Change

Change always happens. Not always big, not always small, not always good, not always bad, but always. Every second of every day.

Not surprisingly then, things had recently changed for Dave.

Pea had cut his hair.

Aline had left. Back to the Land of the Mole Divas. Dave had been there as she boarded the coach to London, where, true to form, she caused everybody to be late. She wanted to get off a stop earlier and was informed, very rudely, that this was most inconvenient and she would be charged an extra ?14.50 to do so.

Despite her plans to come back in January, Dave would miss her. Hell, he had even got in a car with Princo to be able to see her off.

Aline wasn’t alone in disappearing and Dave had to saw farewell to several others too, but the biggest change of late had occurred much closer to home.

Ste and Jenny had split up.

They still wanted to be friends, and for both of them and Anya’s sake Dave agreed it would be best if they did. Jenny was a decent person and Ste had no regrets.

He wished all three the best.

Scratch

Pea had been growing his hair for around 32 years, a neat trick for a 20 year old. It had reached the point that he could use it to skip, which helped keep him in shape and gave him something to do.

It had therefore not been pleasant for him when he was given the choice of lose it or lose the roof over his head. After six weeks on the streets, he finally went to the barbers.

Dave and the rest of his brothers had never seen anything really wrong with the hair, though they had a common fear that it may make him stand out in the wrong kind of way. A group of drunks in Liverpool need very little excuse to start something. If nothing else, at least Pea would be safer walking around now.

It therefore came as quite the shock, when just days after his cut Dave recieved a phone call informing him the new look Pea had been attacked.

Pea had been going to get a takeaway, minding his own business, when he was punched in the face for no reason at all other than the sick amusement of a worthless scum. His glasses were smashed and his face was cut open requiring stitches.

The lady in the takeaway gave Pea a name and the event was then reported.

The police have a name, a time, a witness and most probably CCTV footage. What more do they need?

Aline

"Did you get Aline's text?" asked Jean, during Dave's daily phone call after work.

"No, what?"

"She's leaving."

Dave had known Aline almost from day one. Six years ago, he first saw her when she walked into his registration class by mistake on her first day of school. Having gone to school together, University together and lived together, six years down the line they were the best of friends.

And now she was leaving. Her visa had run out, she was going home.

Dave lost count of the number of friends he'd said goodbye to this year because they were "going home".

Bloody foreigners.

That Aline could find a way back one way or another Dave had no doubt. After six years of her constantly stalking him he knew he would never be rid of her that easily. As such, this wasn't goodbye, it was just...

"See you later, babe."