The Sleeping Arrangement

Chapter 5

The morning became immediately awkward as soon as I opened my eyes and found that Thomas was walking out of the en-suite bathroom with nothing but a small towel wrapped around his waist. It wasn't even a bath towel, it was the hand towel, and it didn't fit around him properly, so my gaze landed directly on the massive space at the side of his leg where nothing but his hand held the towel against his skin. Now, in an alternative world—perhaps where he was my boyfriend and I'd just woken up looking all beautiful with tousled hair and pink lips, with nothing but a thin white sheet covering my own perfect body—this might have been a good situation. In this world, however, I was actually lying there with bright red cheeks, half of my cleavage hanging (not so gracefully) out of my pyjama top from where my bra had slipped around in the night, my hair was tangled and all gathered in one space beneath my head, and most importantly was the real situation: Thomas was not my boyfriend and we were not waking up after a night of passion. Instead, we were sixteen-year-olds on a school trip, crammed into a small double bedroom in the attic of a creepy old youth centre.

Needless to say, when Thomas saw that I was awake (and watching him, more to the point) both of us moved quicker than lightning to cover ourselves. He darted back behind the en-suite bathroom door, and I sat up in bed with my hands over my chest, protecting my dignity and averting my gaze at the same time.

"Sorry!" he called out, as I smoothed my pyjama top down and swung my legs around to get out of bed. "I forgot to bring my towel in with me. I thought you were asleep. Could you...?"

His voice cut off as I pushed his towel through the gap in the bathroom door. I laughed, and heard him do the same on the other side.

"Thanks, Soph," he said. Soph. Nobody called me that... "Oh, by the way, the shower's freezing cold."

He wasn't wrong. Ten minutes later, after he'd finished in the bathroom, I lugged my own things into the tiny room and turned the shower on. Even after waiting a couple of minutes for it to warm up, the only water that came out of the head was ice-cold and trickled out in pathetic droplets. It took me double the amount of time to get ready than it normally would, and after leaving the bathroom fully clothed I had the sudden realisation that I'd left my hairdryer at home. So, not only was my body freezing cold, my hair was now soaking wet, too. Added to the awkward encounter Thomas and I had experienced earlier, it was evident that today was not going to be a good day.

I didn't expect it to be quite as bad as it was, though.

In true form, Hayley kept up her usual amount of enthusiasm while telling us all that we would be horse-riding that day. She'd explained that we'd all have an hour-long lesson in the arena before heading out onto the bridleways that ran around the centre for another three hours, and that we'd be finishing up with a half-hour ride on the beach. Secretly, I'd been excited about this—horses were my favourite animals and I already knew how to ride, having had lessons since I was five years old—but I had to maintain the straight-faced, I'm-so-bored act in front of the others.

Half an hour later, as we arrived at the stables and were paired up with our horses for the day, it became much more of a struggle to contain my excitement at being back in the saddle, and after realising that Ben was also a keen rider, I decided to give up the act completely. He explained to me that he'd ridden for a few years as well, and that he had a horse of his own. This automatically put him further up in my good books (as long as he didn't try touching my arm or kissing me again—that part had to go) and I rode beside him at the front of our group of ten, enjoying the conversation we were having about show jumping.

Or, at least, I had been enjoying our conversation...until, in the middle of the arena lesson, I realised that Thomas had been riding beside Lizzie for the duration of the activity so far. And, looking closer, I saw that the two of them were laughing and joking together, just like they had been in the rafting activity.