Sanditon Melodies

Chapter 16: Mutual dislike?

Sidney woke up with a sore head the next morning and he instantly regretted the shots Crowe had bought him at the bar last night. As he slowly got more with it, his argument with Charlotte came into his mind and he immediately felt a plethora of emotions, all of which were incredibly irritating. He sat up and rubbed his temples when there was a knock on his door.

"Parker? Get your sorry arse up." Came a voice through the door.

Suddenly realising that it must have been a knock on the door that woke him up, Sidney reluctantly got up out of bed and stumbled a little as he got to the door to open it. Crowe and Babington were there, already dressed and looking pretty perky.

"God Parker, you look a mess!" Crowe said.

"Well, you shouldn't have forced those shots on me. How come you don't feel like death right now?"

"Because I can hold my drink unlike you."

"Clearly I'm out of practice."

"All work and no play... as they say." Babington said, smirking at him.

"Right. So what's the plan?" Sidney asked.

"Well, we were going to have some breakfast and then head out to the beach." Babington said.

The thought of breakfast made Sidney's stomach churn uncomfortably, but it was probably a good idea to at least try and eat something.

"OK – give me ten minutes to get dressed and try and look presentable."

"Why – are you trying to impress someone?" Crowe asked mischievously.

"Oh sod off." Sidney replied, shutting the door on them.

They made it to breakfast ten minutes later where they were directed to a table and offered tea and coffee, before they helped themselves to the buffet. Crowe and Babington started talking about last nights events and other matters while Sidney sat silent, his mind elsewhere. He couldn't have told you what they were talking about if you'd asked him. He tried to eat something, but it tasted like ash in his mouth. At least the coffee was starting to have the desired effect though.

"Sid?"

"Hmm..." Sidney said, looking up from his coffee cup.

Crowe and Babington exchanged a look between them. "We were just talking about Charlotte's performance last night."

Just the mention of her name rattled him, and he felt a little nauseous. "Right." He mumbled, taking another sip of coffee.

"Did... did something happen between you two last night?" Babington asked cautiously, because they had already been reprimanded by him for the joshing.

"What makes you think that?" Sidney said, trying to remain indifferent and not meeting their eyes because he didn't want to talk about it.

"Well... it's just I never saw her again after I offered to buy her a drink, but Crowe saw her go outside and you followed. Next thing we know is you want to get blindly drunk." Babington commented.

Sidney sighed exasperatedly. "Let's just say that my thoughts about Charlotte which I relayed to you yesterday remain unchanged." Sidney said grumpily.

"You had a spat." Crowe said smirking.

"Yes."

"Well I hope this isn't going to affect my chances of being her manager Sid." Babington said, looking at him seriously.

"You don't have to worry there Babbers, I have no influence over her whatsoever – she made that perfectly clear. She knows her own mind." Sidney replied, swirling his coffee around thoughtfully.