Chapter Two
‘Don’t get a credit card,’ Ollie tells me.
He’s hovering over my shoulder at the Freshers’ Fayre, which is essentially an overwhelming number of stands, with various companies coming in to flog us stuff.
In addition the extracurricular clubs and groups run by students are pleading their cases as to why we should join the chess club or the eco-activists.
Ben is lamenting the lack of a rowing club, but in landlocked North London I’m not sure why he was expecting one.
‘Oxford has one,’ he mutters before moving off.
I’m nodding politely to each club, accepting various leaflets and goody bags.
I’ve already got quite excited about going through the contents later.
Liv and I have picked up leaflets about the different nights on at the uni bar, already planning our Old Skool outfits of shirt, ties and short skirts with ripped tights in a couple of weeks’ time.
I’ve lost Liv to the film-club people, while I’ve made a beeline for a bank offering a very low interest rate on one of their credit cards, if I apply there and then.
I’ve never been old enough for a credit card before.
Growing up in a house with no money and only ever spending what I had (because what other option was there?), this looks rather exciting.
‘Don’t do it,’ Ollie says, like an angel on my shoulder.
But I’ve already committed, filling out my details on the corporately decorated table and handing in the form.
‘I’m on a student loan and I’ve got some savings and I intend to get a job, so I might not even use it,’ I tell him, not quite believing my own words.
He frowns at me. I don’t know how we all managed to get out of bed in order to make it here.
I was worried I wouldn’t sleep, being away from home properly for the first time in my life.
But I’d drunk so much I slept like the dead.
In the end none of us even ate any dinner.
We’ve eaten all the crisps and biscuits, though, and I’m quite looking forward to going shopping for food as a gang.
It’s only our second day and we don’t have lectures yet this week, but we do have a whole heap of social activities going on that we can dip in and out of.
Thankfully this Freshers’ Fayre was scheduled for 2 p.m., which meant that after we all crawled out of bed at about half-past twelve Ollie made us a fry-up, which we ate at our little kitchen table before we went off to our rooms to shower in our tiny en suites.
Ben took an age, but we waited for him because we’ve silently agreed we’re a foursome now. We’re sticking together.
I approach the union-bar people and sweet-talk my way into a job interview. I’ve never pulled pints before. Never been old enough, but I’ve fetched and carried, waitressed and washed up and I don’t mind hard work.
Ben, excitedly, thinks if I get the job I can palm everyone free drinks.
‘The drinks are already so cheap,’ Liv says as we’re sitting in the too-bright and airy, near-neon-decorated Student Union nursing our hangovers with cans of Coke and more crisps. ‘Why do you need drinks for free? Aren’t you loaded?’
Ben raises his eyebrows. ‘My parents are loaded. I want all the free shit I can get my hands on. I’m on a very tight allowance.’
‘Allowance?’ Ollie narrows his eyes. ‘Like … from your parents? Money from your parents?’
Ben looks confused at why Ollie’s confused. ‘Yeah.’
My mouth drops open. Ollie’s mouth drops open. Liv’s doesn’t, though, and she stirs her coffee, her eyes purposefully fixed on her cup.
‘Get a job then,’ I say eventually, still trying to work out if Liv is on an allowance from her parents too. I think she might be.
Ben looks horrified. ‘A job? While I’m here, studying?’
‘Yes,’ I say, casting a conspiratorial glance at Ollie. ‘I’m getting one. If the Student Union will have me. They need people on different nights and days and my lectures aren’t full-time, so I’ll have a bit of downtime to earn some money.’
‘If the SU won’t take you, maybe they’ll take Ben,’ Ollie says, returning my glance with his own, a slight smile at the edges of his mouth. Then he goes in deeper. ‘What about you, Liv? Getting a job?’
‘I mean … maybe,’ she says uncertainly. ‘Might try to do something related to my degree.’
‘What is your degree?’ I ask.
Liv arrived so late we didn’t get the chance to delve much into her life before we partied. Come to think of it, Ollie’s been a bit vague too, although he did say his A-Level grades were triple A in the sciences, when we were sharing our dismal results.
‘Law,’ says Liv.
‘That’s pretty cool. What you going to do?’ Ben asks. ‘Be a lawyer?’
‘I’m not sure,’ she replies. ‘Maybe.’
‘You might be handy to know. I’ll stick close,’ he replies, making Liv smile.
Funny how living together for such a short time has broken down barriers so quickly, as we’re trading financial details so early on into our friendship.
On a sliding scale I’d say I’m the poorest, followed by Ollie, or perhaps he’s just hiding his wealth and has a healthy attitude towards early employment.
Liv and Ben, I suspect, are on a financial par.
Liv looks cagey. Ben is merrily owning it, sensing he’s in a safe space here, although Ollie and I are clearly judgemental, but we’re being friendly with it.
‘Go on then,’ Ben says, trying to shift the heat off himself. ‘What are you doing for work, Ollie?’
‘I need to find out when my placements are. I suspect I’ll only be able to work weekends.’
‘Why?’ we all ask.
‘My degree’s going to be a bit full-on, I think.’
‘Something sciency?’ Ben asks.
‘Medicine,’ Ollie replies, surprising us.
‘Medicine?’ we all echo.
He nods, looking baffled at our reaction. ‘I did say, last night.’
Did he? ‘Are you going to be a doctor?’ I ask.
‘I’m going to try.’
‘Wow,’ I say, because … wow!
‘For the next five years I’ll be—’
‘Five years?’ I ask. ‘Five?’
‘Yeah. And then a few more for in-depth training and the rest of it.’
There’s an awed silence. And then Liv points out in a sad voice, ‘You’ll be here by yourself for two years after we’ve gone.’ As if Ollie won’t make friends on his course.
‘Yeah, I guess I will,’ Ollie says. ‘I’ve got three years to worry about that, though. I’m more worried about passing each year, to be honest.’
‘Doctor Ollie …?’ I prompt.
‘Harris,’ he says. ‘Doctor Oliver Harris, because I might have to grow up and use my real name.’
‘That’s got a good ring to it,’ Ben replies, clearly looking at Ollie in a new light. I think we’re all looking at him in a new light as, without him realising it, Ollie just became our sensible-friend-who’ll-be-a-doctor. In five years’ time.
‘Well,’ Ollie cuts in again after I voice this, ‘not five years. That’s only my degree. After that there’s specialising, depending on what I want to do. So, in about a decade from now, I’ll be – you know …’ He lets the sentence hang.
‘Ten years,’ Liv says, wistfully looking to the future. ‘Imagine where we’ll all be in ten years.’
‘I don’t even know where I’ll be this time tomorrow,’ Ben admits, reaching for his pack of cigarettes.
‘Anyone ready for a proper drink yet? It’s two-for-one on Snakebite,’ Liv points out.
‘Yeah, go on,’ I utter.
‘Hair of the dog,’ Ben concurs.
‘Why not?’ Ollie says and when the other two go to queue for drinks he turns to me. ‘Where do you reckon you’ll be in ten years?’
I draw a breath deep into my lungs and then exhale slowly. ‘I have no idea. Genuinely.’
‘Why’d you pick English?’ he changes the subject.
‘It felt like the right thing to do,’ I confess.
‘My mum was so excited when my English teacher suggested university like it was the most natural step for me. It seemed to be the most natural step for everyone else too. Only one girl in my year wasn’t going to uni and that was because she’d got pregnant. ’
Ollie’s eyelids spring up in surprise.
‘Yeah. Happens,’ I say. ‘Happened to my mum at a young age. Barely into her twenties. I think that’s why she was so intent on me doing things differently, getting the kind of education she’d never had.’
‘She’s living through you a bit?’ Ollie suggests.
‘I don’t think so. She definitely enjoyed moving-in day, though. But she just wants the best, like most parents.’
He nods, taking that at face value. ‘What does she do?’
‘She’s an executive assistant for a finance firm. She’s been there for years. Part of the furniture. But it’ll never earn her the big bucks, so we’ve always just about made ends meet. It has made me value money, though. How hard it is to get, how easy it is for it to disappear.’
‘That why you got a credit card?’ Ollie teases.
‘Sod off,’ I say. ‘I doubt I’ll ever use it.’
‘Hmm,’ Ollie replies.
‘What about your parents?’ I ask. ‘What are they like?’
‘My dad’s pretty cool. My mum died when I was nine, so it’s only me and Dad. I suppose, a bit like your mum, he does the job of two parents. Dinner on the table for six-thirty, and trying to field work calls on his mobile while dishing up.’
‘I’m sorry about your mum.’
‘That’s OK,’ Ollie shrugs and I decide not to ask more about it, let him open up if he wants to.
But he remains mute, so I move on. ‘What does your dad do?’
‘He’s an entertainment lawyer.’
‘That was not what I was expecting you to say.’
‘What were you expecting?’ he asks.
‘Medicine runs in the family, doesn’t it? I thought you’d say “doctor”.’
‘He’s not keen on me being a doctor.’
‘What? Why on earth not?’ I ask. ‘I thought any parent would be over the moon that their child wanted to help save the world.’
Ollie chuckles and it’s the first time I’ve really seen his face light up. He looks so different when he smiles, and I can’t help smiling infectiously in return.
‘My dad knows it’s going to pay badly. He looked up how little doctors earn and was appalled. Appalled. Add to that the long hours and how many years it’s going to take me to qualify, and how much money it’s costing: I’ll be well over sixty grand in debt by the time I qualify.
‘Holy shit,’ I say. ‘Sixty grand?’
‘And then the rest. And I might be a junior doctor for a very long time. Dad did his very best to put me off. But I don’t want to do what he does. I don’t want to put super-injunctions on people for grassing up a celebrity doing something they shouldn’t. It excites him. But I’m not interested.’
‘But you do want to save people?’
‘Yeah, I do,’ he says, casting his eyes to the bar where Liv and Ben are chatting away, four drinks in front of them, but showing no signs of returning to us yet. ‘I think I want to be a surgeon.’
‘You being a doctor was already pretty special, but “surgeon” elevated you all the way up.’
He smiles shyly. ‘We’ll see.’
Ollie holds my gaze for a moment and then his eyes drift back to the bar, to Liv, who’s returning to us holding two drinks, with Ben following behind.