O.O AN UPDATE? Alert the press. Chapter 3

The constant ringing of the phone rang through the house. There was no other sound except that of the phone. Sophie lay on her spread eagle on her back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. The phone rang again twice, and then the answer phone kicked in.

“Hello, this is Mauve and Sophie, we are sorry but neither of us are able to answer the phone at the moment. If you’d like to leave us a message, we’ll be sure to get back to you as soon as we can. Ta ta now” The phone beeped and the voice of Sophie’s grandmother’s best friend came out on the loudspeaker.

It was just a buzz to Sophie though. She had not heard her gran’s voice in nearly a month. Not since she became so ill, she couldn’t speak. It was terrifying. She knew it was the recorder on the answer phone, but it was like she was just downstairs.

The answer phone beeped again and she knew the message had ended.

Sophie sat up and scrubbed her face with her hands. The clock on the wall chimed for two o’clock. She was still unwashed and in her pyjamas.
“A respectable young lady never stays in her night clothes after nine o’clock, and even that is pushing it.” Her grandmother would say.

Sophie shook her head.

“You’re not here any more, gran. You can’t tell me what to do now.” She said out loud.

She stood up and went out into the landing, and contemplated on whether or not she would go and have a wash or go downstairs and have breakfast in front of the television.

“To the kitchen it is.” She muttered as she trudged down the stairs.

Sophie had been sat in front of the television for nigh on two hours when some one started hammering on her door.

“Sophie! Sophie, open up hon. It’s us!” one voice said.

“Oh yeah it’s obvious who “us” is, isn’t Anna?” said another deeper voice.

“Well, yes. It is. We have been friends for what, ten years? I think she can tell our voices apart by now, Johnny.” Anna hissed scathingly.

“Oh, some one’s got their thong stuck up their arse this afternoon, eh?” John hissed back.

“Oh shut up.”

"You!”

Sophie swung the door open,

“How about both of you shut up and come in?” she said with a fake smile.

The pair smiled sheepishly before crossing the threshold into Sophie’s house.

They went into the living room, where there were several empty food containers scattered about.

“So, Sophie, we decided we would help you.” John declared.

Sophie’s face contorted into a confused expression.

“In what way?” she asked.

Anna smiled and put her hands on Sophie’s upper arms and said

“ We know it’s got to be very difficult for you at the moment, what with your grandma having just died, and you’re all alone, and you need to clear the hou-”

“Er, what Anna is trying to say is, we’re here to help you sort out what’s what.” John cut in.

Sophie nodded slowly, with a slight from on her face.

“Guys, I really appreciate it, but I just think it’s too early to start clearing out the house, you know? It’s not been two days, and I haven’t started even thinking about the funeral and,” it was at this point that she stopped talking and blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall, “And I really just need to, to sit down, actually.”

Anna made a sympathetic noise and sat down next to her, wrapping her arms around her friend’s small shoulders.

Sophie lent into Anna appreciatively.

“I’m so sorry! I should be getting on, but it’s just, it’s like I don’t realise it yet, that she’s gone! But I do, and it’s like, what am I going to do? I’m sixteen years old, I work in a supermarket and I’m about to do my AS’s. I don’t know where I’m going to live because I won’t be able to afford the mortgage on this place! I can’t take out a loan because I’m not of age, Gran could barely afford it and she had three loans, on top of her pension and-”

“Hey! Calm down. Just- breathe. Okay?” Anna said gently.

A box of Kleenex appeared in front of their faces.

Anna gave John a disbelieving look and he slowly retracted his arm with an awkward look on his face.

“Okay, so, Soph. Why don’t you go upstairs, have a wash and then come back down here and we can decide what we’re going to do, eh?” Anna asked with a slight smile on her face.

Sophie closed her eyes and nodded slowly.

“Yeah. Yeah I’ll- I’ll do that. Yeah.” She said quietly as she stood up from the sofa.

She walked through the door and towards the stairs, and she could hear Anna and John talking quietly.

“God John, could you be any more stupid?” Anna scolded.

“What the hell did I do?” john spluttered in reply

“Oh you know very well what you did!” Anna hissed

“Well if I bloody well knew what I bloody well did then I wouldn’t bloody well be asking now, would I? Bloody hell!” John cursed.

Sophie shook her head and smiled slightly. Her friends were always able to bring a smile to her face.