Perfectly Reflected

by S. C. Ransom

  Rob stood there smiling at me, in an almost creepy way. “Hey, don’t panic. It’s cool. All I’m saying is that we can still be friends.” As he said it his eyes dropped to my hands and then to the amulet. His eyes flicked back to my face for a second, and then his tone changed. “Is that the bracelet that Grace gave back to you in the hospital? The one you found in the river?”

  I automatically folded my arms again so that the amulet was protected. “Who told you that?”

  “Someone mentioned it when you were recovering. It’s very unusual… Can I see it?”

  I felt my eyes narrow. Something felt very wrong about this conversation. “Actually, Rob, no you can’t. And we are not going to be friends either. Do you really think this is the best way to treat Ashley?”

  “Oh, she’ll get over it,” he said in his more usual swaggering way, then swiftly became conciliatory again. “Honestly, Alex, I know we had a bit of a false start, but we could put that all behind us and start again.” He reached towards me as he spoke. As his hand reached my arm I saw his eyes flick down to the amulet and a little yellow light popped on above his head. I snatched my hands back behind me. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but I knew that I didn’t want Rob anywhere near my only link with Callum.

  “Come on,” he wheedled, pulling my arm out in front of me. He was too strong to resist without making a scene, and was soon holding my wrist firmly, examining the amulet from all angles. The yellow light over his head was getting brighter, but I couldn’t work out why.

  I tried to jerk my hand back. “Leave it, Rob. I asked you not to do that!” I looked wildly around for some way to escape, but just as suddenly he let me go, a strange smile on his face.

  “Touchy! I only wanted to have a look. Grace told me it was a bit unusual, that’s all.”

  The whole thing stank, but I couldn’t understand why he’d be so interested. “Whatever,” I grunted, as I crossed my arms firmly, making sure the amulet was safely out of sight.

  Suddenly the music changed; it was coming towards the end of the evening and the DJ who had taken over from the band was winding things down with a ballad. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Rob when the slow dancing started. I stood up as straight as I could. “Are we done? Good, go back to Ashley, Rob, and stop spreading your sick lies about me.” Before he could respond I turned quickly on my ridiculous heels and moved as purposefully as possible towards the Ladies.

  A number of my friends were in there, moaning about how rubbish the boys were being. As usual all the best-laid plans about who was supposed to be dancing with whom at this point had fallen down, largely due to the lack of involvement of the boys in the planning process. The ones who were dancing had picked the wrong girls, and the vast majority were still clustered around the room, watching what was going on.

  “Oh, hi Alex,” said Lydia when I appeared. “No one to dance with then? I thought you and Rob might be…?” She left the question dangling.

  “Not a chance. After what he did to me I don’t even want to talk to him. He was just a bit difficult to shake off. How about you? I thought that you were going to have a go at Marcus?”

  Lydia looked forlorn for a moment. “He’s taken no notice of me all evening. He’s never going to ask me to dance.”

  “Well, he’s going to have a hard job when you’re in here,” I pointed out. “When I came in he seemed to be scanning the room. Maybe he was looking for you? You could always surprise him by asking him to dance, you know.”

  “Do you think I should? Really?”

  “What have you got to lose? He’s a bloke. They never refuse to dance, not when it’s the slow ones.”

  “Maybe I will!” she announced with surprising vigour, and marched out of the room. I smiled to myself, and then couldn’t help looking in the mirror, just in case. But Callum wasn’t there. I suppose it was late, so I wasn’t expecting him, but his absence always left me feeling just a little empty.

  After washing my hands and checking my make-up as slowly as possible I wandered back to the hall. The last dance was just finishing. Grace and Jack were entwined, as I expected, so I looked around to see what other gossip was going to be doing the rounds on Monday morning. Through the flickering cloud of little yellow lights, which only I could see, I could make out Lydia and Marcus in a limpet-like embrace, so that strategy had clearly worked. As the lights came up and the music faded others emerged blinking from the arms of their partners. As ever, some looked smug and didn’t let go, but some, if not actually leaping away from each other, looked vaguely embarrassed.

  Grace and Jack sauntered towards me. “Hi, Alex, had fun?” Jack asked, ruffling my hair, which made Grace shriek in horror. “You girls wait here for a minute and I’ll walk you to the car.” He wandered off in the direction of the Gents. Grace and I started on the usual hunt for the bags and various bits and pieces we had distributed round the room during the evening. We ended up behind the bar, looking through a pile of jumpers that had been dumped in a corner.

  “What were you and the gorgeous Rob talking about earlier?” asked Grace, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “Are you guys friends again now?”

  “You must be kidding; he’s such a loser. I can’t believe he’s treating Ashley so badly. And anyway, after what he did, trying to come between us over Jack and letting people think I was suicidal because of him, I don’t want to be anywhere near the creep!”

  “He couldn’t tempt you away from Callum then?”

  “Absolutely not! Callum is a decent guy with morals, unlike slimeball Rob Underwood.”

  “It’s such a shame Callum’s not here. I’d really like to meet him.”

  “Callum, eh? I’d like to meet him too.” The unexpected voice made us both jump. Rob was standing in the doorway, looking very smug. “Secret boyfriend, is he?”

  “He’s hardly a secret, just none of your business,” I retorted. “We were actually having a private conversation, if you don’t mind.”

  “It wasn’t that private. I was just standing here, keeping myself to myself. You mentioned Callum!”

  “But not to you.” I turned my back on him. “Grace, have you got everything? I can see Jack waiting for us,” I added pointedly.

  Rob whipped around to look for Jack, clearly still nervous about what he might do. Grace and I exchanged a conspiratorial glance. “Oh, good,” said Grace, winking at me. “I think he wanted a word with you, Rob.”

  “Yeah, well, some other time. Got to go now,” he mumbled, heading off quickly in the other direction. I hoped he could hear us laughing.

  It took a while to get home as Grace drove very slowly, anxious not to make any mistakes. She pulled up outside my house but couldn’t park in her usual spot; an unfamiliar car was already there, and we could see someone sitting inside it.

  “Hmm, I’ll watch until you’re in the house, I think. Shame we didn’t bring Jack with us,” she said, peering over her steering wheel at the back of the stranger’s head.

  “I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks for waiting.” I gave her a swift hug, then got out of the car, calling back to her. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Night.”

  “Goodni—” She broke off suddenly. “I don’t believe it! It’s Geeky Graham!”

  I spun around and looked at the figure getting out of the car parked just in front of us. It was a boy who had been in the same class as Jack and the others at school, but who had left a year before to go to the local sixth-form college. He was known as Geeky Graham as he only seemed able to relate to a computer screen. He had spent his entire childhood, as far as any of us knew, plugged into the Internet, hacking into other people’s networks, playing online war games and never getting involved with anything in the real world. A year or so back, and much to my surprise, he had plucked up the courage to ask me out. I had turned him down as gently as I knew how, but he had got pretty upset about it. Shortly after that there had been a scandal at the boys’ school when he had hacked into their systems and been discovered af
ter a random audit with the entire set of forthcoming exam papers in his account. He had been promptly expelled. I’d been really relieved when he had left and there was no chance of bumping into him any more.

  He had gained a brief notoriety as a result of the expulsion, as most of us thought it was over the top, but he had few actual supporters as he no real friends. He had found out too late that being world champion at MegaDeath 4 wasn’t the same as having some mates.

  And now he was standing outside my house with a nervous smile on his face, which looked even more pallid than usual in the orange glow of the streetlight.

  “Umm, hi … Graham.” I remembered just in time to drop the Geeky bit. “What on earth are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you, course.” He gave a nervous laugh. “Though I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show.”

  “Oh, really?” I asked hesitantly, completely confused. Something odd was going on. Again.

  “Everything OK, Alex?” Grace’s voice came from inside the car.

  “Yes, don’t worry. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I leaned into the car window to give her a hug. “I’ll text you when I get in, let you know what happens.” She nodded almost imperceptibly.

  “OK, night, Alex,” she said loudly. “See you, Graham.” With that she drove off and both Graham and I watched as her tail lights disappeared.

  “So, umm,” I started, unsure of what to do. “Long time, no see.”

  “Yeah, it’s been a while.”

  “You OK then? New school working out?” I cast desperately around for something to say.

  “Yeah, yeah, that’s all fine,” he muttered, looking at the floor, kicking small stones off the pavement. He seemed to have been struck dumb.

  “Well, er…” Inspiration deserted me and I looked at the floor too, wondering where this bizarre conversation was going. There was a long pause as both of us considered our feet.

  Graham’s next words came out in a rush. “I was kind of surprised when you got in contact.” He hesitated but before I could say anything, he continued, “Pleased, but surprised. After last time, I guess I didn’t expect that you would, well, you know…” His voiced faded out as he continued looking at the floor. “And I was even more surprised to realise that we had so much in common.”

  I was too stunned to speak. What on earth was he talking about?

  “Graham, it’s, er, great to see you, but I’m really confused. Why are you waiting for me?”

  “Oh, come on! You can’t possibly have forgotten; it was your idea!” He took one look at my face and carried on, but less certainly. “You said you wanted to come with me to the convention in Birmingham this weekend, the MegaDeath one. You said…” He tailed off, and even in the strange streetlight I could see the colour rising in his face.

  This was getting worse and worse. I had to stop it as painlessly as I could. “Graham,” I said gently. “I’ve not spoken to you for ages…” Actually, I couldn’t remember speaking to him at all since he’d asked me out, but now probably wasn’t the time to mention that. “Not since before you left the school. When did we fix all this up?”

  “You’ve been talking to me all week on Facebook. I didn’t believe you were serious at first but you convinced me.” He paused for a second but then looked me straight in the eye. “Is this some sort of joke?”

  Yet again I felt a shiver of horror up my neck. “Someone has been messing us both about. I’m sure you’re a great guy, but I didn’t agree to go to Birmingham with you.” I watched as his face crumpled, and felt awful; he stood there looking like a kicked puppy. I rushed to explain, words tumbling out as I tried, unsuccessfully, to make it better. “Someone has a vendetta against me, you see. They’ve sabotaged my e-mail, broken my window and now this. I’m really sorry; you don’t deserve to be involved.”

  “So it wasn’t you on Facebook?”

  I shook my head slowly, and I saw his shoulders slump even further as he turned away. Who would be this vindictive? “I’m so sorry.” I risked a quick glance at him but he was struggling to stay in control. “I don’t know what to say.”

  “Don’t say anything!” he spat as he turned back towards me. “You’ve had your fun, now leave me alone!”

  “Honestly, it wasn’t me! And I’ve no idea who would do such an awful thing.” But I was talking to thin air. Graham had jumped back in his car and was trying to make an exit. The car fired but died and I could see him sitting rigid in the driving seat. I’m not sure which of us was wishing harder that the car would work. He tried again and this time the old engine spluttered into life, and with a spin of tyres he was gone. I stood alone at the edge of the road, almost shaking with fear. Who could possibly be that mean, and what were they going to do next?

  I had a terrible night, thinking of poor Graham. Every time I remembered the look on his face I could feel myself going all clammy. My mind kept circling around the questions of who and why, but nothing came to me. And Grace had been clueless too, when I’d told her about it. “Poor old Geeky Graham,” was all she’d managed.

  In the morning I stretched as I lay in bed, remembering at last with a smile that I was due to go to St Paul’s again to see Callum. I put everything else out of my mind as I thought about standing in his arms and kissing him properly. I just had to negotiate my release from household duties for the day. Downstairs I could smell the home-baked loaf that Mum made every Saturday, and jumped out of bed to put my plan into action.

  But it wasn’t to be quite that simple. Mum had obviously had a conversation with Graham the night before, and was keen to get to the bottom of things. As we sat in the kitchen with our coffees and the warm cinnamon loaf I knew she had me trapped.

  “So what did that poor boy want, Alex? I’ve never seen anyone look quite so gutted when he heard you weren’t in.”

  “What time did he turn up?”

  “Oh, it wasn’t late. About half-past eight? I told him that you were at Eloïse’s party. I take it he didn’t try and find you there?”

  I felt my stomach churn, and surreptitiously pushed my plate away from me. He had been waiting outside for over three hours. “What exactly did he say?” I asked, wondering how much I was going to have to tell Mum.

  “Well, he said he was here to pick you up, but as soon as I told him that you were out, he got very flustered, and barely said another word.”

  I heaved a silent sigh of relief. If Graham hadn’t mentioned going away for the weekend, I certainly didn’t have to. “It was all a bit of a misunderstanding, Mum. He got the wrong end of the stick from something that someone had told him, that’s all.” I tried to leave it at that, but her eyebrow was up.

  “And…?”

  “And nothing. Really. He’s just a guy I used to know, that’s all. Seems he’s been carrying a bit of a torch. I let him down gently,” I added quickly as I saw her draw breath to interrupt. “It’s all fine now, I promise.”

  “Hmm, well. I know you won’t have been leading him on, Alex, you’re too nice. But I’ll not forget the look on his face for a long time.” She shook her head as she cut herself another slab of the loaf. “So what are your plans for today? What do you and Grace have cooked up?”

  “I think Grace is seeing Jack today, he’s playing in a match so she’s off to support him.”

  “Are you going to watch too?”

  “I don’t really fancy going again; I always feel a bit in the way these days.”

  Mum reached over and squeezed my hand. “Never mind. It’s always tough when your best friend gets their first serious boyfriend. You’ll have plenty of time for that, when you find someone you like.”

  “It’s fine Mum, I’m really happy for them. But I don’t want to be trailing around after them. It’s just…” I felt really mean manipulating her, but the chance was too good to miss. “It’s just difficult finding other things to do. I thought I might pop up to London, have a look at some of the shops on Oxford Street, maybe go to the Tate Modern. What do you
think?”

  “That sounds like a great idea. Why don’t you call Abbi or Mia and see if they want to go with you?”

  “Yeah, I might just do that. I’d better get in the shower then, otherwise I’ll miss the train.”

  “I’ll run you down to the station, if you like. When you go upstairs will you wake up your brother? He’s supposed to be helping Dad with the garden this morning.”

  “OK, I’ll go and get him now.”

  I ran up the stairs and along the corridor to Josh’s room. It was always like entering a dark cave; he never opened the curtains and great towers of used deodorant spray cans threatened to topple off the chest of drawers every time I went in there. I tapped gently on the door and there was an answering grunt.

  I put my head round the door and could see his face illuminated in the gloom by his laptop screen.

  “Hiya. Mum wants me to wake you up. She thinks you have forgotten about the digging.”

  “Yeah, right. Why do you think I’ve been hiding up here? I don’t even like vegetables.”

  “Well, she’ll be up herself soon, so you might not want to be caught on that.” I gestured towards the computer as I edged gingerly into the room.

  “True. So has she done interrogating you now? What on earth was Geeky Graham doing here last night?”

  “Did you see him too? The poor bloke!” It was my turn to shake my head. “Someone hijacked my Facebook account and set up a date with him. He thought I was going to go to a MegaDeath convention with him.”

  “No! Really?” Josh started laughing. “How dumb can he be? No girls ever go to those things. Why the hell did he think you’d be up for that?”