The Arabella Conundrum

Part Ten- The Fight or Flight Predicament

The rest of the day flew by and the next day also seemed to be a blur. I was focused, focused on what was going to happen tonight. I was going to speak to my daddy! I don't and will never care that I still call him daddy at my age. I miss him, need him and I never get to see him. So I'm going to call him Daddy.

The blur came to end though at lunch time though. I was sat eating my chicken nuggets that were squashed into a burger bun, making myself a chicken burger. There was a group of about ten people sat around the long bench tables. I was too busy scoffing down the burger to notice who was there. My gaze lifted when a heavy thud on the opposite side of the table. A red tray with a sandwich, cake and orange juice had been positioned onto the table with the owner in the midst of sitting down.

"What did that poor tray ever do to you?" I asked but forgot I was chewing, resulting in a rather unladylike viewing of my mouth and its contents. The face looked horrified by my disgusting behaviour.

"Enjoying the view chipmunk?" I asked when he started to scowl at me.

"No, it's disgusting," Theo grumbled but his lips were slightly turned upwards. I continued to eat whilst he unwrapped his sandwich.

"So uhmm about tomorrow," he started to talk whilst fighting with the wrapper that his food was in. It took him several minutes to get into it and I could tell he was annoyed with the plastic wrapper preventing him from eating.

"Nearly defeated by a sandwich wrapper?" I asked mockingly.

"Har har" he replied drily.
He spoke again whilst discarding his wrapper to the side finally. "So yeah, as I was saying about tomorrow..." He lifted his gaze to mine but paused for some reason. An unreadable expression made its way onto his face, like he was trying to control and suppress something. He coughed a little.

"Right yeah, tomorrow, you don't drive do you?" he once more stopped. "Ok look, you've got a little something" he extended his finger to the corners of my mouth just above my lips. "You've got some mayo there," a smile graced his lips. "I tried so hard to carry on talking but it's just too distracting," he laughed lightly.

"Thanks," I muttered and wiped away the mayo with my sleeve, slightly embarrassed. "Hang on though, you weren't going to say anything were you? You were trying not to say anything? You little..." I trailed, realising he would have let me go back to lessons with mayo all over my face.

"Anyway," he sighed. "Back to tomorrow, you don't drive I'm assuming, so what time does your lesson end?"

"Nah I don't drive". This I may add is not because I don't know how to drive, I've learnt, but running a car was way too expensive. I obviously didn't say that but instead continued to answer his question. "I'm finished at 4.10?" I frowned and sounded unsure. "Yeah 4.10." I nodded my head as I remembered.

"Ok right, well I finish at the same time. So if you wait in the car park I'll meet you there and I'll drive you to my house." I just nodded my head and silently chewed.

"Is two hours too long to study? I know Mr Whitehall said that, but I think it's too long," he said thoughtfully.

"Uhmm, well it takes me a long time to get back home, so maybe an hour to an hour and a half?" I asked, dreading the thought of tomorrow and how long it would be from me getting up in the morning to finally getting to bed.

"Where do you live then?" He asked curiously.

"London." I answered vaguely.

"Oh ok, I could always drive you home?"

"No it's ok really, I've got a train pass, its fine". I didn't particularly want him to see where I lived or the area around it. Theo was going to carry on talking but Ollie tapped me on the shoulder and then rested his head on it, giving Theo a nod of acknowledgement to greet him.