‘Thank you, Mr Feeney, I really do appreciate it, see you Saturday.’
I set the phone down.
At least I had the time. I just hoped it would be enough.
Ronan was mirroring my nervous energy when I saw him that night, shifting around in his seat and jerking his arm every now and again and moving his head in the directions I was moving mine. I wanted to tell him everything, but I was careful too; I didn’t want all the talk about the formal and Jennifer upsetting him again.
‘The whole school has become obsessed, not just our year, all the other years are tuned in as well and joining in on all the gossip about who’s going with who, who’s not going anymore because they broke up, who’s getting dropped off in what fancy car.’
Ronan blew through his lips.
‘Exactly. Kevin and his gang are renting a limo. I’m going in Dad’s Honda.’
Ronan chuckled.
‘And yesterday, John McKeever did a buy-one-get-one-half-price Valentine’s special on his condoms in the toilets, but Mr Colton found out and everyone had to scatter. John was wandering around school today like a drug dealer doing secret sales.’
Ronan laughed, but not as much as I expected him to.
‘Anyway, I didn’t buy one.’
Ronan was just staring at me. I realised I’d been talking non-stop and he’d only been making sounds every now and then.
‘Everything alright, Ronan? You feeling OK today?’
His eyes looked off towards the window and then back to me and then his chin went to his chest and up, all very slow.
‘I really do wish you were going on Saturday night, you know,’ I said.
A weak smile from him.
‘Eye-uh … eye-uh …’ he said, trying to find a word, then gave up with an exhausted sigh.
The next thing out of my mouth wasn’t the thing I should have said probably. I suppose curiosity made me ask it.
‘Who would you have went with?’
He went very still and looked like he was about to sink into an even lower place so I quickly said:
‘Dawn McArdle?’
Ronan made a high-pitched yelp. Dawn was a girl in ouryear who seemed to have a grudge against the world and everyone in it; thelastperson Ronan would have asked.
‘I’m only joking; she’s not even going, she’s actually been protesting against it, something about conformist sheep, I think she called us.’
But the curiosity kept driving me.
‘Who else? Eimear Nugent?’
Ronan’s eyebrows raised. Eimear was Ronan’s equivalent when it came to sports, both of them winning the ‘Best Sports Boy’ and ‘Best Sports Girl’ awards on prize day every year. If Ronan hadn’t had his accident I’m sure he would have asked her. And if he had been going to the formal I knew I probably wouldn’t have; he was the one who did things and I was the one who watched. He’d be the one talking about all his plans and then telling me about how it all had gone when we were back at school on Monday, making me feel like Ihadbeen there with his detailed retelling of the night. He’d have made me feel included.
‘What are you doing Sunday?’ I asked him. ‘I’ve got it off work, so how about I come round here in the afternoon and tell you how it all went?’
He shifted around in his seat.
‘Only if you want, though, to hear how awkward it all was for me?’
I smiled broadly at him and he slowly did the same back.
