Chapter Eighteen Amelia’s Story #2
She looked into the darkest eyes she’d ever seen, and a soft Edinburgh accent asked her, “Are you OK? You took a right tumble. Here, let me help you up.” She managed to whisper, “Thank you so much. I don’t know what happened. I just felt faint.”
He smiled at her. “I bet you haven’t eaten anything today. Girls never eat enough. Why don’t we get you a roll or a pie or something and some Irn Bru. That’ll make you feel better.”
She could only nod at him, and as she got to her feet, she deliberately stumbled against him so he would have to catch her and hold her again. “Let’s sit down for a minute until you feel less wobbly. I’m Lachlan, by the way.”
They sat down on a nearby bench. “I’m Amelia. Thanks for being so kind. I’m sorry to be a bother.”
“Och, don’t be daft. You are looking a wee bit better at least. I still think you should eat something though. It’s my first day here as well, but I know where the canteen is. Fancy chasing a pie around the room? I don’t imagine they are all that fresh.”
Amelia laughed and goosebumps popped up on her goosebumps. He was perfect. “It’s my first day too and I would love to chase a pie with you.”
He chatted to her all the way to the cafe and told her he was studying architecture and had all sorts of plans and designs buzzing around in his head. She said she’d considered being an architect too but, in the end, opted for a degree in design. She said she wanted to bring order out of chaos.
He paid for them both, and told her he lived with his mum and dad in Musselburgh but wanted to get a flat with his friends as soon as possible.
She replied that her parents were dead and she had been brought up by foster parents who didn’t really care about her, and that she was all alone in the world.
Amelia knew exactly how to wring the pathos out of this latest version of her story. She gave him just the shocking bare details and would embellish it later. She could tell Lachlan felt sorry for her from the sad look in his eyes. She gave him a brave smile.
“I’m hoping to make some friends here in Edinburgh. Everyone says Scottish people are friendly and I really hope that’s true. I’ve been a bit lonely to be honest.”
“Well,” said Lachlan, finishing up his pie. “You’ve met me already Amelia and I think I’m friendly.” He grinned at her. “See you later. Take care of yourself.”
Her stomach was full of hummingbirds. Lachlan walked out of the cafe and Amelia felt as though she could exhale properly for the first time since seeing him.
She might have made a bit of a fool of herself, falling over like that, but it had been a masterstroke.
They had bonded over pie, beans and chips, and she had to have him. He was hers.
She could also tell that he had money, was from a decent family and very popular.
She’d seen him greeted by a big group of lads through the window of the cafe.
Amelia imagined herself at the centre of a loving clan, adored and taken care of; finally living the life she was supposed to and she couldn’t wait to start planning her next move.
Lachlan was a kind, open and sweet-natured boy who thought the best of everyone and was surprised and delighted to bump into Amelia again at a pub in the Grassmarket a week later, not realising she had been stalking him since they first met and this was no chance encounter.
She had compiled a detailed dossier on all of his movements and discovered he went to The Last Drop pub with a few other boys most nights around 7pm. She also found out he had joined the debating society and the rugby club and was thinking about taking up hillwalking.
She had no interest in any of these pastimes and considered them almost offensively boring, but she’d walk to the top of Ben Nevis barefoot if it meant she could spend time with Lachlan.
Amelia had to stop herself from turning up at the pub right away. She didn’t want to appear too obvious, so she waited a couple of days, and made sure she was carrying a guidebook to climbing the Scottish Munros, hills over three thousand feet, all 282 of them.
Lachlan was at the crowded bar with his back to her, laughing at something his friend had said. She had a half pint of cider in her hand and deliberately backed into Lachlan spilling her drink all over her blouse and jeans.
He was full of apologies and then looked at her properly. “Amelia, right? Christ I’m sorry, I’m a clumsy idiot,” he added. “Here, let me get you another drink.”
“Not at all. It was my fault. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”
She looked up at him, “Oh, you are the guy who was so nice to me the other day. What’s your name again?” (As if it wasn’t carved into her heart.)
“It’s Lachlan.”
“Of course. I remember now.” She looked around, “I was supposed to be meeting some new friends here but it’s so busy I can’t see them anywhere.” She waved the guidebook. “We were meant to be talking about going hiking.”
This was obviously a downright lie but Lachlan’s eyes lit up. “I’ve been wanting to find a walking buddy, but you look like you’re way ahead of me.”
“Not really. I’m just aiming to bag all the Munros, maybe we could build up to grabbing a few together?”
He bought Amelia a cider and Babycham then another. They yelled into each other’s ears over the babble of loud music and other people’s raucous conversations. After a few more drinks, Lachlan walked her back to her halls of residence past the castle and up Lothian Road.
They talked easily. Amelia had done her homework and knew his interests. He was charmed that they liked the same music and movies and he felt protective of this poor orphaned girl who clearly needed looking after.
He kissed her on the cheek and said shyly, “Amelia. I’m not really looking to have a steady girlfriend but …
” She interrupted him. She had decided it would be best to pay it cool at the start, so said, “I understand. You’ve just arrived here and you want to have some fun. I get that. Don’t worry about it.”
“No. I mean I was going to say I hadn’t planned on meeting someone so soon, but I really like you, Amelia, and I want to get to know you better.
Would you come out with me on Saturday? We could grab something to eat.
Or just go for a walk.” He paused and looked worried, “Or maybe you think it really is too soon?”
She smiled at him, putting on her most innocent-looking, sweet and naive expression. “I’d love to go out with you, Lachlan. Here’s my number. Give me a call.”
She ran up the stairs to her tiny room and danced around in glee. It was all falling into place. Soon they would be a couple and then she would have him all to herself. Amelia told herself she would have a completely different life from her father and step-mother and from the ghastly Eric and Ruth.
After a few weeks, Lachlan and Amelia became inseparable, and she managed to keep up her act of being the perfect girlfriend. In her mind, the only way to be completely sure of Lachlan was to give him what she believed every man wanted.
So she’d sit freezing and bored stiff at rugby games but cheer, smile and pretend to be having a great time. They’d go for long walks up Arthur’s Seat and she’d prepare picnics that Lachlan would carry in his backpack complete with real glasses and a red-and-white check table cloth.
She helped him study and laughed at his friends’ lame jokes. Lachlan was generous, Amelia quickly noted, picking up the tab for drinks and dinners, and when she was worried about affording a textbook, he bought her a brand-new copy.
She sometimes helped herself to money from Lachlan’s wallet, especially after a drunken night out, when he’d groan and wonder how on earth he could have spent that much. But she knew that his family kept him generously provided for, so why shouldn’t she have some of that cash.
She quickly realised Lachlan couldn’t cope with unpleasantness of any kind, especially anyone being sad or upset. He was a people pleaser, so she only had to frown slightly or make tears come to her eyes, and he’d do whatever he could to avoid her crying.
Her chin would wobble if he said he was going out with the boys or couldn’t make it to one of their dates, and he would end up cancelling and spending time with her instead.
This made him more and more uncomfortable, and he was beginning to have niggling doubts about Amelia.
He had caught disconcerting glimpses of the real person when her mask slipped.
There was the time she had ranted at a beggar in Princes Street for touching her hand when he asked her for spare change.
He saw venom and hatred in her eyes and flinched.
She had tried to make light of it saying the man had scared her, but, a few days later, he had caught her looking at one of his friends with bored disdain when he was talking excitedly about being picked for the rugby team.
Lachlan came to realise he knew very little about Amelia. She had no friends and no interest in meeting other people, whereas he wanted to enjoy the social side of university.
“You are more than enough for me, Lachlan. Why would I want to spend time with anyone else?” she would say. If he encouraged her to meet up with some of his pals’ girlfriends she would look worried and ask if he was bored with her.
Then he would have to reassure her, and they would inevitably find themselves in bed together.
By now they had slept together a few times and although Lachlan had enjoyed himself enormously as only a testosterone-fuelled 18-year-old boy can, he increasingly felt as though Amelia was acting out a part for him.
As she lay under or over him, writhing, panting and squealing, it felt as though she was waiting on the director of the movie in her head to shout ‘cut’.
He had to admit that the sex was good, although he didn’t have much to compare it with.
He just felt that having a girlfriend shouldn’t be this difficult. It was exhausting.
He realised he was never completely at ease with her and they didn’t laugh together at silly things.
When he made a funny remark or attempted a joke she would look at him in complete bewilderment.
It gradually dawned on him that they just weren’t right for each other, and she was making him miserable.
They continued to see each other for the next few months but Lachlan was feeling increasingly trapped by Amelia. Things came to a head when she visited his family. She’d kept dropping hints about spending a weekend with them, but it was a big mistake.
Perhaps she was nervous or maybe she thought she didn’t have to try too hard anymore, but for once Amelia forgot to keep up her perfect girlfriend act. Truth be told Amelia was becoming bored with the part she’d been playing and Lachlan wasn’t living up to her expectations.
She offended his strictly religious parents by laughing at them saying grace, didn’t eat her food, talked over his younger sister and was generally deeply unpleasant.
After they’d left, his mother called him. An expensive necklace that had belonged to his grandmother was missing. She didn’t want to point fingers but wondered if it had anything to do with Amelia.
When Lachlan tentatively mentioned if maybe Amelia had taken it by mistake, she flew into a blind rage, accusing Lachlan’s mother of trying to turn him against her, swearing blind that she had nothing to do with it.
He tried to calm her down, but she was hysterical, pummelling his chest with her fists and swearing and crying. Lachlan knew he had to put this relationship out of its misery and from that moment on he avoided her completely.
She left increasingly manic messages on his answerphone and even came round to his flat banging on the door demanding to be let in.
The days turned into weeks and Lachlan stayed away from classes as she kept following him there.
He told his lecturers he was ill and worked hard at home, trying to lose himself in his studies.
Lachlan was too embarrassed to complain about her, believing he would be laughed at for being scared of a wee bit of a lass.
So he swerved his usual haunts and mostly stayed in by himself while his flatmates enjoyed Edinburgh’s nightlife.
When Amelia battered and kicked his door, screaming like a banshee, he hid in his room and refused to answer or got one of the other boys to say he was out.
Another couple of months went by, and the threatening texts and messages dwindled to a few a day instead of more than a dozen every hour.
Amelia had finally stopped coming round and creating a scene and Lachlan thought he was in the clear, especially when he saw her draped on the arm of another boy.
He wanted to go over and tell the poor sucker to run for the hills as fast as his legs would carry him, but he couldn’t risk Amelia’s wrath. He was just glad to have escaped but there was one last sting from her.
She messaged him, saying she was pregnant and needed money for an abortion, demanding ￡1,000 or she would tell his parents. He was so afraid of the trouble she would cause and how upset his mum and dad would be that he cashed in savings from his godmother and sent her the money.
Amelia pocketed the grand and wished she’d asked for more. What she really wanted was for Lachlan to come crawling back to her so she could have the satisfaction of telling him to go and fuck himself.
In the flick of a switch, Amelia’s all-consuming infatuation with Lachlan had turned to disdain. She told herself it didn’t matter. There were always other victims and she had made a fair bit of easy cash from selling the necklace that Lachlan’s mother had loved so much.
And that was the beginning of her downward spiral.