by Shaw, Matt
“Because that will help get the van fixed?” asked Charlotte.
“It will give us somewhere to stay for the night. Michael can sit up and keep watch for passing traffic,” Dan pointed out.
“Seems fair,” said Lara.
Michael turned to her, “And you wonder why Joel sent you that text?”
“Fuck you.”
“And what if we don’t want to go with any of those options?” asked Charlotte - ignoring the potential argument between Lara and Michael.
“Well then I guess we have a hike...Pick a direction and head off to try and find some help...Or a phone to get help. I don’t know...I didn’t put us in this position and I don’t have the answers...Jesus...” Dan opened the door and stepped out to join Joel. He too slammed the door. Not because he was in a mood with anyone, he just couldn’t be dealing with anymore of their questions. Especially when he didn’t have the answers they desperately wanted.
“What’s wrong with him?” asked Charlotte.
“Might be my fault,” said Hayley. “Before we left he wanted...Well...You know...But we couldn’t. He always gets grumpy when I say no - as though I plan when to start my period just so I can deny him what he believes to be his right to sex.”
“You couldn’t just give him a quick hand-job?” asked Michael. “Use your mouth?”
Charlotte made a disapproving noise, from the back of her throat, as though the mere talk of hand-jobs and blow-jobs offended her. A disapproving noise which was, mostly, ignored by the rest of her friends.
“And get myself turned on in the process? Like that’s fair! He can wait. It’s not as though it’s normally for more than three or four days.”
“And there’s always the arse...” Michael chirped, wondering how far he could push Hayley. “Unless you’re one of these women who saves that for special occasions like Christmas and birthdays...”
“Joel was right,” said Hayley, “you’re a dick.” She opened her door and jumped out. The other girls didn’t wait around for Michael to start on them and also left the van.
“And now I’m sitting here all alone,” said Michael. He waited for a couple more seconds, “Yep...All alone...Fuck this.” He joined the rest of the group in the middle of the road.
Joel was in the middle of apologising, “I’m sorry...It’s been a long night and I’m just tired.”
Michael caught the tail end of the conversation as he closed the van door behind him and offered, “Want me to drive?”
Joel sighed, “Please can someone just shut him up? Please?”
Michael continued, “Come on, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. There, I said it. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for us to get lost. I didn’t mean for us to run out of petrol. It’s happened, we just need to stick together and deal with it. Like I said, we’ll be laughing about it in hours to come. We just need to stick together and plan what to do. There’s no point arguing about it.”
“He’s right,” said Charlotte - she hoped his apology and Joel’s previous apology would be the first steps to getting the rest of the group to calm down and get their holiday back on track. “This was supposed to be a fun weekend, let’s not ruin it.”
“So where do we go from here?” asked Joel.
“Are you sure the van ran out of fuel?” Michael asked.
“Yes, I’m sure,” replied Joel with a patronising tone in his voice.
“You say that but earlier you told me you had troubles starting the van...All that money to make it look good and yet nothing spent making it run as well as it could. Maybe something snapped under the hood?”
“You were having troubles with the van and you didn’t think to say anything?” Lara seized the opportunity to get involved.
“Yes, yes I was having troubles with the van. But I got it running again. And then we ran out of fuel. The orange light came on warning it was low ages ago...I’m telling you, we are running on empty.”
“As I said to the girls in the van, we have a choice. We can pitch up here and wait for someone to pass us by. It’s still early. This road could get busier later on. Or...Or we could pick a direction and head off to try and find a phone or someone who could help us. Finally we could just stand around here playing the blame game. Personally, I reckon we should pick a direction and start walking - for all we know there could be a petrol station just a little way over there behind the trees.”
“Or we could sit here and wait for someone to pass,” said Joel, “and Michael can go and see if he can find someone to help.”
“Whatever we decide,” Michael said, “we should stick together. What if I went off into the woods and I was attacked by a bear?”
“A bear? Seen many bears in England?” asked Lara.
Michael shrugged, “Doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Could be really good at disguise.”
Charlotte blurted out, “Let’s take a vote.” Anything to stop another round of trying to get one up over each other in the argument stakes. “I say we go for a little walk and see what we can find. What about you?” she turned to Lara.
“We should wait. At least for a bit. As Dan said, it’s early at the moment. Could get busier here later on.”
“I’ll walk with you,” said Michael. In fairness, he didn’t need to answer. As soon as Charlotte had cast her vote - it was clear to the group which way Michael would go.
“Surprise,” muttered Dan. “Look...Why don’t you two walk to the tree line and see if you can see anything in the distance. If you can’t then come back and Hayley and I will walk through one of the other fields and see if we can spot anything, in the distance, which may be of use...But we won’t head off until you’re back. Otherwise we could all get lost or all end up calling people out. That way we get all directions covered and leave people at the van just on the off chance anyone drives on by. Sound like a plan?” They all nodded - much to Dan’s relief. “And don’t forget to keep checking your phone whilst you’re walking,” he told Charlotte and Michael, “just because there’s no signal here - it doesn’t mean there won’t be any a little further down there. Might save yourselves a walk.”
“Sounds good to me,” said Michael - as though he was going to argue against having to spend time alone with Charlotte.
“Just try not to rape her when you get to the woods,” Dan pointed out, a wry smile on his face.
“What?” an alarmed look on Charlotte’s face.
“Fuck you!” Michael spat.
“I was joking,” Dan reassured Charlotte. “We all know Mike would never have been able to pin you!”
“Fuck you!” Michael spat once again.
The group laughed at Michael’s expense.
“Yeah, well, if I do happen to try it on and I do succeed...You only have yourselves to blame...Egging me on like that,” said Michael. He turned to Charlotte, “Let’s go.” He didn’t wait for an answer. He simply started walking in the direction of the nearest line of trees, at the far side of the field on the left hand side of the road.
“I don’t suppose anyone has a whistle I can blow on if he tries anything?” asked Charlotte - part of her joking, part of her deadly serious. The group took it as a joke and laughed it off as Charlotte started to walk after Michael.
“We’ll sound the horn if anyone comes down the road,” Joel called out after them.
Michael raised his hand in acknowledgement.
“So now what?” Joel asked as he turned back to the rest of the group. Immediately he noticed that Hayley and Dan had climbed back into the van, and closed the doors behind them and it was just Lara standing with him. “Oh...” he said.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to talk to me,” said Lara. “You have the perfect excuse not to, after all...No mobile phone signal. You couldn’t possibly send me a text message.”
“You’re never going to let me forget that, are you?” said Joel. It was more of a rhetorical question but she answered anyway.
“You think I’m ever going to forget that my first proper boyfrien
d dumped me via text message? Worse still - completely out of the blue.”
“I did say sorry,” he pointed out.
“No. No I don’t think you did,” said Lara - clearly annoyed.
“Well for what it’s worth, I am sorry.”
There was a pause as Lara waited for him to follow his apology up with a joke of some description. No joke came. “Thank you,” she said.
“And I promise not to dump my next girlfriend via text,” he joked.
Lara rolled her eyes.
* * * * *
“You don’t believe what they said, do you?” Michael asked Charlotte as they walked, side by side, through the country field of tall grass, towards the tree line on the horizon.
“That you’ll rape me?” she asked. She shook her head. “If I thought that...Firstly we wouldn’t be friends and secondly, I wouldn’t be walking towards a forest with you...”
“I actually meant about me fancying you...” he said sheepishly. It hadn’t even crossed his mind that she may have taken the previous conversations about ‘rape’ seriously.
“What? No. No,” she said.
“Because I don’t,” he continued.
“Oh, thanks. Good to know...”
“No...You know...You’re not my type...”
“Great. Anything else? Fat arse? Ugly?”
“No...Nothing like that. I just prefer blondes,” he continued - completely unaware of the hole he was digging for himself. “It’s not because you’re ugly. Because, you know, you’re not. Just, not for me...”
“Awesome,” she said in a completely monotone voice.
“I’m sure you’ll find someone though. Some day.” He meant it as a compliment despite how it came out.
“You think?” she asked sarcastically. “I do so hope so,” she continued, “I dream about it...”
“Well it will happen. No sense rushing it...”
“Look,” she said, “why don’t we walk in silence? Enjoy the peace and quiet of the countryside. It’s nice. Listen,” she lifted her hand to her ear and paused to take in the tranquility.
“I can’t hear anything,” said Michael missing the point completely.
Charlotte changed the subject, “Do you have any signal on your phone yet?” she asked as she checked her own mobile phone.
Michael fished his mobile from his pocket and gave it a check - still no service. He shook his head and started to walk again with Charlotte a few steps behind him - wishing she had stayed by the van with the others.
* * * * *
Joel shook his head in disgust, at the sight of Haley and Dan making out in the van, “If they stain the seats...”
“At least someone is having a nice time on this trip,” said Lara. She walked over to the roadside and sat on the grass verge.
Joel walked over and sat next to her, “Is it really that bad?”
“Look where we are,” she pointed out. “Has the holiday even started?”
“At least we’re talking,” said Joel, “so one good thing has come from it already.”
“You’ve calmed down from earlier.”
“You know me. I blow up and calm down pretty soon afterwards.”
“Same old, same old...One day you might learn to grow up a bit.”
Joel smiled, he let her get away with the slur. She did, after all, know him better than anyone else on the trip. Part of him even believed she knew him better than he knew himself.
“You know I regretted that text more or less as soon as I sent it,” he told her - his voice hesitant as to whether he should be admitting any of this.
“What?”
“I was angry. Can’t even remember what set me off.”
“You dumped me because you were in a mood?” she asked. Her facial expression pointed out how she felt about this - her tone of voice backed it up.
“I remember being gutted a few hours later. I wanted to call you and explain...I had made a mistake...I...”
“You had made a mistake?” Lara pounced on his words.
Joel nodded. “That’s how I felt. Wished I could take the text back.”
“You didn’t think to call me? Talk to me?”
“Would you have answered even if I had?”
“Probably,” she pointed out, “even if it were just to shout at you.”
“Fair point.”
“And you don’t remember why you sent me the text?”
“That’s the really tragic thing about it,” he laughed - more of a laugh of embarrassment. “So...Have you been seeing anyone?” he asked. Joel already knew the answer. Their mutual friends often let slip how miserable Lara had been since they stopped going out - which made Joel distance himself from them. He didn’t need the extra feelings of guilt tied in with his feelings of stupidity for sending the text in the first place. He had been doing okay, since leaving Lara, as he rarely saw her; it was easier to put her out of mind, although it still hurt. Since picking her up, though, with the others - slowly he had begun to remember the reasons why he had originally dated her, despite the fact she had been giving him a hard time. He could forgive her for treating him badly that morning. He knew, as soon as he pressed ‘send’ on the text message, it would upset her.
“Have you been seeing anyone?” she asked.
He shook his head. She didn’t need to know about the series of one-night stands he had ‘enjoyed’ since splitting with her. Lara didn’t know the girls he had slept with so there was no danger of her ever finding out and it would only cause her more upset.
“You should have just called me,” she said. “We could have talked...”
“Just didn’t seem fair.”
“I loved you,” she pointed out. “Some nights I hated you and some nights I wished you would have called. I loved you,” she repeated.
“Well...I love you,” he said throwing all caution to the wind.
“What?”
“Seeing you today just makes me realise what a mistake I made...The old feelings I had for you - they’re still there...”
“I don’t believe it...”
“I know, right..Who would have thought it?”
“No, look!” she pointed further down the road towards an oncoming truck.
CHAPTER FOUR
“Okay, I do like you,” Michael said as he suddenly span around to face Charlotte. Charlotte stopped dead.
“That’s good to know, I like you too,” she said. She always knew Michael had the potential to be a little quirky but today she was seeing him in a whole new light.
“No...I mean obviously I like you but I meant to say...I like you. You know, more than a friend.”
Charlotte smiled as she felt her face redden. She wasn’t so much blushing at the sudden announcement of feelings towards her, more so because of the way they were being made clear to her. Michael, the quirky bull in a china shop. Next up she wondered whether he was just going to follow-up his ‘love’ for her by reaching in and trying to fondle a breast.
“Well?” he asked. It was clear from his facial expression that he was hoping she was going to return the sentiment but she just stood there with the very same nervous smile on her face.
In Charlotte’s mind she had often wondered how this conversation would have gone. She pictured Michael to be capable of being extremely charming and romantic - especially considering he was often thought of as being some kind of modern-day Casanova amongst their friends who often told tales of his amazing ability at pulling the members of the opposite sex on crazy nights out. Now she could only picture him, in a club, sneaking rohypnol into the ladies’ drinks and waiting for them to fall unconscious so he could get his leg over. She opened her mouth, as though about to give him his answer, when she was suddenly disturbed by the sound of a horn - coming from across the field, back on the main road.
“Someone must have shown up,” she pointed out, with a barely audible sigh of relief that she hoped Michael didn’t pick up on. “Quick!” she about turned and started to run back towar
ds the road - hopeful that all mention of the previous conversation would disappear, forgotten, by the time they rejoined the rest of the group.
By the time the two of them crossed the field, the ‘help’ had already pulled up; a large pick-up truck with a car already being towed behind it. The driver, and his passenger, jumped out.
“Well, well, well...Isn’t this a turn-up,” said the passenger; the same man whom Joel had refused to help at the petrol station earlier.