The Eleventh Hour

Chapter 2

“Why the hell did you keep this from me?!”

Liv shot from the breakfast bar to the sofa where I was sat across the room in a matter of seconds. She performed an impressive leap frog over the back of the couch and landed right next to me, leaning close to me in expectation and grinning from ear to ear at the bit of information I’d just accidently slipped out.

I screwed my eyes tight shut, mentally killing myself. I can’t believe I just let that slip, I wasn’t planning on telling anyone about Mr Violet. The meeting was four days ago now, and I hadn’t told a single soul about it because I was so embarrassed with myself. I couldn’t have made my attraction towards him more obvious if I drooled all over my blazer, but to make it worse – that wasn’t the only disastrous thing about the whole situation. Even putting my wardrobe malfunction and lack of professionalism aside, the thing that bugged me the most was the fact I wasn’t able to get him off my mind.

Luckily though, I was pretty sure I’d come to a conclusion about that. I’ve never been a shallow person, to be honest I was sure it wasn’t his looks that had drawn me in. It was the way he was. His little facial expressions and responses, the mystery behind those violet eyes. I even went as far as googling ‘violet eyes’ on the internet to see if his eye colour really was as rare as I thought; and I was right. Jesus Christ his eyes were purple.

I still played over his last words to me over and over. ‘Until the next time, Miss Summers.’ I’ve had people say to me things like ‘see you again’, but I’ve never actually hung on to the words before and prayed it was a promise. It was so irritating, because not only did this man mystify me, he caused me to be just as mystified by myself. I didn’t even know I was so capable of allowing a single person to completely take over my thoughts that way –

“Oi, snap out of it. Spill.” Liv effectively brought me back in the room from my distracted thoughts by clicking her fingers in my face. I blinked several times, then glanced at her from the corner of my eye. Oh, shoot.

Liv was my best friend in the whole world, I knew I was going to tell her about Mr Violet sooner or later anyway – Liv was a fiery person, I knew she’d have some advice. And whether I liked it or not, I knew it’d be the right advice.

I thought back to what I’d actually said that grabbed her attention so strongly. We’d been talking about possibly going to America for my 21st and it just slipped out. “Well, America has better looking boys.”

And that’s all Liv needed. It wasn’t what I said exactly that caught her attention, it was the way I said it. I never talked about boys, ever. Not since I’d broken up with my ex boyfriend, Liam. And that was nine months ago now. He’d cheated on me with a dozen other girls, even going as far as using my money to book hotel rooms where he’d take them. I felt so stupid that I never suspected anything, but it wasn’t in my nature to be a paranoid person. I trusted him, and he took full advantage.

I remember the horrific night I found out. I remember making my way out of the airport after a gruelling fifteen hour shift and bumping into my friend James from sixth form who I hadn’t seen in over a year after he moved away for University. He was going on holiday with his mum, dad and older sister, Jenna. My flashbulb memory still recalls the exact flight and holiday information – he was going to Tenerife for two weeks, and the flight left at 11:25pm.

I remember how excited he was to see me, and I remember how powerfully mutual my feelings were. After the usual small talk, he told me how sorry he was that I wasn’t with Liam anymore. He rarely showed his soft side and was a well known gossip, but if it wasn’t for that quality I wouldn’t have found out what Liam did, or was doing at the time. James flew in with some comment like, ‘I’m not surprised Liam’s shagging the whole of Ardwick, it’d have to be a hell of a rebound to get over you.’