I gulp back my tea, stand up from my table and walk out of the cafe, If Ed and Stuart are looking for me they could spot me at any moment. I also know that Paige, my Ed Sheeran obsessed roommate, will have seen the tweet and will have tweeted Ed, I know this just because I know Paige, but still I pull my phone out of my pocket and open Twitter and go to her profile, I know that she has tweeted him before I even look at her tweets because her follower count has gone up by 200, “@edsheeran, I KNOW HER, SHES MY ROOMMATE I CAN HELP YOU FIND HER!” why couldn’t Paige just keep her mouth shut?! I’m even more shocked when I find that Ed has replied to her, I guess thats why she has got so many more followers, “@paigeheartsed Really, I’ve dmed you meet me where I said?”. What? I can’t believe Ed would do that.
I stop walking and try and get a plan of action. I pick the quickest route back to my flat, in the hope that Ed will be out somewhere in town, won’t be able to find me and will leave town, on to his next promo or performance. In my head I congratulate myself on my brilliant plan, this might work. I hope on a bus, looking first in it to check that Ed, or Paige, wasn’t lurking inside. Once on the bus back to my place I pull out my phone, glancing quickly to my side I see two girls sat talking, “omg it think thats her”, “well the photo he put up was blurry”, “I know but look, it definitely looks like her”.
That’s it, I’ve had enough. “Do you to mind??” I ask turning to face them with a deathly glare. They turn back around and carry on whispering to themselves, I can’t handle this. I’m sure if Ed had known what this would do to me he wouldn’t have tweeted or even tried to follow me.
Although it’s only a short journey a back to my flat it feels like forever, constantly wondering if Ed or Paige, or Ed and Paige, are going to get on at any stop. My flat is just down the road but I’m still terrified of the inevitable lecture from Paige later about keeping this secret. Having to hear his voice everyday coming from her headphones is hard enough, without her knowing that I’ve known him all this time. Finally the bus stops outside my flat, I hop off and thank the driver in a quiet mumble, I look up at the stairs to my door, why I decided to have a flat at the top of this building I’ll never know.
I start the long walk up to my flat, the lift is broken so I have to walk all the 326 steps up to my room, yes I have counted them. At 250 already feel like I’m dying, only 86 more to go. At 300 I feel slightly better, only 26 to go. At 4 to go I can see my door, I step beside my door and try and find my keys in my rather messy and jumbled bag. While I’m trying find them I hear a voice inside my flat, “I’m sure she’ll be here soon.” It’s Paige’s voice, sounds like she’s on a phone. I open the door and walk in, I see Paige pacing around the room.
“OH MY GOSH, Beki! Where have you been? I’ve been texting you for ages!”
“Um, I sorry I turned my pho-” Paige cuts me off.
“You have a lot of explaining to do!”
“Sorry I just stayed out a bit longer than I expect-”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about Beki.”
“Um, yeah sorry, I should have told you I’m sorry, look I can’t really handle this right now. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”
“Yeah I know, I just, why didn’t you tell me that you knew him?”
“Paige have you got any idea how hard it’s been to listen to his music coming from your room everyday? Listening to you telling me what he put on twitter? Telling me what part of the country he’s in? It’s just to much to handle okay.”
“Fine I understand that, but if you would have told me I wouldn’t have spoken about him so much.”
“Paige, maybe you would have maybe you wouldn’t, but it doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to talk about it anyway okay.”
“Fine, but I need to tell you something first, okay you might hate me for this, well actually I’m pretty sure you WILL hate me for this but anywa-” This time I cut Paige off.
“No, I can’t cope with anything else at the moment, okay I just can’t cope with anything else.” I say turning round and walking into the kitchen, “I need a cup of tea.”
I boil the kettle with, Paige still pacing around, clearly stressed about something. But I don’t have time for her problems, I’ve got plenty of my own at the moment.
The kettle ping, signaling it’s finished boiling, I grab a cup from the cupboard, and put a teabag in it, I pour the boiling water over the tea bag and watch the water go a dark brown, taking the bag out and pouring a gallon of milk into the cup of stewing liquid.
I take one sip, burning the roof of my mouth before turning back round to Paige, who is still pacing.
“Oh for crying out loud, whats wrong Paige?”
“Okay don’t hate me, but -” Paige stops when the sound of our toilet flushing.
“What is that?” I ask, as Paige’s eyes dart backward and forwards from me to the loo door.
“Um, it’s the toilet flushing. She says as the door starts to open.
“I’m sorry!” Paige says as a tuft of ginger hair appears from behind the door.
Oh my god, Ed has been in my flat this whole time. I almost don’t realize that the cup of tea is slipping from my hands. The crash of it smashing into a thousand pieces wakes me from my haze. I’m going to kill Paige.
