Returning Home

Chapter 9

On the way to the canteen I explained to Megan how I know Dylan and she squealed with delight, telling me he always has girls trailing after him yet he always seems to reject them. He'd only had a couple of serious relationships but none lasting very long and that she'd never heard him compliment a girl or seem nervous around them. 

This didn't seem like the Dylan I know a little bit of, he doesn't seem nervous, but what Megan told me and how he acted today made a few questions rise within my head.Why did he become so nervous today? And why does he reject girls? I couldn't help but feel a little pleased that I was the girl that Dylan complimented out of all the others that he could have chosen from. 

When we arrived at the canteen for lunch I sat next to Megan and she introduced me to the other friends sat around the table. Throughout the whole of lunch I smiled and laughed with the others and I felt as if a weight had been lifted of my shoulders knowing that I may have a place within the friendship group and wouldn't be spending the rest of school life alone. As much as I joined in with the others though half of my brain was still caught up on Dylan. 

... ... ... ... 

I rushed straight home after school and got changed into a pair of my new shorts as quickly as possible with a band t-shirt, wearing my bikini on underneath so I could go straight to the beach after the mall to hopefully see Dylan. I'm looking forward to spending time with Megan and getting to know her a better. I really do like her and I'm lucky she was so accepting of me straight away. 

"Mum I'm going out to meet a friend." I shout as I make my way out the door. "I'll be an hour or so." 

Before I give her a time to reply I grab my board from the shed and leave it on the lawn so I can pick it up on the way past when I get back. 

I walk towards the way of the mall and luckily 15 minutes later I arrive remembering my way. I see Megan by the water fountain where she said she would be. I make my way over smiling.

"Hey" I smile greeting her.

"Hiya, so what do you fancy, ice cream, milkshake? They do the best smoothies in the cafe I know." 

"Smoothies it is then!"

Once we had chosen our smoothies we make our way over to a small table by the window that looks out over the busy mall.

We chat in easy conversation like we did in school everything flowing easily until she asks me why it was I moved here. I don't know why the question caught me so off guard, it's not like people weren't going to ask.

"I... We... Umm" I stutter a few times what do I tell her? We moved because my dad was an alcoholic and beat my mum and then hit me to when I tried sticking up for her? No.

"We just needed a change of scenery, mum lost a... a close relative." I force a fake smile onto my face to cover up the burning feeling I felt inside. I hate talking about my so called "father."

I'm not sure whether Megan picked up on how uneasy I felt but she quickly changed the subject this time pressing on the whole Dylan situation again.

 "So do you like him?" 

I nearly spit my smoothie out! "What?" 

"I said do you like him?" 

"I well yeah, obviously, but we're just friends, in fact I hardly know him." 

"So you don't like, like him?" She emphases the first like. 

"Ha no, don't be silly. You can't like, like someone who is nearly a stranger to you." Do I like him?