Let's Start Again

Chapter 4

As we approach the guys Calum notices Taylor and his face straight away lights up. He turns his body to face her, looking her up and down taking in her presence and breathes out "Wow, Taylor you look-" Calum doesn't actually finish his sentence he just embraces her in a hug as his friends walk over to join him.

"Thanks" Taylor beams as they pull apart from each other. "This is my friend Anna I've been telling you about".

She gives me a gentle push to step forward and I give Calum a quick hug. "Hey, nice to meet you." I tell him. Calum is as Taylor described and is very handsome indeed. His hair is jet black to  match his dark eyes and his eyebrows are chunky like his lips. His manner seems friendly and welcoming as he steps to the side and almost presents his friends to me with his arms. The closest of his friends is around the same height as Calum and has red hair. His skin is pale and his clothes are quite dark in colour, not gothic but they don't exactly match so I'd say his dress sense is, quirky.

"The redhead here is Michael, he can be ridiculously inappropriate so just ignore him if you can" Calum jokes as Michael steps forward, giving both Taylor and I a hug.

"Nice to meet you Anna, sup Tay". He says cheerfully with a genuinely smile on his face.

Calum then points to the two guys from Nandos and I pray they don't remember yesterday. The messy haired boy puts his phone away and steps forward as he's introduced.

"This is Ashton, and he's Luke" Calum then directs my eyes to the tallest of his friends who I now know as Luke, the one who dropped the ketchup yesterday. Luke has a plain black hat on even though it's hot our and Calum jokes to say he's having a bad hair day. They both seem just as friendly as Calum and Michael, but they're both staring at me with intense, confused eyes.

"You look familiar?". Ashton says as he gives me a hug and then says hello to Taylor whilst looking at me.

As Luke steps forward and meets my gaze for the first time I can see almost the lightbulb go off in his head as he puts two and two together. "Ah you were at Nandos last night weren't you? I promise not to drop ketchup on you today" he laughs as he gives me a hug.

Taylor looks at me instantly as she now realises that they were there yesterday and would have seen everything that happened.

"I knew I recognised you from somewhere!" Ashton says cheerfully. "That guy you were with yesterday caused a right old scene after you left." He explains.

"Who did, Lee or Allen?" Taylor questions quickly as she's a little confused. She realises that they won't know the difference in Lee and Allen so describes them. "Lee has dark blonde hair and Allen has black hair".

"Oh Lee was the one with you when I dropped the ketchup?" Luke clarifies "so it was Allen then."

"Allen? Allen made a scene?" Taylor asks sounding just as confused as I was.

Ashton nods "Yeah he was so mad after you left. He banged his fist so hard on the table that the drink bounced off the edge and smashed on the floor. Then he was on his phone pretty much just shouting an left before the food came out when he realised the whole restaurant was staring at me".

"What was he shouting about?" Taylor's confusion is clear in her voice and I suddenly feel everyone's eyes burning.

"Something about messing everything up or something? I dunno it was all a bit strange." Luke explains.

"What about Lee, did you see where he went". Taylor asks them.

"Hmm" Ashton scratches the back of his neck as he thinks but I decide to jump in.

"It doesn't matter, it's not important. What are the teams for bowling?" I ask as I step in the direction of the bowling alley. Luckily Michael steps forward with me which helps encourage the others to join and I instantly feel slightly relieved. Although my backs to her I know Taylor is the last to follow as she wants answers.

"Well I want to win so I'm not going to be on the same team as those two lovebirds behind us as they're clearly not going to be focused on anything but each other" Michaels tone is playful as he talks "Anna you can join my team with Ashton and Luke you can be with the love birds as you're rubbish at bowling"

"Hey! I'm not that bad!" Luke laughs as he nudges Michael.

When we get to the bowling alley the guys have already got our shoes ready for us. Taylor asked me what size shoe I wanted in the car so she obviously text Calum on the way so everything was ready for us. We all quickly change into our unattractive bowling shoes before Michael and Calum set up the computers with our names.

"Whats our order?" Ashton asks as he starts sizing up the bowling balls.

"You can go first, then Anna and then obviously we'll save the best for last - me" Michael tells him laughing confidently.

"Taylor you're up first for us, then Luke and I'll go last" Calum tells his team.

"Wait, whats our team names? We need team names" Luke tells everyone as Ashton waits for the green light to bowl.

"We don't need team names" Calum laughs as he dismisses the idea.

"Ok well that's sorted, I'm on team boring" Luke clarifies and we all laugh.

"And Ashton, Anna and I are Team Magic Mike" Michael tells everyone proudly.

"Magic Mike?" I question as Ashton shakes his head laughing.

"I am the magic of this team Anna, you'll see." Michael says playfully as he winks "Ok Ashton and Taylor, lets kick this game off"

I was really worried that this bowling trip would be awkward. But everyone seems to have clicked straight away and as I watch Taylor and Calum sitting next to each other, almost disconnected from the group in their own little bubble, I realise just how comfortable I am in everyone else's company. The thought of Lee turning up hasn't even crossed my mind, I'm just happy to be out and happy to be here with Taylor and now these four guys. I can't remember the last time I felt so comfortable in the company of males, it's something I could get used to.