A kind of ‘missing scene’ from the end of 2x01. What happened when Kayleigh went into the house after finding out John had listened to the CD…
Kayleigh walked into the house, still grinning like a Cheshire cat. John had read her note, and he’d listened to the song, listened to the words. She was on top of the world as she kicked off her shoes and shrugged out of her work coat, hanging it on the coat peg by the door, the one Mandy had cleared to make room for her. The muffled sounds of the Corrie theme ending made Kayleigh check her watch; she was shocked to see it was already 8pm. The coffee and chat with John after work must have lasted a lot longer than she’d realised. And then of course he’d got talking to Steve, and Steve was a difficult person to shut up once he’d started on about his bikes.
“Hiya, Mandy!” Kayleigh shouted, quickly passing the living room on her way to the fridge.
She’d not eaten since her last break at work, and she was starving – which is why she had no hesitation in rifling through the packed lunch snack shelf and grabbing a couple of Cheestrings.
Just as she was closing the fridge, Steve walked in through the front door, wiping bike grease from his hands onto an old cloth already covered with grease. Kayleigh made a face as he walked into the kitchen and over to the sink to wash his hands, and he laughed.
She broke off a bit of Cheestring and put it in her mouth, pretending not to notice her brother in law’s shit-eating grin. She knew exactly where this was going.
“Nice to finally meet him, that’s all.” Steve chuckled.
“Meet who?” Mandy asked, choosing that exact moment to enter the kitchen. Kayleigh rolled her eyes at her sister’s impeccable timing.
“Our Kayleigh’s fella,” Steve grinned and nudged his wife who’d come to lean against the counter next to him, opposite the one Kayleigh was currently leaning against. She felt like she was in an interrogation room in this position.
Mandy gasped. “John? The John?”
Kayleigh looked down, concentrating entirely too hard on her snack as she felt her face getting warmer. She tried to hide her smile but all this talk of John was making her think even more about their little moment outside the house, and it was impossible to get him out of her head.
“The same John she was glued to her phone texting all weekend so she barely lifted a box into the house?” Mandy teased, after noticing her big sister wasn’t taking their teasing to heart – if anything, she seemed to be happy about it.
“That’s the one,” Steve replied.
Kayleigh laughed, shaking her head at Mandy and Steve as they stood there grinning at her all too knowingly.
“Oi, you know I nearly put me back out carrying most of those boxes upstairs, cheeky cow,” Kayleigh giggled, deciding to make a beeline for the door.
In this mood, Mandy and Steve would be taking the piss all night and she wanted to be as far away from them as she possibly could be in the overcrowded house. Not that she minded. Talking about John was a poor substitute for being able to talk to him, but it would do until he picked her up again in the morning.
“Should’ve got your fella to come and give us a hand,” Steve chipped in, as she walked out of the kitchen.
“He would’ve actually, Steve, but he was looking after his niece and nephew.”
“So he is your fella then?” Mandy called after her as she reached the stairs.
“You’re just talking silly, now. Both of you need to grow up,” Kayleigh shouted through her laughter, still unable to wipe the smile off her face as she practically skipped upstairs to her room.
It was a few hours later and the sun had finally set at around 10pm. Kayleigh was in bed, thin curtains drawn tightly over the window, although they were doing little to hide the glow of the streetlight outside.
The light from her laptop illuminated her small bedroom as she put Now 48 into the CD slot and plugged in her headphones. She skipped straight to track 2 and picked up her phone, bringing up her and John’s text message thread on her screen.
Do me a favour, she typed, and hit send.
His reply came a couple of minutes later and she giggled as she read it. What’s up, have you run out of Quality Street tins?
Funny. Next time when I tell you not to make eye contact with Steve, take my advice. He still hasn’t shut up about you, she wrote.
She’d gone down to make a sandwich about half an hour ago, much to the delight of Mandy and Steve who were sat together on the couch in the living room with another deluge of one liners they must’ve spent the evening preparing. Kayleigh had rolled her eyes and quickly made her way back to her room, sandwich in hand.
Oh aye, what’s he been saying? She smiled at his choice of slang.
It was almost like she could hear his voice through his messages, like he was right there next to her, and she’d only have to turn her head to see his face. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment, wondering if it was normal to miss someone after only a few hours apart, or if she was genuinely losing her mind.
Never you mind, she eventually replied.
She fell asleep to the music from her Now 48 CD without waiting for a reply.
Morning came all too quickly, and although John hadn’t replied to her text from last night, when she got into the Fiat all smiles and full of hope, she was pleased to see he also had a newfound twinkle in his eye.
She beamed at him and he returned her smile with one of his own as she reached over to turn up the radio, the little red car pulling away from the curb as Mr Blue Sky started playing, casting a deliriously happy glow on the pair as they began their journey to work.
kaledo-art
izzy806
gummygunk
areudirty
