TROUBLE - peaky blinders

28. a thing with feathers

"Tell you what?"

Ada huffed and shifted to face her sister with her tea in her hand. "Everything...tell me everything I've missed!" She said, sipping her tea.

"There's not much to tell," Clara shrugged, although she knew it was a lie. There were a thousand small things she could ramble on about. A thousand things she could let slip and talk about for hours. But she wouldn't. She couldn't.

"Mhm...I don't believe you," Ada hummed, "The Shelby girl's club must stick together, yes?"

"I hear you're not much of a Shelby lately,"

"Oh, please! Fine...the Shelby-Thorne alliance must stick together."

"Better I suppose," Clara mused as she picked up her tea. "If you really want to know, our brothers tried to kill my best friend, Arthur is mad as hell all of the time and Tommy is still being an arse." She summarised. Her mind flashed with images of Penny, wondering whether or not to spill the overview of her troubles. "I...uh, I have exams starting on Tuesday, so, yeah...that's all."

"Glad to know things are relatively normal then," Ada chuckled, "Tommy told me that you've been a right pain the arse recently."

"Did you talk about me when I was asleep?!"

"Only a small bit."

Clara's jaw went slack, her eyebrows scrunched curiously as Ada sipped her tea.

"Well, what did you talk about?" The younger girl questioned.

"Tommy thinks you're hiding something," Ada answered honestly, "Says you've been a mess. Asked me to try to figure out what it is."

"And are you?...going to try, I mean," Clara leaned further back against the soft material, trying to keep a calm and collected composure.

"When do I ever listen to Thomas Shelby?" Ada retorted, giving the girl a knowing look. "You'll tell me if you want to tell me."

Clara silently nodded. Clara wondered if she should tell her sister just how much she had missed the older girl. How she had missed covering for her sister as she snuck out and had missed Ada covering for her. How she had missed Ada backing her up whenever a challenge arose. She had missed Ada so bloody much.

"I know something is troubling you though, I could feel it as soon as you walked in." Ada briefly stated, "Shelby sister senses never fail, eh?"

Clara let out a short laugh, "Never," she agreed. The girl took a small breath in as she sipped her drink. "I miss seeing you around Small Heath. Miss keeping your secrets."

"Well, how about this, I'll tell you a secret right now," Ada began, "And you tell me a secret and then we go out drinking and have fun?"

"Fine," Clara smirked, placing down her cup. "As long as this isn't a ploy to tell you everything."

"You can tell me whatever you feel fit to,"

"Okay...you first."

"Fine," Ada huffed, placing down her own cup beside the girls. She turned in her seat to face the younger girl. "I've met someone...I think. He's a friend for now but I like him...but I feel so guilty, Clara."