Tale of Two

Chapter 7

“I’m telling you,” Emma said with her signature smirk, digging her fingers into the plastic bag lying on her lap.

“No, I don’t believe that,” Cora snorted, cracking up a pistachio with her teeth, spitting the shell into another plastic bag they brought with themselves.

The two girls were sitting in the park of the university, their bags and jumpers scattered around them in the fresh grass, a trademark of the healthy British weather. The sun was high up in the sky as it was just a little past noon and this year’s late September was quite gracious to them. But the weather was bound to get grey and depressing very soon, so Cora and Emma decided to enjoy every minute of it while it lasted. They were eating pistachio while gossiping, talking about everyone in the gang, secretly enjoying the fact that they were talking behind thei backs.

“I’m telling you. He abso-fucking-lutely nailed it. They didn’t even want to let him play, but it was amazing, he took everyone away with him. I think it was borderline disturbing, but people like weird shit," Emma shurgged.

“Well, I can’t really imagine it. I thought Harry was the um... popular one.”

“Oh he is, but Nate has this tremendous talent hidden inside him. He is not a good performer I guess, but the way he sings and plays, he’s just so captivating... Not in a way that the pop industry would appreciate him, but in an artistic way. He’s got substance.” The way Emma talked about Nate was so natural, so adoring that Cora couldn’t help but wonder if there was something going on between them, although she didn’t ask. Emma would have already told her if she’d wanted to. “But Harry’s cool, typical pretty boy. He is a bloody good singer, but not much of a guitar player, not like Nate at least. So they work quite well together.”

“Yeah, I picked up that much. Those tossers are really in synch,” Cora smirked, dropping the sunglasses on the bridge of her nose. She could imagine the success of the two rude boys on a dirty little stage at the back of a pub, belting out their cliché indie lyrics. She bet that the place was loud from the sound of the knickers hitting the floor.

“What’s going on with you and Harry by the way? He was on about you for an hour yesterday.”

“Yesterday? What happened yesterday?”

“Nothing. They were at the studio, I came over, we got high, we went home.”

“Oh.” Cora tried not to be offended that they didn’t invite her, but it was non-sense, why would they have? It must have been a casual Wednesday evening, a spontaneous little get together, not a party like last time. She was kind of new anyway. “Nothing’s going on, just the same old idiotic bickering.”

“Aw! Loads of hair pulling and lip biting?” Emma flashed a wide grin at her which actually made her bite her pink lip, unable to resist the sudden urge.

“Ah, you make it sound so bad!” She slapped Emma’s forearm lightly, throwing her hair over her shoulder.

“Isn’t it actually?”

“No! I know what you mean, but it's not like that. He’s a bastard and I got my heart broken, so none of us takes it seriously. I honestly have never thought about it that way.”

“Not even a little bit?”

“No.” But by now, Cora knew she wasn’t completely honest. She wouldn’t go so far to really think about Harry as boyfriend material or anything more than just a handsome lad, she actually nearly gagged from the thought, but he definitely moved her. Despite being raw and rugged, his endless charm didn’t leave her untouched. She knew he was far too keen on seeing her blush, and maybe she liked that a little bit.