AllFreeNovel
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I’m meeting friends for our regular Christmas Eve drink. I think it’s unusual for schoolfriends to stay in touch for as long as we have – particularly so many of us.
I arrive at the pub alone. It’s one of those old dank places but we always meet here. It’s a tradition. I walk in and find the gang have already commandeered a corner of the pub for themselves. I’m swallowed into the mass and hugged, kissed and chanted at. Everyone’s well on their way to getting slaughtered.
Paul waltzes over and kisses me on the cheek. “Can I get you a drink?”
“Yeah, a white wine, please.”
I catch Chloe observing us and walk over to where she is, with her new boyfriend Cole, who looks like a surfer with perfect spikey blond hair. It’ll never last, though. I know Chloe. She will never settle down, no matter how pretty he is.
“Where’s Ian?” she asks, and Cole grins before taking that as his cue to speak to the lads instead.
“He’s gone home to Ireland for Christmas.”
She stares at me, almost pityingly. I’m not going to tell her it was a relief when he suggested it, but it was.
“You’re spending Christmas alone?”
I bark with laughter. “Don’t be bloody stupid. I’m spending it with Mum and Dad and Lauren.”
“Yeah, but… I mean… you don’t have a partner to share it with?”
“I’m not going to die of loneliness. I’ve got my sister and parents. I’m a big girl.”
She walks right up to me and stares into my eyes with horror. “Just leave him already. I mean, come on! It’s a lost cause.”
“You mean, like you and Cole? When he realises you care more about your career than anything else.”
She shakes her head and walks off. I know I shouldn’t have said that, but it’s true. She can talk.
Paul shows up with my drink and a fresh pint for himself.
“Chloe doesn’t look happy,” he says, as I take my drink and press it straight to my lips.
“It’s nothing,” I cover, “it’s just I got a little close to home. She’ll get over it.”
We have to stand quite close together, face to face, as the pub fills up even more. As there’s nowhere else to look, I notice he looks different to the last time I saw him, probably a year ago at the last Christmas get-together. He’s grown his beard. He’s filled out. From the colour of his teeth, he definitely hasn’t stopped smoking yet. I’ve never liked that one thing about him, though I like everything else.
“How’s everything going, then?” I ask, trying to fill the silence.
“It’s alright. I’ve been supply teaching but now I’m thinking I might teach abroad. Maybe Japan or something.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, can’t shake off the travelling bug.”
Ever since he graduated, he’s done supply teaching in between backpacking abroad. Always living for the now. I wish I had the wanderlust he does.
“What about you, anyway?” He grins like he’s expecting me to unfurl all my relationship woes… like that’s who I am. Not anymore.
“Yeah, I’m working for the NHS now. The training is intense but it’ll be worth it.”
“Good for you. And you’re back in Leeds?” He downs more beer, though our personal space is now extremely limited with the amount of bodies packed in here.
“Yeah, we’re back in Leeds,” I remind him – because Ian and I are in fact still a we.
“Yeah, so Ian’s alright, is he?” His face freezes as he waits for my answer, like he doesn’t want to give away that he knows something.
“Yeah, he’s over visiting his family this time. He hasn’t been over to Ireland for Christmas in a few years. Says he’s missed the skinny dipping or something, I don’t know.”
