by Holly Bourne
Rain couldn’t handle it any more. If he had to listen to her for one more second, he would smash the computer over that smug head of hers.
“Anita, this is WRONG.”
Her smile faded. “What did you just say?”
Unable to control himself, everything he’d been feeling these past days came tumbling out of his mouth without a second thought for his career, his future, or his punishment.
“It’s just wrong. How can you sit there and do nothing? How can you let this happen? It’s actually inhumane – YOU’RE inhumane. What are you doing to these poor people? You don’t think it’s going to be hard enough when we intervene? You’re just letting them fall in love. How? How can you do that? I don’t understand.” He bashed his mouse down on the desk.
“And what about the other people caught up in all this? If anyone’s dead, then that’s your fault. You’ll have blood on your hands. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but it has to stop. You have to stop. I’m going to ring the Defence Secretary and—”
“You. Will. Do. No. Such. Thing.”
Her words cut through his like a sharp blade through butter. The cold authority in her voice chilled his bones. He dared himself to meet her gaze. Her glare was ice-cold, her face seething with anger. He jutted out his jaw and matched her eye contact.
“I’ll do it, Anita. I will.”
“No you won’t.”
“I have to.”
“I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in, Rain.”
She was undoubtedly angry but her voice was calm, cool, and that unnerved him. He fidgeted uncomfortably in his chair.
“Do you honestly think the Defence Minister would listen to a nobody like you? Over someone like me? I, personally, think we need to let this match run. There’s never been a tolerance built between a couple before. Do you not see the potential here? If we can work out a way for them to be together?” She broke off for a moment, her eyes glinting with something, and Rain’s brain jumped to the rumours about her…whispers he’d heard in the corridor about Anita. About her apparently having once had a match of her own. That was why she was considered so important to the company – her “insider” insight was invaluable, they said. But Rain wasn’t so sure now. How could someone that…broken be of any use? Wasn’t she more of a liability?
“There’s no out, Rain, you know that. You knew that when you signed the contract and signed your life away to us. And, as I’m the leading expert in this field, and your only chance of ever getting promoted, I suggest you shut the hell up or you’ll be condemned to a lifetime of number-crunching.”
Rain didn’t know what to say. He’d forgotten about the contract. About how he’d promised to dedicate his whole life to the work done here. He’d been so stupid, so excited about being let in on a big secret that he’d never stopped to think what would happen if he didn’t like the big secret.
“Look, Anita…”
She glared at him.
“Sorry…I mean Dr. Beaumont. I understand what you’re saying, I really do. But do you not think this is getting a bit out of hand?”
“That is not your decision, Rain, it’s mine. Now I suggest you go and make me another cup of coffee before I decide to completely demote you.”
What could he do? He walked away to make the drink. This was his bed, he was going to have to lie in it and accept what was happening. As he waited for the coffee to filter, his thoughts drifted to the poor kids causing all this trouble. What he was going through was nothing compared to what they would have to face. Maybe Anita was right. Maybe they should be given their small slice of happiness for now.
Because when it all kicked off, neither of them would ever be happy again.
I woke up with the sun shining through my eyelids. I groaned and rubbed my eyes before slowly opening them. Forgetting where I was, I jolted with shock when I found Noah’s face in front of mine.
“Morning,” he said, a huge grin on his face. He was lying on his side, only about ten inches away.
“Have you been watching me sleep, you weirdo? Because that’s not romantic, you know. It’s just a tad creepy.”
He laughed and covered his eyes with his hands. “I’ve only been watching for a moment. And it wasn’t for creepy purposes, I just knew it would wake you up.”
I sat up, hoping my hair wasn’t too mad. “An alarm clock is less crazy-stalkerish.”
“I know. But it’s also less fun.”
The sunlight was streaming through Noah’s bay windows and specks of dust danced in the glow.
“The rain’s stopped then?”
“Apparently so. College is cancelled though. I rang and checked for you. It’s partly flooded. Not too bad, but enough to close.”
“Brilliant. That means I miss Psychology.”
Noah kissed my cheek, being careful not to breathe on me. “Breakfast?”
I nodded. “Sounds great.”
“Cool. I’ll make eggs.”
He climbed out of bed energetically, while I leaned back and enjoyed the relaxed relief you get when you don’t have to get up after all.
Noah stopped at the door. “Poppy?”
“Yeah?”
He looked down at his feet. “What I…we…said last night. Was it just a dramatic thing brought on by the apocalyptic-style circumstances?”
I smiled, enjoying his vulnerability. “It wasn’t in my case.” I picked up his abandoned pillow and threw it at him. “And it better not have been in your case either.”
He dodged the pillow, picked it up and chucked it back. I tried to duck but it hit the side of my head.
“Oooph.” I fell backwards on the bed and lay there, a little stunned.
Noah burst out laughing. “I completely, utterly, and totally love you,” he said, then bellyflopped onto the bed and gave me another big kiss, before running into the kitchen.
Twenty minutes later, we were eating scrambled eggs on toast contentedly in Noah’s posh kitchen. I was still wearing his oversized shirt and Noah was in boxers. We were sitting on stools pulled up against his beautiful charcoal countertops.
“So you can cook, apparently,” I said, shovelling down the eggs.
Noah poured me some orange juice. “It’s just one of my many talents.”
“Modesty not being one of them, though?”
He took a sip of his own juice. “Ha. You got me there.”
My mobile phone gave a muffled beep from Noah’s bedroom. I padded barefoot to get it and found a text from Lizzie.
Meeting for coffee and catch-up at 12. Be there.
“Who is it?” Noah called.
“Lizzie.”
“What does she want?”
“To meet for coffee later.”
I walked back to the kitchen. I was torn. Part of me longed to fill in my friends (minus Ruth) on last night’s revelations. But the other part didn’t want to leave Noah. It felt like it would physically hurt. I shook my head.
No. I was independent. I had a life other than a boyfriend…
“That’s a shame. I was hoping we could hang out today.”
“What about band practice?”
“I can cancel. The studio might be flooded anyway.”
I shook my head. “Nope. We’re not going to be one those THOSE couples.”
Noah looked confused. “What couples?”
“You know, the ones that stop having any sort of individual life once they get together. I refuse to.” I banged my glass down a bit heavily and some juice sloshed onto the counter. “Oops.”
Noah got a dishcloth from the sink and wiped it up. “Have you finished ranting?”
I nodded.
“Good.” He took my hand. “I have a life, Poppy.” I looked down at my half-eaten eggs, slightly embarrassed by my outburst. “I have managed to live a whole seventeen years without you. And yes, it’s been less fun, but I’ve done just fine. It’s just one day, one band practice.”
I continued staring at my leftover bre
akfast. “Sorry.”
Noah tilted my head up so I would look at him. “I do get where you’re coming from, Poppy. I know you’re your own person, which is why I love you. But you don’t have to be so scared about becoming a cliché or something…”
I couldn’t believe how well he knew me already. It was like he could look straight into my thoughts.
“I do have a little bit of a…thing about clichés,” I admitted.
“What is it? You’re convinced everyone else is one and you’re different?”
“Sort of.”
Noah stood up, gently brushed my hair to one side and kissed my neck.
“It’s just a relationship, Poppy. They’re all clichéd. There’s nothing special about us – apart from the fact it’s us. You and me. And I’m glad it’s you and me, because I feel like what we’ve found is pretty great. But I think this ‘falling in love’ stuff is just the same for everyone.”
I kissed him on the lips. “I do wish I could spend the whole day with you, you know that, right?”
“What about us having to lead individual and separate lives?”
“That was before you said all that nice stuff.”
“God, you’re a right little sell-out, aren’t you? A few compliments and all your morals go out the window.”
I got up and pushed him. “Oi. Take that back.”
He caught my hand as I went to push him again, smiling. “Never.”
One of Noah’s fingers tickled my waist. I batted his hand away but he caught it and wedged my arm under his armpit before tickling me again with his spare hand. I squealed and started hitting him over the head, trying to get him to stop. He laughed and blocked me easily. More tickling. It felt wonderful and terrible at the same time.
“God, is play-fighting our ‘thing’ now?” I gasped through another tickle onslaught. “This really is a stereotype.”
With that, Noah tossed me over his shoulder with ease. I screamed, upside down.
“Right. I’ve had it with you.”
He ran with me to the bedroom, as I continued trying to break free, and tossed me onto the bed. Before I had a chance to recover, Noah was lying above me, his hand on my leg, trailing up beneath my shirt.
“Here’s the thing about clichés,” he said breathily into my ear. “They might be predictable, but they still feel pretty good.”
And then he kissed me and I didn’t give a damn about anything for a good ten minutes.
A few hours, and several kisses later, we emerged from Noah’s flat to be independent and sociable. My dress had dried adequately overnight and Noah insisted I was pretty enough to meet my friends make-up-free. We were in such a loved-up bubble I’d forgotten the storm. I was crudely reminded the moment we stepped out of Noah’s flat.
“Oh my God,” I muttered, looking around me.
It looked like a mini disaster zone. Water was gurgling earnestly out of the drain, spilling out onto the road. Broken tree branches lay sprawled across the tarmac; one was sitting comfortably through someone’s smashed car windscreen.
“Well, this isn’t usual,” Noah said, taking hold of my hand.
We walked towards town in awed silence, taking in the unexpected devastation. It got worse the closer we got. A telephone pole had fallen down and smashed into a shopfront. The water got much higher. We managed to dodge most of the flooded bits but there were times Noah gave me a piggyback and waded through knee-deep water. He’d had the foresight to bring some spare clothes and said he would change at the studio.
If the studio wasn’t underwater.
When we eventually got to the town centre, despite seeing it on the news, it was still a shock. Sludgy-coloured water lapped at shopfronts, and retailers with saddened faces were sweeping out as much as they could onto the already saturated road. The place where Jennie the reporter had stood was occupied by a small child wearing waders and driving a remote-controlled boat.
“Well, at least someone is having some fun,” Noah commented.
“I’m not sure why Lizzie suggested meeting for coffee in town,” I said. “Surely the place is going to be closed?”
“Knowing Lizzie, she knows exactly where’s been hit, and is already getting quotes from her neighbours to flog to the local rag.”
He was probably right.
We continued dodging the worst bits until we arrived at the coffee shop. It was open and I could see Lizzie, Ruth and Amanda through the window.
I turned to Noah. “So I’m off to be a separate entity now.”
“Me too.”
We stood looking at each other.
“Is it really pathetic to say I’m going to miss you?” I asked, pulling at his T-shirt.
“No,” Noah said. “What’s really pathetic is that I was just about to say the same thing.”
“Oh God, we’re officially disgusting.”
Noah gave me a quick knee-buckling kiss on the lips.
“Totally disgusting.”
The girls already had cups of coffee and so I first went to the counter and ordered my customary banana milk.
Ruth eyeballed it when I sat down next to her. “You’re still five then?”
I took a sip. “Yup.”
I leaned back on the sticky leather sofa. None of them looked like they’d slept much.
“So what’s up?” I asked. “Are everyone’s houses okay?”
“Ours is a little flooded actually,” Amanda said, wringing her hands and looking upset. “Not badly, just some in the kitchen. But it’s wrecked the floor, so Mum is pretty stressed.”
“Aww, I’m sorry, hon.” I took a sip of milk. “I still don’t understand what’s caused it. It’s so totally weird.”
“Well, I think the world is ending,” Lizzie declared, looking positively delighted at the universe’s untimely death. “I know this girl in my English Language class who’s a Christian, and she says right before the world ends all sorts of crap happens. Apparently natural disasters are the warning signs.”
“And since when were you religious?” Ruth asked.
“It’s just a possibility. And you have to admit this is strange.”
I laughed. “Lizzie, you just want things to be strange because it makes a more interesting story.”
“Maybe so.”
“Well I think it’s just a freak thing,” Ruth said. “Although it was pretty scary. Will and I got caught out in it and I had to stay at his.” She shook back her new scarlet hair. “It was annoying actually. I was planning to break up with him but couldn’t because I needed somewhere to crash.”
She said it so casually, without emotion. So Will had reached his sell-by date then. To be fair, he’d lasted longer than others, but I still didn’t understand how she could be so cold. I’d only been with Noah, well, about a week really, and I already felt quite certain that ending things with him would tear my world apart.
“Woah, bombshell, Ruthie,” Lizzie said, springing into supportive-friend action. “Where has this come from? I thought you guys were getting on?”
Ruth shrugged. “We were. I’m bored. You know what I’m like.”
I tried to give her a reassuring pat but she recoiled away. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Not really. Not with you. No offence, but I don’t fancy discussing my failing relationship when you’re Mrs. Loved-Up over there.”
It stung. Especially as I had dutifully listened throughout Ruth’s numerous loved-up stages with different men.
“Hey come on, that’s not fair,” Lizzie said. I was surprised. She didn’t normally stand up to Ruth. “It’s not Poppy’s fault she’s happy.”
“I know, I know,” Ruth said, curling her lip. “Anyway, I can’t talk about love but I can talk about sex, right? How is he anyway, Poppy? Do Noah’s guitar-playing fingers hit all the right spots?”
I looked down into my drink.
Ruth picked up on my awkward silence. “Haven’t you slept with him yet?”
Of course I hadn’t. She knew this. S
he knew all the rest of us were virgins.
“Er,” I fumbled.
Then it was Amanda’s turn to stick up for me. Blimey O’Reilly. It must be a national holiday or something.
“You don’t have to tell us,” she said reassuringly. “It’s not any of our business. I don’t talk to you guys about me and Johnno.”
“That’s only because you haven’t even got past the kissing phase,” Ruth said, irritated at the sudden lack of patience shown towards her. “And you probably won’t until 2090.”
Amanda coyly took a sip of her coffee. “I wouldn’t be so sure.”
Well, that got the attention away from me. We all pounced on her, amazed.
“No way.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Tell me everything.”
“How far have you guys got?”
“Was it any good?” (That last one was, surprisingly enough, from Ruth.)
But Amanda wouldn’t unleash any more information. She turned twice as red as me and stared at her coffee cup, mute, until we all shut up.
“Well, this is new,” Ruth said. “Amanda’s getting some, Poppy probably soon will be, while I’m going to be single.”
“Do you really think you’re going to sleep with Noah soon, Popps?” Lizzie asked. She sounded anxious. I wasn’t sure if it was out of concern for my well-being, or fear that if I did it would separate us somehow. Put us into two different categories.
“We’re taking it slow.”
“What? He doesn’t want to sleep with you?”
Thanks for that, Ruth.
“Of course he wants to sleep with me,” I snapped. “But we’ve only just got together, and, you know, I don’t feel ready.”
“Well, if I was you, I would seal the deal pretty soon. Men as fit as Noah don’t have to wait.”
I was about to object but Lizzie came to the rescue once more.
“Come on, Ruth, you saw the way he looked at her yesterday. The boy’s totally loved-up.” She gave me a smile. “I reckon he would wait a lifetime for you, Poppy.”
“Well, let’s hope so.”
Ruth went to get another coffee and the process seemed to calm her down. She gave me a half-smile, the closest she ever got to apologizing.
“So?” Lizzie asked. “You haven’t slept with him yet but has he said ‘I love you’?”
