You Can Do This

‘I’m not going and you can’t make me,’ said Maisie.

‘I can’t, but you are,’ Aoife batted back.

Maisie and Aoife had been salt and pepper since before they could walk. Salt and pepper; fish and chips; Bonnie and Clyde; Batman and Robin. Maybe not the last one. Whatever happened to Robin? They’d been thick as thieves; partners in crime. In short, inseparable.

So, when Aoife declared she was off to travel the world as a flight attendant instead of going to university with Maisie like they’d always planned, Maisie was lost.

‘Nope, I’m coming with you,’ Maisie declared.

‘You’re terrified of flying.’

‘I’ll suck it up.’

‘You hate people.’

‘I’ll suck it up.’

‘You vomit if the school bus gets into fourth gear.’

‘I’ll. Suck. It. Up.

‘The applications closed last month, it’s too late. How about you just suck it up and go to Cambridge instead? What was the point in getting all those As if not?’

‘I can’t believe you’ve done this to me,’ Maisie sighed.

‘I’m not going to apologise again,’ Aoife smiled back.

Maisie wasn’t really mad at Aoife. Well, she was. She was livid. But she understood so it wasn’t ‘mad’ mad. Y’know?

‘I could work at the airport. What do they call it, ground crew? At least then we could hang out whenever you get back to Manchester.’

‘I’m going to be based in Dubai. You know this.’

‘I could…’

‘You get sunburn if you walk past a reading lamp.’

The two friends sat in silence while Aoife waited for Maisie to launch another weak argument for her to swat away. None came.

‘Look, you can do this.’ Aoife took the lead. ‘You’ll make new friends. You’ll learn about living away from home. You’ll get away from that mother of yours. You’ll meet boys! You’ll have an amazing time and then you’ll get to be a vet with your own practice and fo…’

‘Four dogs, three cats, seven gerbils, a duck, a goat, and two alpacas.’ Maisie finished the much-chanted list before her friend could. ‘Yeah,’ Maisie continued, ‘but I haven’t made a friend since year two and we both know how I feel about southern boys.’

‘Is that all you’ve got?’ Aoife knew she was winning. She knew she would. She always did.

Maisie exhaled in a pout.

‘Listen, Maize, you’re the smartest person I know and you’re the best person I know. Sure, it’s scary, but everything is scary. You can do this.’

SLAP!

The two girls’ school canteen chat was interrupted by the thick palm of Kirsty Macintosh hitting the table between them, narrowly missing the milkshake they were sharing. A pair of Kirsty’s minions lurked in her shadow.

‘And what are you two nerds talking about?’ Kirsty spat. ‘How much you love books? How much you wish you could marry them?’

‘Kirsty, we’re 17 years old and nobody has spoken like that since Back to the Future,’ sighed Aoife.

‘Back to the what?’ yelled Kirsty, balling her fingers into a fist.

‘What do you want, Kirsty?’ Aoife sighed again.

‘We’re doing a survey. Seeing what everyone is doing when they get out of this place. What are you doing? Libraries or something?’

‘I’m going to be a flight attendant,’ Aoife braced herself as the words came out. There was a pause while Kirsty processed the information followed by the sort of laughter you spit out when you’re trying to make an ugly point.

‘You can’t do that.’

Aoife started to form the word why but Kirsty wasn’t waiting.

‘You’re ugly for a start.’

The best reaction is no reaction, Aoife and Maisie both knew this well by now.

‘And you’re too short.’

Stick to the plan.

‘And then there’s that!’ Kirsty pointed.

‘What?’ Aoife couldn’t hold it in.

‘That!’ Kirsty was pointing at Aoife’s left leg.

‘What?’

‘You’ve only got one leg, dickhead!’ There was a moment of silence and then, ‘OW!’ Kirsty looked down to see Maisie raising her left hand ready to stab down a second time with her fountain pen. ‘You stabbed me?’ Psycho! Why the hell did you stab me?’

Maisie was calm. Zen calm.

‘Aoife is going to be a flight attendant,’ she spoke to Kirsty with unquestionable authority. She’s going to be a flight attendant and she’s going to see the world and she’s going to be amazing at it. She’s going to have an amazing life and you’re going to… actually, I don’t care what you’re going to do after about five seconds once you’ve shut up, apologised, and gone to find the school nurse so that hand doesn’t get infected. Or don’t do that last bit. I don’t care.’

Kirsty held her hand to her mouth, sucking up the blood as it seeped out onto her skin.

‘I’m not apolog…’

Maisie rose to her feet pushing the wooden chair out behind her with a scrape. Her eyes were focused on Kirsty and her expression completely blank. She held her pen like a prison chiv. The only thing that betrayed her emotion was the reddening around her knuckles as she gripped the pen’s shaft too tightly.

‘Okay, okay,’ Kirsty hastened. ‘I’m sorry. It was just jokes. I’m sorry, okay?’

Maisie remained standing.

‘I’m sorry, jeez,’ Kirsty said once more before leaving, her two hovering friends in tow.

Maisie sat down.

Aoife said nothing. She just raised her eyebrows at her friend and waited.

‘Fine,’ Maisie resigned. ‘I’ll go to Cambridge. But you better come back and visit me!’

‘Obviously.’

The two girls leant into their straws and sucked on their now room temperature milkshake.

As they sat back, both friends were laughing.

‘I can’t believe you stabbed her. Psycho…’