EIGHT
Three days had passed since Daniel’s first attempt with Kate, and he was beginning to get nervous. With only four weeks left until the May Ball, the likelihood of somebody else asking Kate to accompany them was increasing every day. Daniel needed to get his act together and ask Kate to go with him.
With the end-of-year exams approaching, however, the reality was that every spare moment of his life was spent studying.
He looked up from the diagram he was hurriedly annotating and looked across the table. Kate was sitting at the opposite end of the college library, a couple of tables away. Her face was buried in a book.
She moved a part of her fringe behind her ear, only for it to fall back in front of her eyes seconds later. She brushed it back again, but it still wouldn’t stay. Daniel smiled. She looked so calm, so serene, as if in a world of her own. She just kept smoothing that same bit of hair behind her ear every few seconds, her eyes still focussing on the book in front of her.
For Daniel, it was difficult to work when he had such an attractive distraction sitting across the room. He could have sat and watched her all day, if it wasn’t for the huge reading list that lay sprawled across the table.
Kate stood up. Daniel’s heart skipped a beat as she headed towards his table, a look of obvious intent on her face. She wanted to speak to him. Daniel looked down at the diagram and ran his fingers through his thick hair, aiming for the “rugged and interesting” look. He pretended not to see her, and tried to act naturally.
Kate leaned over the table and moved her face closer to Daniel’s.
“Have you got a minute?”
Daniel looked up, feigning surprise at seeing Kate in front of him.
“Yeah, sure”, he answered, his voice barely above a whisper.
Kate walked towards the door, and Daniel followed her out of the library. She stopped a few steps from the exit and stood still, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Don’t ever do that to me again”.
Daniel was taken aback. He was expecting some sort of speech about how she could forgive him for walking out, and how she wanted to give him a second chance. He was expecting anything but the harsh words he was hearing now.
“I’m sorry, I-"
“You humiliated me. You embarrassed me. I’m not used to being stood up like that”.
“I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”
“I know it won’t”.
“You’re not break-"
“Breaking up with you? God, Daniel, we haven’t even started seeing each other. The other night was for me to get to know you, and then maybe we could have made something of it.”
“We still can. Just give me another chance.”
Kate looked away from Daniel, her eyes refusing to meet his. “You’d better get it right this time.”
Daniel nodded. “I will, I promise. I’ll make it work this time”.
“Yeah, you’d better. If you want this to happen, you need to make an effort.”
Daniel nodded again, faster this time. He needed to show Kate he was going to do better this time.
She finally met his gaze. She blinked, and shook her head ever so slightly, as if only to herself. She took a deep breath.
“Fine, you’ve got another chance”, she said, walking back towards the library. “Just sort your hair out. You couldn’t look any less rugged if you tried”.
Daniel couldn’t face staying in the library after his confrontation with Kate. She may have given him another chance, but he had a feeling she needed some time.
What exactly did that mean, anyway? What good was time going to do? In his experience, things generally didn’t look any brighter on a Thursday than they did on a Wednesday. Letting things stew over in his head never really seemed like a good idea to Daniel; he just ended up thinking about something trivial instead, like that time he spent a whole day trying to figure out his favourite flavour of yoghurt rather than thinking about the approaching appointment with the doctor. Giving himself some more time on that occasion would only have given him longer to decide his favourite; it wouldn’t do anything about the appointment.
Maybe Elliot was right that time he told Daniel that girls think too much. After all, Elliot did seem to be Daniel’s oracle when it came to matters involving members of the opposite sex. But what was Daniel meant to do while Kate sat for days “needing some time”? And how was he meant to know when she’d had long enough?
So Daniel spent the rest of the afternoon trying to study at home, so he could give Kate some time and space. He was attempting to think of trivial things, but Jayne really wasn’t helping.
“Jess told me how it went on Friday”, she was saying. “Have you spoken to her since?”
Daniel sighed through gritted teeth and looked up. “It’s not that important to me. I’ll think about Kate if you fancy labelling these lungs for me”. He gestured to the still incomplete diagram in front of him.
Jayne was sat with her legs crossed on the sofa opposite Daniel, but she got up as he spoke and stood behind his shoulder. She looked at the diagram.
“Okay, you win”, she said. “No more Kate. But I can tell you’re cut up about it”.
“Leave it Jayne. I’m busy”.
The front door of the flat opened, and Daniel heard voices in the kitchen. One was Elliot’s. He didn’t recognise the other, but it sounded female. Must have been Elliot bringing a girl home to inadvertently rub Daniel’s face in it. Daniel picked up his stuff and stood up to leave the room. Elliot blocked his path between the lounge and the kitchen. Daniel could just catch a glimpse of shocking red hair as the girl hung up her jacket in the hall.
“Where are you going?” Elliot tried to push him back into the lounge. “You have to stay.”
“Why? So I can sit in there with you and your new girlfriend?”
Elliot looked confused. “Oh, her”, he said, gesturing towards the red-haired girl now making her way into the kitchen. “She’s just a friend. Really just a friend.”
Daniel shot a disapproving look in Elliot’s direction, not entirely believing what he was hearing. A single Elliot, “just friends” with a girl. Something didn’t sound quite right.
The girl walked in and stood next to Elliot. She combed her fingers through the loose curls of her red hair and flashed a friendly smile at Daniel. He did the best he could to smile back, but he wasn’t convinced it came out as well as he’d hoped.
“Go and take a seat,” Elliot told the girl. “I’m just going to put some washing in the machine. Daniel can keep you company.”
Daniel turned round and walked back into the lounge, the girl sitting down opposite him. He could hear Daniel and Jayne talking in hushed whispers in the next room, but not any sounds of a washing machine.
“I’m Zoe.”
Daniel looked up. He’d heard a voice, but hadn’t really listened.
“Sorry?”
“I said, my name’s Zoe.”
“Nice to meet you Zoe, I’m Daniel. How do you and Elliot know each other?”
“We met in a pub last week. I think he was out with you.”
Daniel suddenly recognised her. “You’re the girl from pub night”, he said. “You were the girl Elliot was flirting with.”
“Hardly! He’s not really my type. A bit too forward for my liking.”
Daniel was amazed. “Don’t let him hear you say that. Elliot likes being irresistible.”
Zoe laughed, and lowered her voice a little. “I noticed. He’s a good laugh though. Good friend material, but nothing really there as a boyfriend.”
As bad as it sounded, Daniel enjoyed hearing that somebody else wasn’t perfect. Hearing that somebody else was normal filled him with confidence. In somewhere like a university, with its complicated internal politics and social hierarchy, it was easy to get lost in the thought that everybody was perfect but you.
“No, I’m more into the quieter guys,” Zoe continued, unperturbed by Daniel’s lack of a reply. “The unassuming, intelligent ones.”
Daniel still didn’t reply. He wasn’t exactly sure what Zoe was getting at. Did she want some sort of relationship advice? Daniel wasn’t exactly the ideal person for that sort of thing. He decided to try and change the subject.
“Are you going to the May Ball?”
“I hope so”, she replied. “Although I haven’t found anybody to go with yet.”
The conversation ended again. Luckily, Elliot appeared in the doorway.
“I hope you two are getting along alright,” he said. “The washing’s done now.”
He walked into the lounge, heading for the seat next to Daniel. As he sat down, he shot a strange smile at Daniel, complete with a raised eyebrow. Daniel wasn’t exactly sure how to interpret it, but he was pretty sure he didn’t like it.
