Kindred Souls - Karen Shiner (beautiful books to read .txt) 📗

CHAPTER ONE:

Stereotypes. I hate stereotypes.  They are practically everywhere. On your tv screen, at the movie theatre, in school, at work, the list goes on and on. This doesn't surprise me, we know people are assholes. One of the reasons I decided to leave Richmond, Virginia and go study abroad was so that I could experience a different country and learn the truth about its stereotypes. Is London that cold and rainy all the time? Do people there have bad teeth? Do British people always drink tea?  Do they all speak with a posh accent? And most of these are no. London isn't that cold or rainy, in fact, the Met Office Climate data said that there are more rainy days in Miami and Orlando, Florida. Washington DC, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, and Mexico City all have more rainy days on average in any given year than London. Not everyone has bad teeth, Jamie has the best teeth I've ever seen and he is from Liverpool. Unfortunately, the third question's answer is yes, tea is always around, but not just at 5 o'clock. Liz has 7 cups of tea a day. Of course, not everyone likes tea, the grand majority yes, but some even prefer coffee.  And yeah not many have a posh accent, ever heard of cockney? I used to think it was quite scary in the morning. But obviously there are loads of different accents here and there's no such thing as a British accent. Honestly, no idea where that came from. Jamie being from Liverpool has a scouse accent, let's not even get into that.

London, the capital, the seat of the British Empire, this is where I live and study philosophy.

The first question I asked the first British taxi driver was "What is the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom?"

I remember him taking some time to answer, but basically, he explained that the UK, or really the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, consists of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.  These countries all report to the UK parliament. Americans can simply imagine that the UK is like the USA and there are four consistent countries just like our states. The history that follows the formation of the UK is quite complicated so my advice is to simply go to the library or you know, just google it.  Great Britain or sometimes just Britain, is not a country. The name comes from the Roman word Britannia, and they say Great comes from wanting to distinguish Britain from France, or really King James I ego'.

Skipping forward to all the details, I am living in London, England. Just like Wales and Scotland, England is commonly referred to as a country but it is not a sovereign state. So England is often incorrectly used as a term to describe the whole of the UK.

Anyway, I'm living in London and share an apartment or flat, with Jamie, Liz, and Luna. We're all best friends. Jamie is a philosophy major like me, he is into girls. We met in class the very first day. I remember he was giving me weird looks as if he was trying to flirt with me, if that's what you can call it. Anyway it became really consistent to the point that he would still try to flirt with me a few days later in the pub and I had to practically shout that I'm gay.

"Hilarious, c'mon let me get your number".

"No, seriously I like girls. A lot."

The more I spoke, the more he understood that I was actually being honest. At this point, I was just answering him so that I would avoid having to punch him in front of anyone because really, he was practically a douche.

"I'm not used to rejection."

"I guess that explains it but yeah, nothing personal dude."

"You American?"

Probably the most common question I get asked by strangers.  And that is how our friendship began. Jamie is like that sort of friend you never expect to be in your life as you don't quite hit it off straight away. He spent those first two weeks always apologizing to me whenever he saw me.

"Rebekah, I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, honestly."

"How can I ever repay you?"

"Well I really want to move from where I'm living."

"Funny you should mention that. I am actually looking for flatmates."

"Really?"

"Yeah there's like 7 of us."

"Wow, 7?"

"Yeah, me and my buddies."

"All boys?"

"Yeah but you're a lezzie so it's alright innit?"

"Lezzie?!"

"Relax. JK, my parents bought me this flat, they're rich but I am happy to share the flat with you. There are some people who are planning to move in."

"Asshole."

"It's arsehole hun."

"Right! Arsehole. I'm interested."

"Great, give me your number."

At that, we both laughed remembering the last time he asked for my number.

A week later it was me, Jamie, Liz and Luna living in this really cool flat, way too cool to be for students. In fact, it wasn't really. Jamie's parents had recently won the lottery, which is super weird as I've never met anyone who has. So it's good as I only pay a really small percentage to it.

Liz studies law, she’s into girls like me. We met on Tinder, sort of. Well we began speaking on Tinder as soon as I arrived. It was pretty weird when she showed up at the flat.

"You're Rebekah?"

"Yeah. Liz?"

"This will be weird."

It wasn't too much. We went out once on a date but figured we weren't feeling the attraction and just became really good friends. Luna is into boys, she studies photography which is awesome because I now have a great Instagram feed as she often uses me as a model. Which is nice of her since I don't look like a model at all. I'm 5'3 and slightly overweight. Big boobs, big hips, and thighs. As I mentioned previously Jamie is English, from Liverpool, Liz is a Londoner and Luna is Scottish. I still have an American accent though I've been living here for 2 years now quite often use some English words or slang. When I speak on the phone with my mom she often makes fun of my "British" accent.

"Oh my god, so British."

"What? I just said Fish and Chips."

"Exactly."

Publication Date: 12-07-2018

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