Sammie couldn’t help but burst out laughing at the ridiculously earnest and naive way he said it, as though he thought it was his duty to warn her. She put her arm around Jay and said, ‘yes, Mark. I know.’
Felicity
12
Mark clearly had no idea what to make of me and even less idea what to do. His eyes went straight to the blood dripping from my nose, and he kept his hand on the door handle as though he was half considering shutting the door in my face. I could barely keep myself together enough to even look at him properly; all that registered to me was that he was tall and skinny with a big mop of unruly dark hair.
‘Could I… could I please use your phone?’ I asked. ‘I was…. mugged. Just then, out there—’ I gestured towards the road. ‘They took my phone. I just want to call my flatmate to come and get me—’
Mark quickly moved aside. ‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘yeah…um… come in.’
I stepped into his flat, finding myself in a narrow, drab hallway with doors along one wall.
‘Here,’ he said, ‘come through.’
I followed him down the hall, and he looked back at me a couple of times, at my injured face. I held my hand up under my nose to try to catch the blood and I noticed that we were walking on a pale cream carpet. He was probably worried I’d get bloodstains on it.
At the end of the hall was a cramped living room stuffed with a lot of dowdy furniture, and he led me into a little alcove around the corner that served as his kitchen. He pointed vaguely towards the sink, where there was a washing up bowl full of soapy water and a couple of pots and pans. He’d obviously been in the middle of clearing up after his dinner. He picked up the bowl and placed it on the floor, steering me towards the sink where I bent forwards and held the top of my nose.
‘What… happened?’ he asked, ‘are you alright?’
He hovered by my side, not too close to me, but close enough that I could tell he was genuinely concerned.
‘It was a couple of teenagers,’ I said, ‘I just… want to go home.’
He picked up his phone from the kitchen work top. ‘Would you like me to call your flatmate for you? Or the police?’
‘No,’ I said, a little too quickly. ‘No,’ I said again, ‘thank you. I… don’t want to call the police.’
He waited a while and the flow of blood from my nose began to ease.
‘It looks like you’ve had a nasty whack on your forehead as well,’ Mark said, ‘do you want some frozen peas to put on it?’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘thank you.’ I worried in the back of my mind that Mark might doubt my story about my injuries – that he’d somehow know they’d been caused by being smashed into a solid object rather than being punched or hit in the face, but I quickly calmed myself down. He had no reason to doubt my story, and I’d given no explanation as to how the teenagers had attacked me. All he’d see was the blood, and my shock, and he’d have no reason not to take me at face value.
‘Could I… could I use your phone now?’ I asked him.
‘Sure,’ he said, ‘here you go.’
He held it out to me, and I took it. ‘Thank you,’ I said, yet again, ‘and sorry… about this.’
‘It’s fine,’ he said. I realised I was just staring down at his phone in my hand, and he helped me. ‘You just… you know,’ he said, bringing up the call screen.
‘Yeah,’ I said, ‘sorry.’
I started dialling Jay’s number.
‘Let me get you those peas,’ Mark said.
I finished typing the number while Mark rummaged in a little freezer. On initial impressions – which had been very short and admittedly under bizarre circumstances – he seemed alright. I thought I could probably have sex with him, if it came to that. He didn’t seem strange, or creepy. I stole glances at him while I waited for Jay to pick up and concluded that Mark seemed quite timid, if anything, with soft brown eyes and a pale, pointed face that gave him an unusual, gentle quality.
Jay took a little while to answer.
‘Jason,’ I said, using the name we’d agreed on.
‘Yeah?’ he played along.
‘I need you to come and pick me up.’
I carried on explaining, very aware that Mark was listening. It was so hard to act correctly, to continue to sound shaken when I was almost beginning to congratulate myself. I kept thinking that Mark would see straight through me, but once I’d made a show of explaining to “Jason” where I was and what had happened, he seemed convinced.
‘He’s going to be about fifteen minutes,’ I said.
‘Here,’ Mark said, handing me the bag of peas. ‘Can I get you anything else? Painkillers? Tea? It must have been a shock—’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘thanks.’
He stood still for a moment, looking muddled. ‘Uh… yes to which thing?’ he asked.
‘Oh…. both, please.’
He encouraged me to sit down and gave me a handful of tissues to dab at my nose, then he filled the kettle and went off in search of some painkillers.
‘Are you sure you don’t want to call the police?’ he said when he came back. ‘If they took your phone—’
‘No,’ I said, ‘I… I’d rather not. They were just kids, I feel a bit silly to be honest.’
I pressed the peas against my face and closed my eyes for a second.
‘Does it hurt a lot?’ Mark asked. He handed me a pack of painkillers. ‘Here, I’ll get you some water.’
I popped two pills out of the pack and swallowed them with a little water. For a minute or two he busied himself in the kitchen making tea, then he sat down on the other end of the sofa, placing one mug on the coffee table in front of me, and one in front of himself. Then he immediately got up again. ‘I’ve got biscuits,’ he said, ‘custard creams.’
He went and got them and handed me the packet. ‘You should eat something,’ he said, ‘isn’t that what you’re supposed to do when you’ve had a shock?’
I took one and tried my best to give him a small smile, then figured I should probably say something else about the mugging.
‘I had a feeling something was going to happen as soon as I saw them,’ I said, ‘but I told myself I was being stupid. Just because they’re teenagers doesn’t mean they’re criminals, right? Look where that got me.’
Mark took a sip of his tea. ‘It’s usually quiet round here,’ he said, ‘you must have been really unlucky.’
I gave what I hoped sounded like a nervous laugh. ‘No shit,’ I said.
We sat in silence for a little while, waiting until it was time for me to be picked up by “Jason”, who in reality was probably just sitting in his van, mere metres from Mark’s flat. Then I noticed Mark was looking at me – at my wrist to be precise.
‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘I was just looking at that bracelet. It’s really unusual.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, holding it out so he could look at it better. ‘I made it myself.’
‘Really?’ he sounded genuinely amazed, and I felt a stab of pride. It was quite a simple piece of jewellery really – a silver cuff bracelet, very honest, and raw – almost masculine in appearance, with decorative rivets and a simple stippled effect.
‘Is that what you do, then?’ he asked.
‘No,’ I said, ‘God, no. I wish. I’m a receptionist. At Treacle Street Surgery, in town, by the—’
‘Yeah, I know it,’ Mark said. ‘Well, not the surgery, but I know the street.’
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘Yeah. Kind of a weird name, isn’t it? Talking of which… I don’t even know your name, and I’m sitting in your flat spoiling your evening.’
‘It’s Mark,’ he said.
‘I’m Felicity,’ I told him. I took another biscuit, and then picked up the peas to press against my head again.
‘I think you might get a nasty bruise,’ he said.
‘Yeah.’
‘Look, I know you don’t want to, but you should call the police,’ Mark said. ‘People shouldn’t get away with attacking you i
n the street like that. I really would be happy to call them for you—’
‘No, Mark, please,’ I said, ‘you’ve been very kind. But I just want to get home and go to bed. They really were just kids, after they’d done it they looked as scared as I was.’ I looked at my watch. ‘You know, I should probably go and wait outside, my flatmate will be here any second.’
‘Let me wait with you.’
‘No,’ I said, ‘it’s alright. I’ve taken up enough of your time.’ I handed him the bag of peas. ‘I really appreciate this,’ I said, ‘thank you.’
…
Jay could barely contain himself when I got back into the van. He was parked some distance down the road, well away from Mark’s flat where he might potentially have been spotted.
‘What happened?’ he asked, ‘how did it go?’
Before I answered him, I looked him right in the eye and then gave him a slap.
‘Fliss,’ he said, recoiling, ‘what?’
‘That’s for what you did to my face,’ I told him.
He sat with his hand on his cheek for a while, watching me.
‘It went well, Jay,’ I said, ‘it went really well.’
He lowered his hand and gazed at me in astonishment. ‘You mean… you’re going to carry on with it?’
‘Yes,’ I said, ‘yes, Jay. I must be losing my mind, but…I’ll carry on with it.’
Sammie
13
Sammie felt nervous as she stepped inside Jay’s house. The cottage was quite small, and quirky – tastefully decorated in blues and whites, a collection of shells on the little windowsill by the front door. Jay asked if she wanted something to drink but she said she didn’t, so they stood awkwardly in the hall until he said, ‘do you want to come upstairs?’
Once they reached Jay’s room, Sammie found it a big surprise. Not that she’d been in a large amount of boys’ bedrooms before, apart from her brother Alfie’s – though he’d been a lot younger – but even so, Jay’s room struck her as decidedly unusual. The bed was immaculately made – a plain and pristine pale blue duvet, tucked neatly down the side where the bed was against the wall; a small white desk where Jay had a computer but little else apart from some pens and pencils in size order next to the keyboard, and a few books neatly arranged in colour order on a shelf. There was a wardrobe as well, and a chest of drawers, both closed neatly – nothing over-flowing, and not so much as a stray sock on the carpet. It was the tidiest room Sammie had ever seen.
‘Your room is… nice,’ Sammie said.
‘Thanks.’
Jay sat down on the end of the bed and she sat beside him.
‘I’m sorry,’ Jay told her, ‘about what happened to you at the bus stop. I shouldn’t have told Mark about what happened between us, but I didn’t think he’d start telling other people.’
‘It’s okay,’ she said. ‘I know it wasn’t your fault.’
‘Who was it?’ Jay asked, ‘who was giving you all the hassle?’
‘I don’t know their names,’ Sammie said, ‘but…’ she looked at Jay shyly. ‘I got so annoyed I flashed my bra to get them to shut up.’
‘Did you?’
‘Yeah,’ Sammie said, ‘it was stupid. I’ll have made things worse. Mark says everyone already hates me because they think I only met you today, and they saw us together at break time. They think I’m a slag.’
‘It’ll be alright,’ Jay said. ‘If anyone gives you any trouble, just come to me.’
Sammie made a little noise of agreement, but inside she wasn’t so sure that going to Jay would help. From what little time she’d spent at the school, she’d understood a few things. Firstly, that Jay was not generally liked or respected. Secondly, that as a newcomer she didn’t have the right to start going out with someone at Rangewood straight away, even if it was someone so unpopular. It wasn’t what she did that made her a slag, Sammie knew well enough from her previous school that having sex or doing sexual things gained you admiration whether you were a boy or a girl, but the way she’d gone about things with Jay even in the space of one day seemed to have broken all manner of unspoken rules. If Jay started getting involved and defending her, it would probably make things worse.
Jay put his arm around her and Sammie snuggled against him. ‘Jay,’ she said, ‘why do you think Mark told everyone?’
‘Isn’t it obvious?’ Jay said. ‘He’s jealous. He fancies you as well.’
Sammie looked at Jay in astonishment. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah,’ Jay said. ‘He told me in the summer, before we met you properly. I told him I thought you were hot, and he said he thought so too.’
Sammie considered it. It did make a lot of sense. Mark obviously wasn’t happy she was going out with Jay, and that would certainly explain why. Instead of talking further about it, she turned and kissed Jay, and this time when his hand slipped down to the waistband of her skirt, she didn’t tell him to stop.
They spent the rest of the afternoon in bed together, gradually becoming comfortable enough to take all of their clothes off. Sammie showed Jay how to touch her, placing her hand over the back of his and guiding him, and in turn he showed her how to touch him. The only difficult moment was when Jay began to try to push her onto her back, and she realised he meant to get on top of her. To begin with she thought she should let him. After all, when Mark had made his stupid attempt at warning her what Jay wanted her to go home with him for she’d implied she was okay with it, but her heart started pounding and she whispered, ‘no. No, Jay. Not yet.’
‘I thought you said—’
‘I know,’ Sammie said, ‘but I’m not ready. I’m sorry.’
Jay stopped what he was doing and stroked her face. ‘Are you sure you don’t want to?’ he asked.
‘Yeah,’ Sammie said, ‘not today. I don’t want to go any further today.’
Jay lay down at her side and propped himself up on his elbow. ‘You’re not trying to wait ‘til you’re sixteen, are you?’ he said. ‘When’s your birthday?’
‘May,’ Sammie said.
‘Oh,’ Jay said, ‘so you haven’t even been fifteen that long.’
Sammie nodded. She was always one of the youngest in her year at school.
‘Man,’ Jay said, ‘I definitely can’t wait until next May.’
Sammie smiled. ‘It’s alright,’ she said, ‘I’m not trying to wait until I’m sixteen. I just… I need a bit longer, that’s all.’ She met his eyes. ‘I enjoyed what we did, though.’
Jay smiled back at her and kissed her briefly. ‘So did I,’ he said.
…
Sammie had to leave at about five-thirty, so that she’d be gone well before Jay’s mum got home from work at six. She walked home thinking about what had happened with Jay, and could barely stop herself from grinning. She didn’t particularly like being back in her empty house – her mum had decided to go in to work after all when Sammie had refused the offer of a lift to school – but not even that could get her down today. If she closed her eyes she could still feel the sensation of Jay touching her, and she was full of so many different emotions she felt she might burst.
She went upstairs to her bedroom, where she thought she would lay on her bed for a bit and think about the wonderful afternoon, when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She took it out, assuming it would be a text from Jay, but she was surprised to see it was from Mark.
Sorry about wot i said earlier. I just dont want u 2 get hurt when jay gets bored of u.
Sammie stared at the words for a long time. Then she tried to put them out of her mind. Like Jay said, Mark was jealous. Perhaps she’d tell Jay about the message tomorrow, or perhaps not, but for the moment, she didn’t want anything to spoil her happiness.
Felicity
14
I went to see Mark again on a Wednesday evening, a few days after my initial turning up at his door. I’d taken a couple of days off work to “recover” after our first meeting, because as Jay pointed out I needed some explanation for the st
ate of my face, and he thought the easiest solution was to carry the mugging story through to my work as well. I felt a little bit guilty about doing this but soon put it aside when I did return to work and received only the most cursory expression of sympathy from my co-workers. I was well aware that two years of regularly turning up late or hung-over had pushed their regard for me to a record low, and dead parents or not, I had come to be seen as something of an irritation. And a liability.
Mark was almost as surprised when he opened the door to me again as he had been the first time I showed up. He took in the sight of my face, where the bruise had turned an angry greyish-purple, and looked out to the street behind my back as though he was concerned something else might have happened to me.
‘How are you?’ he asked finally.
‘I’m okay,’ I said.
He waited for a moment, and I realised he was expecting me to explain why I was at his door.
‘I… I just came here to say thank you,’ I said, ‘you were very kind, and I’m sorry I spoiled your evening. I feel a bit silly about the whole thing now—’
‘Don’t,’ he said. He reached out his hand for my arm, and then stopped halfway as though he wasn’t sure what he was doing. He let his arm drop to his side again. ‘Don’t feel silly, I mean,’ he said. ‘I’m glad that I was here, so that I could help.’
I smiled, and he smiled back, but awkwardly.
‘So, here’s the thing,’ I said, ‘I was wondering, would you let me buy you a coffee or something, sometime? To say thank you properly.’
‘There’s no need,’ he said.
I took a moment to try to work out whether he was genuinely or deliberately misunderstanding me. In normal circumstances I would have walked away, but I couldn’t. Of course there was a good chance that he just didn’t want to see me again, but I needed to put that thought out of my mind. I had to get him to go out with me, and if he perhaps couldn’t recognise when he was being asked out then I’d have to make it clearer to him.
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