The Piano Year

Meeting My Friends

I stared at the floor nervously, not knowing what to do or say. Everything about Lewis was so perfect before, it was like I'd been looking at everything through rose-tinted glass. And now I could see everything clearly. The only thing alike about us is our looks.

"Maybe Jade and I ought to go..." Lewis said anxiously, running his hands through his hair and examining my face. It probably showed expressions of shock, disgust, fear and embarrassment all in one.

Tyra's eyes welled up with tears, "You're going? Now? When my..." She continued to cry. Edward looked sheepish and stepped forward to pull her into a hug. Alice coughed loudly, folding her arms.

"So you two are official now then?" she snapped.

"Well I'm not-" Edward began. Alice just held up get hand to silence him and stumbled into my arms for a hug. I don't know why I was hugging her but my body seemed to be acting for me.

I turned to Lewis and whispered, "I guess we'll be here a little longer."

And we were. Tyra's Dad turned up, fuming, and dragged her back to the car. She looked humiliated. 

Edward left with Alice still sniffing in my arms. He didn't say a word as he went, just lifted his hand without waving or speaking and walked away. 

Isaac and Rob left with a teary Alice just as Dad came for me and Lewis.

"I'm sorry about my friends," he muttered. "Normally there's less drama..."

"Don't worry about it," I said drily.

He hugged me goodbye, as did Dad and I went back into the house. I tried to get over what the hell had just happened. Did all of these twelve year olds really get up to stuff like that?

I'm worrying now about Josh - does he want us to do things like that? No. No, Josh isn't like that. Besides, he's more worried about his Mum half the time. I'm worried about his Mum half the time. I need to be wary about how me and my friends act tomorrow around Lewis. He's going to think we live very sheltered lives. 

Sunday 23rd February

If there appears to be a storm coming, remember there'll be a rainbow. What the actual hell is that? Is that supposed to be metaphorical? Because I don't see a storm. Actually, it's starting to snow today. I hate the cold weather, I have to wear about a million layers and my nose and cheeks go bright red. I'm going to look permenantly embarrassed. Eugh.

I'm really worried about Lewis meeting my friends. I have this horrible feeling they might not be good enough for him. Plus, the whole Rhea, Charley, Fabien love-triangle is complicated. I kinda want a break from the weirdness of yesterday.

Lewis is here.

Wish me luck!

9pm: Surprisingly, today was better than yesterday!

Let me fill you in - 

Lewis and I didn't really talk much as Mum drove us into town. I insisted we could take the bus (I mean, I'm fourteen years old and I'm not exactly dellusional, I can make my way to town and back) but she said she wanted to get to know my brother.

Her plan failed though. 

There was such a long awkward silence that the journey felt about a day long. Mum started off trying to ask Lewis questions and I imagined shooting myself in the head. Seriously. She was humiliating. Plus, I think Lewis guessed I didn't have fun yesterday so he kept giving me this weird guilty glances.

When we finally arrived, I leaped out of the car and ran, with Lewis close behind, to the bench I'd arranged to meet with the others. Nobody else was there so we sat, again, with silent tension bubbling.