Scent

Scent.2

      The rest of the evening passed by relatively free of incident, but I grew bored around 10 PM.

      “I think I might head off.” I excused myself from Rachel and Mandy’s company.

      “OK then.” Rachel said, as I gave her another kiss on the cheek and on Mandy’s.

      “We should catch up soon.” Mandy said sincerely.

      “Yeah, that would be cool.” I agreed.

      “I’ll walk you home.” Derik threw away his plastic cup.

      “No Derik, it’s OK…” I began.

      “I’ll walk you home.” Derik repeated firmly, taking hold of my hand.  “G’night guys.” He waved at Rachel and Mandy.

      “G’night Derik.  G’night B.”  They waved back.

      I noticed Roger, Daniel and Leaf, watched Derik and I leave as they all stood apart with their different groups of friends.  I looked away from the party and I focused my gaze ahead of me instead, on the road.  Derik and I left Ben’s place and headed down the road, past the other houses and towards the wood-encrusted hill, where I lived.   At first we walked in a comfortable silence.  I looked upwards as we walked and stared up at the sky full of stars…

      “I can’t wait for the day when I can travel to Mars and Taurus Six by myself.” I sighed.

      “Really?” Derik frowned.  “Why are you so anxious to leave?”

      “I’m not ‘anxious’ to leave… I just can’t wait until I can phase here and there and not rely on my Mum or my Gran taking me.” I shrugged.

      “OK.” Derik looked on ahead of us, tucking his free hand into his pocket.

      “Oh.” I remembered something on this note. “Mandy told me tonight that Cambridge University in England has opened again.”

      “B, I know where Cambridge University is.” Derik chuckled.

      “Sorry!” I playfully poked him. “But anyway, have you ever wondered what it might be like to go away and study somewhere like that?”

      “Um, yes and no… I don’t know.” He shrugged.  “I mean, sure I want to further my education, but I don’t know if I could live overseas to do it.”

      Then we both turned quiet for a couple of minutes.   We walked along the dirt road in dim light of the night, but in the starlight I could still make out the pot holes in the road so I knew when to step over them.  But Derik seemed to have a harder time making anything out in the darkness and at one stage he nearly tripped over!

      “Agh!” Derik cried out, but I quickly turned and caught him.

  “Are you OK?” I held him steady.

      “Er, yeah… good reflexes you’ve got there.” He said, impressed. “I can’t see the pot holes in the road properly.”

      “Really?” I asked in surprise.  “I can see everything pretty well in the starlight.”

      “Are you kidding?” Derik asked back in further surprise.  “It’s so dark, especially with the trees blocking out most of the stars light.”

      I stopped us in our tracks. “Derik, you know, you don’t have to walk me home…” I said, feeling bad for him.

      “B, don’t be stupid.” He said adamantly and I caught him blush. “Of course I’m going to walk you home.”