‘What happened, Linz?’ she whispered, no doubt hoping for something juicy.
‘Nothing really,’ I had to admit. ‘It just sort of reached an end. We weren’t going anywhere, so there didn’t seem much point in sticking together.’
Nicky didn’t mince her words. ‘Was it because he was a bit boring?’
‘He wasn’t boring!’ I protested. ‘He was just … well … normal.’
I felt I had to defend Dave; he was a genuinely nice bloke and he’d always been good to me in our years together. ‘Just because he wasn’t out on the town every night, clubbing and drinking, doesn’t mean he was boring.’
She snorted at me. ‘Ha! Maybe you’ve turned into him, Lindsey Fell. In fact, you were always in need of a bit of lightening up. You’re a bit too serious sometimes.’
Judging by her looks and gestures, my boss was making it clear that I needed to do some work, so I got Nicky booked in for her manicure, facial and everything else she could think of, swapped phone numbers, then went back to dealing with other clients. I had a smile on my face for the rest of the day, though; Nicky had always put me in a good mood, and I was glad she was back in my life.
As soon as I got home that night, the phone rang. ‘Lindsey?’ said Nicky on the other end. ‘I’ve not forgotten about you,’ she said, as if it had been much more than six hours since we last spoke. ‘This weekend you’re coming out with me and some mates. We’re going to get you enjoying yourself and meeting some lads; it’s time you had a decent social life.’ Nicky made it sound as though I was a nun, but my life wasn’t as quiet as that – just a lot calmer than hers. I had lots of friends, and I did go out a fair bit, but we weren’t wild. That just wasn’t in my nature.
I still lived with my mum, Pauline, and dad, Graham, in a house in the Leeds suburbs, the house we’d lived in since I was a baby. My big sister Tracy, who was five years older than me, had left home already. I’d been brought up in an environment where hard work and independence were thought of highly. My parents always had their own businesses, from an American-style car valeting service to a squash club, and, along with Tracy, I took all of that in from in an early age. I saw that if you were decent and worked hard, you could have a nice life. I knew that the holidays abroad and cars and house all came from the fact that my mum and dad were strong, committed people who did an honest day’s work and put their family first.
To be honest, I’d had an idyllic childhood. I loved, and was good at, gymnastics and swimming. I liked horse riding as well, and I always had Tracy there beside me whatever I was doing, so I never felt lonely. We weren’t spoiled – we were expected to do chores and be well-behaved – but Mum and Dad made sure we had a great time.
As I became a teenager, I never felt I had anything to rebel against, because I was really happy. Lots of people at school complained about their parents or home life, but I adored my family. Why would I want to do anything to hurt them? Besides, I didn’t have the personality for rebellion. I liked things to be straightforward, predictable even, and it was that side of me that Nicky seemed determined to change.
That weekend, we hit Leeds. I was a bit nervous while I was getting ready. I remembered Nicky and her friends from college and they were so colourful and lively that I wondered whether I would fit in. I put on a pair of black trousers and a plain black top and left to meet them in town. It was a cold, wet night, but when I got there, they were all skimpily dressed as if it was the middle of summer.
‘Going for a job interview later, Linz?’ joked Nicky good-naturedly as soon as she saw my outfit. ‘You’re not exactly dazzling there, are you? I’m going to have my work cut out with you; come on, let’s have a decent night for starters.’ And we did.
It was the first of quite a few, as Nicky and I realized how well we got on. Every weekend we hit the clubs and bars, and Nicky always seemed to know where there was a party going on. After being quite nervous that first night, I started to enjoy myself. This group of girls always had a laugh; they chatted up lads and got plenty of attention, but they stuck together as well. Sometimes there were a few blokes in the gang – boyfriends or brothers or just friends – but it tended to be the girls who organized everything, and who made the most impact.
I fitted in much better than I’d expected, to tell the truth. Maybe at first I was a little resistant (perhaps I was just worried about spending too much money), but I loosened up pretty quickly after my initial reservations – you couldn’t help do anything else when Nicky was around. After so many years with Dave, I was finally having the social life most other girls had been getting on with for a long time. Once Nicky came back into my life, she shook me up. She showed me how to be young and have a good time, and that was just what I needed.
She lived at home with her Mum on a council estate in Leeds, and most of their relatives seemed to have houses there as well. Nicky worked at another salon in the city centre, where she did really well with tips as the customers loved her personality, so she always had a bit of cash. We were completely different when it came to money. While Nicky was the type to spend her wages all in one go at the end of the week, I had my savings and I just couldn’t bring myself to spend a fortune on clothes. Maybe the financial stability I’d learned from my parents made me that way; although they encouraged an entrepreneurial attitude, they also made sure that any risks were measured ones. I’d built up a little safety net for myself but spending £100 on a t-shirt, as Nicky would be quite happy to do, was way outside my comfort zone.
One Friday afternoon about a month after we’d met up again, Nicky popped into my work to confirm the arrangements for a new club that we were going to that night. ‘We still on?’ she checked. ‘Course we are,’ I replied. ‘What are you wearing tonight?’ she asked. I told her that I hadn’t even thought about it, which was something Nicky couldn’t begin to understand. ‘Lindsey! That is why you always end up looking like you’re going to a funeral! You’ve got a gorgeous figure – why don’t you show it off a bit for once?’ That was a touchy subject for me. I was about 5 foot 4 inches and a size 8, but I’d always worried that I had a really big chest, so I tended to dress sensibly to cover myself up. ‘I’m too self-conscious about my boobs. I don’t want drunken men leering at me all night,’ I told her. Predictably, she said, ‘Show everyone what you’ve got, Linz. It’s not your problem, it’s theirs. Anyway, there’s loads of us going tonight, so we can always protect you.’ She mentioned the names of a few of the girls’ current boyfriends before adding, ‘And my little cousin Paul is going to drive us there – we’ll save taxi money if he’s driving, and we can always get him to be your bodyguard too.’ With that, and a reminder to get to her house early so we could do each other’s make-up, she left.
I got through my appointments that day – mostly nail extensions, which were starting to be very popular for the weekend and weddings – and thought that maybe Nicky was right, maybe I should dress a bit more like the rest of them. So that night, I took a sheer black top from my wardrobe and, instead of slipping a black t-shirt on underneath, I just wore a black bra. I was hardly half-naked, but to me, the outfit seemed pretty revealing.
I left my car at Nicky’s house – I’d never even think of driving after a drink – and she clattered down the hall as soon as she heard me, tottering on heels she could barely walk in and poured into a top that she’d probably spent a fortune on earlier that day.
‘God, Linz,’ she said, pulling at my top, ‘I can almost see a bit of flesh under there! You sure you’re feeling all right?’ Laughing, we went to her room to put the finishing touches to each other’s make-up. I felt really happy that night – Nicky had given me a bit of confidence as she had dragged me to clubs and parties and shops over the past weeks, and it had definitely been for the best.
That night, another night out in town, promised to be a good one. We heard the front door downstairs slam as we were getting our bags ready, and Nicky’s mum shouted. ‘Nicky! Our Paul’s here. You girls ready to go?’