Chapter 1

A Chapter by LuluKelly

Let's do this!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that in life nothing is perfect, there are never happy endings nor are there any Mr Darcy’s coming to swoop you off your feet. Marie had learnt this and accepted it, she sat on the edge of her bed in university halls for the first time in 3 years. She reached to her bedside table and picked up her prosthetic liner, rolling it up the stump of her left leg, she then grabbed 4 black socks and pulled them up over the liner before grabbing her prosthetic leg and pushing it onto the stump. She stood up and paced on the spot until she heard the audible click of her stump aligning, she reached down and pushed the pin by her ankle in locking it in place.

She dressed herself in blue loose jeans and a red top before pulling on a navy blue sweatshirt, she walked jauntily to her bathroom and turned on the light. Resting her hands on the sink she stared at herself in the mirror, 2 lifeless brown eyes stared at a round, pale and freckled face. Picking up a hair brush she raked it through her ginger curls, they bounced around her shoulders and looked just as lifeless as her eyes did. She turned on the cold tap and washed her face, scrubbing at herself; willing the nightmares to stop. The crunch of metal on metal as the 2 vehicles collided, the sharp pain in her leg, her mother’s scream followed by shouts of ‘I love you’ before darkness. Drying her face she shook her head and exited the bathroom, grabbing her bag she pulled on her Vans and left her room. She walked along the corridor of her flat and was met with the pungent smell of weed and tobacco, good old Cambridge she thought as she entered the shared kitchen. There was a menagerie of unwashed pots, pans and plates all around her. She opened the fridge to find all her milk gone, as well as her eggs and cheese, she sighed and turned to leave the flat; she’d just have to pick up something on the way.

Fortunately she lived on a ground floor flat in the Cambridge halls of Manchester Metropolitan University so stairs didn’t have to be tackled, also the perks of only having one leg enabled her to have a private bathroom. She exited the security gate, checking her watch she realised it was 9:15 giving her 45 minutes to make it to her induction lecture. This would be extremely hard for her to be late for as it was in the John Dalton a literal 5 minute walk, or 8 minute hobble, from where she currently was. She headed off towards All Saints park with her head down as all the excitable fresher’s charged past, she remembered when she was that optimistic and young. She reached the business school and headed to the automatic key swipe door, another perk of being disabled; no revolving doors! She was soon swarmed however as expected the revolving doors weren’t popular and everyone jumped at the opportunity to avoid them. After pushing her way through the crowd she crossed the business school’s ground floor and found herself at yet another revolving door, sighing she headed to the disabled access door and was swarmed again. After fighting her way through yet another crowd she found herself in a car park underneath Mancunian way; thankfully as she reached the John Dalton building there were no revolving doors in sight. She headed straight in and went to the refectory which was directly opposite the entrance she had used. Thankfully it wasn’t too busy in there, she headed straight over to the coffee machine and got herself a latte, upon turning around she caught someone’s shoulder sending her coffee flying onto the floor; and partially onto a young man’s shoes. She followed them up to find a smartly dressed guy, with green eyes and blond hair, he was clean shaven too, but he looked noticeably pissed off.

“I’m so sorry” Marie started to say, blushing slightly,

“Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable!” he replied curtly, “this is exactly why I didn’t want to be here, total and utter airheads wander around throwing coffee at you and being total hazards to your health.”

“Listen here pet.” Marie was not one to take insults lying down, it was the Geordie in her, “my coffee would have still been in my hand if you hadn’t walked into me, and honestly if I was throwing it on you, it would have ended up on your head. Have a good day. Prick” and with that she stepped over her coffee and headed toward her induction lecture, East building lecture room 32. Upon arriving at the room she found there was a lack of people, checking her watch again she saw it was only 9:25. Oh how 10 minutes could ruin her morning, it can only go up from here she thought to herself. Of course however she was damned to be wrong as half an hour later her little friend from the refectory came swaggering up the corridor and just shot her a look of disgust as he realised they were waiting for the same room.

Oh piss.