Because I Want You

Chapter One: Nancy Boy

It was a crystal clear September morning, and Nick Davis was due to start his final year of secondary school. It had felt strange, getting out of bed that morning and putting on his uniform, knowing that a year from now he'd be off to college somewhere. The commute would be longer, but it would be worth it to get out of this stupid town, thought Nick as he got into his sister's car. And calling Windfield Green a town was very generous for a place with a few thousand inhabitants, half a public library, three pubs and a Tescos.

Upper Windfield Grammar School wasn't far, and Nick had been going there since he was eleven, but Zoë had insisted on taking him anyway.

There was no Lower Windfield Grammar School. In truth, there was no Lower Windfield, nor an upper one, for that matter. When the school was built and named, nearly a century before, they must have been meaning to expand the town (presumably downwards), but it was still just plain old Windfield.

As they pulled out of the drive, a blond boy on a bicycle flashed by.

Nick gritted his teeth. That wasn't the same bicycle that Dave Thompson had had before the summer. The spoiled brat was showing off, as usual. 'Arrogant prick . . .' Nick muttered.

Zoë glanced at him from behind her glasses, then shook her head, causing a ginger curl to unravel from her ponytail. 'Aren't the two of you ever going to grow up? You're fifteen!'

'Not as long as he keeps being an arse,' said Nick. 'Which would be never.'

'But if you tried to be nice to him, maybe he wouldn't be such an arse,' said Zoë. 'Maybe you could put all this behind you and be friends?'

Nick laughed out loud at that. 'Are you very stoned?' he asked. 'I have no intention of being his friend!'

Zoë shrugged. 'What won't a boy do for the honour of his sand castle . . .'

Nick looked out the window and frowned, unwilling to admit to himself how stupid it all was. And who was he to stop now? After all, being enemies had nearly grown to be a kind of hobby. Besides, Dave had started it.

The very first day they met, in infant school, Dave had smashed Nick's sandcastle, and from that moment on the two boys had hated each other. They fought constantly, and always tried to sabotage one another.

Their relationship did not improve as they grew older. Dave was immediately the popular one. He was refined, extroverted and clever, while Nick was awkward and quiet. As they grew older, the differences between them only became more prominent. Dave was tall and blond, with radiant blue eyes and a flashing smile. Nick was slight, with plain brown hair and grey eyes. Dave was handsome and well-liked, while Nick never could make friends, and the opposite sex seemed to have no interest in him.

Dave's parents were wealthy and successful, and as tall and blonde as was Dave himself. Nick's parents were divorced and his father had moved to Plymouth. Nick received postcards from him for Christmas and birthdays, but had barely seen him since he left. After the divorce, Nick's mother had gone through a series of nervous breakdowns and was in and out of hospital all the time. She lived with her sister in Coventry, while Nick had stayed in Windfield with Zoë, who was nine years his senior.

* * *

Dave parked his new bicycle in the shed, before going off to join his friends, Alan Bradford and Chas Arden. Several girls turned their heads after him as he made his way over to the front steps. Over the summer, Dave had grown another inch or so, and he was sporting a fresh tan. His sun-bleached hair was longer, and he mussed it up with his hand as he went, grinning at a few of the prettier girls.