Chapter 2
’s gonna find it hard with her living here now you know” referred to whilst him and sorted everybody’s drinks in the kitchen.
“Yeah I know, but there’s not exactly anything any of us can do is there!” replied….
The kitchen door opened, stopping their conversation, and causing them both to turn and face it, had just entered.
“You alright mate?” asked.
“Yeah fine” unconvincingly smiled. “Erm, do you think it’s a good time now, while everyone’s here, to tell about the holiday?”
“Oh” reacted as if reminded of something. “Yeah ok then why not, we go in 3 days anyway so she does need to know!” They all laughed….
“Come on then” said, and after grabbing a drink to help and , re-entered the living room where and were happily chatting.
sat back down next to , and falsed a yawn and stretched his arms behind her head. looked over at him curiously as to what he was going, and smiled as he pulled an envelope with his returned hand which he hid up his sleeve.
“Oh my god look what just appeared out of nowhere!” tried to use the best acting skills he had. “Oh look and it’s got your name on”….
nudged in the ribs for being so stupid, and laughed as she thanked him and took the envelope. All sets of eyes in the room were on her. She knew they were up to something, and she grew curious as she opened the envelope wary of what was inside while the others stayed unusually quiet, waiting….
“OH My…. Are these….?”…
….“Plane tickets?” smiled, finishing ’s sentence.
“Are they for us? For me? Are you serious?”….
…..“As a heart attack! Those are tickets for us all to go to that place you always said you wanted to go from a very young age” smiled…
“Whe….” pulled a confused face, and reverted to the tickets to check the destination. “WHA….. LAPLAND!”
The others laughed at her excited reaction, and looked a bit taken-aback by her forceful hugs each in turn. She squealed and thanked them all before returning to her seat next to . She couldn’t believe it.
“So erm… I don’t mean to sound pushy, but when are we actually going?” asked, not being able to take the smile from her face.
“In 3 days time. It’s a gift from us all for your 21st birthday next week.” answered. ’s jaw was almost on the floor. The others had to laugh, it meant so much to them to see her so happy, especially knowing they were the cause of it.
“I can’t believe it! Thankyou so much! Oh my god! 3 days! That’s not long to get sorted!”….
“Well… maybe you could get to help you out. You 2 can do your holiday shopping or whatever you girls do to ‘get sorted’ together, cause oh…. Did we mention, is coming too!?” grinned from ear-to-ear as he saw ’s jaw drop once again.
“I can’t bloody believe this!” squealed, bobbing about in her chair with excitement. “You guys, really are the bestest friends anyone could wish for! I’m going to go ring ok, see if she wants to meet up and go shopping or something. I can’t believe you all kept this a secret. Thankyou so much!” managed to splutter out before she got up and made her way to the door exiting the living room.
“You’re welcome babe” said, not sure whether he had been heard as she raced upstairs. “Bless her” he mumbled, smiling to himself.
The lads turned the TV back up and in-between catching small glimpses of a programme about ‘The Life Story of the Dodo,” had small chats about and the holiday.
noticed apparently staring into nothingness, and not really contributing to the conversations much, except with the odd grunt to show he agreed.
“You know… too much thinking is bad for ya.” broke ’s daydream by leaning across and talking to him.
“Huh...” startled. “Oh…what? What you on about, course thinking isn’t bad for ya!” laughed. didn’t seem as amused….
“Well, when it concerns what you’re thinking about, then it could be classed as bad for ya… so try not to ok?”…
looked at quite blankly for a few seconds, before looking down at his lap, as if upset, and then back at the door had left through a little while ago…
“I can’t help it though .”
“I know mate.” squeezed his friends shoulder for comfort. smiled, and turned his attention to the TV.
“Just wait and see yeah. I know it’s gonna be hard now with living here, but try be strong.” started up the conversation again…
“Yeah….ok” sighed. “How long do I have to wait though?”…
simply smiled as his answer. He didn’t know what he could possibly say to that without the possibility of making it worse. They both turned back to the TV, saying no more on the subject.
About 45 minutes later, returned to the living room, beaming with excitement.
“We’re going shopping in a couple of hours.” said as she occupied the empty seat next to on the sofa.
“I hope you don’t mean ‘we’ as in us?” panicked looking round at his friends.
“No you fruitcake! Me and !” laughed, while the others jokingly let out sighs of relief. “You haven’t left me with much time! And I already feel really shattered today for some reason, its only 11am! How pathetic is that? Can I lie down?” asked . He nodded with a grin, and rearranged herself across the sofa, resting her head on ’s lap.
Butterflies formed instantly in ’s stomach. He wasn’t sure where to rest his hands, but his natural instinct caused him to gently start stroking ’s hair. sighed with pleasure and closed her eyes as gently ran his fingers through ’s soft hair. beated himself up inside for not telling how he felt…how he had felt for the past 3 years, for fear of ruining their friendship.
’s gentle touch sent into a light sleep…
“” whispered…
“” He gradually got louder, tucking her hair behind her ears in hope she might hear him better.
Eventually she disturbed, turning herself over to look at . She was in a bit of a daze when she first woke up, rubbing her eyes to try and see sense...
“Huh….what..?”
“Its ok hun, you fell asleep.” smiled.
“Oh god I’m sorry” apologised and sat herself up on the sofa next to .
“Don’t be” smiled…
“Where are the others?” looked around stretching at the same time.
“Oh they popped to the shops to get some beers and bits for the house about 15 minutes ago.”…
“Why didn’t you go?” felt guilty. “You should have just woke me up!”
“That’s alright; I didn’t really fancy it to be honest. The only reason I woke you up now is because I remembered about 2 minutes ago that you were going shopping in about 20 minutes time, so I thought I’d better wake you up”….
“God is that the time already then?” asked stunned, looking at her watch, realising she had been asleep on ’s lap for just over an hour and a half.
“Yep” he laughed… “You were sound like a baby”...
“That’s because of all that stroking you were doing, it was lovely”
“I know.” grinned. laughed….
“Well don’t flatter yourself , but I suppose it is a good thing you know you’re a good hair stroker. I bet you get all the ladies who have had the privilege of experiencing your talent say the same” joked, elbowing him in the ribs.
“Well no they….look, I didn’t mean it like that…I meant….that I enjoyed stroking your hair. It was lovely.” lovingly smiled, although the smile was soon drained from his face when he noticed ’s blank, confused expression across hers. wondered if he had meant that how it sounded, but thought nothing of it, returning a smile to her face again.
“…..” started, looking deep into ’s eyes….
“What?” She laughed at the seriousness of at this moment.
shook his head lightly. “Nothing” he smiled. was slightly confused, but made nothing of it.
“Right I’m gonna go meet now” stood up... “Are you gonna be ok here on your own? You can come if you want?”….
“No honestly I’m fine. You go. The others will be back soon.” answered.
“Ok then well if you’re sure. Cya a bit later then.” said leaning over and giving a hug. He held on quite tightly, and pro-longed the short goodbye as long as he could, which made laugh as they were finally separated.
“Bye babe” said to the front door as it closed behind .
, now alone in the house, threw his head back onto the sofa and let out a huge sigh. He had a chance then to tell the girl he loved how he felt. How could he risk their friendship though? It was too precious, but deep inside, he knew that just by not telling her was eating him alive, slowly. It would be a huge risk, but it was only a matter of time before something came out. It had to; it was becoming unbearable for
….
TBC….