Annabel muttered, ‘Who gives a crap?’
Camilla glared at Annabel. Naomi, sure she was about to suffer death by mortification, found herself accepting the jumper and muttering her thanks.
‘I told you she’d like it,’ Camilla said. Annabel rolled her eyes.
Naomi hoped Annabel would leave it there. Nathan saved the day by stepping forward and offering Henry his hand.
‘Hi. I’m Nathan Stone, Naomi’s friend. Good to meet you.’
Henry shook his hand enthusiastically. ‘You too.’
Camilla, not giving him the chance to introduce himself, turned her back on Nathan and walked into the bathroom. She disappeared then returned and stood in the doorway and glared at Nathan.
‘What are you doing in here? Doesn’t the college have any rules about – ’
‘Camilla,’ Henry said, intercepting the comment.
Naomi was curling up inside like a fallen autumn leaf. Annabel laughed openly. ‘Mum this is the twenty-first century, not the days of the arc. It’s not the job of the college to babysit students. They’re all adults, capable of adult behaviour.’
‘Look,’ Nathan said, face straight, ‘Naomi was just showing me around the place. We came in here because she needed to get her coat and use the bathroom. We were about to go and grab some lunch.’
‘The sink’s dry,’ Camilla said.
‘Sorry?’ Nathan said, voice light and polite.
‘If Naomi had used the bathroom, the sink wouldn’t be dry.’
‘Camilla,’ Henry said a second time.
‘Mum,’ Naomi said, ‘I don’t have to explain my reasons for using the bathroom,’ which seemed just as well when she couldn’t think of one. The heat in her cheeks fired up a notch. She was sure they were betraying her.
Annabel threw up her hands and let them clap loudly onto her thighs. ‘You’re being ridiculous, Mother. And you’re embarrassing her. What Naomi does in her own room or her bathroom is up to her. What are you now, Inspector Morse? If she wants to have friends round, she can.’
All eyes were on Camilla. Hers were dark and ice-cold, and directed at Nathan. ‘Well,’ she said, delaying the answer with another tense silence, ‘the immediate problem is, how are we going to take Naomi out to lunch when she has plans to eat with her friend here.’ Accent on friend.
All eyes switched to Nathan except Annabel’s which rolled again. Nathan’s attention on Camilla didn’t flinch. ‘Why don’t we go out together? I’ve heard lots about all of you. It’d be great to get to know you better.’ No one answered. ‘Problem solved,’ he finished with a winning smile.
Camilla, as surprised by the answer as she was irritated, said, ‘So you’re Naomi’s friend you say?’
‘That’s right. A close friend.’
‘Close?’ Camilla’s eyes were as hard and unblinking as a pair of glass marbles. ‘How close?’
9
It was two and a half hours before they were finally alone again, standing on Booth Street West, Central Manchester, backs to the accommodation block, waving off Camilla, Henry and Annabel. To save Henry’s arthritic hands, Annabel had driven them in her sporty VW Golf – her eighteenth birthday present to match the money Camilla had splashed out on a beautiful black four-year-old Bosendorfer piano for Naomi. Or at least Annabel believed her fifteen-thousand-pound car matched the price of Naomi’s piano. Only Annabel’s ignorance had allowed for the price difference.
Naomi still felt bad about it. Camilla didn’t. ‘What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. You have to have a decent instrument, Naomi. It’s a gift for life and it’s a necessity as well as an investment,’ she’d insisted, ‘unlike that heap of metal Annabel has picked that will be worthless a couple of years from now.’
As the car headed to the traffic lights, indicator light flashing, Naomi was still thinking about Camilla’s knowing look from the back window, a look that had said friend, my foot. She wondered when she’d be forced into a confession. Camilla would not dutifully wait until her weekly phoning time of six on Friday. Not now the warning look had been doled out.
Henry was still waving as the car turned and merged into thick city traffic out of sight, at which point Nathan took Naomi’s hand.
‘I’m really sorry,’ Naomi said, her muscles finally unlocking. She found her head ached. She realised she was breathing easily for the first time in hours. ‘Obviously, if I’d known they were coming –’
Nathan threw his head back and laughed. ‘That was good fun,’ he said.
‘Fun? I can think of a few ways to describe my mum, but not fun.’
‘Honestly, I enjoy a challenge,’ he said. ‘Did you see her face when she found out my age and that I work for a temp agency? She couldn’t believe that someone with a first class degree in philosophy, of all useless things, would be willing to sell mobile phones to save up for travelling.’
Naomi relived the double blow she’d taken during lunch. She learned that Nathan planned to travel and realised it gave him something in common with Annabel. He’d leave when he had enough money. She’d been forced to react as if she already knew the details and didn’t mind at all. Annabel, who’d made sure she was sitting directly opposite Nathan, had engaged him in minutes of conversation about her travelling plans, and his. Naomi had hated the way that, sitting by Nathan’s right side, she’d had to sit through Annabel eating seductively and giving him the full force of her artistically made-up blue eyes. The fact that Nathan had ignored the outrageous flirting and had paid far more attention to Naomi and to trying to say something that was acceptable to Camilla, had been the only consolation.
Ordeal over, she turned to walk back to her room with Nathan, hero of the hour.
‘Annabel seemed to like you, even if you weren’t exactly a hit with my mum.’ Naomi was attempting to sound casual, but she was fishing.
‘You think?’
‘You don’t carry a white stick.’
‘I was being sarcastic,’ Nathan laughed. ‘Don’t get me wrong, Annie’s great, but she’s definitely not my type.’
Naomi felt a stone lighter. ‘Really?’
‘Really. I hope I made that clear to Annabel. Her ego is strong enough to take it. To be honest, I thought it was obvious we were together, but she still wanted to steal the limelight, which I thought was a bit mean. Didn’t you?’
The relief was indescribable. Naomi shrugged. ‘I’m used to it. I always forgive her for those things,’ she said, feeling suddenly generous.
‘You’re incredible, you know that?’
Naomi soaked up the compliment without finding a reply. She knew she’d review all the things Nathan had said, later on. She replayed the words to make sure she had them right, and stored them carefully.
When they arrived at the reception door, Naomi took her card from her pocket. ‘You never told me you were planning to travel,’ she said, unlocking the door, hoping her voice sounded light and enquiring.
‘Come with me,’ he said immediately. ‘I mean it.’
Naomi hid the surprise. ‘I can’t. I’m committed to my course until next June.’
‘I’ll wait,’ Nathan said, pressing the hand he was still holding. They walked through the reception and into the paved courtyard and strolled toward A Block. ‘Let’s go together. I’d rather have company.’
‘You’re asking me to go away with you next summer and this is only our second date?’
Naomi found herself imagining announcing to Camilla that she was planning to go away with Nathan.
Nathan stopped walking and pulled her in front of him. Taking hold of her other hand as well as the one he already owned, he looked into her eyes. The usual music spewed from the open windows. ‘Didn’t you hear me?’ he asked.
‘Hear what? Sorry I was a bit distracted.’
‘I said I’m sorry.’
‘What for?’
‘Scaring you off.’
Naomi studied his eyes, noticing the length of his dark eyelashes. ‘You didn�
�t. It’s not that.’
He released her left hand to run his fingers through her hair, pushing it off her face. She fought not to shut her eyes. ‘Let me guess. Your mum?’
Naomi nodded. Nathan gathered her into a hug.
‘In future, we’ll deal with her together,’ he said into her ear.
‘So my mum didn’t scare you off then?’
He pulled back to look at her. For a few seconds, the only communication was close eye contact. Naomi lowered her eyes to his lips, remembering how they felt and how they made her burn inside. Stunned by the urge to kiss him again, she didn’t move.
‘I think she’s probably quite warm beneath all that ice,’ Nathan said.
Naomi laughed. ‘She is.’
Nathan’s expression turned serious. ‘Listen, I can invite you to come away with me after two dates because I know how I feel about you. And I’ve told you that when I commit, I commit. I’m in love with you, Naomi, and I don’t care who knows. I’ll shout it from the top floor window if you want me to.’
Naomi broke into a broad smile. ‘That won’t be necessary.’
‘Sing it in my best opera voice?’ Naomi giggled. ‘I don’t say those things to every girl I meet, you know.’
Despite Nathan’s comments, Naomi was still struggling to shake off Annabel’s infectious laugh and the witty comments she’d made around the table that were still breaking into her thoughts along with the glossy lipstick. ‘Have there been many?’
‘Girls?’ He hesitated. ‘A couple.’
‘A couple as in literally two, or a couple as in you’ve lost count?’
He managed a tight smile, but it was strained. At the same time, it started to rain. ‘A couple as in literally two. That is, I’ve had two serious girlfriends, the second I was engaged to.’
‘Really?’ Naomi said, her heart feeling the effect, taking a noticeable dip that she hoped wasn’t showing in her face. ‘When?’
‘Two years ago.’ Nathan continued to look at her with his incredible eyes, but they lost focus while his mind was busy swimming with memories. Naomi waited patiently until he returned. The rain was getting heavier.
‘Do you still love her?’ she asked, realising too late she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
Nathan didn’t answer the question. He glanced at the sky. ‘Let’s get back to your room. I really need to talk to you about someone and here’s not the place.’
<><><>
‘I’m Naomi’s friend. Her close friend,’ Camilla mimicked from the back seat of the car, which she was sharing with magazines, scarves, jackets and empty McDonald cartons and lids pierced with straws. Camilla had spent the whole of the outgoing journey listing her complaints about the state of the car. ‘Do I look like I was born yesterday, Henry?’
Henry didn’t need to answer. Annabel would hijack the conversation and defend Naomi without him needing to get involved. October marked the fourth month of Annabel being at home fulltime after sitting A levels. With no plans to go university or get a job until she went away, and with Naomi having left, the bickering at home was almost constant. Only mornings were blissful, while Annabel slept.
Henry folded his fingers together, straddling them across his stomach. His eyelids felt heavy. Big meals always made him drowsy, especially mid-afternoon where he usually suffered an energy dip and gave in to it. It had become a guilty pleasure. It would have been a pleasure without the guilt if it hadn’t been an irritation to Camilla. She’d added it to her barrel of ammunition that she fired at him at random times, dependent upon her mood.
‘How do you know he wasn’t a friend?’ Annabel asked, tilting her head, eyes searching for Camilla’s in the mirror.
‘A close friend in a few weeks? Ridiculous.’
‘He was winding you up, which isn’t hard.’ Camilla made no comment. ‘I’d know if Naomi had a boyfriend.’
‘Loretta hasn’t mentioned it either,’ Camilla said with the familiar wait-until-I see-her edge to her voice.
Annabel bounced straight back. ‘Why would Lorie tell you? She’s like that with Naomi.’ Annabel crossed her third and fourth fingers and held them up.
‘Seeing as I pay Loretta’s wages, her loyalty should be to me. Isn’t that right, Henry?’
Henry was only barely conscious. ‘Mm.’
‘You see?’ Camilla told Annabel.
‘Dad’s half asleep. Anyway, I’m taking it that Nathan is available. And he’s really hot – ’
‘Oh no, young lady. You keep your eyes to yourself. You hear me?’
‘What do you take me for?’ Annabel said, appalled.
She should learn not to take the bait, Henry thought as a big yawn overcame him. So many times he’d tried to referee the pair of them without success. Annabel and Camilla always seemed to be such a huge disappointment to each other. It was like two different species trying to communicate, blowing the theory that only men were from Mars.
Camilla returned a few moments of silence before landing a blow. ‘It was embarrassing to watch you drool over him across the table, Annabel,’ she said in her deliberate, quiet voice that meant that she was sure she had the upper hand.
Annabel turned shrill. ‘The only really embarrassing thing was you marching into Naomi’s room and asking what Nathan was doing there.’
‘They deserved it, the pair of them. They’d been up to no good. It was written all over Naomi’s face, didn’t you see?’
‘I saw her squirming because you gave her a minging old jumper.’
‘Nonsense. He might have tried to take advantage if we hadn’t turned up when we did, might he Henry?’
‘Mm.’
Annabel collapsed into sarcastic laughter. It roused Henry from a minor drift. ‘Well he can take advantage,’ she accentuated the words, ‘of me, anytime.’
‘That’s enough,’ Camilla snapped, quieting Annabel. ‘If you’d ever been more interested in your schoolwork than in boys, you might have got decent A level results, like Naomi.’
Ouch.
‘I did get decent results,’ Annabel yelled, glaring into the back seat through her mirror. Henry stayed on the sidelines, wondering when to intervene. ‘What do you call an A, a B and a C?’
‘Mediocre,’ Camilla responded quietly as if it saddened her. ‘We’re off the subject,’ she continued. ‘Now isn’t the time for Naomi to be attached. She needs to be focussing on her music without distractions.’
‘There’s more to life than crappy ancient music,’ she shouted.
‘Not for Naomi there isn’t. And don’t use that sloppy language.’
‘Give her a break,’ Annabel said, exasperated. ‘It’s time she had a boyfriend. It would be good for her. Who’d want to do classical music all day?’
‘Naomi would.’
‘Have you ever asked her?’
‘It goes without saying.’
‘No, it doesn’t.’
Henry was becoming concerned at how much Annabel was looking in her mirror. Her gear changes were getting faster and rougher. Her reactions on the brakes were delayed.
‘I shall tell Naomi later, exactly what I think of Mr Stone,’ Camilla said, as if she was holding a conference with herself, and arriving at a satisfactory conclusion.
‘Leave her alone,’ Annabel snapped, jumping on the brakes again as orange lights became red just before she could sneak through.
‘Watch the road, petal,’ Henry said, softly.
Annabel didn’t seem to hear. Her attention was fixed in the back of the car. She looked over her shoulder now. ‘You can’t tell her what to do at eighteen.’
Camilla turned quiet and dignified, which could only mean she was sure she’d found the right solution. ‘She always listens to me,’ she said, with infuriating certainty.
A car horn beeped somewhere. ‘That’s the problem,’ Annabel said, turning her head, screeching away from the lights, convinced they must have turned green when they hadn’t. Henry tensed and crunched his invisible brakes and mea
nt to yell, but it came too late. A silver car caught the front side of the car from the right to the dreaded sound of crunching metal, jolting them violently against locked seatbelts.
<><><>
‘What’s his name?’ Naomi asked Nathan, who’d just announced as if it was top secret that he had a brother. With only two stiff chairs in the room, they’d slumped on the bed with the light off. The rumbling sky had dimmed the room. It was warm and cosy.
‘Dan,’ Nathan said, as if his brother had already passed away or something.
For a while it was as if Nathan couldn’t find anything more to say about Dan. Naomi had been expecting to hear about an ex-girlfriend, but found herself waiting to find out something unpleasant about Dan. The silence was so meaningful and Nathan’s expression so concentrated, she didn’t dare speak.
‘He’s two years younger than me. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was seventeen.’
‘I’m sorry,’ was all Naomi could find to say. It didn’t feel like the moment to admit she understood nothing about it.
Nathan looked into her eyes before lying down on his side, head resting on one hand. ‘It’s torn the family apart.’
‘How?’
Nathan closed his eyes, held them, opened them. ‘Long story. Loads of details,’ he said, as though he barely possessed the energy to share them.
Naomi stretched out to mirror Nathan’s position, head propped on one hand, elbow bent. They were face-to-face now. ‘I’m a really good listener.’
He hesitated. ‘I’m sure you are.’ He puffed out all his breath. ‘OK, I’ll try to keep it brief.’
Nathan spent the next hour close to tears, pouring out Dan’s problems to Naomi, about how he’d fallen in with the wrong crowd and gone from being a normal happy teenager (a really generous and good looking one, at that) to meddling in drugs and alcohol and turning into another person from the carefree kid Nathan had grown up with.
At sixteen, he’d scraped five average-graded GCSEs despite his academic abilities. Dan had left school with the hope of turning his life around within a year and returning to college. It never happened. He kicked the drugs and alcohol, and even the ‘friends’ into touch, but developed tell-tale signs of paranoia and delusional thinking.
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