'Prick' = Worthless asshole
'Stag-do' = Bachelor party
GCSEs and A levels = British secondary school and sixth form qualifications
"I think he likes you." I nearly fell straight onto my painful ass at Mable's comment. We were still skating on the rink, and I have to admit, I was having a bit of fun. Even if this sport reminded me of ballet.
"Who?"
Mable rolled her eyes. "Thomas." She said it like it was obvious. "He smiled at you, you know." I gave her a disbelieving look. "When you weren't looking." She added.
"I smile at waiters in restaurants. It doesn't mean anything."
"Yeah well he keeps on looking over here." Not at me. I thought. With my B-cups, tiny ass and average face, I couldn't imagine what he was looking at.
"Yeah well he's a prick." I grumbled.
"I know, I know. All I'm saying is that its weird. It's a known fact that Thomas Verner hates everyone but he actually smiled at something you said."
"I wish he wouldn't." I was now in a bad mood. The guy knocks me over, ruins one of my most prized possessions, doesn't apologise when I did, pretends to not know me or worse, doesn't even remember the whole affair, and then smiles at me. He can fuck right off.
"And I didn't know you sat next to him in class!" She whisper-shouts when we drift closer to the guys.
"If it was up to me, we wouldn't! But he sat next to me."
"See! Even more proof!"
"Proof of what exactly?" She just smiled smugly at me and shrugged.
I was liking this activity a lot less now.
After a few minutes of skating in silence, Mable said gently, "That phone's been ringing for a while now, hasn't it?"
I didn't say anything. What could I say? When I didn't reply, she said, "Val?"
"Yeah, I guess it has." I offered.
"Why haven't you picked it up then?"
"I've just been busy." I half shrugged, skating a bit faster to keep up with her.
"Val. You can tell me anything. You know this."
"I know." I sighed. It was true, Mable was the only person I had on this continent and she knew more things about me than my own brother did.
"Is it because it could be him calling?" She asked softly. I stiffened and as a result nearly fell over. "Look, I don't know what happened to you back in London but I need you to talk to me."
"I know, I'm sorry." And I genuinely was. She cared about me, actually cared about me. It was an unfamiliar feeling but welcomed nonetheless.
"It could be your brother calling, you know?"
"Hey, I thought we were meant to be having fun after my bad morning." I said, trying to lighten the mood and not-so-subtly change the subject.
"Yeah, yeah you're right." She said, rolling her eyes. She pretended to push me and I veered back at the last second before she caught me and we burst into fits of laughter.
---
A week or so had passed in the same routine. I would wake up, go to school, studiously ignore Thomas, go home and ignore the red phone that persistently rung.
One day, just as I was about to leave for school, it rung again. Today was a Friday, which meant that my dad's one shift a week was today. This reason, and this reason only, was why I decided to build up the courage and pick up that scarlet phone.
"Finally!" I heard my older brother, Will's, voice down the other end of the line. "I've been trying to reach you for ages! Why didn't you pick up the phone?" A surge of relief hit me like a wave. It was my brother. Even though I knew it would be, I couldn't describe how pleased I was that I wasn't currently hearing my father's husky voice.
"Oh, you know. Just started school and stuff." I lied.
"Right." He said, his words clipped. He obviously didn't believe me but my brother loved avoiding confrontation and unpleasant truths so he said nothing about it. "How is that going by the way?"
"Well, I was just on my way to school. I'm kind of running late. Can I call you back later?" I heard him sigh. "Will, you can check, over there its one, but here it's eight, I really am going to school."
"Yeah, yeah I know." He said. "Fine, you can call me back but it's got to be sooner rather than later."
"What's so urgent?" I said, unsure.
"I have something that I need to talk to you about." Panic flooded through me.
"What's this about, Will?"
"Look, Val, let's just talk about it later tonight. What's the earliest you can talk?"
"Since when do you go to bed early?" I asked. Out of all my family, I was probably closest to my brother. After Mum of course. We knew everything about each other and I should be grateful that he's checking up on me.
"Er... Since I got engaged and moved out?" He said shyly.
"You and Molly got engaged?!" I said, elated. My brother only being 23, I was slightly shocked but happy for him nonetheless. "How far along has it been? Have you had your stag-do yet?!"
"No, no, no. This only happened about two weeks ago." And I was too busy ignoring his calls. "But that's not what I want to talk about. Is four your time okay for you?"
"Yeah, that's perfect, just give me a ring on this phone."
"You know, it would be so much easier if you just gave me your mobile."
"I know." And with that, I hung up.
---
Over the last week or so, Thomas had been coming to fewer and fewer lessons. Out of the twelve we've had so far, he's only been to five. Not that I was keeping track or anything.
On this Friday, he happened to be in and I felt his eyes on me several times. What was his problem? I had managed to talk as little as possible to him, only when absolutely necessary, and from what I had gathered, he did not remember how we first met at all. He probably thought that we first met in this classroom. My ruined letter was evidence against that.
I had tried to salvage what I could of the letter but due to my mother's persistence in using real ink, all of the words were smudged beyond recognisability.
At the end of the lesson, I was packing my things up as quickly as I could to try and get away from Thomas as quickly as I could before Professor Twine came up to us and asked to talk to us.
"Mr. Verner, may I call you Thomas."
"Not really." Thomas deadpanned.
"Great, Thomas." Twine smiled.
"And can I call you Valerie Ms Fawkes."
"Oh, it's Val. You can call me Val." Thomas gave me an unreadable expression. Professor Twine smiled again.
"Well, Thomas, it has come to my attention that you have missed quite a few lessons." Thomas looked taken aback, like he didn't expect to be confronted about this. "I checked over your records and you were a straight A student in High School. And you, Val, were the equivalent in your GCSEs and A-levels and yet you are both at different levels in my class."
He took a moment to stare us down. I did not like this at all.
"Thomas, in earning your degree, it is all about commitment and you are off to a rocky start. Why have you been skipping my lessons?"
"Personal reasons." I looked at Thomas and with his murderous expression, insane height and massive build, he looked positively terrifying. Whatever these 'personal reasons' were, I knew better than to ask.
"Right, well, I suggest that you catch up and as the person that sits next to you, I think that Val would be perfect for the job."
I looked at Professor Twine, he looked so annoyingly smug like he knew that Thomas and I did not like each other.
"Is that okay with you, Val?" Twine asked me, and Thomas turned to me as well. No it is not okay.
"It's fine." I replied. Professor Twine promptly turned and left, leaving me and Thomas alone, in awkward silence. I was so close to breaking resolution 2 right now and I decided that once I got home, I would.
"Do you mind if I can come over and copy your notes today?" Thomas asked me, not at all looking like he felt awkward. To be honest, it looked like he felt at ease.
"What- like now?" I squeaked. I wasn't short, in fact the opposite. I was above average at 5"7 or 174cm. But with him being well over six foot, he dwarfed me in comparison, making me feel even more nervous. The corner of his lip lifted slightly at my flustered response.
"I can drive you, you just need to tell me where you live."
---
I was staring at a shiny black porsche.
"This is your car?" I said in utter shock.
"Yeah." Thomas just shrugged. Shrugged. "It was a graduation present from my parents. I guess having a 4.0 GPA wins you a few favours."
All I got for my completion of A-levels was a bruise. I couldn't believe my eyes.
"As a student, you have a Porsche?!"
"Yeah, I guess so." He said while he opened the passenger door. I didn't question it, just climbed in. All this time, I had been taking the filthy subway while he glides around in his fancy car.
After I told him where I lived I asked, "Have you ever taken the subway?"
He smirked at my question. I didn't see what was so funny. "A couple of times, only when necessary."
"Oh, it's different in London, basically everyone takes the tube." I said.
"Tube?" He asked.
"It's a nickname for the London Underground."
"Oh, right. You're on the Northern Line." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. I guess he knew his London geography.
"I was, yeah." I didn't know why I was making small talk with him. I hated him. I needed to remember that.
"Was?" He asked softly, turning to look at me. I didn't know his voice could be so gentle. He was just so tall and always in a bad mood that I assumed his voice would reflect that.
"I will always love London but I don't really consider it my home anymore." I sighed.
"Why not?" I don't know why, but it seemed like he was genuinely interested in what I had to say. Like he wanted to know more about me. Complete bullshit of course, but it still felt nice to have someone ask questions about you. I don't remember the last time.
"My mother was from New York. She took me a few times. I just kind of fell in love with it." It also helped that it was 5567 kilometres away from my father.
I know he noticed my use of 'was' but he didn't comment on it and I was grateful for that. I could barely talk about her with my brother and Mable, let alone this stranger hockey god in a fancy car that repeatedly got on my nerves. He isn't getting on your nerves right now, is he? A little voice said in the back of my mind.
Shut up. I said back.
"What about you? Have you always lived here?" I surprised myself by asking him questions and by the look on his face, I had surprised him too.
"Pretty much. I think only the most important thing could keep me here, though." He looked taken aback that he had just revealed that. I was too.
"How come?" I asked. He sighed, as if waging a silent battle in his head.
"It's complicated." And just like that, he was shut off again and I was reminded just how much of a prick he was.
He tricked me for a moment into believing that he was an actual decent human being and I felt so guilty for it. The ruined letter at home was a testament to that.
This was why I never let my guard down. It never ends well.
When he parked the car outside our apartment building, it was thundering down with rain.
I was about to get out and bolt for the door when Thomas said, "Wait." And he started unbuttoning his jacket. "You'll get wet." He said matter-of-factly, handing me his jacket.
"No, you're alright." I replied. I didn't want to owe him anything.
Before he could protest, I got out of the car and rushed to the apartment, unlocking the front door.
"We're at the top so it's a couple of flights, sorry." I said awkwardly, once we were inside.
Water was sliding down my face from my drenched hair and I was slightly regretting my previous display of pride. However, I was determined to not let this show and climbed up the many, many steps.
Once we entered the apartment, I turned around to gauge Thomas' reaction, assuming it would be pompous and arrogant at the slightly decrepit flat but I was pleasantly surprised at seeing a small smile etched onto his pink lips.
Jesus, Val. Get a grip.
He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, I interrupted him with, "My notes are over there, I'll get them for you." The sooner he copied my notes, the sooner he would leave.
I grabbed my notes from the coffee table and said, "You can copy them here, if you like." Why was I nervous? His presence made me nervous.
Before he could reply, he was interrupted again by a loud ringing.
Shit. Will's call, I had completely forgotten! It was Thomas' questions and green eyes that messed up my head.
I debated on just letting it ring and miss his call yet again but I couldn't let my brother down like that. He was just looking out for me.
I chose the easy way out. I figured that as I hate him and all, I should get away from him and talk to my brother.
"I'm so sorry but I have to take this." I chewed my lip nervously, dreading the news my brother was inevitably going to tell me.
Thomas wore an unreadable expression before he said, "Its fine." He sat down on the sofa, grabbing my notes as I made my way over to that bleeding phone.
I stared at the phone for a good few seconds before daring to even go near it. From the corner of my eye, I could see Thomas watching me, so without anymore hesitation, I picked it up.
———
Thanks so much for reading!! It means a lot even though this story is mainly for me LMAO. How is the pacing, I feel like I'm rushing things a bit so please let me know, thanks!
Word count: 2441