cara: girlsss

cara: party at dion's tuesday night xx

angie: can't :(

angie: watching erys 🐶

cara:

angie: 🖕🏻

barbie: wait if angie's not going there's no way i am

cara: omfg barbie are you seriously flaking right now

barbie: i refuse to turn down meathead eton boys alone. i refuse.

cara: um hi you'll have me

barbie: caz ily but i'm not watching you & dion eat face all night x

cara: aw but we're such fun to watch 😕

angie: nooo babe

angie: go! party on my behalf 🥳

barbie: b-but i wanna watch erys too 🥺

barbie: & mubby says she wants to meet her!

cara: fuck the pair of you

cara: also give your mubby and mummy a hug from me, i haven't seen them in forever

angie: if the all-powerful caz permits it 👀

angie: i'm v down to dog-sit with you and mubby

cara: you have my begrudging permission 🙄

barbie: love uuuu

angie: 💖 💖 💖

*********************

"Look at this little princess!" Bea coos as Erys scurries in through their front door as if it's her own house.

"She's definitely not a shy one," I laugh, giving Bea a tight hug, "watch." I do a little spin and look to Erys, who shakily gets up on her hind legs to copy me, tottering in a little circle with her white paws raised.

"Oh my God. Lis!" Bea's wife, Lisa, is stood firmly by the dining table, cuppa in hand. "Lis, you have to come over here! Look, she doesn't bite!" Bea's crouched down now, with Erys happily frolicking around, following her finger.

"Yeah, not yet. I'm fine here, thank you. Very cute." Lisa smiles tightly. Stuck to the spot, she sets her tea down and reaches her arms out for me,

"You, though, I can give a cuddle. Hi, sweetie, how are you?" Lisa and Bea give the best hugs.

"I'm good!"

"Studying hard?"

"Lisa!" Bea reprimands.

"What?"

"Can our guest spend 5 minutes in the house without thinking about exams?" Lisa rolls her eyes, and I laugh – I know she means no harm.

"I'm studying, I'm studying, I promise." She nods, once and smugly, in approval.

"Alright, stop being a baby and come here." Lisa glances at me sideways, and I offer a comforting smile,

"If it helps, she's like a very hairy, very smiley baby, I promise." When Lisa steps out tentatively from behind the counter, Erys comes bounding over as though she heard everything that was said, and sits patiently at her feet. Lisa gets down on her knees slowly, and after her hand hovers for a moment, she pats Erys' head lightly.

"Good doggy..." Erys loves the attention, and sticks her tongue out, giving her best smile. "Aw! She's so... sweet.".

"Now that's not so scary, is it?" Bea says, smug and saccharine, with her hands in her back-pockets.

Lisa sticks her tongue out as she sits cross-legged and Erys hops into the space between her legs.

"My eyes must be deceiving me..." Babe gawks teasingly when she walks into the living room, looking incredulous. "Is that Mum, sitting with a dog?"

"Playing with a dog, I think you'll find." Bea corrects with a look of self-satisfaction.

"All this sarcasm for free. How did I ever get so lucky, Angie?" She gives me her own sarcastic smile, and I love how they all bounce off of each other.

Lisa's been like another mother to me for as long as I can remember, and when Babe's dad went to prison and they broke it off, she was so different - it was like all the life had been sucked out of her. Seeing her now, quipping and smiling, makes me happy. Hopeful. I think Bea's to thank, in part. I was so much younger then, but I remember how hard it was for her to be alone, looking after Babe and her brother, and then when Bea came it was like those dark times had never existed at all. I guess that's what finding your prince(ss) after a string of frogs is supposed to feel like. Babe's family are part of why I believe in rainbows out of rain. Looking at them now, you'd never think they'd lost a thing.

"Mubs, can we use the movie room tonight?" Babe asks with her head on Bea's shoulder. When she was 8, confused and creative, she'd decided to start calling Lisa Mummy and Bea MuBea, which had become Mubby and Mubs over the years.

" 'Course, baby, what are you guys watching?"

"Sex Education – season 2 just came out on Netflix."

"Ooh, alright, have fun – we'll bring you some snacks." She says, kissing her forehead tenderly.

"Barb, I thought we were gonna do your hair this morning? What happened?" Lisa asks from the floor, Erys still in-lap. She says 'we' but means Babe.

"Mum," she whines, dragging the syllable, "my hair's fine. The frizz hasn't started yet." Babe's been straightening her hair since we started secondary school. When we were younger, she let her tight curls fly in all their glory, but I can't remember the last time I saw it like that.

"Lis, it's not too bad." Bea pouts.

"Better to do it before the frizz starts – Angie can help you! You can do it while you watch your movie." Babe rolls her eyes in my direction, and I shrug,

"Happy to help."

"Fab. See, Barb, all sorted. Just to tidy it up a little, okay?"

"Yes, Mum." She groans in that way teenagers do, before she starts to leave. "Come on, Erys!" Babe calls as we head across the hall, making a kissy noise.

"Uh," Lisa starts, holding Erys' paws, "d'you think we could maybe play with her? Just for a bit?" She looks between Bea and I for approval like a kid asking for a playdate, and Bea's smugness is palpable when she smirks at me.

"Sure!" I say.

"Fine by me." Bea grins, getting down to sit opposite Lisa. Erys, clearly excited by double the attention, starts yapping and hopping between the two of them.

"Come on, Ang," Babe says, laughing. As we leave, I can still hear a snippet of their conversation,

"So, we like dogs now, do we?"

"Oh, piss off, this one's cute."

"Cute enough for us to finally get one?"
"Yeah, not that cute."

*********************

"I think we should have sex."

"We are having sex. Oh, wait, you mean like up the...?"

"Babe! Hold still!" I moan. We're watching an episode of Sex Education and she keeps throwing her head back when she laughs. "If you keep moving it'll burn you."

"Okay, okay, I'll laugh with my head straight."

"Thank you."

I separate another piece of hair with the comb, and straighten silently for a bit.

"I love your hair like this."

"You do?"

"Sit forward, please, thank you." I say, holding her shoulders when she tries to turn to face me. "You know I do! Oh my gosh, do you remember in primary, when you'd ask me to braid your hair at lunch so it would be extra curly for our playdates?"

She manages to laugh without moving, for which I'm very grateful. Her hair really is gorgeous curly; it's just so Barbara. When her hair's natural, her smile's bigger, she's more comfortable – that's the Babe I love best.

"But I guess I love it like this too," I tease. "Turn your head this way."

The episode goes on, and I've been focused on straightening, but from what I gather Ola likes Otis but she's in love with Lily, Otis is still in love with Maeve, and Anwar's boyfriend wants him to anal.

"Ang?"

"Mhm?"

"What would you do if you were... in that scenario?"

"What would I do if my boyfriend wanted me to do anal?"

She laughs and this time I do burn her, just a little,

"Ow! No, I meant – wait, have you and Eric...?"
"Barbie! I'm not answering that!... No."

"I meant, what would you do if you were in love with someone and they liked you, but they didn't love you?"

"Shit, that's a sticky one. Uh, ideally? Stay away; protect my heart. Realistically? Take every second I can get. Hope something changes, and eventually confess, I dunno."

Babe chuckles,

"You're such an optimist... I don't know if I could do that."

"No? What would you do?"

"Not sure... well yeah, I guess stick around, try and get their attention and stuff. I don't know about the confess bit, though."
"That's because you're a woman of few words," I tease, "but I guess when the right moment comes, you're alone, you feel close, you just say it."

The sound of Lisa and Bea's laughter and Erys' shrill bark erupt from the kitchen, they're so adorable, and Babe turns, only slightly, to give me a joking eye roll.

"Babe?"

"Mhm?"

"Is this about Lily from CompSci? I thought things were going well with you two?"
"Well, I mean they're not really going at all, heh. We text here and there, she comments on my insta. Y'know, the uje."

"And you love her, but she likes you?"

"God, no! I meant, uh, I meant it the other way around. She's really into me, and she's cool, I'm just ... not on the same page."

"Aw, Babe. Let her know. Just so she doesn't think things are going well when they're... well, not going at all."
"Yeah. I will. Strawberry me?"

"Mhm." I pick a strawberry from the snack platter Bea brought us and feed it to her.

"Mm", she hums, "Caz sent a snap."

"What'd she say?" Bea raises the phone to my eyeline when she presses the notification, and it's Caz, lying on her boyfriend, Dion, eating face, as predicted.

"Thought I'd show you two what you were missing out on! Hope you're not having fun! Byyyye! Dion say bye to Angie and Barbie!" She slurs under flashing neon lights. Dion, who seems only slightly less drunk, waves and mumbles something akin to goodnight, before he covers the camera, to return to making out, I assume.

"Charming..." Babe quips. "On a similar note, any ... Eric updates?" She pauses before she says his name, and I want to tread lightly, so things don't kick off again.

"Actually, yeah, he uh... It's his birthday soon and he asked me to go to this birthday party sort of thing."

"Birthday party sort of thing?"

"It's, um, like a family thing? His parents are throwing him a party." I'm done straightening, but I'd rather tell her from behind here. "With all his family and friends. And it's in the Cotswolds. For the half-term week." I wince as I add each detail, afraid that one of them will be the final straw.

"Shit." She says. "Holy shit! Angie," she turns to face me, and sweeps her newly-straightened hair around her shoulder. "Angie, that's a big fucking deal. Are you gonna go?"

"Yeah? I mean, I think I really want to."

She starts nipping at her nails like she does when she's nervous, and I can feel my heart pounding waiting for what she'll say next.

"You said all his family are gonna be there?"

"Uh-huh." Another silence.

"What'll you tell your Mum? And Walt?"

Now I'm biting my nails.

"I'm not sure... hadn't really thought about that. Maybe that I'm at my auntie's, or something?"

"They'll poke holes in that or try and come visit you."
"Mm, you're right."

"I have half-term basketball camp in Edinburgh. I can say you're coming with me?"

"Babe, that... that'd be amazing! You'd do that?"

"Hey, it's not everyday you get to spend a week in the Cotswolds with your boyfriend, right?"

Boyfriend. She called him my boyfriend. We're cross-legged in front of each other, but I pull her into an awkward hug, nonetheless.

"Why are you so lovely?" I say into her shoulder, and she giggles.

"Shut up, I'm only buttering you up because I want French braids."