So Much to Learn Page 6

  ~*~

  After spending two or so hours in the library I walked home, glad that it was finally the start of my weekend. As I crossed the car park and patted my little car hello I found myself in quite a positive mood. I was, therefore, most annoyed to see Haley, in another one of her floaty top and little skirt combinations (seriously, didn’t she feel the cold like other people do?), about to enter the flat complex. She held the door open for me and I had to force myself not to deliberately slow down to delay the moment I had to speak to her.

  "Thanks," I said politely as I walked past her into the building.

  "That's alright, Natalia," she said, and I had to hold back a shudder at her sickeningly sweet tone. Reason number 1268 why I don't like Haley: with her ridiculously innocent expression and her tendency to make things a lot wordier than they have to be, you never quite know if she's taking the piss.

  We walked up the stairs together in silence, our footsteps echoing up the ugly concrete stairwell. When we reached the door to my flat on the third floor, I slipped the key in the lock and prepared to slip inside with nothing more than a hastily muttered goodbye to see Haley on her way, but it seemed like she had other ideas as she suddenly spoke. "Is Jack home, do you know?" She asked shyly and I couldn't stop a small sigh escaping my lips.

  "Um, your guess is as good as mine since I arrived here when you did," I pointed out, trying to stop myself sounding too rude.

  "Oh, I suppose so." She bit her lip and looked away and I realised, with a swooping feeling of resignation, that if he was home she was likely going to invite herself in.

  "Hang on, I'll check if he's here," I said, with a decided lack of enthusiasm in my tone. Skirting the furniture in the main area I dumped my bag in my room and called out for Haley's benefit, "Well he's not in my room."

  As I walked back out into the large room I saw that she was hovering in the doorway expectantly. Biting the inside of my cheek to stop myself snapping and telling her just to bugger off, I threw open the door to Matt's room and poked my head inside. The room was empty, although, technically, there could have been about ten decomposing bodies in there considering the smell and mounds of stuff piled everywhere.

  "Not behind door number 2," I commented to Haley as I moved to Jack's door. "Let's check behind door number 3. I opened the door and clocked Jack sitting on his bed plugged into his MP3 player and scanning some papers. He glanced up as I walked in and smiled warmly. Removing the ear phones from his ears he opened his mouth, obviously about to greet me, but careful to make sure I was hidden from Haley's view, I desperately pressed a finger against my lips and shook my head to tell him to be quiet. Without waiting to see what his reaction was, I walked out of the room and closed the door.

  "Nope, not in there either," I said cheerily to Haley as I quickly marched over to the bathroom door. I rapped on it a couple of times and called, "Jack? You in there?" Not receiving any response, for obvious reasons, I turned back to Haley and shrugged.

  "I guess he's not in. Do you want to leave a message?"

  She blushed a light pink, probably never doing that awful blotchy bright red blush the rest of us deal with, and shook her head. "No that's alright. Thank you, Natalia, I'll see you later."

  I hoped to God she meant that figuratively, and wasn't threatening to come back. As she closed the front door Jack emerged from his room and gave me a look.

  "Well that was very high school of you," he commented, crossing to the kitchen and pouring himself a glass of juice.

  Dropping onto the couch, I stuck my tongue out at him. "Is that all the thanks I get for saving you from a fate worse than death, otherwise known as an afternoon spent in the company of the amazing clinging limpet?"

  He took a gulp of his drink and shook his head in bewilderment. "I don't know what you've got against her, I really don't," he said, but, seeing me about to start on my well rehearsed diatribe about Haley, he held up a hand to forestall me. "But I don't want to get into it now. Have you had lunch yet?"

  I was slightly thrown by the abrupt change of topic and simply shook my head in answer as I forced myself to let go of the negative thoughts Haley had given me.

  "I haven't had time either, so how about we go and grab some?" Jack asked, finishing his juice and running the glass under the tap.

  "Go and grab some lunch? Jack Whitby, are you asking me out?" I asked coquettishly, batting my eyelashes at him.

  "I hadn't thought about it like that," he said easily, refusing to rise to my bait.

  "Ah well," I sighed theatrically as I hauled myself off the couch, "I guess I only broke up with my boyfriend a couple of days ago, going on a date with someone else so soon could be misconstrued."

  "Perhaps," he replied, clearly not really listening as he cast around for his wallet.

  "Are you going to take me somewhere romantic?" I teased, taking advantage of the fact he obviously wasn't paying attention. "Somewhere we can play footsies under the table and nudge meatballs towards each other with our noses?"

  "Considering how likely it is that we'll be seen by people we know, no," he answered, still absentmindedly, finally locating his wallet and slipping it into the back pocket of his jeans. "Are you ready?"

  Feeling a little bit put out at his obvious lack of interest I brushed past him into my room where I grabbed my phone, wallet and lip balm out of my uni bag and threw them into a smaller 'going out' bag. Running a brush through my hair I re-emerged and presented myself before Jack.

  "Private Davenport reporting for the lunch mission, sir," I said, saluting him facetiously.

  He rolled his eyes and held the door open for me. "At ease, soldier. But keep your eyes peeled for citizen Haley, the last thing we need is hostile relations with our neighbouring nation."

  "Too late," I muttered, beginning to descend the stairs.