VOLUME 2: THE ACADEMY DAYS
ACT 1 OF VOLUME 2
Tuesday, June 2nd - Saturday, June 6th, 2016
The sterile, unfamiliar scent of the London air was the first thing that hit me as I stepped out of my flat. It was clean, almost antiseptic, a world away from the damp, earthy, industrial tang of Manchester that I knew as home.
The sky was a pale, washed-out blue, the sun already promising a heat that felt different here: drier, more oppressive. Back home, even on a sunny day, you could feel the memory of rain in the air. Here, it felt like the city had forgotten how.
My flat, a modern but soulless box in a Croydon high-rise, was quiet. Too quiet. The weekend had been a blur of unpacking boxes and forced cheerfulness with Emma before she'd taken the train back to Manchester on Sunday evening.
The silence she left behind was a physical presence, a constant reminder of the two hundred miles that now separated us. Her scent lingered on the pillows, a ghost of home in this alien landscape.
