Never Really Over

Chapter 16

November 2015

John's 21st birthday party pales in comparison to Beth's; his was a homely affair at the social club his parents had attended for years with a buffet his mum had made herself and a homemade chocolate cake. Beth's venue is a luxury hotel in the centre of Liverpool in a lavishly decoration function suite filled with balloons, fairy lights, photo walls, fancy floral arrangements and an LED dancefloor. There's a DJ, a dessert bar and the cake, well it has three tiers.

She looks radiant, glowing skin, smoky eyes and seductive lips, her hair cascading down her back in loose waves. John's eyes have barely left her the entire night. He hasn't seen as much of her as he'd like, she's doing a spectacular job of playing host to her guests, moving around the room in her sequined mini dress, sparkling like the shining star she is.

"Hi, you," Beth positions herself on a bar stool as John waits for a drink. It's a free bar and he hates to think what the bill will be at the end of the night as every time he has seen Beth, she's had a different drink in her hand, if everyone has drunk as much as her Roberto will be going bankrupt. Right now, she's sipping on a Birthday Cake Martini, the pink and cloudy white drink in her glass makes her look far more innocent than he knows she is.

"I've missed you," she looks at him coyly over the sprinkled rim of her glass. "Where you been all night?!"

"Around," he shrugs, trying to look as coy as she does, and not let her see he's been pining for her all night because whenever he sees her chatting to one of her family, or dancing with the girls on her team, or laughing at something one of other players has said, he is overcome with jealousy that it isn't him she's with. "You look like you're having fun," he says fondly, her eyes are shining, she is relishing being the centre of the attention, and it reminds him how different they are. At his party, he practically clung to Beth the entire night, knowing that she would happily move the limelight onto herself by sharing a funny anecdote, usually one at his expense, but he didn't mind, in fact, he was grateful for it. It was reminder to him of how well they fit together, how their personalities balanced each other out.

She nods, smiling widely. "I love my present," she holds her hand up and admires the new ring she's wearing on her middle finger. She lost her birthstone ring on holiday, lost forever at the bottom of the Med or in the sands of a Benidorm beach. She was heartbroken, it had been a gift from her late gran for her 18th birthday. Now, she had a new one. A narrow gold band hosting her birthstone and a tiny diamond next to it.

"I'm glad," John smiles, he had been worried that jewellery was too intimate a gift for a friend. They've been doing a fairly decent job recently of carrying on the charade that they are just friends. There's been no more slip ups like after the Barnsley game when John was brought to tears by some incensed Everton fans in a service station, but temptation, he remembers as he looks at Beth's inviting thighs, is always there.

*

August 2015

Beth had been furious, had stomped over to group of fans and lambasted them for giving a kid a hard time, not a hint of trepidation that she, a lone girl, was confronting a gaggle of men who had had a few. She'd thought John would be grateful, but he was livid, mortified to have had a girl sticking up for him and confused as to why she was doing in the first place, because all of the things the blokes had said to him, about him being a traitor, were the same things running through Beth's head. For the remainder of the bus journey home, they didn't talk. Then as they neared the training ground, Beth felt his fingers brush the back of her hand then their fingers were interlocking. She had looked over at John, who had, up to now, been staring out the window, and he mouthed 'thanks'. He was grateful she had stuck up for him, glad she had his back even when she too was angry with him. They stayed this way, Beth's thumb rubbing the back of his hand soothingly, for the remainder of the journey.