All the Things She Said

Chapter 18, Sam's pov

We trudge out towards the room with the table tennis set up in it. There's only two other people there, playing a heated match. I slouch against the wall and watch them. Rohan sidles up next to me. I suppress a groan, and try to ignore him, watching the ball zip across the tiny court with fascination.

The two playing give up eventually and hand over the ball and paddles to us. I take one hesitantly.

"I'm not very good...I think I'll just watch" I say, as the other two take their places,

"no, join in" Laura says pulling me to her side,

Rohan watches us, and when I finally give in and stand opposite him, next to Laura with the paddle in my hand, he serves, aiming at me. I hit it way too hard, sending it ricocheting off into the corner of the room. I groan.

"no, no, you'll get better, just don't hit it so hard next time" Laura says as I try and walk away.

Rohan serves to me again, and again I hit it too hard- I can't help it, I'm used to rowing, where your wrists need to be constantly strong so the oars don't slip...

"just, you know, tap it" Rohan says. He means well but I couldn't help feeling the comment was extremely patronising.

"yeah, yeah" I groan. He serves to me again. I hit it lightly and it bounces straight into the net. We all laugh. I pick up the ball and try and serve, but miss it the first time,

"nearly..." Rohan says. I ignore him and try again. This time it works, and he hits it back at me, but I miss it by a mile and it rolls away to the far side of the room.

"I give up" I say, throwing my paddle down on the table and walking to the side of the room. A few other people have joined us. One is blaring rap music from their phone. I sit on the floor, eye level with the table, and watch Laura and Rohan play. They're both really good.

After a while they hand over to some of the people who have been waiting. I ask Laura under my breath if we can leave,

"Uh, sure," she says, pulling her eyes away from the game. She glances at Rohan, who has turned his head to watch us. I get the feeling she doesn't want to leave, but I pull her away anyway. As we're walking down the path away from the building I hear the automatic doors open and close again behind us, and a patter of footsteps. I give a groan just loud enough for Laura to hear, before I turn around to see Rohan walking quickly toward us.

"it was getting pretty boring in there" he says. I say nothing, but Laura nods.

"So what are you guys doing now?" he asks.

"Going back to our caravan" I say bluntly.

"Oh...okay." I hear him fall behind. We're approaching the steps to our caravan now, Laura has darted up them and is unlocking the door with the key around her neck,

"see you tomorrow" she says to him. He smiles,

"yeah, bye" he says quietly

"bye" I say, hurrying up the stairs. I close the door, and hear the scrunch of gravel as he walks away slowly.

I turn to Laura and roll my eyes, then I look around. We're the first ones back...

I collapse onto the L shaped sofa, knackered. Laura laughs at me and sits cross legged on the rug.

"so, Rohan" she starts. I give an enormous groan,

"don't start, seriously..."

"what? I liked him, he was really sweet, and hey, earlier you said you were getting along really well with him!"