16.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
FELICITY WOODS COULD NOT stop smiling and no matter what occurred amongst her thoughts and wrecked with her subconscious, nothing would stop the upwards pull that tugged on her peony lips as she went about her day.
"What has you in such a good mood?"
The woman behind the bar turned to her friend with a curious grin upon her features, still not able to figure out just what had caused the Woods girl to be in a happier state of mind than she had seen her in for weeks. Grace had returned to the Garrison only a week prior to now and Felicity had not uttered a word about what had gone on whilst she was away, figuring that for now, there was hardly anything to tell.
That was a lie, she knew. Considering the girl was the closest thing to a best friend that she had - other than Jack, Felicity supposed, but the two had gone back to hardly speaking - there was everything to tell.
But Felicity only laughed, and shook her head so to discourage the conversation. "Nothing! Everything's as boring as it ever was, believe me" she attempted to lie, just so Grace would keep off her case for a day or two. For now, the girl wanted to keep the knowledge to herself, so that she would not feel obliged to change any of her mannerisms towards her friends or the rest of the Shelby family.
Grace raised her eyebrows. "Well, that's a lie."
Felicity began to argue profusely - all the while, her friend's expression remained unchanging - until she eventually pulled a face as she realised just how bad she was at pretending everything was not out of the ordinary. "Alright," she sighed in defeat.
The other's grin grew to one of triumph. "So," Grace declared, dropping the objects in her hands and folding her arms across her chest as she waited for any other words. When they did not come, she let out an exasperated, overexaggerated huff. "Aren't you going to tell me anything?"
"Not a single thing," Felicity confirmed, matching her friend's grin with one of her own.
Grace groaned and released her arms so that she could through them into the air, comically displeased. "You," she directed her index finger in the girl's direction accusingly, "are completely hopeless."
"And you," Felicity copied the action, smiling from ear to ear as she did so, "aren't going to get anything out of me like that, Gracie."
The other girl released another inflated sigh before she turned away towards the liquor cabinet, leaving Felicity get on with her day in the same manner as she had done so before. All the while, her happiness continued to prevail and for that, she was glad. She had no intention of letting someone ruin such a pleasant mood. . . yet forgot to remember just how easy it was for someone to go against her wishes and do just that.
⎯
"Inspector Campbell called," Felicity announced loudly to the house as she swung through the threshold with an angry growl building up in her throat and her features long being taken over by a deepening frown.
The fact that she had come into contact with the slimy police inspector had most certainly dampened her previous good mood. . . of which she was not pleased about in the slightest. Her run in with the elder man had ended all of her hopes for a peaceful rest of the day, to say the least.
John was the first to whip his head towards the girl as she entered the parlour, and with this came the confusion that rang clear in his words. "I thought Tommy said that he was supposed to leave Small Heath? Or at the very least. . . leave us alone?"
The blonde shrugged at his declaration. "Who knows?" She threw out her hands so that the palms faced upwards towards the ceiling. "All I came 'round to do was tell you that fun little fact before disappearing back home — forty minutes with the man made me feel disgusted with the world, so I plan on spending the rest of the night drinking until I can hardly see the mess."
"And you wouldn't rather just come with us to the Garrison?" Arthur proposed, making his way through the chaos of the betting shop and to the threshold of the emerald double doors.
"So I could get drunk at the place where I'm meant to be working?"
Arthur shrugged. "You'd be drunk either way, and from what I've got from your earlier complaints, it would probably make the experience a lot more enjoyable."
Felicity rolled her eyes. "Right, that's a brilliant idea, Arth. Drunk and behind a bar of, what, fifty-plus drunken men?"
Arthur turned to his brother with a shrug and helpless expression upon his face, to which John responded to with a highly amused burst of laughter that was cut short by the hard glare emerging from the blonde girl's hazel irises.
"What happened with Campbell, then?" John coughed out as a way to avert from the previous conversation.
And so Felicity sighed.
THREE HOURS PRIOR
The streets were surprisingly sparse from a crowd as the blonde made her way out of the pub and down Garrison Lane. She had left, calling to Grace that she would be on her way to pick up food for the week and would be back within the hour. . . and so had shrugged on her jacket without another thought. The chill that bit at her being pulled out a grumble from her lips as her pace quickened in order to reach the small store faster, keen to get within the doors and out of the wind.
The man that stood before the door to her residence was one she had hardly seen on more than one occasion, but had heard lots about from the complaints and criticisms that could so often be found coming from the mouths of the Shelby clan.
Inspector Chester Campbell — the man who had come all the way from Belfast to 'put right' the wrongs of Small Heath. From what she could tell, he was a wiry soul with a constant anger present in his cold irises, and he had a special vexation reserved for the Shelby brothers, as they just so happening to be preventing his need to 'clear' Small Heath of crime.
"Can I help you?" Felicity asked as politely as she could muster, nearing the home and the man who stood before it.
He turned to her without a single hint of emotion upon his face other than the smallest twitch of his left eye. "Felicity Woods?" Posed as a question, uttered as a statement.
Felicity grimaced ever so slightly due to the fact that he was already aware of her name. "That would be me," she clarified instead, before repeating her earlier question. "Can I help you?"
Inspector Campbell made a nonchalant noise that morphed into one of agreement. "You spend a lot of your time around the Shelbys, do you not?"
THREE HOURS LATER
"Didn't you answer him?" John asked in response to the recollection of the event, and his new sense of anger that was beginning to show through short, tensed actions was hopefully directed more towards the inspector rather than Felicity.
"I gave him the only answer I could've given him," she sighed once more. "Agreed to what might as well have been an accusation of hanging around with you bookmakers, said I couldn't give him what he wanted, and asked him whether or not he was done here."
The two that surrounded her waited for the continuation of her tale.
". . . To which he, predictably, said no," Felicity complained with a low groan as she remembered it. "He went on to ask about my father, my habit of spending time alongside the Shelbys, whether or not I had an acquaintances with Freddie Thorne or the rest of his circle. . . and then came right back to the topic of my father."
Arthur's expression had remained unchanging for the majority of her remembrance but now, it morphed into perplexity as he struggled to put the pieces together. Felicity had assumed that Tommy had filled in his brothers with the entirety of their times with John Woods - and thus, she had not questioned him about it - but the looks that were creeping upon their faces were beginning to tell her otherwise.
The girl groaned again and pulled a hand down across her face, as though attempting to rid her mind of all of the thoughts that had jumbled their way together into an annoying realisation.
"If you didn't shoot him in the head there and then, Felicity, I swear to God. . ." John trailed off and despite the wicked expression upon his features, she could not tell whether or not he was being serious.
"I didn't shoot him, John."
He threw his hands up in exasperation. "It would have been a lot simpler if you had!"
"Why the hell would I keep a gun on my person?" Felicity chose to answer instead, raising an eyebrow. "Do I look as though I am as barbaric as you Shelby brothers?"
John sighed. "You're hopeless and are, in no way, a help to any of us."
"Ouch," the girl commented monotonously in turn. "I'm hurt, oh no."
He pursed his lips together but didn't rise to the continued bait of her sarcasm, much to her immature disappointment.
"Alright," Felicity eventually declared to the room, after an overexaggerated sigh, rising from where she had leaned to against the wall of the parlour. "Let's go and get drunk, eh?"
It did not take much convincing before the two brothers agreed to her suggestion heartily, and so they paraded out of the house with over-enthused laughter.
⎯
No more than three hours later did Felicity find herself perched upon the table at the Garrison, her legs swinging over the top as she listened to the raucous laughs that emerged from John's lips as Arthur retold the day's tales. She clutched a beer bottle in her grasp, grateful for the fact that Harry had allowed her to have the night off, although she suspected it might of had something to do with the two brothers that stood by her side. . . even if they were completely ignoring the atmosphere around them and were instead bantering and playfully arguing with one another.
Felicity could not help but watch as the second eldest Shelby brother regarded his siblings with begrudging amusement, as though he was finally allowing himself the time to forget the day's ordeals even for a few short hours. What she did not manage to spot was when his gaze landed on her as laughter bubbled up from her lungs and she shared giggles with the room. She did not see when he regarded her with a sort of affection that once, she would have said he was uncapable of expressing. She missed each one of these long looks that fell from his once-icy eyes.
"More drinks?" Arthur announced to the room eventually, waving his empty glass to the air and frowning comically at it.
The youngest of the three agreed with a tall nod. "I'll come and get them with you, Arth," he declared. "Let's leave these two lovebirds to it, hmm?"
As the two went to leave the room, Felicity reached out and whacked the man's arm with the back of her hand, although the easy laughter spilling from her mouth was a tell-tale sign that she was at least partly amused.
Once gone, the blonde turned back to the man before her and let the relaxed smile take over her lips in a heartbeat. "How'd they find out?" She asked.
Tommy shrugged. "Lucky guess?" He suggested in response, an easy smile taking over his own features. "It's either that or they're still referring to our engagement. . . you know as well as the rest that my brother doesn't catch on to these types of things especially quickly."
At this, Felicity laughed in good-natured agreement. Her good mood from earlier had been replenished in the presence of the raven-haired man and for that she was overly glad. He just so happened to make her the happiest she had been in a long time - the happiest ever, in fact, not that she would be admitting such a declaration any time soon.
It wasn't long before his brothers re-emerged through the frosted glass of the door, clutching bottles between their fingers and widening their eyes with disappointment at the sight of the pair before them.
"I told you!" Arthur remarked to his brother, who merely rolled his eyes. "'Lovebirds' wouldn't do shit, John Boy."
"Yeah, just like you told the rest of the bar," John responded lazily, dropping the bottles onto the table and swapping Felicity's empty glass for one of the new ones. She took it from him with a grin of thanks, and thus the night continued, with the girl's good mood prevailing alongside the man's.
AUTHOR'S NOTE
keira knightley could step on me
and i'd thank her okay bye
( not me naming chapters after
either taylor swift or 1D songs )
hope you enjoyed, i love you all!
( the dialogue in this one is SO
BAD and not at all like what
arthur & john would sound like
. . . it literally sounds like i just
wrote something for ' friends '
bc that's all i've watched today )
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