𝑀𝑂𝑇𝐻𝐸𝑅𝐹𝑈𝐶𝐾𝐸𝑅𝑆 ~ 𝐽𝑎𝑚𝑒𝑠𝑀𝑎𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑟𝑒

21

"I am not. I just respect him as a songwriter, that's all." James softly and innocently spoke causing Saoirse to internally awe. "Aye, dead on, James, so you do." His cousin retorted with another scoff.

"Will we need our passports, Gerry?" Orla asked her uncle while her mother fixed her hair. "For Belfast? I don't think so, love." Gerry shook his head. "Are we not a wee bit early, Daddy?" Erin looked up asking her father. "It's a two-hour drive with traffic, love."

The father-daughter duo ignored Joe and his outrage at the thought of the concert being in Belfast and they continued to debate on whether they were too early or not. The arguments were cut off when the news on the tv revealed that a Polar bear from a zoo in Belfast had escaped.

"Now will you see sense?" Joe shook his fist towards the tv. "Aye, Granda, cos an escaped polar bear's going to track us down and kill us. As if Mammy's bothered about that." Erin laughed but her laughter faded when she spotted the look on her mother's face. "Wise up, Mammy! As if a polar bear's going to rock up at a Take That concert!"

The group ended up in another argument as Mary had now decided that her daughter and niece would no longer be going. "Come on, Mary. If you don't let Erin go, our Ma's won't let us go." Michelle spoke up trying to back up Erin. "Well, neither they should! And I'll be ringing them to say as much." Mary let out.

"Oh, please don't, Mary. I've been waiting to go to this concert for forever. I promise the polar bear won't eat us." Saoirse pleaded and tried to reassure the older woman who was currently overthinking every slight detail about the trip.

Mary would not budge no matter how much the teens tried she remained stubborn about the fact that they would not be going to the concert.

✞

All of the teens stormed off to Erin's room huffing and puffing as they went. "Well, I'm not letting the fat, furry fuck ruin the biggest day of my life." Michelle cursed in frustration. "What can we do?" Erin whined looking up at the curly-haired brunette.

The teens sat slouched on Erin's bed looking up at Michelle as she began rambling on. "Listen, girls, I've never told anyone this before but sometimes when Robbie's being interviewed, it's like he's sending me messages through the TV, you know, telepathically or whatever. It's like he's telling me we're going to be together."

"Aye, maybe don't tell that to anyone again, Michelle. Ever." Erin grimaced, her face showing disgust and secondhand embarrassment from the girls' words. "Makes you sound like a right psycho." Saoirse agreed as she also cringed hearing the girl."Look, this is too important. I'm going to that concert. I'm not afraid of a fucking polar bear!" Michelle loudly spoke her eyebrows narrowed in determination.

"Me either!"

"Nor me."

"I'll kill it with my own two hands if I have to."

"Same here!"

"Bring it on!"

Each of the teens shouted, apart from Clare who had, unsurprisingly, started panicking. "Okay, we seem to have gone down a weird road here, people. I think we've got a bit confused. We don't have to fight a polar bear. And, if we did, I wouldn't really fancy our chances because, well, they're massive."

"But there's five of us so..." Orla trailed off trying to suggest an argument. "Six, Orla. There are six of us." Saoirse corrected the girl, pointing to each person in the room. "Oh, I wasn't really including James but if you think we have to then sure. Hey, he could be good for distracting it." Orla spoke as she continued to lick her red lollipop.

Ignoring the two, Clare went on rambling about the polar bears and the concert. "The point is the polar bear's not the one stopping us from going to the concert. It's our mothers. And we'll never get them to change their minds." Michelle only shook her head at Claire and leaned down closer to her face. "We're not gonna try to change their minds. We're going to do something else."