I decide to get changed for my evening in with Ozzy. Despite not going out, I feel the need to dress up a bit, so I’ve chosen to wear a pair of denim high waisted shorts, a sleeveless peach blouse and I pick out a pair of high white wedges to make myself a little bit taller standing beside Ozzy. After spending more time on my makeup, I take my bag with me and head into the flat kitchen to tell anyone in there that I’m off out. Rowland and Delaney are the only ones there, both of them are sat eating dinner together and they smile at me as I enter. I’m guessing they’ve having a date night too.
‘Sorry for interrupting,’ I apologise, but Delaney shakes her head.
‘Don’t worry about it. You look gorgeous, Immy. Are you off out?’ She asks, spinning some pasta onto her fork, before spooning it into her mouth.
I shrug and sit beside them and say, ‘Kind of. I’m spending the evening in with Ozzy.’
‘Oh that’ll be nice. How are things between you both?’
That seems to be the million pound question whenever I’m asked how we’re getting on. ‘They’re going okay. He’s trying so hard.’
‘No one would ever doubt that he would,’ Rowland chips in, before letting go of the hand holding Delaney’s to take a swig of his beer.
‘I best head off. Have a romantic evening,’ I tell them both, and I can’t help but smile as they shoot each other a look across the table before wishing me farewell.
I make the quick two minute walk down the road to Ozzy’s halls of residence and flat, passing the open expanse of parkland and the route into town. On the way back from my lesson this afternoon, Blake took me for a long winded tour of the hidden parts of the city to get me more used to my surroundings. Finally, I knock on his flat door, but instead of Ozzy answering it, Emma does. She’s dressed up, obviously, seeing as she mentioned going out earlier on with the rest of her flat, to which Ozzy declined us joining. I don’t miss the glance of her eyes down at my outfit, whilst she stands there, holding the door open and yet blocking my entrance.
‘Is Ozzy expecting you?’ She questions, resting her spare hand on her hip.
I frown my eyebrows at her and nod. ‘We’ve got plans tonight, so that’s why he couldn’t come out with you all. Don’t you remember earlier on?’
She doesn’t answer me, but instead walks back to her bedroom, leaving me standing at the door. A girl walks out of her room and beams at me. ‘Immy! Ozzy didn’t tell me you were coming over.’ She flings her arms around my neck, before pulling back and clapping her hands in excitement.
‘I didn’t tell you because Immy’s mine tonight, not yours, Lucia,’ I hear Ozzy’s voice from behind me. I turn around and smile as I see how much effort he’s made in his appearance, despite us staying in.
‘You look beautiful, Immy,’ he tells me, walking forwards to where I’m stood. ‘You can talk to Immy while I finish getting things ready.’
I want to say he doesn’t need to give Lucia permission to talk to me, but let it pass as I go into Lucia’s room. I’m gathering we must have been good enough friends by her pure delight in seeing me for the first time. I look around her room and see pictures of her and another guy pinned on her wall, smiling and laughing and in tight embraces.
‘How have you been then? Sorry I didn’t catch you earlier on. You are looking so well though,’ she compliments.
‘You haven’t seen the staples,’ I say with a smirk, but in all serious, they’re not all that pretty. Thankfully, they’re due to be taken out within the next few days when I head back home.
‘Ozzy said about that,’ she says with a grim expression.
‘Did he talk much about it? The accident I mean?’ I ask her.
‘Oh yeah. When he came back to uni, the poor boy was inconsolable. He wouldn’t stop talking about you, as if talking about you would help him and you. He didn’t want to come back without you, poor guy.’
There’s a knock at the door and Lucia lets the person walk in. I smile seeing its Ozzy and he extends his hand to me. ‘Dinner awaits.’
I stand up and take his hand. ‘We’ll have to catch up another time, Lucia.’
‘Definitely,’ she concurs, as I follow Ozzy out and into his bedroom. I’m taken by complete surprise as I walk into his room and see he’s set up a little table for two, with a chair placed either side of the table. The room is dimly lit, with the sun setting which can be seen from his window. He’s tidied up and the room looks so romantic.
‘Oh Ozzy, this is beautiful,’ I gush. This looks film worthy the effort he’s gone to.
‘Good, so if the foods shit, you won’t hate me,’ he tells me with a wink, before pulling a chair out for me and tucking me in. ‘What do you want to drink? I’ve got wine, cider, vodka, pretty much whatever.’
‘Whatever you think I can take,’ I tell him, not knowing the difference between the drinks.
He pops off to the kitchen and comes back in with a drink for each of us. It’s only then I notice how handsome he looks tonight. He’s gone all out with a plain white shirt and thin green tie and beige chino trousers. His hair is dishevelled in only a way Ozzy can get away with and his face is cleanly shaven too. He goes over to his phone which is placed on some dock station and soon music begins to echo around the room and I smirk at him.
‘Get lucky, Ozzy?’ I smirk at him, as I hear the song lyrics play out across the room, which I’ve been hearing all over the campus radio station this week.
I bop my head along to the beat, before taking a sip of my drink and wrinkling my nose at the alcohol hitting the back of my throat.
‘What is it?’ I ask, referring to the strong drink.
‘Vodka and cranberry.’
‘Can I swap this for some lemonade please?’ I ask him, handing him the drink. ‘It’s a bit too strong.’
He nods and quickly changes my drink, before coming back in the room with a glass of lemonade. ‘There you go.’
Ozzy notices the song is still playing, so asks ‘Fancy a dance?’ He asks, already standing up and taking my hand to follow him.
‘I can’t dance,’ I tell him, laughing as he tries to move us both side to side to the music.
‘Believe me, you can dance,’ he tells me with conviction, as his hands rest at my waist. My arms hang limply by my side and he grins affectionately at me.
‘Place your arms around my neck,’ he instructs with a playful smile.
‘And why would I do that?’ I question, equally as teasing.
‘So you can be closer to me, obviously,’ he says smirking.
Confidently, I link my arms around his neck and am immediately shocked at how close we are. I watch as Ozzy sings the song lyrics to me, causing my cheeks to flush in embarrassment. The song lyrics are definitely alluding to one eventful pass time, so I try to avoid listening to what the song is saying and instead move to the music, with Ozzy’s body moving with mine in sync. I feel his hands move a little lower to rest on the top of my bum and I place my hands on top of his and pull them in front of my body with a smile.
‘I think that’s enough dancing for now,’ I tell him softly, before going back to my seat, my heart racing and Ozzy looking overly pleased with himself.
We each take a sip of our drink, before he explains,‘I limited myself to two meals, three was going to push it, so we’ve got main and dessert.’
‘You’ve made such an effort, thank you, Oz.’
He sends me a wink, before taking a sip of his beer and leaning across the table and holding my hand. He presses his lips to the back of my hand and tells me, ‘You’re so worth it.’
An little awkward silence falls upon us, purely because I genuinely don’t have anything to talk about. I watch as Ozzy sips his drink, before he asks me how I’m finding everything.
‘What do you mean everything?’ I question.
‘Well, how are you finding uni, your new friends, me...’ he trails off, leaving the most important person until last.
‘Ohh,’ I breathe out, before thinking for a little bit. ‘This is a bit like my counselling session, asking me about everything.’
‘Did you find it helpful?’
‘A bit, yeah. But I don’t really want to go into it right now,’ I apologise, sending him a look. ‘Can I ask you about yourself instead?’
He takes another sip of his beer before nodding. I take a few moments to think about what to ask him, thinking about all the different things I’ve had the urge to find out, before saying, ‘Tell me about your family.’
‘Jump right in there,’ he tells me with a smirk. ‘It’s a bit dysfunctional, I guess’ he begins, tapping his fingers on the top of his beer bottle. ‘My parents split up when I was eleven, so me and my younger brother Oakley moved up North with my Mum while my Dad moved to Cambridge. He got remarried and had two step children but my Mum has never found anyone serious.’
‘Was that hard?’ I ask quietly. ‘Being so young and having your parents split up.’
He purses his lips before nodding. ‘Of course. Oak and I were not happy about not seeing my Dad except for twice a month due to the distance between them and it got worse when he remarried. Oak took it harder than me, he was upset that my Dad was spending time with two boys, who are around the same age as him, rather than spending time with him.’
‘That’s so sad, Ozzy,’ I tell him, feeling truly sad for him having to go through the heartbreak of his parents splitting up. It’s etched across his face how badly he must have taken their split. Delicately, I continue to ask, ‘How old is Oakley now?’
‘He’s 15 now.’
‘Thank you for sharing that with me, especially something so personal.’
He shoots me a look before saying, ‘I’ll tell you everything and anything, Immy.’
‘Do you see much of your Dad anymore?’
He shrugs. ‘Not really. You’ve met him a few times. He likes you a lot.’
‘Why’s that?’ I ask curiously, feeling a little embarrassed.
‘Because you make me happy,’ he tells me soft smile, which makes me blush.
I begin to reel off some more questions, before discovering Ozzy’s true love of playing the guitar. Despite his degree being in Maths, he’s got a creative flare it would seem. That probably helped us bond in Australia seeing as I’m meant to be creative. I really need to start drawing and trying to sew again, or else my degree is just going to get harder.
‘I’m just going to check on the main course,’ he says, looking down at his watch.
‘I’ll come with you,’ I tell him with a smile and follow him into the kitchen, which is currently empty. The rest of his flat must have either left by now or they’re giving us some privacy. I watch as Ozzy plates up our meals, before asking me to grab a few things from around the kitchen, which I struggle to find. Ozzy brushes past me to help, his arm resting on my lower back before reaching up to grab a salt and pepper shaker. My body flinches at his close touch, before I look up at him with a smile. He places the finishing touches to our dishes, before saying dramatically, ‘Chicken fajitas with spicy rice, tortillas and guacamole, my lady. It’s Mexican night for us. First time for both of us.’
His thoughtfulness in getting us to both try and do something new touches me, and I happily take our plates back to his bedroom for us to demolish eating. I even manage to drink half a glass of sweet white wine with my main course. We continue to talk relatively easily throughout the main course, before Ozzy takes our plates out and makes me wait for our dessert.
A few minutes later, he walks in with one plate with a massive slice of chocolate cake and several scoops of vanilla ice cream dripping in chocolate sauce.
‘Oh my God, that looks amazing, Ozzy!’ I practically squeal, my eyes ogling the chocolaty mound of goodness.
He hands us a spoon each and laughs. I look up at him, when he comments, ‘I wish you’d look at me the same way you looked at that cake.’
Immediately, I feel slightly bad that my feelings were just that noticeable, as I dig my spoon into the chocolate cake.
‘I’m sorry,’ I say as I place the spoonful of cake in my mouth.
‘What for?’ He questions in surprise.
‘For not looking at you in a certain way and for how hard it is; I know it’s hard on you and that makes me feel bad that I can’t-‘
‘Immy, I was kidding, don’t beat yourself up about it,’ he says worriedly, cutting into my sentence. ‘I know it’s going to take time, don’t worry.’
‘But I still feel bad,’ I tell him, placing my spoon down and looking up at him.
‘No, don’t feel bad. I shouldn’t have said that. I wasn’t thinking. It was just a joke.’ He shrugs his shoulders, looking down at our dessert.
‘I don’t want you to constantly second guess yourself either with me,’ I tell him, feeling a little more irritated.
‘Chill out, Immy. Don’t worry about me. All I want you to be worried about is yourself and making sure you’re okay each day.’
Deciding arguing over perceived pettiness, I let it slide and go back to eating the cake, but reach across the table and take his spare hand in mine and assure him, ‘I really appreciate how hard you’re trying with me, Oz, even if I don’t show it so openly.’
‘And I appreciate how you’re trying too,’ he tells me, with his eyes so soft and caring. I send him a smile, and eat the rest of the chocolate cake and ice cream, which he takes full credit for making, spooning ice cream out of a tub and heating up a chocolate pudding his a mean feat, but he did make the main course, which is honestly much more than the pasta I’m beginning to learn to make.
I follow Ozzy back into the kitchen with the empty plate and glasses, and suggest helping him to wash up, because already I’m despising how my flatmates leave some of their bowls to fester and mould without being washed. With a little protest, he lets me wash up and takes on the role of Chief Drier Upper, to which he does successfully.
‘Do you want to stay over tonight?’ He asks as he places the bowls away. ‘Will I get lucky?’ He asks me with a wink.
‘Lucky enough for me to stay over?’ I question with a smile. ‘Not tonight.’
‘Lucky enough to get a kiss on the lips?’
I shake my head with a smile. ‘Not tonight. I want a spontaneous kiss, not a planned and asked for one.’
‘Noted,' he tells me, as he takes my hand in his. He walks me back to my flat, despite it being so close, just to make sure I get back there safely, which I like a lot. We stand at the door to my halls, with Ozzy looking down at me, as he pushes my blonde tresses back and cups my head in his hands. ‘You’re wonderful, do you know that?’
With my cheeks blushing, I respond, ‘Now I do.’
He gives me the widest grin, before pressing a slow kiss to my right cheek, before pulling away and looking at me. ‘Here’s to our first date. The first of many new memories,’ he asserts, extending his small finger out to me. ‘Shake on it,’ he declares with humour, and graciously, I link my small finger with his and shake it, smiling at the childish sentiment. ‘Here’s to a happy future of firsts, Immy.’
‘To a happy future of firsts,’ I repeat, before I pull my finger back and thank him for such a thoughtful evening. I don’t know if Ozzy’s an exception, but I’m definitely going to have to relay this evening to Blake and Daisy, maybe even Eleanor to see if this is normal practice from boys, or if I really did get lucky and fall on my feet finding this romantic boy down under.