medicine (finn shelby.)

twenty one.

♤

Penny James was a lot of things, but a party girl was not one of them. Nothing repulsed her more than the idea of spending an entire evening listening to people pontificate about how great their lives are whilst doing their best to hide whatever trauma they were really experiencing. However, she was actually attending a party she liked. It was lowkey, honest and extremely welcoming much to her surprise. Finn had spent the whole time proudly introducing her to everyone as his girlfriend.

He had disappeared a while ago, leaving her to talk with his sister Ada about her views on communism. The two girls got on well, and quickly. Ada saw a lot of herself in Penny, instantly knowing that she was right for Finn. Penny found herself for the first time in her life actually forming a political opinion, even if it was painfully biased.

"Are you a feminist?" Ada asked and sipped her drink.

"Of course. Who the fuck isn't, and why the fuck aren't they? It angers me so much when women say that they aren't." Penny defiantly announced. "I still don't understand why men think that women are the inferior sex when they get a kick in the bollocks and then go and cry about it for like an hour."

Her comment caused Ada to snort her drink up her face with laughter. Penny tried her best not to giggle, but seeing the fizzy liquid drip from the end of Ada's nose sent them both into hysterics. The girls laughed so hard they almost formed a set of stomach muscles, the tears streaming ended up partially ruining Ada's makeup.

"Never catch me off guard like that again." Ada wheezed and wiped away her tears.

Unknowingly, the girls had caught the attention of everyone in the room. They hadn't realised that the party was so quiet that a pin could be heard dropping.

"Everything okay ladies?" Polly asked demurely as she too wept internally.

Penny tried to mime what Ada had done as she continued to shake with silent laughter, but it was to no avail.

"I think you'd better keep your lovely girlfriend away from alcohol Finn." Polly snickered to herself as Penny slapped her own thigh.

Polly watched Finn as he simply gazed at Penny. Seeing her unbridled joy was better than any drug he'd ever taken, or any alcohol he could taste. When she laughed, tiny little creases appeared around the outside corner of her eye. They were only visible millimetres from her face, but he took great pride in knowing that they were they.

"Finn shut them up." Tommy nudged his younger brother as he prepared to deliver his speech.

Finn rolled his eyes and sat down next to his girlfriend, letting her interlink her arms with his left, whilst he was balancing a glass of wine and a cigarette in his right.

"Before we eat, I'd like to say a few words." Tommy announced.

Penny rested her chin on Finn's shoulder before erupting into hiccups. She did her best to suppress them, but Tommy repeatedly glanced out of the corner of his eye at her as she hiccuped every few seconds.

Once Tommy finished off his very short speech, Arthur took the opportunity to jump in and start talking.

"Tommy's offered me a way out. A new identity, start a new life for myself." Arthur revealed. "I've made a decision."