A Lone Wolf

coming of age

The morning of my eighteenth birthday dawned clear and bright. I woke up feeling rested and refreshed for the first time in a week, my dreams having been blessedly free of wolves since Thursday. It was still bugging me, still niggling at the back of my brain like an unscratched itch. I don't know why it bothered me so much, it was just a dream but something about it kept me on edge.

I lay for a moment, eyes closed, listening to the sparrows outside the window. With a sigh, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and glared at the wild woman staring back at me from my mirror. Damn my hair, it never cooperates. With a heavy sigh, I stretched out. There was going to be a lot of work to getting me presentable for our big night out later but first, breakfast.

I dragged a comb through my thick, wavy, chocolate hair and cinched my dressing-down cord. Taking a deep breath, I descended the stairs.

, almost having heart failure as my mother started loudly singing happy birthday in my face as I opened the door. Nobody deserved a voice like my mother; constantly at the volume of a pneumatic drill and operating at a pitch that makes dogs wince, she was utterly tone deaf but endearingly enthusiastic.

"Thanks mum" I said, theatrically inserting my finger into my ear and wiggling it around,

"Who needs eardrums anyway?"

She gave me a playful slap and I skittered into the bathroom, keen to avoid another rousing performance. Not being a morning person, birthdays were my idea of hell; at least this year she waited until I was awake; I shuddered briefly at the memory of my last birthday when she actually woke me up by singing it in my face, causing me to sit bolt upright and headbutt her in the process. Lesson obviously learned.

I mooched through to the dining room to grab myself a cup of tea.

"Do you want bacon?" Mum asked with a grin. I nodded sleepily. "Cheer up you old dragon, it's your birthday" she jeered. I rolled my eyes, my mother was worse in the morning than I was; the difference being that she would get up at the arsecrack of dawn to have her tea and toast undisturbed. Rule number one of the house, do not speak to mother before tea, toast and cigarette had been consumed, getting bitten was a real possibility otherwise.

"Damn you woman, is there any need for that unholy racket first thing in the morning?" Dad grumbled as he rounded the doorframe. "Put the fear of God in a man" he leaned down to kiss my cheek "happy birthday darling" he said as mum smacked his butt with a spatula, giving a satisfying thwack. He drew himself up to his full, impressive height and sauntered a little too casually towards the kettle, picking up the damp tea towel en route, he spun and flicked it with an almighty crack at my mother's rear end. She dropped the spatula and screamed before charging after him.

My dad, light on his feet as all big men are, made a run for it.

"Now now my little tarantula, just a bit of payback" he squealed as all five feet of blonde fury in a pink dressing gown barrelled at him. Realising that she had no weapon to hand she removed her slipper and repeatedly smacked him with it, much to his amusement.

She threw the slipper indignantly at the floor and slipped it on before huffing back to the bacon pan.

I quietly sipped my tea and watched the floor show.

"You lot are mental" my sister Amelia, looking like death in a housecoat emerged into the kitchen. Mascara trailing down her face and blonde hair sticking up at all angles, she grabbed the sugar puffs and flomped down.

"Hung?" I asked

"Like a Badgers behind" she nodded.

Mum passed me a crispy bacon sandwich which I covered in HP sauce before devouring it.

After breakfast was time for gifts and cards. I had a prodigiously large family so the mantel was quickly swamped with well wishes.

My sister had bought me a gorgeous pair of diamante court shoes; I kissed her, thrilled with the gift and sat smugly admiring the fabulous footwear as my mum handed me their gift. I slid my finger under the tape, the shimmering paper revealing a square, blue velvet box. I creaked the lid open to reveal a delicate charm bracelet, covered in sparkling trinkets. I gasped.

"It's white gold darling" she said " it was your grandmother's"

I heaved a sigh of relief and put the beautiful piece on for her to clip together with a light jingle.

"She was allergic to silver too" mum continued. "She made me promise to pass it to you when you turned eighteen so I've held on to it for you"

I studied the charms; anchors, trees, birds, a star... One thing caught my eye; there, hidden among the others was a tiny but detailed wolf with a yellow diamond eye. My skin prickled.

"Do you like it?" She asked

"I love it" I gasped.

"We added the anchor to remind you of home when you're away, and the scroll." Sure enough I found a little academic scroll with two little diamonds at each end. "Because you're the first in the family to go to university."

I felt tears prick at my eyes, my parents were never particularly showy or sentimental so the thoughtful gifts meant so much. They had also given me a generous sum to buy some clothes.

I hugged them both before going to get ready for shopping with my friends.

****

Nadine was waiting outside her door as my ancient orange ford sputtered down the road. She jumped in and we zoomed towards the town centre, both eager to find a new outfit for tonight's fun. We chattered maniacally about absolute nonsense the whole way there and it made me smile; I can't imagine leaving and not having the one person I can chat endless random shite to. A little ache of sadness niggled in the pit of my belly at the thought.

"So, Sabina is meeting us in the square at 12; we can grab a drink while we wait" Nadine smiled as she unfolded her gangly legs from my little car.

"Bit early for pre game isn't it?" I replied

"Naaah, you're only eighteen once and we'll have late lunch a bit later on, it's all good" she said; Nadine was always the planner and her plans were usually good.

We made our way to the town square, bright with early summer flowers and filled with fellow teenagers meeting for shopping. I mused that this must be our equivalent of 'the mall' in American teen movies; we made our way to Buster's and grabbed an outside table with a parasol, flomping

Down to wait for Sabina; who was habitually late.

"My round, I get to buy your first legal drink!" Nadine squealed "what you having?"

"It's early Nay..... I'll just have a pint of shandy please" I laughed at her pout but it really was too early for hitting the hard stuff. I sat, quietly enjoying the sunshine. Although I often moaned that my town was boring, it was very pretty and I knew I'd miss it; it was a fairly typical British seaside town, we spent most of the summer meeting up on the beach or lounging in the parks.

The sound of Nadine putting my glass on the metal table snapped me out of my reverie and I took a long gulp of the icy cold lager, savouring the refreshing coolness.

I spotted Sabina making her way towards us, stunning tanned figure encased in her typical boho style strappy sun dress and sighed; she was so gorgeous it was unfair sometimes. She plonked down in a chair with an unladylike thud.

" Sorry I'm late, I couldn't find anything to wear"

I rolled my eyes with a grin as she grabbed the bottle of cider Nadine had already bought for her.

"So, what's the plan?" She asked.

"Well, I was thinking if we start with the bottom and work our way up we should find something" I answered. " I need a frock but not shoes; Ammy bought me some stunners for my birthday so whatever I get needs to go with silver sparkle."

"Silver sparkle...noted" Nadine piped up taking a swallow of her wine. "I need a dress; I'm thinking something red." She mused

"I don't really need anything" Sabine said

"But you probably will anyway" I countered.

"Most likely" she sighed "you're a terrible influence, I'm supposed to be saving!"

We finished our drinks before standing and strutting down towards the bottom of town. As usual we were hampered by various catcalls and propositions. My mother thought we should take it as a compliment but it just ticked me off mostly. I wouldn't mind if it was sweet or polite but it wasn't, it was lechy and creepy... Like being eyed up as potential food.

We started in Bam-boogie at the bottom, looking carefully at the racks; all one off pieces brought up from London. My eye was caught by a flash of cobalt blue and I reached in to pull out a very short, strappy a line dress with a silver trim and a plunging neckline guaranteed to give my dad a conniption. I selected a few more pieces before we headed to the changing rooms.

"Oof" I heard Sabina grunt "why is it that these mirrors always make me look like the back end of a rhino? Don't they actually want to sell clothes?"

I giggled as she grumbled on with a few grunts and mutterings. I tried on a couple of the dresses but they were nothing special. I hung them back on their hangers before slipping the blue one over my head.

The slinky fabric flowed down over my body and clung to my curves as If it had been made just for me, flirtily skirting just above mid thigh on my petite five feet three inches; for once I was actually grateful to be small, this would be indecent on a taller girl. I admired my reflection; the shocking blue had really brought out the green in my hazel eyes, making them almost glow. Yes, this was the one.

As we paid for our purchases, I couldn't help but notice that the assistant's perfume was very strong; it burned my nose and tickled my throat making me hold my breath whilst I quickly gave her the money and skittered outside, taking an enormous lungful of relatively fresh air.

Sabina and Nadine followed and we linked arms to stride uptown towards the chain stores. We all managed to get something and I even found a beautiful pair of chandelier earrings to match the dress and my charm bracelet.

Sitting in the beer garden of the Green Dragon, we reviewed our haul as we slurped our ice cold beers in the gentle sunshine.

"So, what did you get?" Nadine squeaked " you didn't come out and show us!"

"No need," I replied, "I knew it was the one"

"Oooh I just love it when that happens" she said dreamily, "that feeling when you try it on and it's just perfect; hardly ever happens but nice when it does." I nodded with a mouthful of the cheesy chips we'd decided to share for lunch; tonight was likely to be a heavy one and we all needed to eat before we headed off to preen ourselves for the evening.

We made arrangements to meet at Sabina's house for pre drinks since she was the one most likely to be late, with plans to start at Gigi's for cocktails before heading to Notes for dancing. Our group tended to avoid the large clubs, preferring the 80s classics and cheese of the intimate dance bar which also attracted an older crowd and less trouble.

Finishing up our drinks, we walked slowly, arm in arm to where I had parked my dilapidated car and each headed home.