Back to our school days

Too close, too long.

I get my sea legs pills from the cabinet in the bathroom, you see I get extremely travel sick, on land and sea. I take the sheet of pills out of the box, but, of course, it's empty. I sigh, grab my bag and pad down the stairs. I grab my shoes and shove them on. My roommate and bestfriend, Orla, is at the front door, bending down." Where ye off te, Jen?" She asks me, standing up with a pile of letters and bills in hands.
"I'm off to the chemist, for tablets. "I answer her opening the door," Can I borrow your car? "I ask, hoping she doesn't have plans.
"I would but, Petes outside, he'll give ye a lift ,I'm geussing. "She says, walking into the front room, humming some 80s tune. I walk out the front door and see Pete leaning againts his car. I know I like him better than Toby, so much more than Toby, in fact. "Hey, Pete, what's up?" I say, climbing in to his car and kissing him on the cheek.
"Nothing much, where are we off to?" He asks, starting the engine up.
"Nowhere special, just the cemist, I need sea legs." I say, as we drive off.
"Oh, for Inis Isle?" He asks.
"Yep."

We pull in beside the cemist. We climb out and walk into the cemist.
"I need shampoo, so I'll be over there." Pete says, pointing to the shampoo isle.
"Kay." I say, smiling. I turn around and walk to the counter.
"Hey, look who it is." Says a voice, a voice I know all to well.
"Oh, hello, Toby, didn't expect to see you here." I say, moving up in the line. Yeah,didn't expect to see him here, even though he is everywhere! "Yeah, me either--" he stops, midsentence, when he sees Pete come up and put a hand around my waist.
"Hey,Pete this is my, um, colleague, Toby." I say, as Toby and Pete shake hands. Neither smile as big as it started.
"Hello,Toby, nice to meet you." Pete says, letting go of Toby's hand. I smile and smile. The two men, I like, I love.
"So, you're the boyfriend she's always on about."Toby says, eyebrows raised. I blush. This is extremely awkward.
"I guess so, I hope so!" He says and they both laugh,I smile.
"Yeah, I've been told to back off enough times." Toby says, they fake laugh this time.
"Next please." The lady at the till. Pete and Me walk up, I look back at Toby and raise my eyebrows, he just grins the grin.

"Hey, Jen, sorry 'bout yesterday,it was just so funny." He says, the next day at the school. We are boarding the bus to Galway, I'm not impressed at all by Toby. He basically just told my boyfriend he was flirting with me. Is he trying to draw attention? Actually, now that I think about it, yeah he probably is.
"How exactly was that funny?" I ask him, making a face.
"Well, first he was thinking 'oh, he's nice', then when I bring up the 'I've been told to back off enough times' thing, he's like,'you did not just day that.'" Toby says, adding a finger swish* to the last part. I make a you're so childish face and start counting the children. 1,2,3,4.....28. All here. "Ok, everyone on the bus." I shout and all the kids hop on the bus*.

I'm dying. It's been an hour and I've already had enough of Toby's humorous chit-chat. Two more hours to go. Wish me luck! Did I metion that there is basically no space whatsoever in between us. I get up.
"Where ya going?" Toby asks.
"Em, I'm gonna put Frozen on for the kids*." I say, popping the DVD in the machine. I focus on the film and tune out Toby. It's a gonna be a long journey.

* a thiorcais, no, stop an bus!!!!
* she loves frozen, by she I mean Jenna, wink, wink, nudge, nudge
@4_is_the_answer sailorkichieadaoin737