The drive to the restaurant from the doctors office was silent, but not awkward. Robin half expected Kay to be crying, but if anything getting it confirmed just made her steel her emotions off.

Robin had sat in the office with her while Albert sat outside in the waiting area, though Robin wished she'd stayed outside too. She wished she'd not had to hear the horrible way the nurse had spoke to her friend, as if she was the most sinful person alive. To lecture her about morals, the Bible, as if society was going to singlehandedly collapse because of Kay, it all felt absurd. It was a horrible confirmation about society's view of women despite so much progress. In the end, things hadn't progressed quick enough, the perspective on women and virtue was still so historic, to the extent that even Robin felt like she was being horrifically judged despite not being in Kay's position.

"I'm glad you said that thing," Kay muttered eventually, breaking the silence, and when Robin glanced over to her she saw she was smirking slightly. "'You do realise she's only up the duff and hasn't actually murdered anyone?' I loved it, I wanted to say the same,"

"Yeah, well, remind me not to get pregnant and then go see that nurse, I don't think my morals could take it," Robin replied dryly, and there was a second of silence where she wished she hadn't said it before Kay snorted out a laugh. "Sorry,"

"No, it's fine, I think if I don't laugh about it I'll just cry,"  Kay shrugged, letting out a long sigh before glaring out of the car window.

Nothing else was said the whole drive, except for when Albert parked up outside the restaurant and Kay made them vow not to tell anyone. They got on with their working day as if their morning at the doctors hadn't happened, as if everything was the same, when in reality nothing was. Every so often as they were waiting tables Robin's mind would drift to the events of the doctors office, and whenever she saw Kay rush across the room or carry too many plates she wanted to run after her and take on her workload as well as her own. She wished she could somehow make her friend take it easy or sit down but as if to prove to herself that things weren't truly as different, Kay was working harder than ever.

"I was meant to be taking table three's order," Robin stated as she managed to get a moment with her in the kitchen while orders were being plated up. "You're going to knacker yourself up,"

"Oh heaven forbid, I'm already knocked up," Kay remarked, rolling her eyes before she cringed. "Fuck's sake,"

"Albert said you didn't have to work today, why don't you just go home and take it easy?" Robin suggested, lowering her voice to make sure no one else could hear.

"Nah, we've only got two hours left, plus I'll be alone if I'm at home," she shrugged, fiddling with the collar of her apron. "My sister's moving back in with our Mother, and going home will only remind me I'll get kicked out soon enough. The landlady won't let me stay if she finds out, and I can't afford anywhere else at the minute,"

With that, one of the chefs shouted to them to take an order to one of the tables, and so the two friends split, though Robin kept thinking about Kay's situation. She'd been working as a waitress for long enough that her body just fell into the motions, whilst her mind was elsewhere. She couldn't help but compare Kay's situation to the one her parents were in, the one that resulted in their rather unhappy marriage. She couldn't help but think about all the other young girls who got into her situation, the ones who's partners left them, the ones who were shamed by society. Robin couldn't quite imagine Kay taking any slander from anyone, she wasn't that sort of person, but what about Frank? From what Robin knew of him he was a good guy, she couldn't imagine him leaving Kay just because she was pregnant, but Robin was still a pessimist.

She knew for certain that Kay was already thinking about that part too. Not only was her landlady going to throw her out, but her boyfriend would probably leave her too. To have all that running through her mind as well as wait tables of entitled customers, Kay really was having a bad day.

When their shift ended, the two of them managed to reconvene in the store cupboard where they hung up their aprons, and Robin couldn't help but think how unfazed Kay looked. Perhaps she had just talked herself through the worst case scenario that many times that real life seemed so much easier, or perhaps she'd just accepted the situation. Either way, Robin found her immeasurably admirable, because she knew if she was in her place, she'd be... well, she'd be nowhere near as calm.

"What you doing now then?" Kay asked, rooting around in her handbag and pulling out a packet of cigarettes. She made to pull one out and light it up, but grimaced with a sigh and threw the box to Robin. "Probably best not. You have 'em,"

"Cheers," Robin said, tucking them into her own bag as she pulled her jacket on, thinking just how much she wanted a new leather jacket as her own was looking exhausted. "My photography tutor set us a load of homework to go and get some rural pictures, which I said would be a hard find considering we live in a city. John said he'd take me to a park or something, but I can cancel if you-"

"Don't, you've done enough for me today, last thing I wanna do is invade on your love life, especially after last night," Kay insisted. "Speaking of, you're being safe aren't you?"

"What as in... Protection?" Robin frowned, hating that she felt her cheeks growing hot.

"Jesus Christ, yes! Not that there's any shame in ending up like me of course, but just make sure you're being careful," she rolled her eyes with a small sigh before linking her arm through Robin's pulling the two of them out of the cupboard and out across the half-full restaurant. "I wanna go to the cinema next week a some point, maybe Tuesday after we finish?"

"Yeah, brilliant," Robin agreed, knowing John was going to Paul's Tuesday night to do some song writing and she hated to impose on those sessions. "There's the new Carry On film, though it's about nurses and hospitals,"

"Well I doubt the cinematic nurses are gonna call me sinful for being pregnant," Kay joked dryly, making Robin snort out a laugh of shock. "Look who's here,"

Kay gestured out of the restaurant window, and Robin immediately noticed John waiting for her, leaning against the wall across the road, looking down the street as he wore Robin's camera on it's strap around his neck. He must have remembered to pick it up for her, considering she forgot it that morning in a rush to leave the house and go to the doctors. He wasn't wearing his glasses, but instead a dark pair of sunglasses that he looked quite attractive in, with his hair piled up messily. Except, as soon as she thought how cool the sunglasses were she realised they were to cover up his two black eyes, most of the bruises being hidden by the dark frames. She shuddered slightly, hating to think of him hurting.

"Will you be okay?" Robin asked as they got through the door. John had noticed them, but hadn't rushed over. Clearly he knew they needed a moment. "I don't have to leave you if you don't want? We can go back to yours and-"

"Seriously, don't be worrying," Kay shook her head, shoving Robin gently in the direction of John. "Go off with your rock star and take some pretty pictures in the park. I'll nip round tomorrow at some point,"

Kay pulled her into a hug, and Robin realised that it might have been their first instance of physical contact. It spoke more than a thousand words, conveying all the emotions of their friendship, and the gratitude that Robin had been there for her. As they parted, Kay gave her a wave before going off down the road to the bus stop, leaving Robin with no choice but to cross the road and fall into another tight embrace, this time with her boyfriend.

John hadn't been expecting her hug, but he squeezed her tightly all the same, assuming that she needed it. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her cheek and when they broke apart she kissed him properly before taking hold of his hand, the two of them beginning their walk to their own bus stop.

"Is everything alright?" John asked as he noticed Robin frowning slightly. "Are you still angry... about last night?"

"What? Oh, no not really," she shrugged before sighing, realising he was completely oblivious to Kay's situation and their morning at the doctors'. "Look, I think we need to start being more careful, you know, in the bedroom. I've just been thinking, we've not really been taking precautions and stuff, and I don't want us to end up like my parents,"

"Yeah, alright," he nodded casually, as if it was nothing at all. "What's got you worrying about this?"

"What we said last night," she said, not a lie but not the entire truth either as she decided it wasn't her place to tell him about Kay, though her words about being safe had stuck with her. "Well, I love you, but I don't wanna ruin anything or have anything change. It just made me think that maybe this is getting a bit serious,"

"And what, you don't want it to be serious?" he asked with a frown, clearly uncomfortable with the prospect of discussing the depth of their relationship.

"Of course I do, I love you, honestly," she reassured him quickly, squeezing his hand as they got to their bus stop, sighing as she tried to find the right words to make sense of her thoughts in a way that wouldn't upset him. "I don't really have the greatest example to follow from, considering the state of my parents' marriage,"

"It's not like mine were much better," he reminded her with a shrug, and though there were still so many details about John's childhood that she didn't know, his statement of solidarity was more than enough to reassure her.

It was interesting for her to realise then that they were both from rather dysfunctional backgrounds. Neither of them had enjoyed normal family life, though they both had loving families neither of them were like the families some of their friends had. They shared so much when it came to difficult histories, their experiences different yet similar enough to make them into kindred spirits.

Robin was glad that John seemed to understand her. She wondered how much harder it would be discussing serious topics like relationships with someone but him, and found it an impossible take. Perhaps he was the only person she'd ever feel so comfortable with, though she quickly pushed that thought aside, deciding to focus on the moment, and the current conversation.

"I don't know if I ever want to get married, or have a family," she said bluntly, not looking at John as she instead stared down the road to watch for their bus. "Not considering the way my parents were, or how my Mother is, I don't want to end up like them. I'm not saying all this cause I think you want that stuff, and I know this is probably far too serious of a conversation for us to have but I just... I need to get it out in the open,"

"Robin, we're eighteen, we don't need to be worrying about any of that stuff," he let out a small laugh, but not in a patronising way, or even overwhelmed as if she was getting far too serious. If anything his laugh was reassuring, making her feel as if there really was nothing to worry about. "Besides, if you want all that conventional shit I'm probably not the best person for it either,"

"Fair," she shrugged, daring to glance over to him, finding it impossible to not smirk at him slightly. "So, if you're not conventional, what're you gonna do with your life?"

"Hopefully be happy," he said before pulling a face, as if to hide his truth behind a shield of humour. "Dunno, maybe I'll just be an old man wandering around Liverpool with my guitar, you can be an old lady following me around with your camera,"

"Bold of you to assume I'll follow anyone around," she commented dryly, remembering her lone wolf days back before Liverpool. "It's not like we need to know what we're doing right now. We've got our whole lives to figure our lives out,"

***

Finding out that Kay was pregnant was a blessing in disguise, because as selfish as it was, it made Robin realise what she wanted in life, and what she most definitely didn't want was children. She'd never really spent that much time around them so she didn't have anything against them, and surely she would love her own, but she didn't want them all the same. She didn't want the conventional family unit, mostly because her own family was the furthest thing from conventional. In determination to not end up like her mother, she decided that she wasn't going to even risk it. The same with getting married, why risk a good relationship by making it contractual? That had been the downfall of her parents relationship after all, and she refused to let history repeat itself.

Besides, John wasn't one for convention either. Robin loved him, she really did, so if their relationship really was for the long run, at least she had her truth out in the open with him. He didn't really seem to care too much about her plan, if anything he agreed with it, so at least it was a reassurance that they were on the same page.

They'd not discussed the topic of children or marriage since the bus stop, spending the rest of the afternoon wandering around the park hand in hand before finding some sort of greasy spoon to get some food in, the entire time talking about everything and anything except for the former topics, and the fight the night before. Things felt normal, better than normal, especially when they got the bus back to their homes and John hesitated in parting from her.

"Mimi's gonna kill me," he muttered under his breath, running his hands through his hair as he adjusted his sunglasses, clearly trying to build up his confidence for facing his aunt with his war wounds.

"Come back to mine," she suggested with a shrug, mostly because she didn't want to part from him. "Al won't mind. You can use the phone and ring your aunt, tell her you're stopping the night at Stu's or something,"

So he did. The two of them went back to Robin's and spent the night in her room, listening to different records, smoking while Robin showed him her more private sketchbooks, the ones that were art projects for fun rather than academic purposes. In return he doodled on some of the blank pages, simple little sketches of the two of them that only consisted of a few lines, but she found herself surprised by how much she loved them. They were minimal yet recognisable, the two of them under a tree, holding hands, or the two of them sat on the back row of a bus, or even a few of them in more compromising positions that made her blush and vow to hide them under her bed in the fear that someone would find them.

For the second time that weekend Robin woke up the next morning in John's arms, and she found herself subconsciously wishing that every morning could be like that. When they eventually got up, after spending most of the morning just laid talking, John snuck back to his house to change and fetch his guitar, while Robin did some coursework out in the garden. When he joined her they spent the day together peacefully, Robin sketching while John fiddled around with his guitar, occasionally humming out a few lyrics as they sat across from each other in the faint spring sunlight.

"How do you actually write songs?" Robin asked, without taking her eyes off her page as she added shading to a sketch of a feather.

"Dunno really, it just sort of... comes to me, I guess," he shrugged, ruffling the back of his hair. Robin wondered if she'd ever told him how much she loved it when he played around with his hair like that. "Bit like putting poetry to music. Sometimes it's easier with Paul, he can come up with a verse then I can come up with the tune or vice versa,"

"Do you know a lot of other people who write songs?" she asked, setting her pad and pencil aside as she adjusted her sitting position to be cross-legged, resting her chin on the palm of her hand.

"No, just Paul really," he told her, a small smile growing on his face at the thought of his friend. "When we write together, it kind of makes me think... y'know, that we could to it forever, that there'd be no one else in the world who'd be such a good writing partner,"

"Maybe you're star-crossed writing partners," she teased dryly, making him pull a face, and the two of them went back to their separate tasks.

John spent the evening at her house too. He ate dinner with her and Albert, a full Sunday roast since Albert liked to practice his culinary skills. Her uncle almost seemed happy at the extra company, and since Robin's mother was unusually absent, the table felt a lot more relaxed. They eventually moved into the living room to sit in front of the television, and just as Robin felt as though it was one of her favourite weekends she'd ever spent in Liverpool since moving, there was a knock at the door.

It was Albert who answered it, leaving John and Robin alone in the living room. John immediately took advantage of their momentary privacy as he edged closer to her, wrapping his arm around her waist. In Albert's company they had been sat at a polite distance from each other on the sofa, but now John was leaning in, kissing her as her hands went to his hair. She sighed as his lips met hers, moving closer as his hands squeezed her waist. Both of them silently hoped that whoever was at the door would keep Albert busy for a while, finding a sudden burst of desire in their peaceful afternoon that they wanted to live in for as long as possible, but as soon as they heard a quiet cough from the living room doorway they darted apart. Robin blushed bright red as she glanced up to see Albert fighting off a blush of his own as he rolled his eyes, though thankfully he wasn't alone, as stood behind him was Kay and Frank, both of them looking quite amused.

"I put a lock on your door for a reason, Rob," he sighed, though didn't seem annoyed at all as he came back into the living room, gesturing for Frank and Kay to come in.

"Sorry," Robin muttered quietly before looking over to her friend, surprised to see that both Kay and Frank were grinning, and not from amusement at what they'd walked in on. "Y'alreyt?"

"Yeah, yeah, brilliant," Kay beamed, and Robin considered how in all the time she'd known Kay she'd never actually seen her happier, especially as she looked up to Frank with a look of adoration; it was a different vibe completely to how she had been the day before. "We're gonna get married,"

She'd said it so bluntly that Robin almost didn't register it at first, but then as Kay raised her left hand and displayed a thin gold band on her ring finger, the words set in. Robin felt the impact of the words and she jumped off the sofa in surprise. To say she didn't want to get married herself she was overcome with excitement for her best friend, to the point that she pulled the couple into a hug, laughing. John had gotten up too, and he was hugging Kay and shaking Frank's hand, and when Robin thought to look over to Albert she noticed he'd left the room and re-entered with a bottle of champagne, juggling five flute glasses. She was unsure where he'd kept champagne and glasses waiting for a special occasion but she didn't worry about it, instead moving out of the embrace to help him pour and hand them all out.

"We're not just getting married cause she's up the duff," Frank said as if to quiet anyone's thoughts, though Kay elbowed him in the side, faking a scowl. "Sorry, dear, what I mean is I'd actually bought the ring weeks ago and was going to propose as soon as I got back from my work trip, but instead Kay's sat all nervous thinking I was gonna dump her,"

"I'd have hunted you down if you did," Albert remarked, flashing Frank a smile, as he took a swig of champagne.

"Wait, you're pregnant?" John asked in surprise as he looked to Robin. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Not my news to tell," Robin shrugged, sipping her own champagne.

"Thanks, that's perfect maid of honour behaviour already," Kay grinned at her, and it was Robin's turn to look baffled. "What? Seems pretty straight forward to me, you're gonna be my maid of honour, Al's gonna walk me down the aisle, and the Quarrymen are gonna play the reception. Any questions?"

Robin hugged Kay again, wondering just what she'd done to deserve such a good friend. She was a little confused, considering Kay had a sister and surely had other friends, but she couldn't find the words to question the decision, not when her friend seemed so happy. Robin wondered just how she had managed to find such a nice life for herself, how her new start in Liverpool had been so fulfilling. She remembered feeling so low, so lonely back home, living as if everything was in black and white. Liverpool had brought her life into technicolour, not particularly the place but the people, and she was caught in so much joy she couldn't speak. Instead she just smiled and laughed, hugging her friends in her excitement for their happiness.

It was as if all the pessimism had dissolved momentarily out of her. She had a nice life, things were nice. She could be happy, she could have good friends, and a kind uncle, and a wonderful boyfriend. Her life was good, at least for now, and she deserved to enjoy the good.

***
Word count: 3785

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