Alex’s entire school life at Compass Court seemed to have been blighted by the shadow of Jack. Jack the perfect prefect, then Jack the handsome head boy.
It was only this year, now that Jack had left Compass and gone off to University, that Alex really felt he was starting to come out of his shell; “be his own man” as his dad would say.
He tried not to be jealous of Jack. His parents were always saying how proud they were of Alex being “the clever one” in the family. But the fact remained that although he and Jack were brothers and only two years apart, they had never been friends as well. When Jack was around, Alex felt…small.
Alex sometimes thought he might not be so well-adjusted if it hadn’t been for Rose.
Rose Falcon was his cousin and his best friend. They were both the same age and at the same school. Her family lived just down the road from his own parents and they had been close all their lives. Rose was kind and funny and really made him come out of himself. It had been her idea that he audition for the Year Six play – something he had found terrifying. But she had been so encouraging, and it had given him a massive boost merely to have been selected, yet alone given such a major part. He just hoped he was up to the job.
Shaking off his doubts, he opened the email from Jack.
Yo Bro.
Just been speaking with the Groans. It strikes me that as you and Rose are both turning seventeen during the Easter hols this year that we should have a massive par-tay!
Top news from dad is that he is on his very last tour of duty, he’ll be back in the UK next week and they are giving him a promotion and a desk job. Deffo cause for celebration. Also just heard that the Falcons are on route back from Venezuela and planning to stick around for the foreseeable, so they will be totally up for throwing a big party for Rose this year. I suggested we have it in our garden, a marquee, the whole shebang.
Happy dayz all round. Are you in?
Alex stared at the screen for a while, his mind turning over the implications of a big party in his honour. He shied away from the limelight normally, but he would be sharing it with Rose. There was another consideration too…Diana.
Alex was totally smitten by Diana. She was beautiful but unobtainable. She was always so silent but she glowed with a radiance that was practically angelic. He knew he had put her on a pedestal, that she couldn’t be as perfect as he felt her to be, but she seemed to him to embody all that was feminine. Her long dark hair, her perfect porcelain white skin, her dark blue eyes and her sad smile. She was his Mona Lisa. The only problem was that the pedestal he had put her on was so high that she was now totally out of his reach.
He was utterly tongue-tied in her presence. Sometimes he felt as if she smiled a little brighter just for him, but he was still unable to string together a coherent sentence when she looked his way.
But Diana shared a room with Rose, and recently the two of them had formed a new friendship bond when Rose began dating Leo, who was Diana’s best friend. If Alex and Rose had a joint birthday party then Rose was bound to invite Diana. It would be a perfect opportunity to tell her how he felt. Or at least talk to her…
He began to type.
Hi Jack
Hope you are still enjoying Manchester. Have you started doing any actual studying yet or are you still out painting the town every night?
I’ll talk to Rose but yes, I think it is a great idea to have a party. I’m so pleased about dad, mum must be ecstatic. I’m also very relieved the Falcons are coming home safe and sound, I know Rose and Toby were really worried.
No news here, except that I have a part in the Year Six play.
A.
A response came back immediately.
Wild horses bro! I’ll be at the play with bells on… See you at Easter
Alex closed his eyes briefly. He didn’t want Jack to come to the play. He had deliberately played down how big his role was. What if he made a total fool of himself up on stage? But his parents would have told Jack about it anyway, so he was just going to have to strap on a pair and do his best.
He shut down his computer and went to find Rose to share all the news.
***
In his halls of residence in Manchester, Jack smiled. The first stage of his game plan had been set in action. If Alex and Rose had a party, then Rose would invite Sophie.
A party would be the perfect setting to convince Sophie to like him again. He just needed some ambient music, some soft lighting and some time alone with her. He was sure that with a little persuasion she would drop into the palm of his hand like a ripe plum.
He picked up the photo he had swiped from Alex’s room on his last visit home for a weekend. It must have been taken in the summer sometime. It showed Alex, Rose, Grace and Sophie sitting on the bank of the river outside Compass Court. They were all laughing at something on the river. Sophie had one arm slung around Rose’s shoulders and she was wearing a bright pink fifties-style dress.
He’d been an idiot to reject her, because now she was the one rejecting him.
He was still sure that a long-distance relationship wouldn’t work, but he wanted, needed, another night with her. She was eating into his thoughts, distracting him from his studies, and even worse, he had completely lost interest in other girls.
He was fairly sure it was just a case of wanting what he couldn’t have. She’d always liked him and he’d taken it for granted that she always would. He was determined to win back her affections; maybe then he could let it go and enjoy Uni without the thought of her distracting him anymore.
He put the photo back on the pinboard over his desk. Yes, with a little careful strategy he could once again have her whenever he wanted her.
Chapter Nine
“I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit, I suppose it is some taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths.”
Bram Stoker, Dracula
Alex didn’t see Rose until breakfast the next morning. He got down early, but Rose and Ellie had beaten him to it. It was unusual to see Ellie so early but she had spent the previous evening in the Games Room and had neglected to finish her prep before her first class that morning. Alex could hear her muttering Latin verbs as she scribbled in her book while trying to pour milk into a bowl of cereal.
He quickly updated them both on his email exchange with Jack.
“A party?” Rose looked both excited and apprehensive.
“You don’t like the idea?” Alex said.
“It’s not that, it would be wonderful to all get together. It’s just that, well, I haven’t told my parents about Leo. I can’t have a party and not invite him. But they are going to hit the roof and might not let me see him anymore.”
“You’re going to be seventeen, Rose.” Alex tried for a calming tone. “They can’t stop you. Plus you guys have been together about four months now, and it’s obviously serious between you, isn’t it time you told them?”
“Carpe Diem!” chimed in Ellie. “It means seize the day.”
“I know what it means.” Rose looked stressed. “I just don’t think they will let me invite him. In fact, I doubt his parents would let him come either.”
Rose and Leo had a bit of a forbidden love thing going on. Her parents, as investigative journalists, had been instrumental in putting Leo’s uncle in prison, a situation that meant a lot of hostility between both families. Leo sometimes joked about their being a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, but Rose found the analogy disconcerting, especially as she was fairly sure both Romeo and Juliet died in the end. Still it wasn’t as if her parents would literally kill her for going out with Leo. She couldn’t be quite so sure about his, though; after all, his uncle was a pretty nasty gangster who probably had killed someone. And Leo had been just as scared as she had been to tell his own dad.
“Can I invite Nate?” Ellie said. “Of course the parents will hit the roof if I tell them I’ve got a boyfriend who’s two years older than me, but we could just pretend he’s one of your f
riends instead, can’t we, Alex?”
Rose lit up. “Ellie, that’s brilliant! Alex, you can invite Leo as one of your guests and they need never know.”
Alex nodded, “OK, that might work,” He dropped his voice so that only Rose could hear him. “Do you think you could invite Diana as one of your guests? I’d like to ask her, but you know…” Alex blushed.
Rose smiled. She knew perfectly well that Alex was a walking disaster when it came to Diana. She had been trying to get them together for ages, but neither of them seemed capable of taking the initiative, and Diana was a closed book when it came to sharing her feelings.
“No problem. I’m fairly sure Grace was going to invite Diana to stay with her for a few days of the holidays. Her parents make her study the whole time unless she has a friend there, and Diana’s home life is kind of difficult, so they could come together.”
As soon as Grace, Sophie and Diana joined them at the breakfast table, the girls began to plan the party in detail, right up until the second bell rang and they had to run to get their books before they were late for class.
***
Flora was studying when Ellie came into their dorm room. At least she was pretending to study. She was listening to One Direction on her iPod and trying out her name with each of their surnames. She quickly flicked the pages of her notebook back to her scribbles on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing and pulled out her headphones.
“Working hard?” Ellie grinned, as Flora accidentally let her concealed iPod fall off her lap and onto the floor in front of her.
“Don’t you start. I’ve had Shakespeare up to here – why are you Brits so obsessed with him? Why can’t we study the poetry of modern songs or something? Do you know how well-written some of the lyrics are?” She began to hum an intro.
“Don’t sing!” Ellie cut her off with a laugh. “I’ve heard you singing in the shower and it’s not ‘music to mine ears’,” she quoted.
“Shakespeare show-off!” Flora countered, “When you sing, dogs start howling and windows shatter.”
“So true,” Ellie sighed, “But it was too much to hope for that I should be blessed with this much beauty and be talented as well. Alas, I have the voice of a strangled cat. Anyway, enough of this nonsense, guess who’s having a party this Easter? Alex and Rose. Their birthdays are only a couple of days apart and this year they get a proper grown-up party with any friends they like! I’m going to invite Nate and I thought I could get him to bring Gabriel too.” Ellie sat back on her bed, clearly waiting for whoops of joy.
“I won’t be here, remember.” Flora looked dejected.
“Oh bleh, I’d forgotten that.” Ellie looked dejected too. “Do you have to go back to America?”
Flora nodded. “I’m not looking forward to it, but I haven’t seen my dad in ages. And I do miss him. Though I’m totally bummed at the idea of three weeks with my ugly stepmother. But on the bright side, I bet she’s dreading it even more than me. I fully intend to be as obnoxious as possible to her. I can’t believe I’ll miss the party, though. It would have been a good opportunity to flirt with Gabriel; do you really think he would have been there?”
“Nah, probably not. He’s not really good friends with Rose or Alex. It was a silly idea.”
“We still have a couple of weeks before Easter. Should we go to the Games Room again tonight and see if Gabriel is there?” Flora felt increasingly desperate to see him at any opportunity before they were separated for three whole weeks.
“Yeah, if you like. Maybe it would be better if I just asked Nate what nights they were going to be there. We’re both way behind on our prep. Have you finished that Churchill essay?”
Flora shook her head.
“Me neither.” Ellie chewed her lip. “I don’t want to put a downer on you getting together with Gabriel but we haven’t really made a lot of progress, have we?”
“Do you think it’s hopeless?” Flora fiddled with her shoelaces, pulling them undone and then retying them. “I thought that I might have a chance when he broke up with Vanessa on Valentine’s Day. Do you remember how he came over and talked to us for ages? I mean I know Nate was with us, but I thought he was really noticing me that night.”
“I agree, I think he likes you, but maybe he hasn’t seen you as girlfriend material yet? Not to be offensive, but you are totally different from his ex-girlfriend. Of course, you’re just as pretty,” Ellie hastened to add, “just quite a bit younger.”
Flora sighed. “Let’s be honest, he’s barely spoken to me since then. All those nights we spend in the Games Room, and all those Saturdays we’ve gone to the pub in Oakworth with their group, he still doesn’t see me.”
“What about last week when he bought you that Coke?” Ellie tried to sound positive. “And that time he said your freckles were cute? And that time you wore that bandana in your hair and he said it suited you.”
“But you asked him if he thought it suited me.” Flora twiddled her laces again. “And he bought you a drink as well last week. He only talks to us because you’re dating Nate.”
Ellie pursed her lips. “Well, maybe we need to up your game a bit. We need to get a bit more clever about getting him to notice you. We should find out exactly what he likes, maybe he has some kooky perversion you could cash in on.”
Ellie laughed as Flora looked startled. “OK, maybe not that. But we do know he likes a more mature woman. I know, you need a make-over!”
Flora began to feel excited. “Not too much, though, I don’t want it to be too obvious.”
Ellie nodded. “A shorter skirt would be easy, we can turn up your school skirt at the waist, just roll it over a few times; you’ve got nice legs. Wear my black shoes, we’re the same size and they have a higher heel than yours. What about your hair, would you consider a ponytail instead of a plait? Good, what else can we do? Ooh, I know, you need more bust, let’s pad out your bra.”
“Oh, I’m not sure about that. I mean, I hardly ever even wear a bra, wouldn’t it be obvious if I suddenly grew a massive chest?”
“We won’t overdo it. Just a few cotton wool balls on either side. Just to give you a bit more shape. No cleavage or anything. Go and have a shower, I’ll ring Nate and find out where Gabriel is going to be tonight.”
***
The courtyard was quiet and appeared empty. It was certainly late. Flora had hung around in the library until closing time so that she and Gabriel left together. When the librarian had kicked them out she had had to scramble to collect her books, as he had merely folded his laptop shut before getting up to leave. Outside she knew she would have limited time to walk with him before they went in different directions to their respective schoolhouses. They both had to cross the courtyard, and then she would be going right to West Tower and he would be going left to North Tower.
She quickened her pace till she was just behind him. Should she just call his name and say Hi? She racked her brains for something more intelligent, but came up with nothing. Drawing level with him, she settled for a simple light and breezy tone.
“The evenings are getting warmer, aren’t they? It’s hard to believe it’s after nine.”
Gabriel paused mid-step and turned his shark smile on her – the one that showed his perfect white teeth but contained no warmth.
“Little Flora. Again.” He reached out and took her arm. “Come over here.”
He practically pushed her over to the wall, on a side of the courtyard that was in shadow. She felt the lumpy stone granite at her back as she came up against it. He stopped only a few inches from her face, his body close but not touching hers.
His lips brushed the hair by her ear as he leaned forward and spoke in a low tone that seemed somehow menacing.
“What is it you want from me, Flora?”
She tried to pull back a little, but there was nowhere to go. He put one hand on the wall by her head and the other on her bare leg. His hand moved slowly up her leg, from just above her knee, until it disappeared under th
e hem of her skirt. He stopped mid-thigh.
“Is this what you want, Flora? Do you want me make a woman out of you? Right here, right now?”
She squeaked and pressed further back into the wall, her eyes darting from side to side.
“No!” she managed at last.
“Are you sure? Because it seems to me that you’re begging me for it.” He moved his hand to hold her chin. His mouth came down on hers and he kissed her. It was a hard passionless kiss.
Flora felt her knees wobble. It was everything she’d wanted, but not like this. Then just as suddenly he released her.
“Time to run, little Flora, or you might get what you thought you wanted. Go now, and don’t look back!”
She took him at his word and fled across the courtyard and into the main hall. His mocking laughter followed her all the way.
Reaching the door to her dormitory, breathless, she couldn’t face any questions. Instead she made her way into the girls’ bathroom opposite, which was thankfully empty. Looking at herself in the mirror, she finally faced the truth. He didn’t give a damn about her, he hadn’t even noticed her in the library, and he had shown her very clearly that she was totally out of her depth with him. He was sophisticated and worldly, she was just a country girl with no experience at all. He had kissed her to teach her a lesson, nothing more. He hadn’t kissed her with any feeling whatsoever, it had just been to punish her for being so presumptuous as to think he might actually be interested.
It was one thing for uber-confident Ellie to go out with Nate, but Flora knew she just wasn’t in Gabriel’s league.
She splashed some cold water on her face to distract herself from bursting into tears. She had truly thought that when they finally kissed it would be a memory she would treasure forever; instead it had left nothing but an impression of coldness. Would that still have been true if he’d kissed her gently? She wasn’t at all sure it would. Part of her was already wondering if she would have let him go a lot further if only he’d been tender with her, but the other part of her was already accepting that she’d been deluded. Whatever feelings she had thought there were between them had only been in her own imagination. There had been none of the chemistry that she could see flaring between Ellie and Nate whenever they were in the same room. Gabriel had felt nothing, and funnily enough, when he had actually kissed her and touched her, she had felt nothing too.
Flirting Games Trilogy Edition: Books 1 - 3 Page 19
