Читать книгу A Hope Christmas Love Story - Julia Williams - Страница 9

I tell myself to stay away from Will. It’s far easier and less complicated if I avoid boys. Besides, who in their right mind wants to take on an eighteen-year-old single mum? Not that I’ve even mentioned that in the short time I’ve known him. I haven’t really told him about anything that really matters.

But he’s good company, and I think he’s lonely. And I’m lonely too. I know people at college – Karen and Lizzie are always friendly – but I haven’t got any close friends, the way I had at school. And my mates in Hope Christmas have all gone to college this year. My best mate Shaz is full of tales of drunkenness and mayhem. I try not to, but I can’t help envying them.

The girls at college are nice enough, but they’re all younger than me, and though they’re focussing on their studies, outside of college they just seem to want to party. Our lives are worlds apart. I drift around the corners of their social lives, Lizzie often invites me for drinks, but I don’t join in very often. Mum and Dad are great about babysitting if I want them to, and even my brother James will step in if they can’t do it, but I don’t think it’s fair to impose on them, so I turn down most of the invitations I get. And they don’t come round so frequently anymore.

So it’s nice that Will comes and seeks me out at the coffee bar, and asks my opinions about essays. I tell myself he’s just being friendly and we’re mates, so I can still feel in control. I’ve not even given him my mobile number, and we never meet away from college. We’re friends, that’s all. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.

***

After we bumped into each other the day we were late, it’s suddenly become easier. Melanie is often on her own in the coffee bar at break time when most people go to Shrewsbury. I go sometimes with a couple of the lads, but I’ve got so much work to catch up on, I don’t want to get distracted. So most of the time I stay in the coffee bar too. If Melanie’s not there, she’s in the library studying. I swear that girl always has her head in a book. She studies with a sort of manic intensity, as if she daren’t ever stop. I ask her about it one day, and she mutters something about being under pressure to do well, so I assume her parents are always on her case.

She doesn’t talk about her family much, and I know very little about them. She has two sisters and a brother. I have no idea what her parents do, or where she even lives. It must be a way from here, as she drives in every day. I’d push her on it, but I get the feeling she’d just clam up on me if I ask her. She seems happy to talk about anything except the personal.

I also get the feeling that someone hurt her pretty badly; she’s so wary and shy of me, like a damaged fawn. I’ve not even held hands with her yet, though we do now give each other an awkward hug on meeting. And a peck on the cheek when we say goodbye. I’d like to move things on a bit further, but I’m wary of pushing her away. And I really don’t want to do that.

Because somewhere between our meeting at the college gates and now, Melanie’s become very necessary to my existence. In fact, I think I’m falling for her hard. Which wasn’t part of the game plan. Not at all.