Friends Forever
By ralst
Part Two
As an ambulance pulled up outside the three friends were reminded of the reason for their long overdue reunion. Their smiles dimmed and as one they turned towards the battered looking lift in the corner of the lobby.
"Do you know which floor?" Nikki asked.
Helen consulted a ruffled piece of paper. "Third."
On entering the lift Shell crossed her arms and shuffled closer to Nikki. She hated to admit how much hospitals scared her, not after spending so many years afraid of her own shadow, but with Nikki around she always felt just that little bit safer. Not that Nikki had been around much for the last five or six years, but the memory of her protective side was enough to make Shell feel secure.
"You getting amorous there, blondie?" Nikki asked, a sway of her hips bumping Shell and letting her know she was only kidding.
Shell's initial response was to blush, something she hadn't done in years, but she soon recovered. "In your dreams."
Nikki's laugh reverberated against the sides of the lift and drew a smile from Helen and a fake scowl from Shell. In the old days Shell would have turned scarlet at the very idea that she was being flirted with, however innocently, but she'd learnt to give as good as she got. Helen, on the other hand, had always bristled whenever Nikki showed an interest in other women. Not so much because she was jealous; she knew with absolute certainty that Nikki had no interest in Shell or most of the other women she flirted with, but what had ruffled Helen's feathers was that Nikki had never once flirted with her.
The lift doors opened and the three women made their way down the corridor, each peering nervously into the side rooms, before quickly averting their eyes.
"Helen!" Mark jogged down the corridor to enfold Helen in a desperate embrace. "God, Helen."
Gently stroking his back, Helen waited for Mark's hold to release before pulling away. "Mark, you remember Nikki and Shell?"
"Yes. Sorry." He shook both their hands. "I'm just a bit -"
"How's Gina?" Shell interrupted.
"Stable."
"That's a first," Nikki and Shell said in unison, before quickly apologising, and taking up similar poses, with their arms crossed and heads slightly bowed.
"You have to excuse them, Mark, they're not normally allowed into the community unsupervised."
Mark looked confused at the comment but then he'd never really understood Gina's friends. It was almost as if they had their own special language of insults and innuendo, that even after seven years of marriage he still couldn't penetrate.
"She left these for you." He pulled out the three envelopes and handed them to the women. "If they shed any light on why..?"
"We'll let you know," Nikki promised.
Their visit with Gina had been brief. The beeping machinery and pale body lying on the bed had left each of them shaken and desperate to leave. Yet, at the same time, desperate not to be parted. It was Shell who suggested getting a drink and after a hurried telephone call to Helen's baby-sitter the three made their way to the nearest pub.
Helen sipped at her orange juice and took the time to observe Nikki as she leant against the bar, casually chatting to the barmaid, and handing over their food orders. Of the three of them she had definitely changed the least; her hair and clothes were virtually indistinguishable from what she'd worn during their uni days and although there was a certain maturity to her features, her eyes still sparkled with the same mixture of earnest amusement. Not that physical appearance meant a hell of a lot. For all Helen knew Nikki could have joined a cult or converted to the norms of heterosexuality since the last time they'd met.
"God, Hels, you'll be drooling in a minute."
Helen turned to Shell, a confused look on her face. "What?"
"All these years and you're still mooning over 'er."
"What are you talking about?"
Shell rolled her eyes dramatically. "I'm just saying that you still fancy 'er."
"Fancy who?" Nikki asked, coming up behind the two and deposited their lunch receipt on the table.
"You."
"No one."
Nikki looked back and forth between the two and decided it would be best to change the subject. "Have you opened your envelopes yet?"
"We were waiting for you." Helen picked hers up and, waiting for the others to do the same, started to rip open the flap.
Scotty,
By the time you read this I'll probably be banged up. I know you'll think I'm a right plank for what I've done but the bastard deserved it. I gave him everything and he goes and screws around on my with some slapper. I only hope the fucker suffered.
If you don't want to come and visit me I'll understand. You always were the sensible one of the bunch and getting mixed up with a murderer probably isn't the sanest thing in the world. So I'm gonna take this opportunity to give you some advice and stick my nose where it doesn't belong.
I know Tom leaving shook you up but you've gotta face facts. He was a prat and you never really loved him anyway. So stop behaving like a drunken fart and start living again. Find someone new. Get legless and get your leg over. Hell, I'm sure Nik will turn up for the trial, so why don't you pull your head outta your arse and jump the woman? We all know it's what you've been dying to do for years.
Okay, I think that's enough pearls of wisdom for one letter. Sorry if I've disgraced the old gang but you know I never could take being made a fool of.
Love
Gina
"Fuck!" Helen stared at the others, who were both wearing identical looks of disbelief. "She tried to kill him."
"Crazy bitch," Shell murmured.
Nikki dropped her letter onto the table. "What are you going to tell Mark? If the cops find out about this they'll lock her up."
"Why should we tell him anyfink? The bastard might be all tears and snot now but that didn't stop 'im fucking around on her." Shell thought about Jim and how she'd thought more than once about slipping something nasty into his tea. "I'm only sorry she missed."
"Shell!"
"Wha'? It's all right for you, Nik, you don't know what bastards men can be. Am I right Helen?"
Helen shrugged. Her ex might have run off with a dental hygienist but she'd never cared enough about him to contemplate the need for revenge. About that, at least, Gina had been right.
"Women aren't exactly a picnic." Nikki grumbled. "I need another drink. You want one?" Both women nodded and Nikki disappeared to the bar.
Shell picked up Nikki's discarded letter and began reading.
"What are you doing?"
"Just seeing what else Gina put." Shell smiled before passing the letter to Helen.
"I don't -"
"Read it."
The letter started off pretty similarly to Helen's own but once again Gina hadn't been able to refrain from offering some unwanted advice:
It's about bloody time you stopped acting the lone ranger and remembered you have friends who love and miss you. I mean, have you seen Shell lately? The girl's a mess, and Helen isn't much better, even if she doesn't advertise it with ten tonne of makeup. They both need you and, however much you deny it, you need them. So stop farting around and sort it.
"She thinks we're fuck ups." Shell said, happily. "She's probably right."
Helen wanted to disagree but she wasn't that much of a hypocrite.
"Nosy cows." Nikki snatched her letter from Helen's hand. "So, come on then, what did yours say?"
Shell shrugged. "That I should stop acting like an EastEnders reject and remember that I had friends who didn't want me just for what I could give 'em."
They both turned to Helen.
"I've gotta get over myself and get my leg over, apparently," Helen confided.
Shell laughed. "You wanna swop?"
Nikki's smile quickly dimmed as she asked, "Do you think she's right?"
"Wha', about Hel needing to get 'er leg over?"
Helen swatted Shell with a beer mat.
"All of it."
The three old friends descending into silence before, reluctantly, they each started to nod. Gina might have been a comatosed would-be murderer, but she definitely had a point.
To Be Continued