Her graduation should have been something magnificent, a feeling of elation, but instead she only recalled relief, relief that it was all finally over. Even the first class degree did nothing to really improve her mood. She just wanted the hassle her parents were making over her done with, which meant trudging through a tedious day of wearing the most uncomfortable gown ever, sitting, collecting a certificate, more sitting, fake celebrations and photos.
It was also a little sad, her life had only really begun to turn a corner to the better in the final year and it was the same people who made that a possibility that she’d be leaving behind, as they went about their separate ways, not knowing if they would ever cross paths again.
Some might say that that was a somewhat cynical way of looking at things, but she had to be honest with herself, some people were destined to remain friends, some simply weren’t, regardless of how hard she might try.
Some people had the luck of finding everything they wanted at university, love, enlightenment, friendship, partying and more, she on the other hand found very little and she was only stepping into the world more confused and less enlightened, at least non-academically, than ever before.
Before long, she was back at home with an entire summer to look forward to and a world of opportunities just looming over the horizon and yet it felt more daunting than exciting.
What would her life be in the next few years, let alone ten years onwards? Would her degree serve her well? Would she find the person of her dreams, get married, perhaps have kids? Would her friends remain friends? Where would this grand and free ocean of opportunities take her?
As the job market favoured experience over qualifications more so than ever, she knew that her only way to stand a chance at making her three years at university and the expense she would be paying back worth the time, was to get some work experience under her belt and make a little cash on the side. That was at least how she ended up working at The Buccaneer, a dingy little bar and nightclub in London that went into administration not long after she left.
It didn’t come as a surprise that it had shut down either, there were literally always fights, the punters were rude, sexist and foul-mouthed and management there was shitty at the best of times, never mind the worst, but she’d be hard pressed attempting to find a moment she didn’t enjoy working there. It wasn’t the part time job her parents - particularly her mother - would have liked for her, but Rachel loved it and couldn’t imagine a thirty hours a week plus office job providing quite as much entertainment, laughter and memories. That and she was picking up a plethora of life skills and experiences she wouldn’t have otherwise.
The hustle and bustle of rowdy punters, the pint pulling, the mastering of different drink mixtures and experimenting a few herself with colleagues afterwards during shut-ins, the dancing on counters with those same colleagues when management weren’t around and the music was pumping, the madness that came with major sporting events, the drunken antics and oh so much more.
Suddenly the dire years of university were long behind her and her new path in life was slowly beginning to take shape. Who better to help her shape it than her colleagues and new friends, Jeremy and Terri.
Jeremy, a fun loving, but really ordinary looking guy, had had a massive crush on her during the course of their time working there, unbeknownst to her for the longest time. As it turns out, he had fallen head over heels in love with her the very first day she started working, but she discovered this because Terri, a badass tattooed punk rocker chick, with studs in her nose and gauges in her earlobes, blurted it out during a drunken shut-in exploit.
It was the first time a guy had ever had any real interest in her since that fateful first year of university and admittedly she revelled in the attention, probably more than she actually cared to admit, but whether she liked him like that or not was another question.
She could vividly recall her feelings swaying more towards Terri than Jeremy, she was so cool, she could handle full grown drunken guys by herself, play a guitar and tie knots with her tongue. Like, how awesome was that!
Wanting so badly to fit in and not scare her new friends off, she bottled it up and despite every molecule in her body telling her not to date Jeremy, Terri’s guilt tripping, coupled with her own ambitions to appear normal, led her right into a situation she’d eventually come to regret.
She and Jeremy dated for some time and he was the sweetest most delightful man anyone could hope to date, the sort of man her parents would approve of and sure enough, they did, it was just that… she didn’t have any feelings towards him and he wanted for her to love him so badly, she could tell by how hard he tried and she felt guilty, especially given that all the while, her infatuation for Terri would only continued to develop, no thanks to a number of situations that saw the two together alone and enjoying each other’s company, such as the time they both accidentally locked themselves in the cellar for an hour, or the time Terri got so ridiculously drunk that she called Rachel, who was off that day and demanded she join them for after work drinks, which concluded with Rachel, pretty far
