After Hours

Saturday At Seven

January 29, 1971

Looking forward to dinner with Brian was the only thing that kept her going for the rest of the week. After the conversation with her mum, that had been weighing heavily on her mind. She wanted to get this over with before her night with Brian, it wouldn't be fair to him to have this nagging feeling in her mind during their night together. So, after some procrastinating until the last possible hour, she took the tube out to Feltham. It was about an hour away from her flat in Chelsea. After getting off the stop in Feltham, her house was about a ten-minute walk from the station. She didn't come back to Feltham often, if she and her mother ever decided to spend time together, they opted to do that in London. She thought it was funny how she felt like a guest in her hometown, all of her friends from here had gone and moved off so the only thing that lingered was the ghosts of innocence in her mind.

When she arrived at the front steps of her house, she hesitantly walked up to the door, knocking softly. The house that stood before her didn't feel like hers anymore, it was filled with great memories but mostly those that still resided were those she would prefer not to look back on. The majority of her favorite memories from her childhood happened just down the street at the May's.

Her mother opened the door and Jane noticed how tired she looked, it broke her heart to see her mum like this. The two of them didn't say anything, they just hugged. Her mother squeezed her more than usual. As they parted from the hug, Jane held out an envelope to her mother,

"Here's the money, it was what I could spare.."

Jane felt a tad resentful, she was saving to money to spend time with Scott this summer. She knew she wasn't obligated to contribute money to her father's attempt to sober up but she would've felt guilty if his condition worsened and she could've done something to prevent it.
Evelyn eyed the envelope for a few moments before hesitantly taking it from her Jane.

"Thank you, dear. You didn't have to do this, y'know? You're young, you should be saving this for your future."

"I can take it back if you insist." Jane was a little snippy with her.

Her mother sighed and closed her eyes, "This isn't easy for me either."

"I know, I'm sorry.. I'd stay but I'm meeting with someone and I don't want to be late."

Evelyn raised her eyebrows, Jane's change of conversation was successful in changing her mother's mood, "A friend? Or someone more than that?"

A small smile crept across Jane's face, "A friend.." She said, trying to convince herself that's all he was.

"Oh, have I ever met them?"

She had been trying to find the right time and the right way to tell her mum about this, as they say, there's no better time than the present.

"Yes, I'm meeting with Brian."

"Brian.. May?"

"Yes, that Brian."

Jane's smile was contagious, "Well when did you two start talking again?"

"Recently, a few weeks ago. We were reintroduced, I guess you would say, through a mutual friend."

"I saw him for the first time in a while around Christmas and he looks very... different, a lot different than I remembered. He has grown up to be a handsome young man, don't you think?"

She smirked at her daughter, watching her closely to see what her reaction is to that statement.
Jane's cheeked turned a light crimson and she chose to ignore her mother's question, "He does look different, but he's grown up a lot, he's still as kind as he was when we were kids. He was very forgiving of what I did to him."