Chapter Text
Kate wasn’t sure what it was that had woken her up but whatever it was she wasn’t happy about it. She groaned and hid under her pillow as she tried to drown out the noise of the bin men outside slamming wheels bins around, but just when that stopped, the sound of her roommate Alya shouting at her boyfriend, and Kate’s second roommate, Luke, for drinking the last of the milk carried on over through the room.
It took another ten minutes before that argument died down and she let out a breath of relief when she heard the sound of the door slamming shut followed by a lengthy calm silence. Kate sighed blissfully and snuggled further under her duvet. Her hangover from her previous night of partying was starting to creep up on her so Kate was hoping that she would fall back to sleep before the real pain begins and would luckily end up sleeping it off.
Unfortunately, Kate wasn’t so lucky.
She was just about to drift off when her phone started buzzing on her bedside table. She groaned loudly with frustration and leaned over, squinting her blurry eyes to see her brother’s name flashing on the screen. Immediately she hits ignore, figuring he could just text or call her back later but it takes all of five seconds for it to start buzzing again.
Reluctantly, and grumpily, Kate grabs her phone and picks up. “Hello?!” She snaps impatiently and is met with the sound of her brothers laugh.
“I figured you would probably be trying to sleep off your hangover.” Aidan chuckles from the other end.
“So then why are ya ringing me for? Except to be an annoying prat.” Kate huffs annoyed as she drops her arm over her head to try and block out the sunlight.
“Aren’t you forgetting we had plans to meet for breakfast today?” Aidan responds lightly and Kate immediately groans as she remembers their plans.
“Oh crap, sorry Aidan I completely forgot.”
“Yeah I guessed that when I saw Sophie Webster come into the café looking worse for wear, she told me you would probably be in no fit shape to eat never mind leave your pit.”
“So you thought you would wake me up anyway?”
Aidan laughs, “What can I say, I love torturing you.”
“Right,” Kate sighs. “So…can we take a rain check? Reschedule for another time?”
“I suppose so,” Aidan sighs. “Susie will be disappointed though, she was looking forward to spending some quality time with her Aunty Kate.”
“Susie is four months old, I’m sure the only thing she is ever looking forward too is her next nap.” Kate rolls her eyes with a smile. “Speaking of, can we hurry this along? I want to get another couple hours kip in before work.”
“So that means you won’t be available for lunch?”
“Nope, and not tea either. Robert’s on a training course and Daniel and Aaron are both on holiday so Michelle wants me to cover a double shift. What about tomorrow?”
“Ah that’s no good, we’re driving to Liverpool tomorrow for a wedding, one of Eva’s old school friends is getting married and she’s a bridesmaid. We’re even staying the night, Eva has booked us in to some fancy hotel, wants to take full advantage of our first proper night away from Susie.”
“First night away?” Kate laughs, “Didn’t Dad and Jenny have her last Saturday so you two could have a date night?”
“Date night in the bistro, not the same is it?” Aidan argues and Kate smiles and shakes her head.
“No, suppose not. Guess we will just have to postpone until another time? Text me.”
“Will do, rest up sis.”
”Urgh whatever, I’ll try!” Kate hangs up, cutting off Aidan’s laugh before throwing her phone across the room and rolling over. The duvet cover being pulled up and over her head.
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Rana was fed up.
It was her only day off this week and she was currently spending it ironing and clearing up after Zeedan’s mess.
When did she get so old and boring?
Rana was never one who believed she would be settled down and married by the age of 25 but here she was, living with her husband and his grandmother while ironing his shirts for work in the middle of the day.
Her parents would be so proud.
Just the thought of her parents made her need a drink.
“Screw this,” she muttered to herself. She turned off the iron, and put it away, taking the clothes upstairs into their room out of Yasmeen’s way before getting dressed. After putting on a dash of make-up, she rang Alya to see what her best friend and sister-in-law was up too.
Unfortunately for Rana, Alya was working but promised that she would meet her in The Bistro for tea if she was interested. Rana sighed, it was hardly exciting, but she figured it would be better than nothing and she would use it as an excuse to enjoy a glass of red or two.
To pass by the rest of the afternoon, Rana treated herself to a couple of hours shopping in town before she dropped off her bags by the house and headed towards the Bistro. She knew Zeedan was out with the food van until later on this evening so at least she wouldn’t have him to answer too.
That thought immediately filled Rana with guilt. Zeedan was her husband not her keeper.
“Oh hiya!”
Rana is greeted immediately by a smiling Kate who was walking by the door when she entered.
“Hi,” Rana smiles softly as she eyes Kate with a friendly glance.
The two girls were friends, sort of, Rana decided. Kate was a lot closer to Zeedan, the two of them worked together after all, and she also happened to be Alya’s roommate so they both ran in the same circles. However, as a pair Rana had never really spent any time with Kate alone without Zee or Alya being present.
They didn’t seem to have a lot in common.
“Zeedan’s not working…” Kate tells her with a smile before shaking her head. “But I’m sure you know that already.”
Rana lets out a small laugh while nodding. “I do, I’m meeting Alya for dinner. Have you seen her?”
“Not yet,” Kate replies and motions towards the bar, “Come sit up here and keep me company and I’ll make sure we can get you a table ready.”
“Thank you,” Rana grins appreciatively as she hops on the bar stool and takes off her jacket. “You guys look busy.”
“Tell me about it,” Kate lets out a groan as she grabs a bottle of wine. “Red, right?” Rana blinks surprised at Kate knowing her drink of preference before nodding. She watches as Kate pours a large glass and slides it over. “We’re a bit short staffed and Robert has picked today of all days to go on a training course which means we’re two chefs down. Look, Michelle is about to pop a vein.” Kate motions across the restaurant amused and Rana turns her head to see Michelle trying to deal with what looks like a very unhappy customer, no, scratch that, a very unhappy Tracey Barlow.
“Rather her than me,” Rana swings back around amused. “You seem to be handling it well?”
“Oh nothing phases me,” Kate jokes. “To be honest, I’m sick. I have a raging hangover and my feet are killing me.”
“You couldn’t tell.”
“That’s because I have my game face on,” Kate responds lightly and winks. Rana smiles and takes a sip of her wine. “Trust me, Rana, this face may look calm and happy but inside I’m regretting that last shot of tequila like you wouldn’t believe.”
“Is it weird that I’m jealous? I can’t remember the last time I had a proper hangover.” Rana admits with a sulk.
Kate laughs, “Why, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen you drunk!”
“What? Rana?” Alya appears out of nowhere catching the end of the conversation as she hops onto the stool beside her sister-in-law. “You should have seen her in our uni days, she was a right party animal this one! Barely saw her sober once the sun went down.”
“What really?” Kate’s eyes light up with surprise and looks at Rana amused. “It’s always the quiet ones.”
“Oh yeah,” Alya teases. “She really knocked em back! Out nearly every night and still got up every day for lectures. She was a machine!”
“Oi, I wasn’t that bad!” Rana defends herself with a laugh.
“We need to go out on the town,” Kate decides firmly, a twinkle in her eye as she looks at Rana intrigued. “I think we could have some fun together.”
Rana’s stomach twists from Kate’s stare and she doesn’t know why.
“Fun? More like trouble.” Alya laughs. “You two going out would be a recipe for disaster.” She looks around the restaurant with her eyes. “It’s busy tonight, huh? Can we still grab a table? I’m starving!”
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-
Kate felt like she was having de-ja-vu.
It was a couple of days later and she was trying to have a lie in. She had went out again last night with Sophie and Bethany, and now she was well and truly suffering but her phone was buzzing beside her on the table and she could hear the sound of Luke’s PlayStation blaring from the living room.
She groaned and switched her phone to silence. She saw the person calling her was Carla and she wasn’t in the mood to deal with being teased about her hangover by her oldest sister who could probably put her to shame when it came to how much alcohol she could put away.
No, Kate just wanted to turn her phone off, lock herself away in her bedroom and hide from the world outside.
She was about to get her wish, her eyes drifting closed when the buzzer to the flat went off loudly and repeatedly.
“Jesus,” she muttered to herself angrily but didn’t move. She knew Luke was home so he could get it.
Barely two minutes later there was a knock on her bedroom door.
“Go away, Luke! I’m sleeping!” Kate shouts back angrily and scowls when her bedroom door creeps open slowly but it’s not Luke on the other side.
“Dad? What are you doing here?” Kate sits up confused, her stomach twisting from the look on her father’s face. “What’s wrong? Are you ok?” She jumps out of bed immediately and she sees Luke standing awkwardly in the background. “Dad?”
Johnny shakes his head silently, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down as he struggles to keep himself together.
“It’s Aidan and Eva.” Johnny’s voice cracks as he speaks. “They were in a car accident on their way back from Liverpool.”
Kate’s heart starts to pound furiously against her chest, her stomach dropping.
Johnny lets out a strangled cry and Kate knows what’s coming next.
She knows.
“They’re dead.”
-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0–0-0-0-
Thank you for reading! Let me know if you would like this to continue? This is something slightly new for me so any feedback would be much appreciated :)