"Nina! If you're not down here in the next two minutes, you're going to have to walk!" Mum's voice carried up the stairs.
I checked the time on my phone – it was only just after five, early even by my standards. I took a quick look in the mirror, figuring that it didn't matter too much what I looked like – it was only crazy golf after all.
"Coming!" I shouted down the stairs as I grabbed my bag and headed out of my room. I looked over my shoulder at the piles of clothes I'd left strewn around the place. Maybe I wasn't as laid back about what I was wearing as I'd tried to convince myself.
"About time," Mum said as I came into the kitchen. "Thought you'd fallen asleep up there."
"It's not even quarter past!" I protested. "Anyway, I'm ready now."
Mum smiled. "Come on then."
I hadn't been to the new entertainment complex in town before. I'd mentioned it to Zach a couple of times but he'd been reluctant to go and neither crazy golf or bowling was something you could really get away with doing on your own.
Mum almost pushed me out of the door towards the car. If I didn't know better, I'd say she was more excited than I was about me actually having some kind of social plans. To be honest, I did know better and she absolutely was more excited than I was.
My stomach churned a bit as we headed towards town. I tried to go over a list in my head of things that normal people talk about, so that I wouldn't stand out massively. I'd just mentally written down 'the weather' when I felt my phone buzz.
OLLIE: Did I miss anything yesterday?
That was it. I waited a few minutes to see if there was going to be a follow up text but there was nothing. No mention of why he wasn't there. No mention of last week. Was he really going to just leave it at that?
I was still deliberating how to reply when we pulled into the car park. As usual, I was embarrassingly early. I'd told Mum we were meeting there half an hour earlier than we were, just to make sure we weren't late. I figured I'd just loiter around the arcade games, waiting for Ro and her friends.
"Let me know when you need picking up, Nini," Mum said, leaning over and giving me a quick hug. "And have a lovely time. You deserve to have some fun."
"Thanks, Mum. See you later." I shut the door behind me and headed to the entrance. Mum waited a little longer than she needed to in the car park but when she saw me reach the door, she waved and drove off. I smiled to myself; I'd really got lucky in the mum department.
The bright lights and buzzing sounds of the arcade hit me hard when I walked into the complex. It swarmed with people and I felt pretty overwhelmed. I wandered aimlessly through the different machines, trying to find my bearings. I managed to locate the bowling alley and the stairs up to the cinema but the crazy golf seemed to be evading me.
I decided my best bet was to wait for Ro out the front. I'd never find her inside and the flashing lights were starting to make my head hurt. I desperately hoped that the crazy golf course was darker and quieter.
My phone buzzed again when I got outside. It was Ro, telling me she'd be about five minutes. I smiled, knowing that meant at least ten minutes. I didn't really mind, it was cooler outside and I definitely needed a bit of fresh air.
I clicked off of Ro's message and spotted Ollie's, sat there unanswered. Had he missed anything yesterday? Honestly, no, not much. Just my existential crisis I suppose.
NINA: Nothing important. Gloria just had us using different pencils for tone.
Grey dots bounced along the bottom of the screen.
OLLIE: Great, thanks.
Ugh. Why did he insist on keeping all the answers I wanted to himself? I took a deep breath and typed again, knowing that if I didn't, I'd drive myself mad with questions.
NINA: Where were you anyway? Didn't know you weren't planning to be there.
'Didn't know you weren't planning to be there?' Of course, you didn't know, Nina, I told myself crossly as I watched the grey tick double and then turn blue. Why would you have known? I felt the embarrassment creep up my neck, even though there was nobody there to see it.
More dots. Starting and stopping, starting and stopping.
Then, nothing.
Great, I thought, putting my phone back into my pocket. Another incredibly painful interaction to relive when I'm trying to fall asleep.
As I berated myself mentally, a Range Rover pulled up alongside me. I was surprised to see Ro open the passenger door, waving at me. I definitely hadn't thought she'd turn up in a car like that. I wasn't sure why I thought that but it really didn't suit her.
"Hey," I said, walking towards her as she jumped down from the seat.
"Hi," she hugged me when I reached her. "Bet you've been here ages."
"No comment." I smiled.
"Rosemary?" A sharp voice came from the driver's seat and I looked across to see a woman that I assumed was Ro's mum, looking at me with something like distaste in her expression. "Who's this? I thought you were meeting your boyfriend."
My brain tried to take in the two new pieces of information that had been foisted upon it. Firstly, Ro was short for Rosemary. I would never have called that; Ro was about as far from a Rosemary as you could get. And second, Ro had a boyfriend? She hadn't mentioned it to me and that seemed a big thing to keep quiet about, especially since we'd had some pretty deep conversations over the last few weeks.
"He's not feeling well, so he stayed at home," Ro said quietly. Then she turned to me and rolled her eyes. "This is Nina, Mum. My friend from college, I told you."
"Oh. Nice to meet you, Nina," Ro's mum sounded like it was anything but nice to meet me.
I waved awkwardly, "Nice to meet you too."
"Anyway," Ro cut in. "We've got our golf slot booked so we need to hurry up. I'll text you when we're done, Mum. See you later."
She shut the car door before her mum could reply and pulled me towards the complex, like she was trying to get me away.
"That was –" I started.
"Weird?" Ro finished for me.
"Erm, a bit, yeah," I agreed, shrugging.
"I'm sorry," Ro sighed, fidgeting awkwardly with her hands. "Mum's not exactly friendly most of the time. Well, any of the time actually."
"Oh."
"Never mind," she said, brightening up. "We've got some crazy golf to play and I need to show you my Olympic standard skills. I said we'd meet the others down there."
The knot in my stomach that had loosened since Ro had turned up squeezed again. I'd almost forgotten that I had to meet new people tonight. She looked at me like she understood what I was thinking.
"You'll be fine, Nina. You'll really get on with them. I promise."
I swallowed down my nerves and tried to smile. "Yeah, you're right. I just get a bit anxious in new situations, you know?"
"You get anxious in every situation." Ro smiled back. "It's what you do."
How did somebody that I'd only known for a few weeks manage to see through all the layers I tried to put up to protect myself so quickly? Being with Ro was both the most comfortable and the most vulnerable I'd felt in a long time.
"Good point," I said, following her towards the escalator. No wonder I hadn't found crazy golf earlier when I was only searching on this floor. "Anyway, when were you going to tell me your name was Rosemary?"
Ro narrowed her eyes at me and put her fingers in her ears. "Can't hear you, don't know what you're talking about."
I laughed, pulling at her arm until she had to stop and couldn't pretend she couldn't hear me anymore. "You don't strike me as a Rosemary," I said, once her ears were free again.
"Ugh, I know," Ro groaned. "It's awful, isn't it?"
"Not awful. Just not you."
"It was worse when Mum tried to make 'Rosie' a thing."
I burst out laughing. "No way. You are definitely not a Rosie. That's far too cutesy for you."
Ro rounded on me, her face contorted into mock outrage, "Bloody rude! Am I not cute, Nina?"
I grinned. "Oh, you're absolutely adorable!"
Ro pretended to look flattered and then dropped the acting, scrunching up her nose instead. "Yeah, cute and me don't really go hand in hand. That's why I cut it down to Ro – made the best of a bad situation."
"Ro suits you."
She shrugged. "It'll do for now. Might change it one day."
"I hope you don't," I said, serious now.
Ro smiled at me and I thought I saw a flash of unease cross her face.
"So, since your Mum dropped you in it, I might as well ask about the other thing," I said, looking at her curiously.
"The other thing?"
"Yeah, you know, the secret boyfriend you were meant to be meeting tonight?"
The uncomfortable flash crossed her face again, clearer this time. "Oh, erm, I thought I'd told you about him. Anyway, he's not feeling great so he's not coming."
She shifted from one foot to the other and I knew she was holding back on something. Tonight wasn't the time to push it though, I had to put my best fake smile on and pretend to be confident and sociable when in reality, all I wanted to do was vomit.