medicine (finn shelby.)

thirteen.

♤

Penny leant against the wall of the Garrison, cigarette hanging between the fingers of her right hand whilst biting the nails on her left. Any second now Everly would appear with a bag packed, ready to leave her toxic mother behind.The smell of burning metal from the surrounding factories combined with Penny's high anxieties were constricting her airways. She watched women push their children in prams along, cooing over the babies inside. Juxtaposed to them, men were stumbling out of the pub already bladdered despite being before noon.

"Excuse me." Penny caught the attention of a stressed looking young mum who was trying to balance her pram and her food shopping. "Could you tell me what time it is?"

The woman, arms entangled in shopping bags, twisted around so that Penny could read her watch. It read five to twelve, meaning Everly was due any minute.

"Thank you." Penny politely smiled.

"Penny James?" The woman asked with a smile of disbelief.

Penny's anxieties skyrocketed as she heard her name. This woman was a total stranger, frightening her beyond belief.

"It's me, Laura." She revealed. "Laura Adamson? We used to be neighbours."

"Fuck, Laura." Penny sighed deeply before pulling Laura into a hug, almost squashing her freshly purchased fruit.

"This is David." Laura motioned to the peacefully sleeping baby in the pram.

"He's gorgeous." Penny gasped.

Seeing the baby, Penny dropped her cigarette into a puddle so not to harm him. Reaching her hand down, her finger was immediately clamped by David's tiny hands. His eyelashes were so long it was disproportionate but still sweet. His nose wrinkled as he slept and his lips were pouted. Penny loved him in a second, just like she did with every other baby she came into contact with.

"How old is he?" She asked, gently stroking her thumb over his soft knuckles.

"Four months on Friday." Laura beamed as she gazed at her baby. "He's a little shit at night. He never sleeps, Ron swears he's nocturnal."

"You're still together then?" Penny asked halfheartedly, not particularly fussed on the answer.

"5 years." Laura sighed. "He's a little shit too. What about you Penny, you got a man?"

"In a way." Penny shrugged, still fussing over David.

"That means you'll be having babies soon. Whatever men try and feed you about sex, the pull out method never works. David is living proof." Laura snorted.

Finn was adamant that the pull out method worked, and Penny had complete faith in him that it did so. Her calm demeanour was starting to slip as she realised that a baby was a very realistic possibility if they weren't careful. Despite her desperation to have a baby of her own, she could barely sustain her own lifestyle never mind someone else's.

Distracting her from letting her mind run away with her, Everly appeared with a bag almost as big as her. She was running over, dragging it along the floor behind her.

"Laura I'm going to have to go. I'll see you later, we'll have a proper catch up soon." She smiled nervously and gave her a small hug, Laura's words still playing on her mind.