Animal Instinct | Peaky Blinders [Thomas Shelby]

05 - Esme

"Mind if I sit?" Vivian asked, wiping the raindrops off the seat.

She looked up at her warily, but she nodded and made some room.

"You look like you could use an umbrella," Vivian said as she sat down on the cold metal. She could feel the cold puddle on the bench soaking her legs, but she had no intention of moving. Her feet were sore from all the walking she'd been doing, and her back breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thanks," she mumbled as Vivian held the umbrella between them. When Vivian got closer, she noticed that the woman looked a few years older than her, but she had a youthfulness about her, specifically her soft jawline. "I didn't think to bring one."

"I've been in your shoes. Soaked and cold. Would you like my coat?" Vivian asked without thinking.

She glanced at Vivian with a small smile. "No, thank you, I'm fine." But Vivian could see the goosebumps sprouting over her pale arms. Vivian shrugged off the coat and gave it to her, secretly hoping she didn't notice the added weight in the pockets.

Vivian could feel the frigid air biting at her arms, but with her gloves and her long sleeves, it was bearable.

The woman chuckled, as the coat was a bit too small and exposed her wrists, but she looked much happier in an extra layer.  "Thank you."

Vivian nodded, quiet for a moment as the woman brought out a cigarette from a small tin and slipped it between her lips.

"Would you like one?"

Vivian declined. She had never understood the rage in smoking. She didn't know how anyone could have one in their mouth every day. The last time she tried a cigarette, she had a coughing fit and her lungs burned a week after. Did they not need to breathe?

"I don't really smoke 'em m'self. I chew on 'em. I like the taste." She laughed. "Sounds pretty ridiculous out loud."

"It's not ridiculous."

"Do you live in Birmingham?" She asked after a moment.

"Yes. And you? I haven't seen you around here." She thought she would've remembered her, especially if she had children attending the same school as Leo. Most parents didn't walk their children home, and Vivian liked to memorize the ones who did.

"I live right down the road. Usually Katie walks home by herself, but she's been naughty and staying past curfew. Walking her home is her punishment."

"The rebellious type, eh?" Vivian confirmed with a smile. "I was like that when I was young." A beat of silence past and rather than letting it creep in, she said, "My name is Vivian."

"My name is Esme," the woman said, "Esme Shelby."

Shelby. Vivian's veins turned cold in an instant. Shelby was not a common namesake in Birmingham.

Esme was busy chewing on a cigarette and hadn't noticed Vivian's change of demeanor, and when she looked up again, the woman was already storming into the school house, without her coat and without a goodbye.

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Vivian was in the classroom before Leo had even stood from his desk, but she didn't wait for him to notice her. She grabbed his book from his hand and started to shove it in his backpack.

"Mum?" Leo asked, looking confused as Vivian pulled him to his feet.

Vivian didn't want to look at him, afraid he might see the anger in her eyes. Instead, her eyes locked on Cecily on the other side of the room, who was fixing some papers in a folder.

"Leo, go wait outside. I'll be there in a minute, okay?" She said carefully, trying to keep her voice even.

Leo didn't protest. He glanced at his mother one last time, before he buttoned up his coat and followed Eric and his other friends out of the classroom, dragging his backpack on the linoleum floor behind him.

By this time, Cecily has noticed Vivian.

"Viv! So good to see you. Leo did great today," she smiled and walked over to the blackboard, her black hair swinging behind her.

"Cecily, you and I are friends." Vivian asked carefully, disregarding her comment, "right?"

Cecily stopped what she was doing and looked at the woman, eraser in hand and her eyebrows raised. "Of course. Is everything..."

"Then why wouldn't you tell me that Leo is going to school with a Shelby?"

Cecily looked confused. "You mean Jeffers and Katie? They're just students here and you never asked." She shrugged.

"They're Shelby's!" Vivian said. She had hoped that Cecily was just ignorant to the situation, but that didn't seem to be the case. "Their parents are criminals. Murderers!"

Vivian remembered a time when Leo invited Jeffers over for lunch at their house. He was a sweet, well mannered kid who couldn't have been sweeter, and it made Vivian sick to think of the influences that must be tainting his innocence more and more each day.

"Who's parents run this god forsaken city!" Cecily countered, her cheeks pale from either anger or fear, or both. Vivian didn't understand how she could be angry at her — the woman who just wanted her son to be safe at school; the one place she couldn't keep an eye on him. Cecily broke it down for her, slowly and cautiously, "Can you imagine what would happen if we denied their children attendance? They would burn this place to the ground," she hisses between gritted teeth.

Cecily took a deep breath and then glanced around her, like she was expecting one of the Shelby's to be waiting around the corner.

"Jeffers and Katie are both good students. They listen well and they do their work."

Vivian shook her head in disbelief at her friend. This conversation was unraveling a dark side of Cecily Vivian had never seen in the years they had known each other. There must've been something dark and twisted in her brain if she was sticking up for them.

But Vivian still wanted to understand. "Their destined to be criminals! How are you even remotely okay with this?"

"I have to be," Cecily said, simply. "Their parents provide most of the funding for this school. Leo attends for free."

"Is that what anyone cares about is money?" Vivian asked, her voice faltering. The Shelby's made their living by gambling, stealing, and racketeering, but instead of being punished for their crimes and their children being pulled from that harmful environment, people looked the other way, afraid of the empire the Shelby's had built. They had everything, while good, honest, hard working people in the same city had absolutely nothing.

"I don't know." Cecily looked about done with this conversation. She turned her back and started to wipe the math equations and simple sentences off the board. After a few moments Cecily said, almost as an afterthought, "but given the fact that you're half starving and your about to be kicked out of home, I'd say you should start caring more about money."

Vivian was silent for a moment, feeling a faint burn from Cecily's comment. She wanted to shoot back a remark, but Cecily had started to wipe down the tables, showing Vivian that she was being dismissed. Before she could say something she couldn't take back, Vivian turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her.