Chapter 3 #3
‘Absolutely. What about you? What do you have to go back to tonight? You hitting … I was going to say the town, but Canterbury’s a bit like Calais on a Sunday night.’
‘Yeah, that’s why we had our big one last night. I think I’ll just hang out with Will, if we’re speaking again when we get home … And if we’re not, I think my housemates were going to have a movie night, so I can always crash that.’
‘Some great romcom to cheer your heart.’
‘Or turn it more to stone.’ I sighed.
‘You know, you should all come to my party.’
‘Oh,’ I said, trying to think of a polite way to decline, ‘I don’t know.’
‘What, are you too cool to hang out with a load of first years?’
‘Well, you know, you’re OK, but the rest of them, they’re so much younger.’ I was never a big fan of drinking lukewarm wine and making small talk at the best of times, let alone with first years who always seemed so eager.
‘That year makes all the difference.’ The sarcasm was thick in his voice. ‘But if you must know, Paul took a gap year too, Terry’s a fourth year, Jan is a Danish exchange student, and Bruce, well, I doubt he’ll even make it to the party given how much he was drinking before he boarded the coach.’
I loved his descriptions of his eclectic mix of housemates and part of me did want to go.
‘Plus, we probably could do with people to help us drink all the booze we bought before Paul started feeling queasy.’
‘Well, when you put it like that.’
I watched out of the window at the passing scenery, goosepimples spreading up my arms because nothing was looking familiar.
‘Noah, is it just me … ’ I started but didn’t finish. I was too busy watching in horror as we drove into an industrial estate and up to a gigantic hypermarket that looked incredible, but nothing like the one we’d left.
‘Oh shit. It’s the wrong one,’ said Noah. ‘But it looks huge, exactly the type of place that would have Goldschl?ger.’
‘Focus, Noah, focus. Um, excusez-moi. Wrong Carrefour,’ I said, turning my attention to the driver. ‘Il y a beaucoup Carrefour?’
I tried in my best pidgin French to convey the situation, but I was so worked up it would be hard even if I was explaining in English to an English driver.
‘Are there others?’ said Noah pointing. ‘City Europe.’
The driver made some guttural noise and sped off, the car screeching.
‘Do you think it’s far?’
‘Let’s hope not,’ said Noah, digging his phone out of his pocket. He started to tap away at the keys and held it up to his ear. ‘I’m trying Paul.’
I nodded, knowing my phone wouldn’t work as I didn’t have roaming.
‘No bloody answer.’
‘I hope he won’t miss it too; he didn’t seem well.’
Noah pulled a face. This was becoming more hopeless as the minutes passed by. I went to play with the charm on my bracelet, but my wrist was bare.
I shook out my sleeve, hoping that it had fallen off into my jumper, but there was nothing.
‘Shit,’ I muttered, looking around my lap in faint hope.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘My bracelet’s gone.’
‘The four-leaf clover?’ he asked.
‘You noticed it?’
‘In the crêperie. Maybe it came out when you put your coat on. Was it valuable?’
‘No, I bought it at a craft market years ago; it’s just one of those things I put on when I was doing my GCSE exams and then I’ve sort of always worn it, for luck.’
‘Did you want to go back?’
He was being sincere and part of me wanted to hug him for being so sweet, but I knew we couldn’t go back for that.
‘Like we’ve got time? No, it’s fine. Honestly.’
I’d grown used to fiddling with it when I was stressed; I’d have to find something else to distract me instead.
Noah’s phone rang and I sighed with relief. That must be Paul. He could delay the bus until we get there.
‘Hey, you.’ There was almost a purr in Noah’s voice, giving me the impression that it wasn’t Paul.
‘Yeah, having a nice time. Listen, I’m just trying to race back to the bus, so now probably isn’t the best time …
uh-huh, ah, yeah … in a taxi … uh-huh, no with Lucy …
she’s just a mate. One of the guys really …
yeah, I’m sure you’ll meet her when you’re next down.
’ He shut his eyes tight for a moment. ‘Yeah, OK, love you too. I’ll call when I’m back. ’
He hung up the phone.
‘One of the boys?’ I arched an eyebrow.
‘Yeah.’ He looked sheepish. ‘I’ve found that’s the worst part of long distance, it’s easy to imagine things that aren’t there. Best make sure she knows straight away there’s no need to worry.’
My fragile ego was a little affronted that there was no need to worry, but I understood his logic.
‘I guess that makes sense.’
I saw the clock on the dashboard change to quarter past.
‘How long do you think they’ll wait?’ I was going for light and breezy in my tone, but my voice came out pitchy. ‘What time is the ferry? Isn’t it at four?’
My stomach was churning. Why hadn’t I just stayed and gone on a cheese hunt?
‘I think it’s four,’ said Noah, looking out the window at the hotels we were whizzing past. ‘Looks like there are plenty of places to stay if we get stuck.’
I stared hard. It would be Sod’s law that I’d have to use all my birthday money to stay in one of them overnight.
‘Don’t look so scared,’ said Noah, putting his hand on my arm. ‘I’m just teasing – we’d be able to get back on another ferry as foot passengers.’
‘Right.’ I nodded. I hadn’t let myself consider what would happen if we missed it, but it was slowly sinking in that it could be a reality. My breathing was getting shallower and my palms sweatier.
‘Lucy, stay with me,’ he said, reaching for my hand. ‘It’s going to be OK.’
He gave me such a sincere smile that it spread calmness all over my body. I looked out the window, still aware we were holding hands, but doing nothing about it.
‘Oh my god, there it is, City Europe.’ I tapped on the glass to point at the archways coming into view.
‘Any sign of the bus?’
I craned my neck, trying to spot it out the window.
‘I think this is the wrong car park, wasn’t it over the other side of that Tesco’s?’
I looked beyond it but the driver had already flicked off his meter.
‘I’ve got this one,’ said Noah, handing over the euros. ‘It’ll be quicker to cut across there.’
We hastily thanked the driver and started to run. My boots were slipping and I couldn’t keep up with Noah, so he grabbed my wrist and helped keep me upright.
‘I can see it,’ he shouted.
The bright-blue bus stood out in the sea of grey. Noah and I waved frantically and the closer we got the more faces I could see gawping out of the windows at us.
‘They waited,’ he panted. ‘Fuck, we actually made it.’
We waited for the electronic door to swish open.
‘You two are bloody lucky,’ said the Student Union rep before we had a chance to step onboard. ‘We were just about to go. This one made us wait.’
He gestured to Paul who was sitting in the front row, resting on the safety rail that ran along in front of it. He did at least try and raise a hand in our direction.
There was a cacophony of cheers from the rugby team, who all looked as worse for wear as Paul, when we climbed the steps up to the seats. The only person not cheering was Will. His face was like thunder as he marched down the aisle towards us.
‘Where the hell did you go?’ His hands were placed on his hips and it reminded me of the times before Dad left that I’d tried to sneak in after curfew.
‘Into town. I didn’t mean to cut it so fine. The taxi took us to the wrong supermarket.’
He stared over my shoulder at Noah and then back at me. He tutted loudly and turned and stormed back the way he came.
‘I take it that’s the boyfriend,’ whispered Noah as the coach lurched and we hastily sat down in the seats behind Paul.
‘He was just worried.’
‘So worried that he was on the coach, ready to go?’
I shook my head. Now wasn’t the time.
‘I should go and sit with him.’ I looked down the back of the coach and I could see the top of Will’s head halfway down.
‘Sorry, I’ll stop, but,’ he said, gesturing to Paul, ‘you know you’re welcome to stay here, seeing as he’s replaced me with a bucket.’
Paul gave us a thumbs up without lifting his head.
‘Thanks, but I better sort things out with Will.’
Noah smiled. ‘Thanks for today’s mystery tour.’
‘It’s me that should be thanking you. Thanks for being that white knight.’
He laughed. ‘Anytime. And I meant what I said, about the party tonight.’
I saw the look that Will gave Noah earlier. Going to his party would probably be like pouring fuel onto a fire.
‘I’ll see.’
‘In case you change your mind. I’m at 22 Ellenden Court, over in Parkwood.’
‘OK,’ I said, getting to my feet only to find myself sitting down again. ‘And if I don’t make it tonight, it was nice to meet you.’
I stuck my hand out for Noah to shake. It was an oddly formal end to the afternoon, but I somehow didn’t know how to say goodbye to him.
Noah smiled and shook my hand, with a firm grip. ‘It was nice to meet you too, fellow leapling. Enjoy the rest of our birthday.’
I gave a wave and headed down the coach, gripping the tops of the seats as I went. I got the impression that the driver was trying to get us to the port at breakneck speed to make up for our tardiness, and I almost ended up on the laps of a couple of the rugby players.
I made it to my seat next to Will, and he shuffled across so that I wasn’t touching him in the slightest. To make his point even further, he turned so far that he was almost looking at the back of his seat rather than out of the window.
I stared at the back of his head, incredulous. He really wasn’t going to attempt to make this better.
‘You’re the one who wouldn’t come with me when I went into town,’ I said, almost in a whisper.
‘And you’re the one who’s been ungrateful about this whole trip.’
I gritted my teeth. What was I doing sitting next to Will? Why was I putting up with this?
There was a tiny knot starting to tighten in my stomach as I thought about this afternoon.
I wasn’t sure if it was Noah’s opinion on Will and how he thought he should have treated me, or the way he described his own relationship and how much he believed in it.
Or maybe it was that spending the afternoon with a guy who was actually interesting, and funny, and nice, had made me realise that Will wasn’t really any of those things, not anymore.
I should have sat next to Noah. I looked at his blue cap, like a beacon at the front of the coach, and I wondered if, when we got back onto British soil, I should text the girls and see if they fancied going to his party.
I leaned back into the seat and closed my eyes, relieved to have made it on to the coach. A small smile crept over my lips as I replayed our frantic taxi ride to get here, the anger starting to ebb away as I imagined the story I’d have to tell the girls when I got home.