Perspective- Chapter 1

Chapter 1- Annabel

Wednesday’s are my favourite day of the week. I have always insisted that good things happen on a Wednesday, for example there is no maths on a Wednesday, school finishes an hour earlier on Wednesday, and for some inexplicable reason, my eyeliner is always better on a Wednesday. These factors combined usually led me to feel great on a Wednesday, but on the 18^th of January this wasn’t the case. In fact, for most of the morning I felt like crying. There was no solid reason for this except that everyone around me seemed to be busy kissing their partners, Ryan teased me a little about not being ‘hot’ enough to get laid, and I didn’t get the result I was hoping for in a Maths exam. Like I said, nothing terrible, I just felt generally lonely, dejected and thoroughly unwanted.

Oblivious to my bad mood, my best friends Lucy, James, Holly and Chris chattered around me. They were gossiping excitedly about who’d cheated on who last weekend, and who might cheat on whom next. I was sat quietly; thinking probably now wasn’t the time to bring up all the boys Lucy had cheated on James with. Chris nudged me,

“You alright?” he asked, I attempted a smile,

“Yeah, just feeling a bit melancholy is all” I replied,

“Ooo-er” said Lucy, “Mr Maxxy Marshall would be impressed!” By this she referred to our English teacher, Mr Marshall, who looked remarkably like an older Max from The Wanted, and who’d taught us the word melancholy. I laughed a little,

“Oh yeah, Ol’ Maxxy would be thrilled” I replied, she grinned and continued,

“Slight hyperbole there!” I snorted, a little cheered up now, James and Chris looked at us like we were talking Latin,

“Right… Whatever,” Chris began, “C’mon Annabel, I’ll buy you a coffee”

“Can’t refuse that” I said, jumping down from the table-tennis court where I’d been perched.

Chris and I started walking up towards the school café. I was in a marginally better mood, and we joked a little about Lucy and James’s on-off relationship, taking bets on how long this latest phase of dating would last. He cynically gave them a week, but I was more optimistic and opted for two months. We got up to the café door and he barged through,

“Oi! Jerk, be a gentleman” I joked. He laughed and replied,

“What, buying you a coffee isn’t enough now? I also have to hold doors open for you?” I put on my best posh accent, mimicking the cast of Made in Chelsea, and retorted,

“Do you not know how to treat a lady?” he winked at me,

“I’ll let you know when I meet a lady.” I gasped in mock horror and made a swipe for the back of the head, which he ducked out the way of, and headed to the counter to get our drinks.

I took a final swig of my coffee as I settled into my seat for history. I was sat next to Alex Hall on my left, which was good because although we didn’t socialise together we got on well, and he spent the most of the lesson making little sarcastic comments about the Renaissance Period under his breath. Not so great company was Nat Bramley know-it-all on my right, who spent most of the lesson rearranging his southern region. The lesson itself was actually and miraculously fairly interesting, and as interesting things tend to do, it went very quickly. When the bell went signalling the end of class I jumped a little in my chair, causing Nat to smirk and Alex to stifle a giggle. I stoop up and packed my bag before adorning myself with my winter gear: a rain coat three sizes too big, a grey snood with sausage dogs printed on it, green and red striped fingerless gloves, and a hat shaped like and owl named Twit-Twoo (or Twit by my friends).

Even dressed like an Eskimo owl enthusiast the cold wind was a shock to the system. I shivered slightly as I made my way down towards the table-tennis courts. Once their, I ditched my bag under one of the tables and waited impatiently for the others to come out of lessons. Lucy and James arrived first, arms around each other, facing winter as a team. I felt a familiar spike of jealousy, it’s not that I wanted either of them; I just wanted what they had together with someone, I wanted to defy the frost with someone too. Chris wasn’t far behind them and, once he’d arrived, James announced,

“I’m going to go and embarrass Jake at badminton club, you guys want to come?”

“I’ll come baby” Lucy said, “but prepare to be beaten! You coming Anna?” I thought about it,

“Actually I might stay behind today; I’m not really in the mood for exercise.” I decided, James scoffed,

“You’re never in the mood for exercise, even when you do come, you only watch” I rolled my eyes,

“Who needs sports when you’re a size 8 naturally?” I joked.

“Fine,” Lucy caved, “Chris?”

“Nah” he said, looking at me, “I’ll chill with Annabel”.

“Okay, see you later” Lucy said turning to walk away,

“You kids behave yourselves.” James warned sarcastically, turning to join her. I looked around at Chris,

“You didn’t have to do that you know. You could’ve gone.”

“I know.” He replied, “I wanted to stay, now lets go get chips from town.”

“Okay” I agreed, “but what about Holly?” he shrugged,

“She never wants to go in to town, and if we don’t leave now we’ll be late back”. I nodded, it was true Holly hated going into town at lunch, and she had plenty of other friends to hang out with anyway.

At the exit of the school we presented our lunch passes, mine considerably more battered, scrunched and abused than Chris’s. Then we strolled the well trodden route to town. The majority of the way is a path through a wooded area. It always gives me the creeps walking there alone, but the unknown is fun in the presence of someone you know. Today the path was caked in slippery mud which posed a problem for me, considering I’m not even particularly secure on my feet on a stable surface. Chris enjoyed laughing at my slow and clumsy progress, but eventually took pity on me and gave me a piggy back for most of the way. When he thought we’d reached a solid enough area, he placed me back on my feet. Except, I slipped straight away. He quickly steadied me by grabbing hold of my hand, and then we continued on our way, except our hands remained clasped. It was a bizarre feeling, I’d never held hands with Chris before, we were just friends. There’d never been even a hint of romantic possibility between us. Yet here we were, holding hands. I pulled my hand away hastily and laughed it off.

At the Chippy Chris ordered two cans of Dr Pepper and a medium portion of chips to share. I dug around in my coat pocket for some change but he quickly offered to pay,

“Why are you being so nice today?” I demanded, taking a bite of the first salt coated chip,

“I’m always nice” he lied,

“No, you’re always sarcastic jerk, but with ultimately good intentions so we like you anyway” he choked on a chip,

“Who’s ‘we’?” he asked indignantly,

“Twit and I” I said pointing to my hat.

“Well then” he said, a smirk twisting his lips, “I apologise to yourself and Twit for my uncharacteristic niceness, and promise I will try to fulfil my reputation as a jerk in the future.”

“That’s more like it.” I replied.

We sat on a bench and ate our chips, until there was one left. He looked at me with a challenge in his eyes and grabbed the chip, placing it in his mouth so that half was dangling out. Without thinking, and before he could eat the whole thing, I swooped in and bit the surviving half from his lips. He looked at me, unexpected excitement written on his face,

“Steady on.” He whispered. I felt my cheeks go pink,

“Lets go get some sweets from Sainsbury’s” I jumped up, and speed walked to the large supermarket.

“I’m getting teeth and lips” he informed me teasingly, gesturing towards the packet in the confectionary aisle.

“I’m having strawberry laces.” I told him, “and I’m paying this time. It’s only 80p for both” he grinned,

“Good thing that since I spent all my change on the chips.”

Soon we were happily walking back to school, swapping sweet packets and discussing life. We weren’t rushed because we had a decent twenty minutes to get back,

“How’s it going with Lauren?” I asked, Lauren Mann was his long term unrequited crush, and he was constantly coming up with schemes to try and get her to love him back,

“It’s not going.” He replied, “I think I might actually be over her. In fact, I think I’ve fallen for someone else. Someone who was in front of me all this time.”

“Oh yeah?” I said, “Do I get to meet this girl then?” I asked,

“That depends, do you own a mirror?” I was stunned into silence for a second. Chris and I were just friends, but that was totally flirtatious. I could feel the silence getting more awkward by the second, but I couldn’t say I felt the same, simply because I didn’t.

“Errrmmm… Oh. Wow… Eating strawberry laces always reminds me of the film Lady and the Tramp.” I know, I know, it was the first thing that came into my head, okay? He laughed in surprise at the odd response,

“Why?” he asked just as we reached the shelter of the wooded path,

“You know the spaghetti scene.” I replied, putting one end of a strawberry lace into my mouth, and realising immediately the accidental flirtatious implications of what I’d just said.

Chris locked eyes with me for a moment, then took the other end of the strawberry lace in his mouth and leant in. My body reacted naturally to this before my brain caught up with me, and before I knew it we were kissing, except the stupid lace getting in the way. I pulled away laughing and the lace fell to the floor,

“Sorry!” I giggled, “It’s just really hard to kiss and eat at the same time.” He smiled,

“Shut up and kiss me” he whispered grabbing me around the waist and leading me away from the path so that we were concealed by the trees. Then he was leaning in again, and I knew I should turn away. But I couldn’t do it, not when I felt so shit and unwanted, and here was a boy who very enthusiastically wanted me. I only had a split second to think through my decision, and then his lips were on mine. My arms went around his neck and he pulled me closer by my waist.

This is the first chapter of a book idea I had where each chapter would be from the perspective of a different member of a group of friends about the same day. Let me know if you think of a better title because I couldn't think of one I really like! I usually write poetry, not in pro's so any review would be welcome because I know a lot of improvement is needed! Thanks. :)