[sup][h1][center][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/682fde7775ad.png[/img][/center][/h1][/sup][indent][sub][COLOR=969fab][B]LOCATION[/B][color=969fab].[/color][/COLOR] [I]Ashington, UK[/I] [I][/I][/sub][sup][right][COLOR=969fab][b]003[/b][/COLOR][color=969fab].[/color] [I]The Fighter[/I][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][sub][color=969fab][B]INTERACTIONS [/B][color=969fab].[/color][/COLOR] [I]Amy Fenwick, Eilidh Vass[/I][/sub][/indent]

[indent][color=silver]
It had already been a long morning and Hayden Fenwick sat behind the wheel of his BMW and let the engine idle away. Snow continually collected against the kerb and all of its grey had disappeared now beneath a silver dusting. He waited there for a while, tapping his foot and tapping his fingers; passing chewing gum from one side of his mouth to the other. It was a great effort to not to think about the time between now and his flight. He was [i]really[/i] trying not to think about how he’d already been sat for fifteen minutes past the agreed time. If he went inside then it would be a cup of tea and a biscuit. Amy would realise she didn’t have this or that. Amy would offer another brew. The kids would act up and get excited. No. No, it was safer to hold it out in the car. At least the seats were heated and were keeping his arse warm. The sound of a front door closing finally stirred him to life and his sister began shuffling precariously down her driveway bundled in North Face with blonde hair piled high in a bun. Her house keys dangled and clinked and jangled from her manicured hand. Even in the snow, she wore slides on her feet - only with a pair of outrageous neon pink fluffy socks. She was the very picture of someone stuck in the twilight zone and black hole of time between Christmas and New Years. All comfort and not giving a shit. Hayden was surprised she wasn't still wearing pyjamas until he realised he couldn't confirm that she wasn't under her puffer jacket. He decided that she looked like the Stay-Puft Marshmallow and also knew to keep that observation to himself and so fought against his own growing, childish smirk. 

Amy offered a wave that Hayden recognised as being sarcastic to a neighbour who had popped their head out of the door to watch the SUV on the driveway. [color=ebb9e0]“God she’s a nosy cow,”[/color] Amy said under a breath as she closed the passenger door and sat down. [color=ebb9e0]“Morning pet, ready for New York?”[/color] she then asked, changing the subject and glancing at Hayden with a smile. Pleasant as always; [i]on the surface[/i]. He returned her smile with his own and instinctively popped the centre console to reveal a bag of skittles, assorted haribo, and more of the chewing gum. [color=ebb9e0]“Ahhhh cheers,”[/color] she said with a brisk exhale. [color=ebb9e0]“Bloody cold out today mind.”[/color] She helped herself.

[COLOR=969fab]“D’yna what?”[/color] Hayden sighed, turning the wheel to begin driving away. [COLOR=969fab]“When someone offers to drive the other to the airport, that usually means they’ll drive.”[/color]

[color=ebb9e0]“Aye I know,”[/color] Amy clipped back. [color=ebb9e0]“I like it when you drive though. I just get to pick the tunes.”[/color] She slid off her footwear and tucked one foot under her leg and pulled out her phone, connecting it to the bluetooth absently. He rolled his eyes but there was no malice, this was just how it was. His sisters walked all over him and he let them.

In the drive to the airport, the pair conversed as they often did; mostly about menial things and occasionally breaking between if a song was played that required a moment of tuneless singing. When they had arrived, only Hayden got out of the car, collecting a holdall from the backseat and a shorter wheeled suitcase. Amy was busying herself picking the dinosaurs out of the Tangfastics before she climbed out of the car; slides slid back on. [COLOR=969fab]“You not coming in with us like?”[/color] Hayden asked with a false incredulousness. He knew she wasn’t.

[color=ebb9e0]“No! Parkings like twenty quid for half an hour,”[/color] she said as she wrapped her arms around him. He might have towered over her but she squeezed him tight. [color=ebb9e0]“Fly safe,”[/color] she muffled into his shoulder. As they pulled apart she glanced off to the side and then back to him. [color=ebb9e0]“I don’t suppose you’ve got a couple of quid?”[/color] He knew she would ask and as he pulled out and unfolded his wallet her hawk eye spied a crisp fifty note. [color=ebb9e0]“Oh that’ll do, if you haven’t got any change,”[/color] she said.

He rolled his eyes. He didn’t mind. [COLOR=969fab]“It was just Christmas Amz, I just got you that bloody Apple Watch and about skinted myself on everything.”[/color]

[color=ebb9e0]“Aye aye,”[/color] she said with a smile. The note found its way to sitting in between her fingers. [color=ebb9e0]“I just need a treat. I’ll use it to put fuel in the car.”[/color]

[COLOR=969fab]“It’s my car,”[/color] Hayden said.

[color=ebb9e0]“Aye.”[/color]

[COLOR=969fab]“And I just filled the tank,”[/color] he added.

[color=ebb9e0]“Aye, I know. It just won’t be full when I’m done with it,”[/color] she smiled with a trickle of laughter.

[COLOR=969fab]“Alright fair enough,”[/color] he relented again and closed the door for her as she got into the driver's seat this time. 

[color=ebb9e0]“New York’s meant to be amazing at New Year,”[/color] she said, having wound the window down to lean out of it just so. [color=ebb9e0]“The ball drop or whatever it is they do and that. I don’t know.”[/color]

[COLOR=969fab]“Just feels like I’ll be half the world away,”[/color] Hayden added, glancing out around him. [COLOR=969fab]“It’ll be canny I’m sure,”[/color] he said as if to convince himself. [COLOR=969fab]“Just, Amy,”[/color] his voice lowered and he leaned against the window. [COLOR=969fab]“Look after Mam, make sure she doesn’t overdo it like she did at Christmas alright? I don’t want her to-”[/color]

[color=ebb9e0]“Aw had ya pash man, we’ll be fine. You don’t need to worry, just go and enjoy yourself and we’ll see you when you get back. I hope you're bringing us back a present mind for taking care of your car and that.”[/color] She bit a tangfastic in half.

There was no arguing here, so he agreed and stepped back from the door. [COLOR=969fab]“Aye, aye alright. Drive safe.”[/color] He watched as she drove off and he could no longer see her in the car park.
[hr]

The phone rang and Hayden listened to the quiet buzz of it in his ear. A skyline he didn’t recognise looked back at him. Couldn’t be placed from anything he’d seen before even if he had been to New York many times; he’d just never managed to make it feel familiar. Everyone was always in a hurry in New York. They were in a hurry and they’d buy a hot dog from a street vendor and talk about the Yankees or the Knicks and he never understood it really. It all just felt like some great grand thing; some unattainable mythical place saved only for people who were born there. People that were struggling actors or people who worked in fashion or were paleontologists. He realised he was thinking of Friends and shrugged at the association. Whatever it was about it, it remained foreign to him, but exciting all the same; like a novelty and like opportunity all in one.

[color=967bbd]“Hello?”[/color] came a voice on the other end.
[color=969fab]“Heya.”[/color] Hayden said. 
[color=967bbd]“Didn't think you'd call. Did you land all right?”[/color]
[color=969fab]“Yeah. Flight was alright. Just long and the food was shit, but I still ate it.”[/color]
[color=967bbd] “I'm sure you did,”[/color] she laughed in the background and he could hear the sound of a spoon against a ceramic tea cup circling and circling until it tapped at the edge. 
[color=969fab]“You alright?”[/color] he asked. 
[color=967bbd]“Yeah I'm fine.”[/color] 
[color=969fab]“The hotel's nice.”[/color]
[color=967bbd]“Oh yeah?”[/color]
[color=969fab]“I've seen the World's Best Cup of Coffee about seventy times just on this street.”[/color]
[color=967bbd]“Oh I bet you're really caffeinated then,”[/color] she laughed.
[color=969fab]“Yeah buzzin’ out me arse,”[/color] he quipped before he looked back at the horizon. This strange jagged thing and no green beyond it. 
[color=969fab]“Anyway,”[/color] he paused. [color=969fab]“I just wanted to call you… I don't know,”[/color] he said.
[color=967bbd]“I know,”[/color] she said.  [color=967bbd]“Have fun and good luck Hayden. I'll see you when you get back okay?”[/color]
[color=969fab]“Yeah. Sure. I'll see ya.”[/color]

[color=969fab]“Happy New Year, Eilidh,”[/color] he sighed to himself as he tossed the phone down on the bed carefully, letting it land on a crisp white duvet soundlessly as he walked across the floor. The room was absurdly big. The room was absurdly bright. The room was absurdly expensive. He knew it. The mirror sent his own reflection back at him. Tall, broad, crumpled still even now from his flight but still him. He quirked his brow. Still Hayden. For now, anyway. A Tom Ford suit his publicist had procured for him was hanging in the wardrobe like it was normal. He couldn’t help but whistle at it as he touched the fabric. For a moment he glanced back over his shoulder, sidelong out at the strange city, taking it all in. New York. All view and noise. All people he'd never meet or talk to. People just going about their day to their jobs and then to the coffee house. [color=969fab][i]“It’s like you’re always stuck in second gear,”[/i][/color] he began singing quietly. [color=969fab][i]“When it hasn’t been your day, your week, your month, or even your year.”[/i][/color]

He was thinking about Friends again.
[hr][indent][sub][COLOR=969fab][B]LOCATION[/B][color=969fab].[/color][/COLOR] [I]New York City - Marquee Skydeck[/I] [I][/I][/sub][sup][/sup][/indent][hr]

He was two Vodka Red Bulls in and still found that the sight of a lime slice floating in the top of it tickled him. The music had been blasting all night, the biggest hits of the year and classics and in betweens. He hadn’t quite made his way to the dancefloor yet, but it was only a matter of time. Not that his publicist would be happy to see him throwing shapes in a Tom Ford; he’d at least had the sense to leave his jacket with the cloakroom attendant. The top button of his shirt had already had to come undone with the warmth that was being created in the club from partygoers and the heat and the smoke of the music equipment. The Skydeck was a nice spot to sit some of it out for now. To watch over the railing. New York was a different character at night, and different still for this night, New Year's Eve, and he felt more at home in this comforting pitch dark and never-ending glow.

He’d been keeping a keen eye on the servers weaving in and out, grinning happily each time a hors d'oeuvres moved past. He took one here and there, happily overdoing it on the Tuna Crispy Rice things. [i]Fucking delicious.[/i] He’d been recognised once or twice. Other martial artists he’d only met in passing years ago but his mutual followers on Instagram all the same of course. Polite handshakes, fist bumps, nods, and [i]“see you out there”[/i] exchanged, nothing more, but it was enough to give him the confidence that he did belong here. The confidence in his cup that would no doubt be filled when Zara eventually got here.

The rooftops of all the other buildings were too beginning to fill up with people in their own celebrations and Hayden watched. He couldn't imagine climbing up on the roof of his own house but he decided he would try it. It would be a great spot to set off a firework or two if he wanted to make some noise and innocent trouble with his nephews. He smiled. Even out here, the sound was incredible. He took out his phone and balanced the base of his glass on his palm as he clumsily took a photo of the view. Probably a shit snap by the standards of the many influencers that passed and meandered around him, but Amy, Kelly, his Mam, they’d be as amazed and taken by it all as he was. For all of his earlier trepidation and nerves about this whole thing and he realised he felt more at ease now as the bass line thrummed through him. Or was it the drink? Probably both, he decided.

A heavier drop cut through the beat and the music shifted; the dancefloor went wild. Hayden remained on the Skydeck and let the cool air wash over him, savouring the sudden chaos from his distance, his phone in hand catching a quick video as it all kicked off before he snagged and inhaled another Tuna Crispy Rice while the floor was distracted. They really were delicious. That was Bobby Rifo’s music, sure as sure. People were talking about it. People were rushing in to film it themselves. To get up close and take a selfie near the legend; sucked in by the current of a dopamine rush and instant validation, a rip that beckoned. The bass thumped Hayden's chest even from outside and suddenly he was back at Glastonbury years ago on an acid drop that had almost gone sideways. With eyes closed he could feel the festival dust in his hair again and sun baked mud all up his legs and he laughed quietly at the memory, lifting the drink to his lips. He felt that same exhilaration all over again; scaled up and up and yet no less real.

He made a mental note to check out for Bobby later, preferably when this glass was empty and his confidence had set in.

[/color][/indent]