Blink of an Eye

Beep. Beep. Beep. Ugh, that stupid alarm. I was pretty much awake anyway as one of my neighbours had, yet again, held another party until 5 am. They always made so much noise. Can't a girl get her beauty sleep? 

But being from South London, precisely Lewisham, it’s pretty much a regular here. I’ve always said that as soon as I have enough money, I'm out of here. Anyways, I began getting ready and…

Hold on. Haven’t I introduced myself? Gosh, I can be so silly sometimes. Well, hey, I’m Amiyah (my friends call me Miya) and I’m a sixteen-year-old girl from Lewisham. Nice to meet you.

        I got up from my bed, taking an enormous yawn as I was still tired. GCSEs have really been stressing me out lately. I walked to the bathroom to take a morning shower. Please tell me I'm not the only one who has a full-on concert while I'm in the shower? I began singing one of my favourite songs of all time.

‘No matter what I dooo, all I think about is you.’

Nelly and Kelly really came through with that song. Shower bops were really the best. As I was singing, I heard a loud thud on the door.

‘Amiyah, will you hurry the hell up and get out of the bathroom. I've got an early shift today. And stop the singing, it's terrible.’

‘Ugh I'm coming,’ I scoffed.

That was Tee. Tee was my older sister. Her real name is Tamzin, but I call her Tee for short. We argued all the time (which siblings don’t?)  but she was my best friend, sister and mum all in one. Ever since mum died, she took on the role of being a mother to me. And she was great at it.

As I came out of the shower, I got dressed into my school uniform. It was pretty much ripped apart, but I couldn’t afford new ones, so this would’ve had to do. I mean, I was in my last year of secondary school, so it didn’t bother me too much. I went downstairs and headed to the kitchen to make myself some breakfast. 

‘Tee, there's no food’ I shouted at her from downstairs.

‘Just go to Keiron's place to get some food’.

‘Okay’. I wasn’t in the mood to go somewhere just to get food but I was hungry. I just packed my stuff and left for Keiron's.

 I began walking to Keiron’s block. He only lived about two minutes away from me. We were both born and raised in Conley estate.

Conley estate. Arguably the worst estate in the whole of London. One of the poorest and deprived places to live. The number of stabbings, drugs, postcode wars, teen pregnancies, block parties and a whole other list of things was honestly shocking. I would have left here ages ago, but we just simply didn’t have the money. It was mad cheap as well as no one wanted to come here. I didn’t blame them though.

I finally reached Keiron’s door. Who's Keiron might you ask? Keiron is my best friend. We’ve known each other since we were two years old. I’ve always been there for him and vice versa. No one could separate us. 

‘Keiron open the door,’ I said whilst knocking.

‘Keiron?’

‘KEIRON!’ I shouted.

‘I’m cominggg. Ugh why are you so fussy at this time of the morning,’ he clapped back.

I loved Keiron but sometimes he could be the most annoying person ever.

As he opened the door, we did our supreme handshake. I made it up when we were six, but Keiron liked to take the credit for it.

‘Keiron have you got any toast could make please, Tee forgot the shopping.’

‘Amiyah how many times am I going to tell you? Stop asking me and help yourself. You’re family’.

I wanted to give him a massive hug right there, but my pride got the best of me.

‘Thank you,’ I replied.

We left Keiron's and began walking to school. It was a ten-minute walk from Conley Estate. On the way to school, we started talking about all sorts of rubbish. We always did.

‘I can't believe Manchester United lost to West ham,’ I laughed.

        ‘Don't mock it,’ he said, with a small smirk coming out from his face.

        We continued walking before Keiron received a message from his phone. Curiosity had gotten the best of me.

‘Who was it?’ I asked. 

‘The FGM,’ he replied.         

The smile from my face had completely disappeared. I was quite dead serious. I absolutely hated the FGM with a passion and Keiron sure as hell knew it.

The FGM was a gang based in Conley estate and some other nearby areas. They were arguably the most known and powerful gang in the area. Everyone knew not to mess with them. They often scammed people, sold drugs, you know? All the typical gang stuff.

What was even more surprising was that most of the members were under 21. Some of them had family who used to be a part of that stuff, so their lifestyle was already set out for them. The main leader of the gang was BK. I didn't know his real name, so I always went with that as that's what everyone called him.

‘What do they want from you?’ I asked.

‘Nothing. They just want me to sell some of the stuff after school today.’

By stuff I knew exactly what he meant - drugs

‘What? Kieron you're only sixteen for God's sake. Can’t they give you a break, they shouldn't be overworking you like this. You shouldn't even be a part of it’.

‘I know what I’m doing, stay out of it!’ he snapped.

A gulp went down my throat. Never had I ever seen him this overprotective over a gang before. That’s when I knew he was deep into this life - I had to help him. I couldn't see him suffer. We continued walking to school with an awkward silence.

As we reached the school grounds, Keiron left with his friends and I left to go and meet mine. I wasn't the most social person. I had my 4 best friends: Shaneece, Keisha, Renee and Vanessa.

‘Hey,’ the girls said to me.

‘Hey y’all,’ I replied.

‘Soooo… There's this party next week and -’

Before Shaneece could finish her sentence I already knew my answer and she sure as hell did too.

‘No.’

The girls all began sulking. I was pretty sure they were trying to guilt trip me into saying yes.

‘Pleaseee,’ they whined.

        I knew they were going to keep on bothering me about it so just agreed.

‘But I want to be home by 10 okay?’

‘Ugh, all the fun happens at like 12 am. You’re no fun,’ Vanessa scoffed.

We all began laughing as we walked off to class.

Little did I know what was going to happen that Saturday.

SATURDAY - 5PM

I’d decided to wear a simple nude dress as I didn't want to bring too much attention to myself. I wasn't feeling a party but, oh well, I was already dressed up. Kieron and a few of his friends also decided that they wanted to come to the party. I wasn’t keen on them going though as the party was in Sydenham Gardens.

Sydenham Gardens was a place nearby where they also had very violent and power-hungry gangs. This gang also happened to have beef with the FGM boys.

I said goodbye to Tee and left to meet the girls at Lewisham station.

When I met the girls, we hopped onto the bus and stayed for a good 15 minutes. We then arrived at the block party. From the outside you could see how many people there were.

As we entered the building, the air was filled with the smell of party food. That was all I really cared about. Vanessa and Keisha went off to go and talk to their boyfriends, while me and Renee went to go and start dancing. As Drake's music was playing, everyone was dancing, laughing and smiling. Maybe this party wasn't as bad as I initially thought.

As we were all talking, I noticed Keiron and his friends had entered the party. He was easily recognisable - he just always stood out from the rest. He nodded at me and I smiled at him while he walked off with two of his friends to get some drinks. We hadn’t fully spoken since our argument but I wasn’t going to let that get in the way of me enjoying this party.

Two hours had passed and it was 9:30 pm. I was really in the mood to go home so I looked around until I found the rest of the girls. I explained to them that I wanted to go home and they agreed as we were all worn out from the partying. I looked around for Keiron to tell him I was going home but I couldn't find him. I figured that I would just text him later on once I got home.

As we were about to leave the building, two large groups of boys began arguing. I looked to see who was arguing before realising that it was some FGM boys I didn’t recognise and the Sydenham boys. I wasn’t shocked though. I mean who on Earth thought it was a good idea to invite two rival gangs to the same party? The argument began getting extremely tense so I decided now would probably be the best time to leave. As we walked towards the door to leave we began hearing gunshots.

Gunshots. They always said that, as soon as you hear gunshots, all the other sounds around you just disappear for a split second. That’s exactly how it felt. Everyone in the building began screaming and running in fear of their lives. I began running as fast as I could with the girls by my side. We ran as far as we could to the point where we were probably at least two bus stops away from the block. We all rested for a minute trying to catch our breaths

‘Are all of you okay?’ I asked the girls while still trying to catch my breath.

They all nodded their heads as we were all in shock. We’d decided to go home as all of us did not want to go back to Sydenham.

‘And this is exactly why I do not go to parties,’ I mumbled under my breath.

As I got home, I took a hot and long shower and went straight to sleep as I felt so tired to the point where I couldn't even walk, went straight to bed and called it a day.

The next week had come by. I just wanted to start a fresh new week after Saturday’s events. I hadn't spoken to Keiron since Saturday, as I tried to contact him but he wasn’t replying to any of my messages so I just assumed he was busy.

I walked over to school with my earphones plugged in listening to music. That week I had GCSE mocks so music was a good stress reliever for me. As I got to school, I met up with the girls and we all went to lessons.

12:30pm-

I had just finished my English Language mock exam and the whole year group was being called to the main hall. Everyone gave each other confused looks as we didn’t know what it could possibly be.

As everyone took their seats, I’d realised that all the senior teachers and the headteacher were there. This meant it was extremely serious. The hall suddenly became pin drop silent.

‘I am here to inform you all today that one of your fellow peers, Keiron Adams sadly passed away on the early hours of Sunday morning due to gunshot and stab wounds. Police have opened an Investigation to further look in to this. We are deeply saddened and our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Keiron.’

My heart had stopped pounding. I felt myself being unable to breathe. Dizziness took over my brain to the point where I couldn't even see. I fell to the ground and burst out crying. He couldn’t be gone.

What about all the things that we planned to do in the future? Why did he have to be taken from me?

I stormed out of the hall and sat in an empty classroom crying and crying. For three years I’d been trying to help Keiron and convince him to leave this lifestyle. I was too late. I couldn’t save him.

Gone. In a blink of an eye.