She Wasn't You

Chapter 22

2001

Months went by and my relationship with Sammy was growing stronger by the day. I had overcome my nerves and our relationship had taken us to levels I never expected. I was no longer a virgin and we were at it ALL the time. Any spare moment we had in just our own company we were at it like rabbits.

Why did I never have this much trust and confidence in myself with you?

I was finding myself caught up in lust and it was having a huge impact on my studies and friendships were at breaking point but when you're in what you think is love at that age nothing else in the world seems to matter, the only thing that the relationship was having a positive impact on was my football.

I was flying, scoring goal after goal each weekend, with Sammy on the sidelines come rain or shine gave me that extra 10% each and every game, I had someone who was standing there watching me and I made sure to put a show on for her every single week.

Your relationship with Bradley was seemingly going well, but I have to admit, it didn't bother me in the slightest. Not like your relationship with Ricky, there was no ill feeling towards either of you, there was no jealousy. I can only put it down to being selfish and as long as I was happy, I didn't care about anything else.

Were you secretly envious of Sammy? Or did you not see me any more? I wouldn't have been angry or upset if you didn't care. I guess I just needed to know that I wasn't the only one who was being selfish and caught up in my own world.

Sammy and I were joined by the hip day after day, every day after school we would meet up and head back to her place, we were in different schools so always had to arrange a time to meet but without fail we would be there bang on time. We would spend hours just sitting in each other's company watching music videos and eating cheese sandwiches and drinking Vimto by the gallons. I can't ever remember eating a hot meal at her house, just cheese sandwich after cheese sandwich. Thankfully we always found a way of burning those calories off.

She lived with her Mum and younger brother, her dad was in the picture but was separated from her Mum. For that I was thankful, I met him on a few occasion and I don't think he was my biggest fan and rightly so. Sammy's studies had taken a nose dive too and with her exams on the horizon, I guess I could be to blame for her taking her eye off of the ball and messing these up. She was a bright girl but had I not been around, she probably would have come out with better grades.

I was also thankful he wasn't living there as there is no chance in hell, we would be getting away with the alone time we were enjoying, so whatever happened in their marriage all those years ago, I was reaping the rewards.

Her brother, bless him. He did try to be the man of the house and did occasionally sit with us in her room which I can only assume  was to try and stop the activities that went on behind locked doors but it never stopped us. The bathroom always came in handy when he wouldn't leave us alone.

We used to date every Saturday, by either going to the cinema or some fast food restaurants. We honestly couldn't get enough of each other. The football team would often take us to the beach for days out. It did help bond us as a team and was a huge factor in our success that season. We were no longer just team mates, we were all genuinely best friends. We would fight for each-other on and off the field, we would spill blood, sweat and tears for one another. There was no jealousy between any of us. I could tell a few of the guys were interested in Sammy and one may have tip toed over the line once or twice but I wasn't concerned. We were all teenagers and a stunning girl like Sammy would test the waters of friendship every once in a while.

Then came a Saturday trip that tested my relationship with Sammy, one test that I failed massively.

Our management had decided the team needed a boys day out. We had a cup final coming up in 4 days and had to be on our game, no distractions. So it was decided that it would be only the team on this day out. No parents, no girlfriends, no friends. Just the 15 of us, our manager and two coaches.

The night before, Danny and I had been invited by one of our team mates, Matthew to sleep over his house so we could all meet at the train station together the following morning. His Mum had ordered us a mountain of pizzas and we spent the entire evening playing video games, eating pizza and talking the night away about girls and any other nonsense that came into our heads.

Matthew spent the early hours on the phone to some girl from his school so sleep was a minimum that night. Danny and I were shoved on a single mattress on the floor, having his feet in my face all night was never going to mean a relaxed, undisturbed sleep but I wouldn't have changed that night for the world. Just three friends in each other's company, young and free without a single care in the world.

What I'd give to go back to that life now.

The following day we woke up buzzing to get going, the lack of sleep wasn't going to stop us enjoying ourselves, we would make the most of this day of freedom. The pressures of school and of the impending cup final was at the back of our minds. We were allowed to be just normal teenage boys for once. The shackles were off.

The train journey was full of chatter and laughter, you could feel the excitement in the carriage. I'm not so sure the other people on the train were as pleased as us, loud teenage boys was probably the last thing they needed on an hour train journey at 9am on a Saturday morning but we didn't care about anything other than the day ahead.

Sun was beaming down, the arcades were buzzing. Life was good. We had split up into a few groups and felt free. We all decided to meet up at 1pm by the crazy golf and we would head in to the fairground and get on all the rides in the 6 hours we had before our train home.

Some of the rides took ages to queue up for but in all honesty, the queuing was the best part of the day. Watching the girls go by and making small talk with any other group of girls we came across. There was a lot of jostling for position to catch the most attractive ones, a few of the guys had swapped phone numbers. I'm pretty sure Oscar managed to get himself some different action behind the one of the rides but he never did admit to it.

Katie, just in case you spent that Saturday worries about Bradley and what he would get up to. I can assure you he was on his best behaviour that day. Sure, he did get some attention but he only had eyes for you. He had you, what more could he need?  Out of all of us, he was the lucky one.

Danny, Matthew and I decided to split from the group for a while and do our own thing and as much as I too was on my best behaviour, that was all about to change.

We queued up for the dodgems, it was time to take out some teenage angst on other dodgem cars. Realising built up frustrations, what better ride was there to do that?

Queuing up again, we were followed closely by a group of girls who joined just behind us. We made small talk and introduced ourselves and that's when my eyes met hers. Long brown hair, gorgeous emerald eyes but as beautiful as she was, it was her fashion sense that caught me most. She was wearing leggings covered in newspaper print. I'd never seen anyone wearing anything like it before.

Now, you're probably wondering how all these years later I can remember what some random girl was wearing so vividly. That's because to this day, she is still known as 'newspaper trousers'.

We hit it of instantly and against my better judgement we had already swapped phone numbers and kissed before we even made it on to the dodgems. Clearly, both quick movers, I did it without thinking, without even having Sammy on my mind. I was high on confidence and was sucked in to any type of female attention. I was around friends, my inhibitions out of the window. I was safe here.

Nobody would snitch on me.

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