Hazelwood 1

Meet Hazel, its just another Saturday morning.

 

The sun steamed in through the kitchen window.  Hazel screwed up her eyes as her pupils took time to adjust to the dramatic change in light.  The clock on the wall above the cooker was at 9.30, Hazel smiled; she loved Saturday.

 

She removed the orange juice cartoon from the fridge door and poured herself a glass and sat down at the breakfast bar.  The kitchen was small, but for the most part the surfaces were tidy if a little crowded and there weren’t heaps of dirty dishes everywhere; which was a great improvement on Bills’ flat.  The breakfast bar however, failed to keep up the pretence of an organised home.  From time to time one of them organised the paper into piles, by subject or sometimes just size; they’d even bought a pin board for the wall, but all that had happened was the development of a paper forest than was no more organised than the table.

 

Hazel cleared a space for her glass and extracted yesterday’s paper from under a pile of notepads and flyers.  Attached to the front page obscuring the headline was a yellow post-it note.  The perfectly formed black lettering read: Nipped out to an art exhibition, hope you had a goodnight.  Love Jenny. Xxx.

 

Jenny was Hazel’s flat mate.  She was 26, tall skinny with long straight dark blonde hair and a smile to lift anyone spirits.  Jenny had stayed here as a student with her housemate at the time Clare, who happened to be good friend of Hazel’s from school.  So when Clare was moving out and Hazel was looking for somewhere to stay this had been the obvious solution.  It had worked well, Jenny was a joy to live with, well house trained with an infectious sense of humour.

 

Buzz, buzz. Buzz, buzz.

Returning to her kitchen from the day dream, Hazel stretched over to the worktop and examined her mobile: New Message – Bill.

“Thanks for coming over last night.  Great to have an adult conversation. You free for lunch? B.”

 

She smiled and hit reply.

“No worries, always good2cu.  Jst up bt suspect I can b human by lunchtime.  U want2call in? Hazel”

 

Bill had studied Biology at University in Newcastle, and then moved south to Tuesford to do his PGC.  Which was when Hazel met him; during one of her many trips to visit Clare.  So much of this city and her life reminded her of Clare.  So that night she had gone with Clare and Jenny to see Clare’s boyfriend, James, and his band playing an open mic night.  James played piano and sang, Bill played drums and their other house mate, Tom, played guitar.  Jenny had flirted outrageously with every person in the pub from the moment they set foot and hadn’t been seen for at least an hour; though this was not unusal Jenny behaviour then or indeed now.  Clare and James made a lovely couple but there was only so much of “being the third person” that Hazel could cope with so she’d decided to lend Bill a hand packing away the drums.

“Drummers are always the last to leave.” She said lightheartedly as she peered round the side of the splash cymbal.

Bill had looked up slightly bemused from his position on the floor behind the base drum. “Hi.” Despite his bemusment Bill sounded genuinely pleased to see her, despite having no idea who she was.

“Hi,” Said Hazel returning his smile, and taking a side step from the cymbal. “I’m a friend of Clare’s, James’s girlfriend.  Wondered if you wanted a hand?”

“I know Clare too, difficult not too when you live with James.” He grinned.

Hazel smiled, she remembered why she’d left the couple minutes before; of course Bill knew who Clare was.

 

Since then James and Clare had got engaged and moved in together which is how Hazel ended up living with Jenny.  Things unfortunately, hadn’t turned out so well for Bill.  On the plus side he’d graduated, started his first job at a local primary school and bought his own place.  The downside was that he’d also just split from his girlfriend of 4 years, and the band was no longer in existance; he felt pretty alone.

 

Buzz, buzz. Buzz, buzz.

New Message – Bill.

“Sounds great, 1ish?B.”

 

Author's Note

Hi all, this is my first real piece of fiction. I am hoping to expand it to a full story maybe even a novel if me or it are good enough. All comments greatly appreciated. I'm a bit new to this game.

Reviews

[Samuel Dickens]

I think I see some very good potential here, Emma--in regards to both the story and you're talent at writing. I can make constructive comments of a specific nature if you'd like, but only if you ask me to.