‘Come on then, what’s going on?’ Kate asked, half listening, half adjusting her make-up in the bathroom mirror.
‘I think …’ Eleanor couldn’t even believe she was about to say the words out loud. ‘I think Fin and I nearly kissed.’ She dropped her head with embarrassment.
‘What thehell?’ Kate squealed, running over to kneel by Eleanor. ‘Are you serious? Like oh my God, atlast, but really? What happened?’ She was speaking so quickly that it was making Eleanor feel a little nauseous. ‘Tell me everything!’
Eleanor looked up into the overly excited face of her friend. Doubt began to gnaw away at the edges of her mind. Maybe she was exaggerating? Maybe she’d read it wrong?
‘Eleanor!’ Kate shook her impatiently. ‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know. We were waiting outside the front door. I asked him if I looked OK. Then he said I looked beautiful and … and he held my face. Then he started looking at me strangely … like really intensely. I’ve never seen him look at me like that before.’ Eleanor closed her eyes as she recalled the moment. Her heart fluttered and her body temperature soared at the thought. ‘I saw him start to lean forward and so I closed my eyes, but then Jimmy opened the door and interrupted, and then suddenly we were inside and I kind of lost him in the crowd.’
Kate’s eyes grew larger and her face broke into a smile. ‘What are you doing up here then, you idiot? Go find him!’
‘And say what?’ Eleanor shook her head in resignation. The moment had passed. What if she’d made this whole thing up?
‘You don’tsayanything.’ Kate winked and pulled Eleanor up to standing. ‘Come here, let me put some of this on you.’ She pulled out a lipstick from her clutch bag and gently started applying it to Eleanor’s lips.
‘Hey, how long are you going to be in there? Some of us are desperate,’ an angry voice shouted through the door.
‘She’s being really sick … it’s like everywhere … all over the walls … so back off a minute, will you?’ Kate barked. ‘Here’s what you’re going to do, OK?’
Eleanor nodded silently. ‘You’re going to go downstairs and find Fin. You’re not going to say a word, just go up to him and kiss him. It’s been a long time coming, nothing more needs to be said.’ Kate clapped her hands in glee and let out a little shriek of excitement. ‘Ready?’
Again, all Eleanor could manage was a small nod of her head. She felt sick. Maybe she actually did need to vomit. Was this really happening?
But there was no more time for thinking as Eleanor felt herself being pulled from the room and down the stairs. Everything around her was a blur. The only thing she could focus on was the feel of Kate’s hand in hers and the pounding of her heart.
Suddenly Kate stopped dead. She tried to turn Eleanor away but it was too late. There in front of them, at the foot of the stairs, arms wrapped around one another, were Fin and a girl. Their faces were so tightly locked together that if she didn’t know the details of him so well, he could have been anyone. But he wasn’t.
The floor shifted beneath her. Tears stung her eyes as she felt her entire body run cold.
How could you have been so stupid, Eleanor?
‘Let’s go,’ Kate hissed, pulling at her arm, but Eleanor remained rooted, unable to tear her eyes away from the scene in front of her.
‘Eleanor! Move!’ Kate shouted.
Fin stopped and looked up, straight into Eleanor’s eyes. A wave of emotions crashed over her, so many feelings piling on top of each other that her brain didn’t have time to make sense of them.
‘Eleanor, there you are.’ He broke into a smile and reached his hand out to her. The blonde girl who he had been attached to mere seconds ago threw her arms protectively around Fin’s neck and stared menacingly at Eleanor. ‘Come here and meet Danielle. I was just telling her about you. Danielle, here is my best friend in the entire world, Eleanor Levy!’ He swayed a little as he stepped towards her.
Eleanor couldn’t speak. There were no words. All she wanted to do was disappear and erase this moment from her life completely.
‘Eleanor?’ His face crumpled into confusion. ‘Are you OK?’ He was so close to her now she could almost taste the alcohol on him. He took her hand and squeezed it.
‘Yes, sorry! Think I had one too many shots.’ She snapped back into life. ‘I’m going to go, but you stay and have fun.’ Eleanor smiled and shook herself free of Fin’s hand. ‘Danielle, it was nice to meet you,’ she called back over her shoulder, practically running into Kate’s arms.
‘Elles, are you sure you’re all right?’ Fin shouted after her. ‘We’ve only just got here!’
‘Get me outsidenow,’ she hissed, as Kate dragged her towards the front door. ‘And promise me we forget this whole night ever happened, OK?’
‘OK. I promise.’
Now
Fin
His heart was already heavy by the time he walked into his mother’s room the next day. Rudi’s death had really left its mark on him but, thankfully, Nurse Clara had assured him that his mum was fairly lucid; he wasn’t sure he had the energy to deal with the alternative.
