| |
I got dressed into a pair of dark denim stretch jeans, with a form-fitting pink T-shirt, a dark, navy hooded jacket and a pair of pink Converse.
Rachel walked into our room just as Sinéad pulled a shirt over her head. The shirt she was wearing really accentuated her breasts and left bare skin visible between the hem of the shirt and the waistband of her jeans.
Rachel was wearing a long black dress, with long sleeves and a high neckline. It hung down to her ankles almost covering the black combat boots she was wearing. She looked at her wristwatch and told us to hurry.
I quickly pulled a brush through my long, reddish brown hair, before I rushed to the bathroom to brush my teeth.
The bathroom was brightly lit and the girl who looked back at me from the mirror looked okay. She could have been prettier, could have had bigger boobs, and she could have been skinnier. Never before did I have to compare myself to other girls, so I found myself, for the first time ever, a little inadequate.
When I got back to the room, I barely had time to put away my toothbrush and toothpaste, when Sinéad ushered me out of the room. Sinéad locked the room door behind us and then we walked down the stairs to the entrance hall.
The girl on door duty behind the desk in the entrance hall looked up at us when we walked into the hall. Whenever we wanted to leave the school grounds, we had to sign our names, dates and times in a large ledger, and when we returned, we had to do the same. It kept us safe and we all received a schedule of when it would be our turn to do door duty. “And where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
“For a little stroll,” Rachel said.
“All dressed up...”
Rachel interrupted her, “And nowhere to go.”
I felt guilty, because usually I always followed the rules, but I wanted to fit in. I wanted Sinéad to be my friend, and if she came in a package deal, I wanted Rachel to be my friend as well. I wanted them to want to be my friends, and not just because I was part and parcel of a holiday deal where they had no choice but to be my friend for a few days or a couple of weeks.
“You need to sign out,” the girl behind the desk said.
Rachel insisted, “We’re not leaving the school grounds, we’re only going to show the new girl around.”
When we walked out the front door and into the night, they both started giggling. I followed them to the end of the pathway and then we turned to the right, away from the direction of the entrance gates at the end of the long driveway.
I stopped walking, feeling unsure whether I should be doing this.
Sinéad insisted, “Come on, Amber. We’re sneaking out, remember. It’s this way.”
Rachel added, “It’s not as if we’re going to walk out of the entrance gates, you know.”
Her sarcastic tone hurt.
We walked along the front of the large building, and then skirted the corner.
“Just pretend we’re out for a little walk,” Sinéad whispered.
We walked along the side of the building and as we approached the back, I saw a thicket of trees lining the back boundary of the building.
“This is where it gets a little tricky. Follow me,” Rachel said in a soft voice.
We crossed the gravel walkway which surrounded the building and then quickly ran across a patch of grass and we were soon hidden within the darkness of the trees.
“Almost there,” Sinéad told me.
After I almost fell on my face, twice, because I kept getting my feet stuck on the roots of the plants beneath my feet, we got to a high stone wall and a dilapidated gate.
“It’s locked,” I mentioned when I saw the large, rusted padlock on the gate, but Rachel pulled a key from her bag and unlocked it. The gate swung open silently and then we waited on the sidewalk of a quiet residential road, while Rachel locked the padlock again.
My attention was diverted away from Rachel and the gate, to the boy who walked toward us. He was tall and ruggedly built, with dark, longish hair and almost black eyes.
Rachel smiled at him when she turned away from the gate and greeted him, “David. It makes me happy that you’re always on time.”
David wrapped his arm around Rachel’s waist and gave her a quick kiss on her lips.
Rachel introduced me, and then we ambled with him to his car.
When we got to his car, Rachel got into the front passenger seat, while Sinéad and I got into the back.
As David started the engine of his car, he said to Rachel, “Bradley and Mark will meet us there.”
Sinéad clapped her hands together softly and she leaned closer to me. She whispered, “I have a little crush on Mark.”
It jolted me a little when I heard the name, Bradley. But I knew it could not be my Bradley. He was at Uni, somewhere in this big city and I doubt I would even run into him or ever sneak out to meet him. Besides, he had a girlfriend and would not be waiting to meet girls.
I sat back in the seat, looking out at the city. Even though it still felt a little overwhelming to see so many people about, it was nice after growing up lonely.
David drove through the city toward the river. Near the river, he found a parking space and then we walked along the river toward a pub. Once we were inside the pub, he led us past the people standing around in groups, past large windows, bright with the view of the river and into a dimly lit V.I.P. room at the back of the building. He directed us toward a table where other people were seated and one of them looked up as we walked closer.
I stumbled when I recognised him.
He looked startled when our eyes met.
David pulled two more chairs closer from the vacant tables around us, and then I sat down on one of them. By no choice of my own, I ended up sitting next to Bradley and I felt very uncomfortable.
Rachel introduced me to Bradley and Mark.
I was just about to tell them that Bradley and I knew each other, when a girl with long, blonde hair walked up to the table and squeezed in onto the seat Bradley was sitting on, between him and me. She flung her arm around his shoulders and kissed him on his cheeks. “Miss me, baby,” she cooed.
Mark and Sinéad started joking with each other across the table, and I was glad for the distraction as I watched the banter between them with a faint smile on my lips.
My smile was all fake, hiding the turmoil inside of me. It was one thing to hear about Bradley having a girlfriend, but to see it with my own two eyes, felt as if my heart was being ripped from my chest.
Rachel and David seemed to be really into each other, which made me sit there like a fool with nobody to talk to.
A waitress brought drinks and placed them on the table. As he leaned forward to reach for his drink, he moved into my peripheral vision and I hated myself when I felt my heart flutter in my chest.
A noisy group of people walked into the room and I looked back across my shoulder. When I turned back to the table, I looked straight into Bradley’s eyes. I blushed and then quickly looked away. His girlfriend jumped up and rushed over to the noisy group of people and started talking to a couple of the girls in the other group.
Bradley leaned closer to me. I could feel him move into my space and he was messing with the atoms in the air around my body. The atoms around me clashed against each other violently and I could feel the electricity sparking between us. He looked unfazed, as he said, smirking, “You look familiar. Have we met before?”
Why was he pretending not to know me?
I looked back at him. Two can play this game. “I just arrived, so I doubt we have met before.”
He smiled. “From where have you just arrived?”
Really?
“The Highlands,” I replied curtly.
“The Highlands? What are you doing so far away from home?”
Was he making fun of me?
He insisted, “You do look like someone I know, but she’s locked in a castle, and I doubt she’d want to be seen hanging around in dingy pubs with strangers. She’s more into fairy-tales and books, and such.”
I glared at him.
“You look a lot like her, but not exactly.”
I felt like slapping him, so to keep my hands busy I reached for my soda and held it between both my hands.
He said, “You need to relax, Amber. Don’t always take everything so seriously.”
My room in the castle was too far away to run to, to hurl myself onto my bed and to cry myself asleep. I was alone, and I had to stand up for myself. I did not know why he was pretending he did not know me, until his girlfriend came back, and he quickly moved away from me to make space for her on the seat beside him. I realised; she was the reason he pretended not to know me. It was fine though; I did not want to know him either.
