys and Glory to the Alleluias'. Mum adored them. Ever since I was little and started acting out, she'd been forcing me to church, saying that God would make me a good girl or some shit along the lines of that. The truth was, she couldn't stomach the fact that her only daughter needed "special attention", as she liked to call it. Dad had always been more supportive. He called me Screwball Stella. Mum thought it was horrifying. I loved it.

"Stella, love, you actually waited for me? I can't fucking believe it!"

I smiled as Calum wrapped his arms around my neck, pushing my head up to peck me quickly on the lips. I pulled away, still gazing up into his dark chocolate eyes. He grinned at me.

"What's wrong, love?" he asked, pulling me to my feet and taking a drag from my cigarette.

"What the hell was that? Since when do you kiss me like we're in a PG rated movie?"

Cal laughed lightly, entwining his hand in mine and squeezing it gently. I shivered. I hadn't held hands with anyone since that night in the park almost two weeks before. Calum didn't usually hold my hand; he'd never really been into the whole lovey-dovey side of relationships and preferred to get straight down to business. I looked down at our interwoven fingers, his tanned skin reflecting against my pastiness, and smiled widely.

"Can't proper snog ya right outside the church, Stella; we're not complete filth" he replied.

I rolled my eyes and allowed myself to be led along through the streets. Bristol is probably one of the shittiest places to live but when you're with someone like Cal, everywhere has potential to be exciting. We wound our way through backstreets and carparks, over walls and under bridges, all the while chatting about nothing in particular. My phone suddenly buzzed again in my pocket and I dropped Cal's hand to check my messages.

Eloise: I'm at the 3 house come asap something 2 tell u!!

Adam: Get me a turkish delight on your way please and thank you :)

I shoved the phone back into my pocket, chuckling to myself. What was that kid's obsession with Turkish Delights?

˚

"Aw Stella, what the fuck? I'm not eating this; it's a fucking fruit and nut!"

I looked from Adam's pissed off face to the bar in his hand and shrugged. He sighed, running a hand through his jet black hair. "You know what Stel? Sometimes you can be just so..."

He trailed off, his eyes darting away from mine and to the floor, before finally landing on Calum, who was standing behind me. For a split second, something crossed his expression; something I'd never seen before. But it vanished before I could decode it. Cal slung his arm around my shoulder and slouched against me.

"Sorry Adam that was probably my fault. She was obviously distracted."

"Wanker" I said, pushing Calum away from me and slumping into a beanbag next to Eloise. She had her Adventure Time headphones clamped onto her ears and she was laying back, her eyes closed. I leaned over to plug them out of her phone but Adam held out is hand to stop me.

"New Monkey's album" he whispered. "She'll kill you if you interrupt her worshipping."

I nodded in reply.

It was while I was waiting for Eloise that I realised that this was the first time we'd all hung out in the treehouse together in months. It wasn't really a treehouse but a little shed on stilts in El's back garden. It was still the coolest place ever; we even had our own mini fridge.

Eloise snapped me out of my thoughts by yanking off her headphones in one swift movement. She stared at me, her eyes wide, a big grin plastered on her face.

"What the fuck?" I said, leaning away from her.

She squealed before pulling two scraps of paper out from behind her back. "London's calling!" she giggled and threw one of the strips at me. I caught it and turned it over, scrunching up my face in annoyance.

"A gig?" I asked.

Eloise scoffed. "Not just any gig! A Strypes gig! In London, baby!"

"Never heard of them" I said.

Eloise threw her headphones at me. I put them on reluctantly, waiting for the blast of noise. She looked at me solemnly and scrolled through her phone finally coming to a stop at a playlist called 'My Cavan Babes'. I laughed, a trail of insults already forming in my mind. But before I could even pick the best, I stopped. Huh, déjà vu...

"Cavan?" I said.

Eloise didn't seem to hear me. She tapped her screen and lay back on the beanbag.

"Darlin'" she said, "You're in for one hell of a ride."

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