Essex Girls. Laura Ziepe
who were obviously over-excited about their holiday, stopped them.
‘Alright girls?’ one of them said in a Welsh accent.
‘Yes thanks,’ Jade replied, too tired to make conversation.
‘Where you from?’
‘Essex,’ Kelly replied.
‘Oooh Essex girls,’ he said happily to his mates, as though he’d won the jackpot.
‘Seriously, do blokes still get all excited when you say you’re from Essex?’ Jade whispered to Kelly, irritated that Essex girls had a name for being ‘easy’. What a load of rubbish. Did they also think they wore white stilettos and danced around their handbags too?
‘Where are you from then?’ Kelly asked.
‘Cardiff,’ he replied. ‘You should come visit me when you get back home,’ he said, trying to impress his mates.
‘No thanks, Scotland is miles away,’ Kelly replied, dismissively.
‘Scotland?’ the boy asked, confused.
Jade tried not to laugh. ‘Come on Kelly, let’s go,’ she said taking their keys from the receptionist and walking away.
Kelly followed, confused – Jade could hear the blokes laughing that Kelly had thought Cardiff was in Scotland.
‘Cardiff is in Scotland isn’t it?’
‘No, you dope. It’s in Wales!’ Jade answered laughing as they reached the lift.
They were happily surprised with their room. It was basic, but very large; they had plenty of space and even a small kitchen. They unpacked their suitcases as quickly as they could. Despite being so tired, Jade was excited to see everything and get in the sun.
‘Right babe, what bikini are you wearing today?’
Jade didn’t really have many bikinis with her. She absolutely hated shopping for them, as there was nothing worse than stripping off in the changing room mirrors and seeing a body you didn’t exactly love staring back at you. She was happier not looking. She’d dropped a dress size when she first split up with Tom, feeling far too sad to eat; whenever she was stressed in life she lost her appetite. Luckily it hadn’t taken too long to get it back though; spending time with the girls had soon cheered her up and now she was back to her healthy size ten figure. She wasn’t by any means big in any way, but in her opinion her boobs were too small, hips a little too big and she hated her bum, which she wished was more toned, although everyone told her otherwise. She pulled out a plain black and white striped one she’d bought from Primark last year from her drawer.
‘I’ll probably just be wearing this,’ she said, showing Kelly.
Kelly nodded, her face impassive.
Jade looked down at her bikini and then back up at Kelly. ‘Why, what bikini are you wearing?’
‘I’ll wear my least dressy one if you’re wearing plain black and white, so I won’t look out of place.’
Jade frowned. ‘“Least dressy”? What do you mean? Show me what you’ve brought.’
Jade’s heart sank as Kelly pulled out an array of colourful bikinis. The bed was soon a mass of sequins, beads, diamantes and tassels. Jade had never seen anything quite like it. She lifted up a white, all-in-one, cut-out swimsuit with beautiful coloured gems encrusted round the centre, off the bed. ‘Kelly, are you kidding me? What’s this?’
‘That’s a monokini, babe. You can borrow it if you like.’
Jade couldn’t hide her shock. ‘Where did you get all these from? They’re amazing!’
‘Mostly online from America. I did say Marbella was dressy and to bring your best stuff.’
‘Best stuff? I’ve never seen anything like this,’ she said, pulling a hot pink tasselled one from the bed admiringly. ‘I thought you meant at night, not for the beach. All mine are bloody Primark and H & M. They’re all plain and boring,’ Jade said sulkily.
‘You can borrow mine. Honestly, any one you want, just take.’
‘Thanks,’ Jade said, knowing that she wouldn’t and couldn’t fit into Kelly’s double D cups even if she wanted to. ‘I’ll just wear this plain one for now.’
Kelly could sense Jade was a bit gutted. ‘I think there are a couple of shops that do really nice dressy swimwear here. We can look there before we go to Plaza Beach if you like?’ she offered.
Jade perked up a bit. ‘Really? Okay, sounds good. Let’s definitely do that then, as otherwise I’ll be plain Jane for the summer if this is the sort of thing people wear.’
‘I remember seeing Sonia Lopez here last year; remember her from our old school? She bought one that was gorgeous and showed me where the shop was.’
Jade thought back. Sonia Lopez was the girl with the mega rich parents at her old school. Didn’t she once have a pair of Gucci shoes that cost her £500 just to wear to school?
‘Are the prices reasonable?’ Jade enquired, completely clueless.
Kelly hesitated, and turned back to her suitcase to unpack. ‘Errr … I don’t think it’s too bad. It’s really good quality and you have to remember, you get what you pay for.’
Jade watched Kelly parade around in a gorgeous two-piece white bikini with diamond straps and silver chains to fasten the bottoms; it was amazing.
‘Kelly, what are those diamond crystal things stuck on your skin?’ she asked bewildered, as she noticed a pattern only half covered by her bikini bottoms.
‘It’s a vajazzle, babe. Don’t say you’ve never heard of them?’ She pulled her bottoms down lower to reveal the pattern of a star.
Jade shook her head, agog.
‘Where have you been for the last few years?’ Kelly laughed, as if having a vajazzle was the most normal thing in the world.
‘In Bath. And I definitely did not see or hear of anyone having a vajazzle there!’
‘You have to let me do you one right now. You can’t go out without a vajazzle to the pool!’ Kelly gasped, horrified at the thought. ‘I’ve brought loads of patterns with me in case mine comes off. Look …’ She reached into her suitcase and pulled out several different designs. ‘You can have a fairy, star, flower, cherry, butterfly …’
‘I’m not so sure I want one,’ Jade said, a bit confused as to why people would want one.
‘You don’t want a vajazzle?’ Kelly looked at her like she was crazy.
‘Errr … well maybe I will then,’ she agreed. They were quite pretty after all, and if everyone else was going to have one then why should she be the odd one out? She opted for a flower and Kelly put the crystals on her perfectly. She’d have felt embarrassed if it was anyone else lowering her bottoms to stick tiny crystals on her skin, but seeing as she’d known Kelly for years and she had a way of making people feel comfortable, Jade felt totally relaxed.
‘You can’t go in the water today now though in case they wash off and the last thing you need is a patchy vajazzle,’ Kelly said. ‘Though I’ll doubt you’ll want to anyway, as it messes your hair up.’
Jade pulled her bikini bottoms down to observe Kelly’s work. It actually looked good. ‘I love it!’
Kelly’s face was beatific. ‘I knew you would. You won’t be able to live without a vajazzle in your life now, trust me. They’re reem.’
An hour later, they were standing outside the swimwear shop that Kelly had told Jade about.
Jade gasped. ‘Wow! These bikinis look amazing!’ She felt her spirits lift as she piled up about ten to try on. ‘I love them all!’
‘See,