Third Time Lucky?

Getting Over It

Marie

And that was the last I saw of Richard Freeman for the rest of the school year and in fact I didn't see him for another two years, I had even resorted to walking back and forth in front of his parents house hoping to catch a glimpse of him but no such luck.

At first I was a mess, thinking somehow I had caused this by letting him kiss me, perhaps he had caught a deadly virus or I had put him off because I couldn't kiss to save my life, or had I damaged his teeth, or was it just a bet to see if he could get to kiss me as I hadn't kissed any of the other boys .

Yep! I was in that much of a mess.

Eventually my commonsense kicked in and kicked out these ludicrous ideas, replacing them with anger at how he dare steal my virgin kiss, I was saving for a meaningful relationship, not a one day stand.

As the days turned into weeks and the weeks rolled by, I stopped walking by his house, in fact I pushed the memories of Richard Freeman to the furthest recesses of my mind and carried on with my daily life.

The final year of my school life was upon me, so as the summer holidays came to an end and autumn beckoned, I discarded my blue school uniform for white blouses and short skirts the unofficial dress code for seniors.

And as I embarked on getting the exam passes I needed, to become a business mogul in the media market, all my attention was devoted to learning and my first kiss became a distant memory.

"Come on Marie for heaven's sake else we'll be late again" huffed my walking to school partner and best friend Paula.

Paula was a firey little redhead with a curvaceous body that the boys were starting to take notice of and she would go toe to toe with anyone to argue her point or defend her bestie, for which I was grateful for, she had to step in when the flirtation started because I was a dead loss when it came to dating.

So she helped and protected me from boys hitting on me and I did the same for her if she signaled douche bag alert, so much so everyone at school thought I was gay, but it still didn't stop the boys from trying to chat me up.

"Yeah, well we were only late yesterday because a certain someone forgot their phone, didn't they?" I argued.

"Only because you rushed me" countered Paula.

"We were going to be late, you were running late, so that's why I rushed you"

"You kept talking to me and distracting me"

"I was telling you to hurry up because we were late"

"Yeah, well whatever, but we will still be late again today and today it's your fault"

"So we're even then?" I laughed.

"You suck" she pouted and I laughed even louder.

"Come on love" sticking my arm through hers.

"Let's put a spurt on"

So clinging onto her arm I started pulling her along forcing her to run, begrudgingly.

Oh I forgot to mention Paula hates any form of physical activity outside the bedroom and if I'm honest she's like me in never having tried the physical activity that requires a bed, a bedroom and another participant, yes a miracle in these days we both remained intact.

And this is how my life was for the next year, working hard and playing, umm... non existent!

And at the end of the year I achieved all my exams I had worked so hard for, Paula got all she required to get a college placement to train as a hairstylist and as all BFF do we started hunting for a college we both could attend.

Now neither of our parents were rolling in money and the part time jobs were snapped up as soon as school finished, plus all the university students from neighbouring Oxford seized all the bar and restaurant work in a matter of hours.

So my weekend job at the local corner shop and Paula helping out at 'A Cut Above' thanks to knowing Chrissie Simons, yep that Chrissie the one married to the Hollywood heartthrob Brent, though Paula wasn't allowed to cut hair she did all the preparation work and washing.

This meant our college choices were limited, leaving the city of Oxford college the best choice and as luck would have it we applied and we were accepted, Paula with her hair and beauty course and me doing business and enterprise degree.

So the next few years of our lives were set.

As the summer holidays rolled by with Paula and me up to our usual tricks, shopping days in Oxford, the odd birthday party or summer barbecue to attend, chilling out around each others houses stressing out both sets of parents.

Then the day came, the day we put our newly purchased bus passes​ to use, after we had packed our bags with college essentials and crowding on the bus vying for a seat with all the commuters and ending up standing all the way into Oxford, so much for chivalry being alive as young males hogged the seats leaving us females to hold on for dear life.

The return trip home wasn't so bad as nine times out of ten we managed to snag seats as we usually got to the bus station before the commuter crowd left their offices, so were first in the queue.

And this became the norm as we ploughed our way though the first term.

Paula and I met up in the canteen at lunchtimes and soon had a group of friends made up of Paula's​ classmates and me with mine.

Janice and Lisa Saunders twins who were both on my course for business and lived in Headington in Oxford. Not identical twins but damn close, both short and rather curvy Lisa with large black framed glasses and dark hair and Janice with a small scar on her right cheek from a cycling accident when she was ten apparently and sporting spikey dyed blonde hair, she was definitely the out going one of our group and her sister wasn't far behind, the antics they got up to had us in stitches a lot of the time.

Beverley Crawford was in Paula's class and was the apitamy of beautiful, a tall leggy brown haired man magnet, who through no fault of her own bought male attention to our group.

And after all this time a certain Richard Freeman ceased to exist in my life or mind.

Until that fateful day.