The Flirting Games

Midnight Meeting - Part 6

Chapter Five

On Sunday afternoon Nate watched Rose walk to the river with her sketchpad. Keen not to miss an opportunity to catch her alone, he followed at a distance until she sat on a wooden bench and began sketching the school rowing team out on the water. Now he knew who had drawn the picture of him that Ellie had failed to hide.

Nate leaned against a nearby oak tree and watched her with an indulgent smile. Rose was so absorbed that she jumped when she noticed him.

"Hi," she said shyly. "I didn't know you were interested in rowing."

"I'm not." He said it laced with meaning.

"Oh, then–" she stopped suddenly as Ellie came towards them walking swiftly.

"There you are, Rose! I think Ben is looking for you." Ellie pulled Rose up and gave her a shove. "In the courtyard."

"Really?" Rose looked delighted and hurried away. Ellie felt bad about lying to her, but needs must.

"I'm pretty sure those two will get together this year," Ellie told Nate, who glared at her with barely-disguised annoyance. "They used to date ages ago and both still really like each other."

Nate raised one eyebrow. "Is that so? We'll see."

Ellie clenched her fists, stepped right up to Nate and snapped, "Yes, it is so! Why the hell don't you pick someone else for your games?"

Nate looked down at the angry little year eleven squaring up to him and smiled nastily. He slowly looked her up and down.

"Someone else? And that would be...you?"

Nate folded his arms, leaned back against the tree and laughed at her.

Ellie stepped up so close they were almost nose to nose.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with." Her voice dropped to a low and sultry level. "Come and have a go, if you think you're hard enough." she murmured, then turned on her heel and walked away.

Nate was almost struck dumb with surprise. He had just been challenged, and he actually had to stop himself from chasing after her and taking her up on it. She was a only fifteen, for goodness' sake! Hardly worth his time. Extremely pretty, yes. Very popular, yes, but still surely she should be a bit more in awe of him.

He went to bed that night thinking about Ellie Parkhurst.

Ellie lay in bed thinking about Nate. It had been a few days since she had attempted flirting with him by the river and she hadn't properly seen him since.

She was putting extra attention into her appearance each day, but wondering if it was a wasted effort. She saw him at mealtimes, sat at the NorthTower table, and sometimes from the corner of her eye she was sure he was looking at her, but when she turned round he wasn't.

Ellie had plenty to keep her occupied: her homework for a start, and actually a rather good social life. She was also enjoying getting to know Flora. Flora had quite a cheerful personality and found the funny side in most situations. Ellie liked that a lot. She wondered if having had Jack as her best friend might have prevented her from developing a close friendship with another girl. Flora might well turn out to be the best friend she hadn't realised she needed.

Ellie also had several "boyfriends", though she kept them at arm's length. She had never really felt enough for any of them to let it go much beyond flirting. A few kisses had been the extent of her actual experience.

Most boys had been too scared of Jack to try to take it any further, but since his departure their levels of persistence had gone up. She had finally agreed to meet Tyler Phillips in the common room at midnight a couple of weeks ago and he had asked her to "go out with him exclusively." Ellie had tried to turn him down gently but he'd become offended and gone back to bed in a huff and hadn't spoken to her since. Then Liam Anderson had asked her out in the library just yesterday. She had been flattered – he was in Year Twelve and a prefect – so it had come as a bit of a shock when he had then attempted to stick his tongue down her throat in front of the Geography books. She had actually had to push him away. It hadn't put him off though. In the end she had promised to go with him the next time she went into OakworthVillage.