Freshers by Tom Ellen

Author:Tom Ellen [Ellen, Tom]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chicken House
Published: 2017-08-02T18:30:00+00:00

LUKE

It freaked me out how quickly it was happening.

How quickly I’d gone from fancying Phoebe in this vague, daydreamy, nothingy way, to fancying her in solid, this-might-actually-happen concrete.

When I was around her, I was constantly on edge. I felt that weird, unexplainable electricity you get when you like someone new. I hadn’t felt that since Abbey sat down next to me at the start of Year Ten French, and it made me scared and guilty and excited all at the same time.

Just thinking about seeing her made me pick up my pace as I left the pitches. It was a weirdly warm morning for late October, and me and Will were strolling back through Jutland after an early five-a-side. We’d played our first proper match last week – against Chester Uni – and lost 4–2, so Will was insisting we all practise at every available opportunity.

I hadn’t really been able to focus on today’s game, because I was so caught up in Phoebe thoughts. We’d arranged to meet at our poetry lecture, and then head straight over to the quidditch thing afterwards.

‘You coming for a pint, then?’ Will asked, looking at his phone.

‘It’s not even half ten.’

‘Is that a yes?’

‘I’ve got a lecture.’ I considered telling him about quidditch, but instantly decided against it. Firstly because I was fairly certain he’d take the piss, but also because I still wasn’t sure what had actually happened between him and Phoebe. I’d seen him get with tons of girls over the past few weeks, so he couldn’t have been that into her. But I still wondered what he’d think if he knew I liked her. And I wondered what she thought about him.

His phone beeped and he flashed it under my nose. ‘Fuck, man. She’s hot. Well played, Geordie Al.’

I looked at the photo, and figured this was as good a time as any to try and say something about the Wall of Shame. About how off I thought it was.

I tried to sound casual: ‘By the way, I never told you. I was out a few nights back and this girl said something about the Wall of Shame stuff. Like, how she’d heard rumours about it.’

Will’s face tightened. ‘You didn’t say anything, did you?’

‘No . . .’

His face relaxed back into a smile, which made me feel sort of dirty and complicit somehow. As if I’d told that lie out of team loyalty, rather than just panicking under the pressure and shame, and blurting it out.

‘Some girls are so fucking uptight, honestly.’ Will shook his head. ‘I mean, people take pictures of people all the time. It’s just banter.’

I nodded. But it really didn’t feel like banter.

‘I’d better go,’ I said.

I sprinted all the way across campus, hoping I’d get to the lecture early enough to get a seat next to Phoebe. But in the end I was still five minutes late. I took a deep breath and pushed the doors as gently as possible, but they squeaked ridiculously loudly, and about a hundred heads turned to look at me.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.