Downshire is a
relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in,
a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of
Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the
Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the
beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the
Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light
infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in
the north but our story takes place in the southern town off Abbottsford which
was the biggest in Downshire, its administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire
government.
It was also a place of
learning thanks to the Downshire University and was a Cathedral City and was also home to Abbottsford Town football club.
Abbottsford was also
the location of the 10th annual Mardi Gras Carnival which was
growing in popularity and getting bigger every year and ran along a five-mile
route around the town and had even surpassed the popularity of its biggest
rival in Downshire, the Sharpington Day Parade.
Even though
Sharpington had the benefit of holding theirs on the August Bank Holiday.
Like Sharpington the
parade was predominantly a means of raising money for good causes, but it was
also a way for local business and commerce to promote themselves, also social
and cultural minorities used it great effect, as well as environment groups,
political parties, the emergency services and of course the Gay and Lesbian
community were a big presence, and the Arts were well represented.
It was a very busy and
very noisy event and was well attended with all the schools and colleges in the
county closed for the day, and a large number of pupils and students converged
on the City for the big event.
Two of the second-year
college students from Northchapel were among them.
They were lifelong
friends, Kristine Perrin and Lily Parsons, Krissy was the eldest by two weeks
and was a very slim, very pretty girl
with dark brown pixie cut hair, while Lily was a small skinny girl with
long curly chestnut hair.
Neither of them had
particularly happy home lives so they were naturally drawn together from an
early age.
So, they did
everything together and were seldom ever home as they were always off on some
adventure or other.
In fact, they spent
all their spare time together and they also worked together evenings and
weekends at Stephenson’s Supermarket.
Most of their
adventurous escapades were during the holidays and they chalked up a lot of
happy times and their friendship was their most precious possession and they
loved each other, and they complimented each other.
Although there were similarities between them, they were both pretty for
a start, their likes and dislikes, their sense of humour, but really, as individuals they couldn’t be more different.
Kristine had no fear whereas, Lily would tremble in the shadows on her
own.
Krissy was an extrovert, confident, self-assured and brave, though not
cocky in any way.
Lily on the other hand, was shy and she lacked self-confidence but being
with Krissy made her feel more confident, daring to do things she would never
have done alone, such as spending the night in Abbottsford.
Because Parade day was
so busy they got the bus over the night before, so they could get a prime spot
for the parade, however their finances wouldn’t stretch to them staying
somewhere so they planned on roughing it and had sleeping bags in their
backpacks.
Unlike previous
adventures, which were normally meticulously planned, they had no idea when
they stepped off the bus, quite where they were going to get their heads down,
somewhere safe, Krissy would make sure of that, she was very protective towards
Lily, because the love that she felt for her skinny little friend was not
restricted to mere friendship, but she was resigned to the fact that she would
probably never speak to Lily about the unquenchable love she felt for her.
Because the confident
bubbly Krissy was holding back, not because she didn’t want more from their
relationship, her problem was fear, and she was afraid that if she told Lily
how she felt, and she didn’t feel the same it would ruin the perfect friendship
that they had and create an awkwardness between them.
The time she spent
with Lily was so precious to her that she wasn’t prepared to do anything to
jeopardize it, after all their special friendship was better than nothing and
that had been her opinion for the three long years since she first admitted to
herself that she was in love with a girl, and her best friend to boot.
So, she chose to
remain silent and patiently waited for Lily to fall for her.
Because they had no
plan as such they had to dress for the worst-case scenario, so because of the
time of year warm clothes were essential, nothing pretty, feminine or girlie.
Wrapped up warm they
wandered around Abbottsford for about an hour and after a meal at a Burger Bar
they carried on exploring until they found a large number of floats parked in
the Football Stadium car parks and after closer inspection discovered there was
only the scantest security.
“Guess where we’re
sleeping tonight” Krissy said
They sneaked into the
car park and looked for a suitable float that would suit their needs and after
about 15 minutes they found it.
On
either side of the float, there were large LED screens mounted that would play
goal highlights during the parade while Abbottsford Town players would wave to
the crowd from the platform below.
They
were going to sleep on the platform and began unpacking their bags, but then
they heard someone approach, so they had to hide until the security guard
passed by.
After
the coast was clear they emerged from their hiding place and Lily said
“Where
are we going to go now?”
“Up
there” Krissy replied and pointed upwards because behind the
LED screens was a large void which would more than suit their purpose by hiding
them from prying eyes.
Krissy climbed up onto
the cab, and Lily handed the bags up and then Krissy took her hand and pulled
her up, then they repeated the process until they dropped down into the void
behind the screens and then she turned on a torch to check out their
surroundings
“This will do nicely” Krissy
pronounced “They won’t find us up here”
And then she shone the
light on Lily and noticed she was dancing a little jig in the darkness.
“What are you doing?”
she asked, “why are you dancing?”
“Sorry Krissy but I
can’t help it” she said very childlike “It’s exciting”
Krissy’s heart melted
anew
“You’ll do nicely too”
she thought to herself and then she heard herself saying out loud
“I really love you
Lily”
As she made the
declaration she still had the light on her, but she didn’t react she just
continued her jig, but just to be on the safe side she decided to focus her
mind on something else.
“Let’s get the
sleeping bags out, it’s getting late”
“Ok” Lily complied
As they lay side by
side in their sleeping bags Krissy was satisfied that she had got away with her
declaration, either Lily missed her meaning, or she was pretending in order to
spare her feelings.
She smiled to herself
in the semi darkness of the moonlit night as she recalled how wonderful it felt
to say out loud
“I really love you
Lily”
Nonetheless she
pledged never to say it again, but she would never forget how sweet it felt.
She had been in her
sleeping bag for half an hour and was still awake, partly due to thoughts of
Lily but equally so because it was colder than they had anticipated and five
minutes later Lily called quietly
“Krissy?”
“Yes babe”
“I’m cold” Lily
replied
“Me too” she retorted
and unzipped her sleeping bag
“Get in with me and
we’ll keep each other warm”
“Cool” she said
accompanied by the sound of her unzipping herself, then she quickly slipped in
beside Krissy.
Fortunately, the two
girls were skinny Minnie’s, so they had plenty of room to zip themselves in
with Lily’s sleeping bag draped over them like a duvet they soon began to warm
up, despite the fact that Lily was a fidget and wouldn’t stay still
“You’re such a wriggle
arse” Krissy said and laughed
“Sorry” Lily said but
didn’t stop her squirming until they were nose to nose.
“I love you too by the
way” she added which was when Krissy leant towards her and kissed her and more
to the point she kissed her back.
When their lips parted
they looked at each other in the moonlight and almost telepathically
communicated that they wanted to do that again, so they did.
It was a wonderful
kiss, and as perfect as they had imagined, not that they had anything to
benchmark it against, as it was the first time either of them had been kissed
and having that first kiss with the person they loved made it even more perfect
and wonderful.
“I’ve wanted to do
that for so long” Lily said as they cuddled together in the post kiss bliss.
“You have?”
“Yes, but I didn’t
think we ever would” she explained “But then you said you loved me, but the way
you said it I didn’t think you meant you loved me like a sister or a friend, so
I decided to take a chance”
“I’m glad you did” Krissy
said “I was too scared”
“But you’re the
confident one, brave and fearless, I’m the wimp whose afraid of her own shadow”
Lily pointed out “You’re not allowed to be scared of me”
“I was afraid of
scaring you away” Krissy said
“You’ll never get rid
of me” Lily reassured her, and they kissed again, then she wriggled onto her
side with her back to Krissy and said over her shoulder
“Now hold me in your
safe strong arms”
“Anything you say
bossy knickers” Krissy responded as she complied, and they spooned and were so
comfortable they didn’t move again until morning.
The contented couple
slept soundly in the sleeping bag all night and when Krissy woke up the float
was moving.
“Wake up Lily” she
said
“What?” she said
sleepily
“Wake up” she said
“We’re on the move”
“What! Why what time
is it?” Lily retorted
“Late” Krissy retorted
“That was the best
sleep I’ve ever had” Lily said and turned over, so she was facing her
“It was nice wasn’t
it” Krissy agreed “but we need to get moving”
“No, we need to have
our good morning kiss first” Lily pointed out
“You’re being very
assertive for a wimp” Krissy said
“Yes, I am so pucker
up”
“I love you Lily” she
sighed and a second later they were kissing and when it was over Lily said
“I love you too”
Five minutes later Krissy
reminded her that it was time to get moving so they wriggled free of the
sleeping bag and packed their stuff away in the back packs, just in case they
needed to make a quick getaway and then stopped to eat the sandwiches they
bought the night before and to have a drink.
With breakfast done
and the bag packed Lily rushed into the
corner of the void and leant over so she could see the spectators.
“We’re just coming up
to the Phoenix Centre, we’ve missed half the parade” Lily said and giggled
“I don’t know why you’re
so happy about it” Krissy said “We missed half of what we came for”
“Oh, I got what I came
for” Lily retorted as she glanced coyly over her shoulder
Krissy was behind her
and buried her face in the crook of her
neck and kissed her soft skin.
“Cuddle me from behind
so I can watch the crowd as you hold me” she urged
“You do know that they
won’t be cheering you babe” he pointed out
“I think you’ll find
that they are” she replied “Because they’re happy that I’ve got a girlfriend.
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