I sat at the breakfast bar and watch Brian as he wandered around my house. "Seriously, I would never have pegged you two as nerds." He put down the light sabre he was holding and moved towards the TARDIS lamp. "So who is the Whovian?"
"That would be Shae," Oli answered as she walked down the stairs, putting on a cardigan. I nodded eagerly. "Don't get her started on it, she will never shut up."
Brian walked across the room and scooped me up, I threw my legs around his waist and shrieked. "I swear you are like the perfect woman." I blushed and buried my head in his shoulder.
"You two are disgustingly cute, you know that?" Oli laughed.
I kissed his cheek and jumped down. "We need to get going. I'll drive."
"Shotgun!!" Oli cried and ran to the car. She wouldn't sit in the back seat for anybody.
We reached Thorpe Park quickly, and looked around for the others. I quickly spotted them by a large people carrier. It was then that I realised they would most likely be leaving straight from here to go up to Birmingham. That instantly put a dampener on my day. Oli clocked my reaction and nudged me. "Stop it. Enjoy the day." I nodded and pasted a smile onto my face.
The day went much quicker than I would have liked. We barely stopped, only pausing for food and to dry off after water rides. I looked at my watch, we had less than an hour before the park closed. I grabbed Brian's hand. "Come on, I wanna go on the teacups. Oli won't go on them with me." Joe overhead and decided to come along too.
We jumped into a teacup and the moment we sat down, Joe started spinning it. The ride hadn't even started yet and we were already spinning so fast that I couldn't see. A quick lurch told me the ride was moving, and we were off. Brian had started spinning it with Joe so we were going faster and faster, everything was just a blur. I was laughing so much that I could barely breathe. A few minutes later, the ride stopped, and eventually so did Joe. I stumbled, dizzy, as we stepped out of the teacup. Brian caught me and laughed. "You're a prick, Gatto." I went to hit him in the arm but missed by a mile. He creased up laughing, almost falling over himself.
Brian pulled us over to the kiosk to look at the photos the ride takes automatically. I searched for ours. I grinned wildly when I saw it. There was Joe, leaning and spinning the teacup with a manic smile on his face. Then there was Brian and I, he had his arm round me - something I didn't notice on the ride - and we were both smiling and laughing. "Wow, that's got to be the first time I haven't looked awful in one of these things!"
We walked back towards the others, who had been watching us on the ride. Joe informed us that there was enough time to go on one last ride...Saw.
"Ok but I need to pee first." Brian said, before jogging off the way we came.
Oli grabbed me and we walked towards the ride. "How are you doing, chick?" She asked as we walked.
"I'm good. It's been a fun day."
She nodded, agreeing. "Never in a million years did I think I'd get to hang out the Jokers. They're all such awesome guys.
I thought about Brian and smiled. "You're not wrong there."
"What are you going to do then?" Straight to the point there, Oli. "You like him. I know you do."
I shrugged. "Doesn't matter. They're off in a bit. It's been fun." I wasn't going to waste time on what ifs. He was cute, we had a good time together, but it wasn't meant to last. I got that. And I was ok with it.
As we walked to the car park, Brian pulled me back to talk to me away from the others.
"Man this fucking sucks." He sighed.
I smiled at him sadly. "We both knew it was never going to go past today. It's all good, we had fun though right?" He nodded. "Just don't be a stranger, ok? You better stay in touch, buddy." He was quiet. I looked at him staring at the floor, chewing his lip. "I'm serious Brian. You ever need to talk, about anything, I am right there. I've been where you've been, remember? I know how hard it is to talk to people who don't...can't, understand." He nodded, still not looking at me. And it pierced my heart. As hard as I had tried not to, Brian had gotten under my skin. As much as I tried to play it off as a fun couple of days, I knew we had connected. My breathing hitched as I tried not to get upset. "Will you fucking look at me please?" My voice cracked as I spoke, betraying my emotions.
He looked up then, his eyes mirroring what I knew he saw in mine. "This shouldn't be this hard." He whispered. I shook my head, agreeing with him.
I had to pull myself together. He had to leave. I glanced over to the others, they were all quite obviously trying not to look in our direction. I took a deep breath and wiped my eyes. "Come on, I need to say bye to the others." I took his hand and pulled him towards their people carrier.
I quickly exchanged hugs and goodbyes with the others, while Oli said goodbye to Brian. As they all piled into the car, I walked up to them.
"Right, come here you stupid man." I put my arms out for a hug, and held him tight. "Thank you for a great few days. Don't forget to text me when you get to Birmingham. I know all the good places to drink."
He pulled me to him by my hoody pockets, before his mouth crashed down on mine. He kissed me passionately, desperately, putting everything he couldn't or wouldn't say into it. "See you around, Shae." He turned to climb into the car.
"Count on it." I smiled.
Oli put her arm round me and squeezed me tight as we waved them off. "You ok?" She asked.
I ran my hands over my face and sighed. "Yep. Come on, let's go home."
"Give me the keys, I'll drive," Oli offered. She could see I was distracted, she was giving me some time to myself. I dug into my pockets, as I took the keys my fingers brushed against something else. Confused, I handed the keys to Oli and dug back into my pocket. I pulled out a theme park key ring. I turned it over and saw that it was the photo of Joe, Brian and I. Brian must have gone and bought it when he went to the toilet. I smiled at how sweet he was.
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a quick text. Thanks x That's all it needed.
