Catching Waves

Part Four

Caitlin could tell as soon as the taxi pulled up outside Heidi's tiny two up two down that their usual Saturday gathering had morphed into something slightly busier. The living room window had been thrown open and Dave, the Outdoor Ed instructor, was sitting astride the wide window sill, enjoying a leisurely smoke whilst behind him Caitlin could just make out Josh doing the Macarena with the two student teachers who'd been training in the Unit since Christmas. She paid the cabbie with a hasty "Cheers, thanks, g'night" trying to ignore the lascivious wink he threw her way as she all but ran up the winding garden path that was cheerfully if erratically lit by hanging lanterns. Just as her finger reached out to press the bell, the door slammed open and out fell Rosie, a local social worker who was in and out of the Unit so often she merited her own tannin stained tea cup in the staff kitchen. "CateyCateyCaitlin! They said you were on a DATE with a MAN but they wouldn't say with WHO! Have you been up to no good? Have you?? HAVE YOU?!" Caitlin stared nonplussed at Rose who was now burbling merrily away to the wisteria growing up the side of the wall, "I do like men, mm, especially men with arms, ffwoar, manly men with manly arms, that Vin Diesel, he's got gorgeous arms, oops, burp, s'cuse me ..." She eventually managed to slip past and into the tall, thin, hallway of the end terrace house. She scanned the boisterous crowd hurriedly, the evening's events were burning a hole in ... well, wherever burning secrets were kept and she needed to describe discuss dissect as soon as possible. She spotted Heidi's cropped bleached blond hair in the queue for the downstairs loo that was hidden under the stairs and squeezed her way through to tug on her elbow.  

"Cate!" 

"Heids!" 

Heidi looked at Caitlin and Caitlin looked at Heidi before Heidi eventually shrieked "You DIDN'T!" at the same time Caitlin shouted "I KNOW!" Alerted by the commotion, Josh appeared out of nowhere. He was swigging from half a bottle of wine whilst pulling Simon along by the hem of his tee shirt, a garrulous Simon who was insisting on finishing off his conversation with Doug, the Assistant Head "And that Dougie boy, is why the KLF will continue to ROCK YOU and crap all over your wanky - oh, alright Caitlin?"  

Heidi pulled Owner's Rights and barged the four of them past the two people who were still waiting for the loo, "Oh, get over it Pete - go next door and ask if you can use theirs".  

They squashed into the tiny bathroom, shoving each other around so that Caitlin (the shortest) was squashed under the lowest part of the ceiling and Josh, the tallest, was perched regally on the loo seat. Simon sat in the basin and Heidi leant against the door to reinforce the flimsy lock. 

Heidi called the meeting to order with a portentous "She only bloody well did!" 

Simon buried his head in his hands before fishing out a crumpled fiver from his pocket and handing it over to Josh who was wearing an expression of supreme smugness. "Heidi?" he questioned imperiously, holding out his outstretched hand and waggling his fingers. "I'm not handing over anything until I hear the specifics" and with that Caitlin felt the weight of three sets of eyes rest on her aghast expression. "You laid BETS on me?" The three staring faces took a second to look at each before nodding and shrugging, indifferently. "Oh, fair enough" Caitlin sighed, "what were the odds?" 

Josh recounted briskly - "10 to one, he knobbed you in the back of the Mazda; 7 to one, he copped a feel, outside only, and 4 to one on a snog with tongues that may or may not have culminated in hand holding and or a soppy grin." 

"Well ..." Caitlin ran through the events of the evening in her mind " ...er, I would say ... no knobbing, some copping and definitely snogging. Who's quids in then? I'm expecting halvsies, y'know." 

There was an undignified scramble for Simon's fiver between Heidi and Josh. As they scrapped over the cash, Simon uncorked Josh's wine bottle and took a swig before wiping the top, handing it to Caitlin and raising his eyebrows.