“No, but you are hanging out with jocks. So, who knows!”
“I know,” I told her. “Just friends.”
“Fine,” she huffed. “Is there a boy?”
“Why is it always about boys with you?” I laughed.
“Elliott, if you have children, you will soon discover that they come to an age where you have no idea what to talk to them about. If that time comes, you’ll resort to something that you hope has the best chance of being safe and the smallest chance of being considered ‘out of date’. One thing that’s almost universal is romance. Also, I’m really nosey.”
I laughed again and slowed as I saw Mum’s soft smile.
“In that case, there could be a boy. Maybe.”
“Oo, tell me more.”
“His name’s Jake. He’s in Year 12 and on the rugby team with Luke, one of my new friends.”
“Is that how you met him?”
I shook my head. “No. He came and talked to me at Lunch.”
Mum gasped sarcastically. “You mean he actually approached you unprovoked?”
I nudged her gently. “Shut up.”
“Is your resting bitch face slipping, or he is unbelievably brave?”
I snorted. “To save face, I’m gonna say he’s unbelievably brave.”
Mum smiled at me. “That’s my girl.”
We spent the rest of the trip home – extended by us stopping for an early dinner/snack – talking about boys and school and work, and singing very loudly and mostly off-key to songs she grew up with and I’d been forced to listen to all my life. Time seemed to fly and it made me realise that I’d missed Mum more than I’d thought. It was nice to catch up with her in person.
I spent the holidays much busier than I’d anticipated.
I saw Flick and Leah and Marsh more often than I did before I moved schools. Needless to say, they weren’t too pleased I hadn’t told them about rooming with Alex earlier. They forgot about it by the time I was telling them about Jake and they’d caught me up on their lives and the life I’d left behind.
I hung out with Mum at work a bit. It wasn’t the first time I’d spent the holidays at the library since Dad had died, and they liked to keep me busy. They were also a captive audience for my fangirling over the Acacia library. Finally, people who understood.
There was also the compulsory dinner with my dad’s parents so they could hear all about Acacia. They approved of my enthusiasm for the learning and the library, pleased that I appreciated ‘quality’ when I experienced it. As per Mum’s suggestion, we didn’t tell them about the dorm allocation mess. I just told them that my roommate was nice and we’d become friends. They were more pleasantly surprised by that than I thought they had a right to be.
Messages flew between me and other, real humans. Not only was Alex messaging me just between the two of us, but he’d added me to a group chat with the other boys so that my phone was dinging most of every day with stuff flying back and forth. And I actually responded way more often than I’d have thought me capable.
Jake was also exchanging messages with me. Not nearly as often as the others, but with a regularity than had me wondering how a relationship with him would work.
I’d learnt he was one of the farm kids, living only a couple of hours from school. That put him about three hours away from me when making good time. Sure, I could see him most of the year. But how did you even date at a boarding school? I made a metal note to ask Alex if it was ever necessary. Time would tell on that one.
Before I knew it, two weeks was over and it was back to school for me. Between everything that had gone on, I’d managed to sit the test for my Learner’s permit, so Mum even let me drive some of the way. That added an hour or so to our drive.
Mum helped me haul my bags with all my freshly laundered clothes up to my dorm and we said our goodbyes. This time, I promised her I’d give her a call. I think she liked that.
“Hey, you’re here,” Alex said with a smile as he walked into the dorm room.
I nodded. “I made it back safe. Just had practice?”
He grimaced. “Yep.”
“How was it?” I felt like he wanted me to ask.
“Froze my ruddy bollocks off.” He did a little jig like his bollocks needed reassurance or whatever it was that bollocks needed or wanted.
“I’d have thought the exorbitant fees covered things like pool heating,” I remarked.
“Oh, they do, wisearse.” But he was smiling as he said it. “But it broke over the holidays and was only turned back on last night.”
“I assume it takes a while for it to heat the pool, then?”
“A couple of days this time of year.”
I looked at him. “Wait a minute. Why do you even have practice now? It’s a Winter term.”
He nodded. “Yeah. The Acacia Angelsharks do all the Swimming SA competitions, even over Winter. Next one’s on the twenty-third.”
I searched him, not sure why he’d lie. It’d make a pretty shitty prank or joke or whatever. Finally, I had to conclude that, as bizarre as that sounded to my non-swimmer brain, it must be legit.
I shrugged. “All right, then.”
Term Two was markedly different to Term One.
Namely, as I went to sit at my empty table end for Lunch that first day back, two people took hold of one of my arms each and steered me towards a different table. I still had my tray in my hands and I looked from side to side to find Luke and Birdman – not surprising as they were the tallest of the boys.
“You guys quite all right?” I asked them as they finally hovered me over a chair and gracefully dropped me into it.
Birdman nodded. “All good,” he said as he dropped beside me.
I looked around the Dining Hall to try to get my bearings. “I’m at your table. What am I doing at your table?” I asked the boys as more of them dropped into seats around me.
Zac, Fret and Luke sat across from me and, finally, Alex sat beside me. He gave me a companionable elbow as he settled.
“What is it you like to say?” Alex mused. “The extroverts are kidnapping your introverted arse. You’re ours now.”
“I’m yours now?” I looked around at them, one eyebrow raised in question.
“Not, like…ours…” Fret said quickly.
“But like…us…?” Zac didn’t sound sure. “Ow!” he snapped at Alex.
“Did you just kick him?” I laughed at the absurdity of it all.
“We had a plan,” Alex hissed at Zac and Fret. “Stick to the plan.”
“The plan was to kidnap me and make me yours?” I asked him. “Cavemen, much?”
Alex rolled his eyes. “You pedant. Ours, like our friend. Like one of us.” He gestured to the other boys. “Like we’re each other’s people. You know?”
I appreciated the sentiment. Three months ago, maybe not. But Term-Two-at-Acacia-Lottie appreciated it. I definitely appreciated Alex’s word use. Who knew he knew what a pedant was?
“You’re saying you’re my people?” I clarified.
Alex nodded, seemingly very proud of himself. “Yes.”
“Whether I like it or not?”
“Is that not the only way introverts get themselves friends?”
I had to give him that one. It wasn’t the only way, but it was the most common. What kind of introvert would I be if I didn’t get adopted by a bunch of extroverts at some point in my life? Now was just as good a time as any.
I sighed. “All right. Fine.”
“Fine?” Alex asked, a smile dying to get out but hesitating in case I changed my mind.
I nodded. “Fine. You’ve convinced me. You’re my people.”
“That was a lot easier than I expected,” Fret said as he stole one of Birdman’s chips.
Birdman smacked his hand. “Why didn’t you get your own?”
Fret pointed to his tray. “But, noodles.”
I nodded again and pointed at Fret. “Du
de has a point.”
Birdman looked at my tray. “You gonna steal my chips, too?”
I smirked. “Nah. I’ve got Alex’s,” I told him as I took a chip off Alex’s tray.
“Oi!” he cried.
I shrugged and gave him my best coy look. “I thought you were my people?”
“And that means you get to steal my chips?”
“Um…” I pretended to think about it. “Yes.”
Alex muttered under his breath, but it was too low for me to catch. Then he nudged me and grinned. “I’ll get double tomorrow.”
Birdman laughed. “You would finally use your charm for extra chips, and you do it for her?”
Alex shrugged. “We kidnapped her, it seems only polite to treat her well.”
Birdman nodded. “Yeah, okay. Fair point.”
And it was like that every day. If I even hinted that I was going to sit in my old spot – out of habit rather than spite – I’d be gently steered to their table. No one in the rest of the school made a mention of it. They didn’t look at me weirdly for it. It was like, in reality, nothing had changed. I’d made new friends and the world had gone on regardless. Who’d’a thunk it?
On Friday, there was a strange voice at the dorm door. “Hey, Lottie is it?”
I looked up from my typical window seat spot. There was a girl standing there. One I might have seen around but certainly didn’t know. She was obviously dressed up. Casual, but nice casual. It hadn’t got too cold yet that her dress was completely inappropriate for the weather. My assumption was that Alex had another date. Didn’t hurt to not make assumptions, though.
“Uh, yeah. Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for Alex.”
I nodded. “I’ll find him.”
It wasn’t like there was terribly many places he could be. He was either in his room or in the bathroom.
I uncurled myself and saw the bathroom door was closed. I knocked on it.
“Yeah?” Alex called through the door.
Established protocol the term before dictated that ‘yeah’ meant it was safe to open the door and ‘hang on’ meant ‘do not under any circumstances open that door unless you’re ready to see something you couldn’t unsee’.
I opened the door and found him doing his hair.
“Super classy getting the girls to pick you up for dates,” I quipped.
He grinned at me through the mirror. “What can I say? I’m a classy kinda guy.”
I shook my head. “She’s here. Shall I tell her you’ll be…another two hours?”
“Har, har. No. I’m all good.” A couple more tweaks of his hair that made no discernible difference and he stepped away from the mirror.
I nodded. “Good.”
Alex and I left the bathroom, me to my window seat and him over to the door.
“Hey,” he said, all suave sophistication. “Sorry to keep you waiting.”
The girl smiled and gushed, “No worries. I might have been early.”
“Shall we?”
She nodded. “Sure.”
“I’ll see you later, E,” Alex said to me and I looked up from my book long enough to catch his eye. “I expect you to have not moved.”
I stuck my tongue out at him. “Funny. Have a good night. Behave.”
The girl giggled at my suggesting they’d get up to anything. I found I didn’t care for it.
As Alex and the girl left, I had the weirdest feeling I could have cared he was going on a date with YET another girl. But I decided it was just as well we were only ever going to be friends, because then I didn’t have to care that he was apparently incapable of forming a romantic attachment.
Chapter Twelve
“If you were going out with me, would you prefer to go to a party in the Eucalyptus House rec room, or the movie night in the Wattle House rec room?”
I looked at Alex, who was hovering in my bedroom door, an uncertain look on his face.
“There’s a party in Eucalyptus house?” I asked.
Alex nodded. “On Friday night.”
I thought about it for a moment, then realised what he’d said. For some reason, I was in a shit-stirrer mood. “I’d rather sit in the library.”
“To what? Watch you read?” he chuckled.
I gave him a look. “No. Privacy.”
I could almost see the gears in Alex’s head turning. “Oh,” he said, then the lightbulb went off. “Oh!”
I nodded. “Yeah. Oh,” I said with a smile. “Who are you going out with now?”
“Hm? Oh, Sarah.”
“Do I know who Sarah is?”
“I dunno. Do you?”
I frowned as I thought about it. “No. I don’t think I know a single Sarah.”
“Then, no. You don’t know her.”
We shared a smile.
“Did you ask Sarah what she’d like to do?”
Alex looked like the thought hadn’t actually occurred to him. “Ask her?”
“Do you, like, just make all the decisions about these dates?” I asked him, not sure I wanted nor needed the insight into his dating habits, but finding myself morbidly curious.
He shook his head. “No. Sarah just asked if I wanted to go to the party or the movie night. I said yes. I kinda assumed she wanted me to choose.”
I popped a piece of chocolate into my mouth. “Both events are chaperoned, yes?”
He nodded. “Of course they are.”
I tried to envision what you did at a chaperoned party at your boarding school. “Well, what kind of date do you want?”
“What do you mean?”
I rolled my eyes. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. You say you date so much so you can get to know them and decide if you like them, yeah?”
He nodded again. “Yeah. How else will I know?”
“Okay. So where will you be able to get to know them more?”
He clicked his fingers at me. “Party.”
“There you go.”
He went to leave, then paused. “What if she wants to go to the movie.”
“Then you go to the movie,” I told him.
Alex looked like I was maybe bullshitting him, then his blooming smile dropped. “Is this girl advice?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be, man. Don’t come to the chick who doesn’t date and ask her for dating advice.”
He grinned. “Yeah, good point.”
“Rude.” But I gave him a cheeky smirk so he knew I was only joking.
He gave a ridiculous little chuckle, then sauntered off.
n
“What are you doing tonight?” someone asked, coming up behind me in the Dining Hall line at Recess on Friday.
I turned and saw Jake standing there. “Firstly, hi,” I said.
He grinned. “Hi.”
“What am I doing tonight?”
Jake nodded. “Yeah.”
“I don’t have any plans. Why?”
“I thought you might want to hang out?”
I smiled at him. “Did you?”
He smiled back. “I did. What do you think?”
“If you invite me to the Eucalypt party or the Wattle movie night, I’m going to say no.”
He laughed. “Okay. Good to know. What do you want to do?”
I shrugged as I grabbed some food. “Alex is out. You could come hang in our dorm?”
I still didn’t know where Alex and Sarah were going, but I reminded myself it didn’t matter.
Jake nodded. “Sounds good. After dinner?”
“Sure.”
“It’s a date.”
“Oh, is it?”
Jake gave me a lop-sided grin. “Can it be?”
I pretended to think about it as we got to the end of the line. “Yeah. It can be.”
“Cool. I’ll see you then.” Still half-behind me, his hand touched my back softly and he pressed a quick kiss to my cheek.
“See you
then.”
We headed off for our own tables as I found Birdman as I went.
“Were you just talking to Jake Harman?” he asked, taking a chunk out of an apple.
I gave him a coy smirk. “I might have been.”
“Do I need to give you boy advice?”
“Are you going to tell me that boys just want to get in my pants?”
He laughed. “I was going to tell you that boys want to get into your pants, but that most of us are terrified of it.”
“You’re terrified of it?”
He nodded. “Yeah. What if we don’t know what we’re doing? What if we’re bad?” He leant towards me, putting an arm around my shoulders. “We don’t even know what we’re going to find down there.”
As we got to our table, I looked at him sceptically. “What do you think we’ve got down there?”
“Down where?” Zac asked.
I noticed Alex looking between me and Birdman’s arm around me and couldn’t guess what was going through his mind. Birdman let go of me and sat down.
“Between our legs,” I told Zac as I sat down as well.
“Whose legs?” Fret asked, apparently having a ‘who can shovel more food into their mouth’ competition with Zac. Unsurprising.
“Girls,” I answered.
“Oh, I hear it’s got teeth,” Fret joked.
I rolled my eyes. “It hasn’t got teeth.”
“Yours might not have teeth,” Zac said seriously, then broke out into a grin.
I knew it was pointless to argue with them because they were taking the piss after all.
I was glad when it became obvious that Birdman wasn’t going to say anything about me talking to Jake. Maybe it was payback for me not saying anything about him having a crush but, given the boys’ propensity for taking the piss out of the simplest things, I was more than happy to keep it to ourselves for a while longer. I finally fully understood not telling them until I knew what I thought about Jake.
Later that night, I was standing in front of the mirror in my room and wondering if I was dressed right. I hadn’t done a lot of dating. Most of the incidences that even came close to a date were group dates; Flick, Leah, Marsh and me going out with a few guys from school and not being sure exactly who liked who, but hoping the guy you liked didn’t think he was out with your friend. Sometimes, I was pleasantly surprised.
the Roommate Mistake Page 9