Chip decided to go to Erin's party instead of going to Jenny's with Chelle and James. She figured it would even things out if she went to Erin's and Michelle hadn't physically asked her like she had James. She felt insanely bad for doing it but did honestly believe that Chelle was majorly the one out of line in the argument. Plus she had promised Clare she would help talk Erin down once she returned to Derry. Only an hour into Erin's and Orla's party - which by her own words was crap- Orla and Chip realised that Erin was nowhere to be seen. They both asked around and were told by one of the wains who was celebrating their communion that Erin had gone to Jenny Joyce's party. So Chip drove to the house and Orla changed out of her monkey suit in the backseat. Chip had no idea where she had gotten the second set of clothes from but decided not to question it.
They, after a brief disagreement with the person who controlled the entry to the gate, hurried into the party and went searching for Erin or James or Chelle - basically whoever they could find first. Coincidently, they found James first. He was holed up in one of the bedrooms, arguing with man who had never seen a specific movie that James appeared to be quite passionate about. From the context of the conversation, Chip could not figure out what the movie was but hoped she would remember to ask later on. The man, Tomas, left and Orla entered the bathroom. James and Chip both watched as an artist drew their caricature, laughing at the over exaggerated features that would have once made Chip's eating disorder mind fly into self deprecating thoughts that would never leave. She knew the art was a joke, that the features displayed were not real and found herse;f really loving the picture that formed.
Their monetary peace was ruined by Erin bursting in, rambing certain arguments and small yells that Chip majorly tuned out as she stared out of the window. Michelle sat alone on a bench outside, discarded glass next to her. The sight ate away at something within Chip's mind and she wanted nothing more than to go and comfort her. "Well, do you know what? I'm gonna go and you can tell Michelle to enjoy the champagne, and the gift bags, and the wee tiny bits of raw fish. I'm sure she's having a great, great time here," Erin responded to something James had said when Chip turned around, planning to head downstairs.
"I really don't think she is Erin," James frowned, leading Erin to look out of the window as Chip had moments ago. They all, after Chip had taken the caricature form the man and placed the scroll into her bag, headed down to Michelle. She proceeded to cry about her brother, apologise and forgive Erin in the space of ten minutes. After that, they all decided to leave Jenny's party and head back to the Parish Hall. It may have been a crappy party, but at least they were all together.
-
The group leaned up against a random wall near the Parish Hall, not wanting to head into the stuffy room full of family and wains just quite yet. James was half asleep against Chip's shoulder, his head resting comfortably given that she was wearing the boots that made her the most similar to his height. Orla, Erin and Michelle talked softly but Chip remained silent and completely out of the conversation, just in thought as her hands played with the edge of her dress. They all looked up as they heard Clare exclaim, "At last!"
"All right, Mary Poppins?" Michelle yelled back as they all turned around.
Clare stood near underneath the bridge, hand clasped around an umbrella to combat the light mist of rain that hung in the air. "I've had a shocker girls!"
"What happened?"
Clare took a deep intake of air, getting ready to explain everything rapidly, "I lost my timetable. The bus broke down, fan belt snapped. All these old women were taking their tights off and handing them to the driver and he was like, this isn't a film, I'm not a mechanic. Then I finally get to the Parish hall and I get cornered by your Uncle Colm!"
"Ah Christ," Erin yelled back, knowing what a trouble that must have been for her.
"I managed to free myself then some wean told me you went to Jenny Joyce's house and when I got there the weirdest thing happened...Well I'm looking for you lot when I bump into Jenny, who tells me you guys left then some snobby baloney that I don't even want to repeat!"
"Baloney?" Chip repeated, laughing softly at her choice of words.
"And then I thought to myself, wouldn't it be a pity if there was a blackout?" Despite how far away they were, the group could tell that Clare was grinning mischievously just by the tone of her voice.
"Blackout?" Erin repeated, not catching on to where the story was heading.
"So I said to Jenny, either the party's over, or we relocate it."
"Jesus Clare where the hell is this gaff?" a woman holding a guitar, the lady from the commitments, yelled sending everyone into pandemonium.
"Oh my god!"
-
"What's with all the tiny brides?" James asked Chip at a whisper as they, including Michelle, drank champagne from tea cups and saucers. The absolute height of decorum.
"They're not brides James," she laughed as Michelle poured her more champagne, spilling some of it onto her hand. "They've just had first communion."
The party progressed significantly as everyone started to get just a little tipsy, the kind of tipsy where the world became carefree and perfect. Chip while dancing with James was twirled to the music, the two of them laughing as she stumbled due to how unbalanced her boots made her. As James picked her up bridal style and spun the two of them around that way, Chip managed to catch something she wasn't supposed to. She saw the split second that tipsy Erin and Eoin disappeared, hand in hand and laughing quietly.
"Eion and Erin just snuck off to the kitchen," she whispered to James, smiling happily that the two of them had finally bitten the bullet and gotten together. She had known that Eoin had had a slight - as he called it - crush on her for a while but never mentioned it to Erin. She did not want to force them together or anything like that, she thought it would be better if it just happened naturally.
James laughed, turning to look at the door they disappeared from, "Interesting..."
-
Later in James' bedroom after the party, moments before they were both going to go to bed, James pulled out his camera and trained it on Chip the second that she walked into the room after brushing her teeth. "So Chip, how do you feel about the fact that we're all eighteen now?"
She laughed, placing her glass of water on the side. Her hair was pulled into a loose plait for bed, pieces hanging out in various places because she was simply too tired to care about the state. She had taken all makeup off and had chosen to wear only one of his larger shirts and a pair of shorts as her pyjamas, so she wasn't exactly in the right state for the impromptu interview. "You're not putting this in your film are you?"
"Why not?"
"I look a right state James!" she exclaimed as she sat on the end of the bed opposite him, crossing her legs.
He laughed softly, "No you don't. But fine, I won't put it in."
She hesitated, frowning as her memory momentarily failed her. "What was the question again?"
"How do you feel about us all being eighteen?" he repeated softly this time, truly wondering what her response would be.
"Scared," she paused, pushing her glasses back up her nose. "It's weird that the people that I've grown up with are now all women going off into whatever futures they want. I mean we, as girls, helped each other become women and it's mind boggling that from now, the future is just one big question. There's of course a part of me that wishes that everything could be the same, that we could all be wee again and go round each other's houses to play dolls or spend hours in the garden without a worry. And I'm not sure I'm ready to be grown up, it feels weird to say that I'm not a kid anymore. But things shouldn't stay the same, I mean if they had and I hadn't changed, I probably wouldn't be as happy as I am now. Things change for the better and I guess I'm just hoping that this change to adulthood is a good one."
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Basorexia - J.MAGUIRE
Fanfiction(𝐍) 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐍 "𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓁𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝒹𝑒𝓈𝒾𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝓀𝒾𝓈𝓈." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CIARA [CHIP] BYRNE - had quite a lot going on in her life tha...
