♡ SKINS | New Girl

Episode 4.4

I stretched and reached down onto my bedside table to find my phone but I couldn't find it.
All at once, the memories of the previous night flooded back in. The brownies, Pandora's sobbing face, Effy's emotional scene for Freddie, the guy who'd shoved me. And oh Christ, the vision of Cook's dick in the cupboard.
"Oh, no." I sighed. Freddie had whisked me and JJ off so quickly and I'd been so sidetracked about the aggressive rugby player and Effy's feelings for the boy I liked that I hadn't even realised that I'd left my bag at Pandora's which contained my phone.
I swung my legs out of bed, threw on leggings and a hoodie and raced out of the house towards Pandora's.

I spent the majority of the way cussing myself for being unorganised. I didn't want to go back to Pandora's house. I didn't know what the situation would be, who'd be there, or if her mum would be awake and what her reaction would be to the events of last night.
The revolving stress in my mind was halted when I saw the last person I would've liked to see right then.
"Effy." I acknowledged her, and then I noticed she had tears in her eyes, again. She'd changed her clothes so she'd definitely been home. "What's wrong, Effy?" I stopped in front of her.
"Why would I tell you?" She snapped, trying to walk past me.
"Effy." My harsh voice made her stop. "What's going on?"
"Oh, nothing. It's just my 'best friend' Pandora spent last night shagging Cook. It's nice, isn't it? Are you happy now, goody girl?" She spoke harshly and then stormed off and I didn't bother chasing her or trying to continue consoling her. Sometimes I wondered if Effy was a lost cause emotionally.
I continued walking to Pandora's. I was bracing myself for what I'd see when I got there. She'd obviously had a confrontation with Effy, she'd be upset. She'd probably be feeling a bit messed up for the unexpected decisions she'd made with Cook last night. I braced myself for that, too.
I couldn't have braced myself for what did greet me after the conversation I'd just had with Effy though.
After knocking gently on Pandora's door, it swung open to reveal her stood with Thomas' arm wrapped around her shoulder, both cheerfully smiling. It was only on careful examination that I realised that Pandora's eyes looked sad and she looked guilty.
I tried to conceal the shocked and confused expression on my face and Thomas greeted me.
"Georgie! Hello! It is so good to see you again. I am so happy." He was the same cheerful Thomas he'd been the last time I'd met him.
"Thomas!" I stuttered slightly. "You're back?"
"Yes, for good!" Thomas smiled wide.
"Isn't it great?" Pandora said cheerfully but there was a small crack in her voice. "What's going on, Georgie?"
"I actually left my phone here last night." I told her, and then had a good idea. "Thomas, can you please get it for me? It's in a black bag somewhere." I smiled. Of course with Thomas being the caring boy he was, he rushed off to search the house to find the phone.
"I just saw Effy. Are you okay?" I asked Pandora quickly and quietly.
"I don't want to talk about it. I don't want to talk about Effy. I'm so blooming angry at her." Pandora's voice cracked.
"What happened?" I asked her, expecting a story about how on Earth the situation with Cook arose, but that's not what I got.
"She's shouting at me because I was with Cook last night. But Cook isn't hers. Is he, Georgie? Cook isn't anyone's. He's not the one she wants either. It's obvious. It's Freddie." She seemed to forget about the situation with Freddie and I and let her mouth run faster than her mind.
"What's Freddie?" Thomas appeared with my bag.
"Nothing, love bug." Pandora put on a fake smile.
"Are you okay, Georgie?" Thomas must've noticed my broken face.
"Yeah, yeah." I forced out. "Thanks Thomas. I've got to go."
I raced off down the driveway.

I walked quick down random roads trying to clear my head of the thoughts that Freddie was going to leave me and laugh in my face for thinking I could ever stand a chance with a boy like Freddie while a girl like Effy was around.
I walked with my head down and my arms crossed and I tried to even my breath.
"Oi!" I heard an overly familiar voice shout from the field I was walking beside.
I looked around to see Cook sat across the field, still in the same clothes as last night and smoking. He held his hand in the air and gestured 'come here' with a massive smile on his face.
I hadn't seen Cook since the mortifying experience of seeing his dick out of his trousers and walking in on him and Effy. I wasn't keen on bumping into him this soon after as I remained slightly embarrassed by the incident but - as usual - he didn't seem to be taking 'no' as an answer. He kept shouting and gesturing for me to join him, so I did.
I wandered across the field. "Hey, precious." He greeted me as I sat down beside him. "What's the matter?" He'd noticed the distress I was feeling.
I shrugged and he pried again, turning to me like he was all ears and staring at me, waiting.
I looked at him and rolled my eyes. "I saw Effy." I told him, and he looked at me puzzled. "Just now. On the way over to Pandora's. I saw Pandora too. You've been busy." I chuckled.
"Oh, princess. Are you jealous? Is that what's wrong?" He laughed, clever enough to know that this wasn't it.
"No. That's not it. Effy was upset. About you and Pandora."
Cook shrugged. "That sounds like Effy. She's too used to being the centre of everyone's universe." He was unbothered.
"I'm not sure if it was about you though." I left him looking confused again. Cook could make comments about Effy all he liked but I think Cook was also used to having the biggest impact on people too.
"What else would it be?"
"Freddie." I said. He looked taken aback for a moment and then scoffed. "Freddie? Why the fuck would it be about Freddie?"
"It's what Pandora said. She said that Effy wasn't really upset about you, that you're not the one she wanted, and that it's obvious that it's Freddie."
Cook looked concerned for another moment and then unpredictably laughed aloud.
"Georgie, girl. Don't get your knickers in a twist over this. They're best friends and they just had an argument. They say stuff to piss each other off. They're dramatic. Take everything you hear with a pinch of salt. They're just girls."
"That's not it, though!" I defended myself. "I've seen them... looking at each other weird. And Freddie seems to get all emotional every time the subject of you and Effy comes up. And she ran up to him last night when we were leaving the party and she was being weird and... and crying. It's not like Effy to cry."
"Precious. You're paranoid. Freddie likes you. And Effy likes fucking me. You see a few looks, a moody Freddie and a crying Effy fucked on drugs and suddenly they're Romeo and fucking Juliet. Effy's not the kind of girl who likes wet lettuces like Freddie. I'm telling you." Cook's words sounded confident but I could've swore he looked doubtful in his expression.
There was a silence for a few minutes as Cook puffed on his joint.
"I'm sorry, by the way." He broke the silence. "About last night."
"It probably should've been Pandora you were apologising too. It was her party you crashed. I suppose you did that in your own way, didn't you?" I scoffed and he chuckled, rolling his eyes.
"Not for crashing. I'm talking more about the cock in the cupboard situation."
I laughed and my cheeks went red. "It's okay. But since when did you care? You voluntarily showed the entire college your cock on the first day. Are you going shy now?"
He looked like he agreed and didn't have a defence. "Yeah, I know, but that's fine. It's fun. It's a laugh. I just didn't expect you to see that with Effy and then to hear about the thing with Pandora the next day. I don't want you to think of me as the guy who just whips his dick out in cupboards to shag girls and then their best mates later on the same night."
"But, that's what you did?" I laughed.
"Yeah." He agreed, chuckling. "But I just don't want you to think that. I think this could be a blossoming friendship and I don't want that tainted by you seeing my cock left, right and centre and thinking I'm a twat."
I laughed again. It was impossible not to laugh around Cook.
"So why do you do it?" I questioned him.
"Do what?"
"Shag girls in cupboards and shag their best friends later the same night." I quoted him.
"Fun." He shrugged, flicking the finished joint away.
"What is? Destruction? You messed with a friendship. Thomas is back. Pandora looks like her mind is a mess."
"They'll make up. Thomas will remain as cheerful and naive as ever. I'll keep shagging two girls." He dismissed.
"Why don't you care about anything?" That sentence seemed to poke emotions in him that I'd never imagined him having.

The next few hours were nice. I got to know Cook.
He told me about how he often felt like people never actually wanted to be around him. He told me about how he knew he could easily sleep with girls and how it boosts his ego to wrap them around his finger. He told me about his mum and his messed up childhood.
He was serious for once. He was open.
"I don't know what's going on with Freddie and Effy, George, that's if anything is happening. But I do know he likes you. I know he liked you from the first day at college. I get why." He smiled reassuringly and then said, "come on, precious. I'll walk you home."