Wow its great,please do some more soon :)
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Wow its great,please do some more soon :)
more!
March 3rd, 2004....
It was Alfie's 40th birthday, and he wasn't best pleased about it. Kat had been organising a surprise party as she had found out. She felt that Alfie should get a party; in Kat's mind, birthdays always went with parties. She wanted to make him happy (and have a bit of fun at the same time, naturally).
"Where's the cake?" she hissed to Ian, who was messing about trying to fix a banner to the wall.
"Over there!" he replied. "I told you about three hundred ti-"
"What's all this?"
Kat turned and saw Alfie. He didn't look happy.
"Um... surprise?" she said uncertainly.
"What have you done all this for?!"
"I found out it was your birthday," Kat said, trying to take his hand. "Come on, you've got some presents to open-"
"I don't want any presents!"
"I'll have them, then," Kat said jokily. "No, look at this cake, it's-"
"No!" Alfie said angrily. "I don't want any of this, alright? I hate birthdays."
He stormed out, leaving Kat, Ian and the rest of the room staring after him.
Ian cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well, I'll clear this awa-"
"No, leave it," Kat muttered, and ran after her husband.
"Alfie!" She caught up with him and looked at his face, confused. "I don't understand, why -"
He looked away, as though he couldn't meet her eyes. "I told you, I don't like birthdays."
"Is it because you're 40?" she asked gently.
"I'm not 40!" he exclaimed. "I'm not..." he trailed off unhappily.
Kat took his hand in hers. "There's nothing wrong with being forty-"
"That's right, keep saying it, then!" Alfie said sarcastically.
"Oh, stop moaning!" she said, suddenly annoyed. "There's worse things going on in the world than you getting one year older!"
Alfie sighed, looking glum. "I just feel really... old..."
"You're not," Kat said sternly.
"I'm 6 years older than you..."
"So?"
"So..." Alfie frowned. "I can't help it. I just don't like getting older. I hate being old."
Kat rolled her eyes. "How about you tell that to your grandma, see how she feels about it?"
"When I was a kid," Alfie said, "The night before my tenth birthday, I was lying awake in bed and I could hear my mum and dad talking. They were saying 'he's growing up now, isn't he?' and all that stuff. And I just remember feeling really... sad... I didn't want to grow up. I just wanted things to stay the same forever."
"But they can't," Kat said gently.
"I know. Doesn't stop people wanting them to."
"Look," Kat said, pulling him down to sit on the stairs next to her. "I don't care how old you are. It's just a number, Alfie."
He still looked miserable. She carried on. "Remember what you said to me in that church, when you rescued me from that idiot?"
Alfie smiled slightly. "Yeah."
"How we'd be an old couple sitting on a bench at the seaside, sharing some fish and chips? Well..." she looked into his eyes. "That's what we'll be like. We can get all old and wrinkly together, can't we?"
He grinned. "Yeah, I could manage that."
"And in all this fuss about getting older," Kat carried on, her voice becoming seductive, "You forgot the best thing about birthdays."
Alfie's forehead wrinkled. "The cake?"
Kat paused. "Well, that as well. But the... traditional thing?"
Alfie's face lit up. "Really?"
"Yep."
"Yay!"
Kat rolled her eyes. "Right, how about we get back to that party?"
"I think we should. Yeah." Alfie jumped up. Kat laughed and they returned to the party.
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sorry about the random flashbacks :rolleyes: they're gonna be from all over Kat's life now, I've gone a bit crazy :D
more!
Great :D more soon please
more soon!
Later on, Alfie had cheered up a lot. They were behind the bar now, and people kept bringing him presents and cards. He had propped them up on a shelf behind the bar happily.
"I hear it's your birthday," someone said. Kat turned around and saw Andy. She sighed.
"Yeah, it is," Alfie said.
"Forty, eh?" Andy said, raising his eyebrows slightly. Kat wanted to throttle him.
"Yes," she said loudly.
"Oh," Andy drawled, sounding bored. "Well, I got you something."
"You did?" Alfie said, surprised.
"Yeah," Andy replied. He was smiling, and Kat didn't like that smile much. He handed Alfie a little toy model of a car that Kat recognized as a mini version of his own.
"Thought you might like this," Andy said. "Well, I knew how Kat liked the big version, you see..." He turned away, that sardonic expression still on his face.
Alfie took the toy car, looking surprised but pleased. "Er... thanks."
Kat frowned. "Er, not at all."
Andy stopped. "I'm sorry?"
"I was, like, the queen of innuendo when you were still in short trousers," Kat said, annoyed. "And I don't like what you were insinuating just then."
"I wasn't insinuating anything," Andy said innocently, but a nasty smile played at the corners of his mouth.
"Well, you were dead wrong, anyway." Kat said. "And you're a crap driver."
Andy frowned. "Was that another metaphor?"
"Meta-what?"
"Never mind," Andy said superiorly.
"Shurrup," Kat said. "Well, men with big flashy cars, I'm always worried they're compensating for something."
She grinned innocently at him. "And of course, most of them are."
Alfie blinked. "Kat...?"
Kat smiled at her husband. "What? We're just having a discussion about cars."
Andy shook his head and wandered off. Kat got closer to Alfie and hugged him happily. "Happy birthday gorgeous."
great more soon !
Back in 1983... (~warning, parts following on may be disturbing~)
Kat was feeling alone. Alone and miserable. Dad had just had a go at her for getting into a fight at school. It hadn't even been her fault. That b*tch Kelsey had brought it on herself. They had just had PE, and were in the showers. Most of the girls didn't care about the communal showers, but Kat hated them. she hated anyone seeing her body. She wouldn't quite work out the reason why for twenty or so years. She was wearing a swimming costume, and all the other girls thought she was odd. Last time they had called her a prude. She didn't even know what that meant.
So Kat had been getting showered as quickly as possible so she could get changed and leave, when she had heard Kelsey's voice saying her name. She turned and saw Kelsey standing under the silvery cascade of water, talking to her friends. They were gossiping about Kat. Kat felt her throat tighten. She heard her name again, and laughter, soft and sticky as melting soap. Her anger broke.
"Why don't you just take a picture?" She said suddenly. Her heart was beating like a drum.
They turned and looked at her. Kelsey was smirking. "What did you say? Didn't quite catch that."
Kat stepped out of the shower, a terrible dark emotion welling up inside threatening to choke her.
"Nice bruise," Kelsey said casually. "Birthday present?"
Kat's blood turned to ice and she glanced at herself. Near the top of her right arm was a dark, hand-shaped bruise, damning evidence of... something. She tried to cover it up, suddenly feeling ashamed, feeling horrorstruck.
"Still Daddy's little girl, then?" Kelsey said, a nasty smile on her lips. Kat hated her. She hated her for standing there like that, with no bruises, perfectly formed, unconcerned by her nakedness. Suddenly all the hate she had been building up for the last year or so rushed out and turned Kat's hand into a fist, and she had hit Kelsey, hit her so hard she had gone flying back against the wall, blood dripping from her split lip. Kelsey's friends had gasped, looking at Kat; one of them had said "you little freak!" (she would remember that, and the blood from Kelsey's lip, twenty-two years later). Kelsey had started screaming, and the PE teacher had rushed in. Miss Green had led Kelsey out wrapped in a towel, sobbing, and the ends of the towel had dragged along the wet floor. More than anything else, Kat remembered Miss Green's look, how she had looked in disgust at Kat.
But it was over now; Kat had been excluded for a week, she had been shouted and screamed at by her Dad, and now she was lying in bed gazing at the moon outside, thinking... thinking...
She heard a noise on the landing, but ignored it. A star had just come out in the night sky, over there. She wondered which one would be the one from Peter Pan. What was it? Second from the right, and straight on til morning?
Someone was on the other side of her bedroom door. She listened for a minute. They were breathing loudly. That was silly. Everyone knew, if you wanted to sneak about at night, you had to breathe really quietly and tiptoe like a mouse...
Kat turned her gaze back to the moon. She wondered if there really was a man up there. It was impossible, of course, but it was a nice thing to believe. That there was someone up there, looking after you. She pulled the covers over her chin a bit more. She wondered if she'd ever meet the man in the moon. No, that was silly. She was too sleepy to think. She sighed and shut her eyes, ready to drift off.
She didn't know that those few minutes would be the ones she'd remember forever. She didn't know that those, and the night, would stay in her mind forever like a bloody handprint.
wicked carry on!