“Not Like Normal People”
“Laura, are you still home?” Lucy poked her head into the bathroom, where her older sister was fixing her hair before work.
“Of course I am! Not all of us have shifts at the crack of dawn like you telecom lot. Proper office workersdecent folkstart at eight and finish at five.”
“Oh, please, proper office workers!” Lucy snorted. “Youre just as much a factory drone as the rest of us. Only difference is you sit around in your little lab coats in R&D, thinking youre geniuses.”
“And who stopped *you* from becoming an engineer?” Laura shot back. “Oh, rightyou had to chase after that dreamboat Darren to telecom college, didnt you?”
“Ugh, give it a rest!” Lucy waved her off. “There *is* no Darren anymorevanished into thin air. Now hurry up and vacate the bathroom. I need a shower and thensleep! That shift was madness!”
Lucy hated when people brought up *that* chapter. Darren, her schoolmate, had beenin her opiniondevastatingly handsome. Shed fallen head over heels for him in Year Six. He belonged on telly, not buried in telecom textbooksbut off he went to college, and sighing dramatically, Lucy followed. Needless to say, he didnt appreciate the sacrifice. Graduation rolled around, andpoofhe married a classmate.
Lucy rinsed off hastily, tugged on her comfy pyjamas, and shuffled into the kitchen, yawning.
“Whats edible enough to stop me waking up starving?”
“Theres leftover omelette under the lidmade enough for both of us,” Laura offered.
“Ugh, *omelette again*? How can you eat eggs every day? I need something lighter.”
Lucy grabbed a sachet of instant porridge, drowned it in boiling water, and stirred lethargically.
“Youll fall asleep in that!” Laura smirked.
Lucy shoveled in a couple of bland spoonfuls before shoving the bowl away.
“Right, I *am* sleeping.”
She vanished into her room, and soon, deep, rhythmic snoring echoed down the hall. Laura checked the clock. “Why did I get up so early? Couldve stayed in bed scrolling for another half hour.” She flopped into the armchair hogging a corner of their spacious kitchen and buried herself in her phone.
Thena knock at the door. Laura answered, accepting a congratulatory telegram from distant relatives who still hadnt embraced modern technology. “Happy New Year, health, happiness” She signed the receipt and retreated to her radiator-side throne.
Suddenlyfootsteps. Lucy shuffled to the loo, then paused in the hallway on her return and yelped, “Oh, *idiot*!” Laura listenedshoes scuffing, jacket zipping, then*slam*.
“Lucy, where are you *going*?” Laura jumped up, but her sister had already vanished, leaving her phone on the side table.
“Blimey. Forget something at work?”
Laura returned to the cozy kitchen.
***
Lucy skidded down the icy pavement, squinting at the shadowy figures ahead. Still dark, but she hoped to spotyes!Lauras wool coat. When the telegram arrived, Lucy had been asleep, but the door slam woke her. Silence. Shed assumed Laura had left for work.
After tossing and turning, shed shuffled to the loothen spotted Lauras factory pass on the hallway table. “*Idiot!*” Shed yanked on boots over her pyjamas, grabbed the pass, and bolted after her sister.
But Laura was nowhere among the factory-bound crowd. The plant was only a ten-minute walk away, so Lucy reached the gates quickly. No Laura. She approached the security guard.
“Seen my sister?”
He shook his head, baffled. “Nah. Its only half-sevenshe usually rocks up at five to.”
“Half-*what*?” Lucy blinked. “*Oh*, Im such an *idiot*!”
The guard adjusted his glasses, eyeing her like shed tried smuggling in a missile launcher.
“Leaving!” Lucy yelped, sprinting off. Laura would be tearing the place apart for that pass!
Gasping, she nearly reached home when*wham*her feet shot out on a slick patch of ice, and she hit the pavement hard.
“Mum!” she whimpered as a stranger rushed over.
“You alright?” he asked, helping her up.
“D-dunno. Cant stand!” She glanced up.
A young man in a warm overcoatwhite lab coat peeking underneathlooked down at her with tired but kind eyes.
“Whats the rush on black ice?”
“Long story. IIve got to get home, or my sister will *murder* me!” She tried standing, yelped, and wobbled.
He sighed. “Rightgrab on. Tight!”
He scooped her up and carried her to the flats.
“Which floor?” he asked in the lift.
“Third,” Lucy mumbled, flushing. Never had she been this close to a manlet alone a cute one. He smelled faintly of cologne and something medicinal.
At the door, Laura gaped. “Lucy?! Whatwho?”
“Evening. Think your sisters got a bad sprainor worse,” the stranger explained, carrying Lucy inside.
“Laura, *later*heres your stupid pass!”
“Oh, *there* it is!” Laura stuffed it into her bag and fledthen doubled back.
“Lucy, you *know* him, right? Safe to leave you?”
“Yep,” the man said. “Im a doctor. Watch the ice out there.”
Laura nodded and vanished downstairs.
“Right, Lucy,” the doctor said briskly, “lets see that ankle.”
He eased off her boot and wincedher foot jutted at a gruesome angle.
“That bad?” she groaned.
“Yep. Hospital trip.”
“Ugh, *no*Im wrecked from night shift! Theyll x-ray me to death!”
“Ah, youre nights too? Colleague?”
“*Hardly*,” Lucy laughed. “Im just a telecom grunt. Factory runs 24/7someones gotta babysit the switchboards.”
“Fair. Stillneed an ambulance. Cant pop this back without painkillers.” He pulled out his phone. “Steve? Got a dodgy ankle here. Yep, ice-related. Address?” He handed the phone to Lucy, who rattled off their flat details.
*Oh no*, she panicked. *What if theyre burglars? I just gave them our address!*
“Relax,” the doctor*Max*, he introducedsaid, patting her shoulder. “Steves a whiz with bones. Youll see.”
“Steves *good*?” she blurted, then cringed.
“*Steve*?” Max grinned. “Mates a legend. Trust me.”
Lucy shook his handhers disappeared into his. She suddenly wished hed never let go. Or better yetsweep her up again.
***
That New Years Eve, they celebrated togetherLucy, Laura, Max, and Steve. They toasted black ice, Lauras forgotten pass, and the magic of a night that sparked not one, but *two* love stories.
