Chapter 3
Kimberley hurried up the path to the front door, doubting her trust in Nadine suddenly. As she opened to door she could hear familiar music coming from the living room. She entered the room quietly as not to startle the two people enjoying what was on the TV.
To her relief, the atmosphere seemed quite calm. Poppy was sitting quietly on Nadine’s lap, eyes fixated to the screen, whilst Nadine commentated and pointed out various things. She smiled to herself as she remembered what a great time they had doing that tour - despite relationships starting to become strained - Cheryl’s words of a reunion still ringing in her ears.
She came round and sat on the sofa next to Nadine, making both her and Poppy jump a little. “Kimberley! What are you trying to do to me?!” Nadine shouted in a mock angry tone, which made them all laugh. She picked up the remote and hit the stop button, she was unsure whether Kimberley wanted this to be shown to Poppy yet.
“I hope you don’t make a habit of watching these DVDs?” Kimberley asked, she meant it in a jokey way, but Nadine started to take it seriously.
“Only when Cheryl makes me... she’s a bit strange like that. But then again I did used to watch them sometimes just after I left, if I was missing you or the others...” Nadine stopped as she noticed Kim shaking her head and trying to hold in a laugh. “Oh, I thought...”
“What that I was annoyed?” Nadine shrugged her shoulders and looked away, “don’t be silly, Diney. Well we might as well watch the end now..” She took the remote and resumed play, also taking Poppy from Nadine and sitting her on her own lap.
They watched the last twenty minutes of the DVD with Poppy becoming more confused as to how two people could be on TV and sitting in the room at the same time. The little girl clapped and cheered along with the crowd as it finished, putting a smile on both the girls’ faces.
“Did you enjoy that, sweetie,” Kimberley asked, to which Poppy nodded enthusiastically, before attempting to escape her mum’s grip. Kim let her go and she went to play with the toy Justin had brought with them.
The concert footage brought back memories for both the girls, mostly good but a few bad one’s for Nadine. It was around this time that the loneliness began for her, when she and Kim’s relationship began to fall apart.
“Thanks for looking after her, babe,” Kimberley said, bringing them both out of their daze.
“You didn’t think I’d cope did you?” Nadine asked, looking straight ahead, away from Kimberley.
“I had my concerns,” the older girl began, noticing the disappointed look on Nadine’s face, “but clearly I had no reason to.” She smiled as she put her arm around Nadine, kissing her cheek and forcing her to look at her. “I’m dead proud, Nads.”
The younger girl smiled back and breathed a sigh of relief, “You don’t mid me showing her the DVD then?” she said cautiously.
“No, why would I? I just don’t like watching it. Sometimes it makes me feel like we lost everything...” She stopped sharply as she noticed Nadine pull away from her slightly as the embrace became awkward.
“I hope you haven’t been waiting all this time to bring this up. I know you blame me, maybe it is my fault, but one of us would have left eventually!” Nadine rose from her seat and stormed angrily out of the door, getting the wrong end of the stick completely.
Kimberley sat back in shock as she waited patiently for the bedroom door to slam. Mood swings weren’t uncommon with Nadine, but she didn’t expect her to react to something that wasn’t aimed in malice. It did upset Kimberley to watch the videos, she did miss that life but there were so many reasons why they could never get that back.
