Tongue Tied

September 2012

Having not heard from anyone the entirety of summer, I couldn't wait to get back to uni life. Well, that maybe was a slight exaggeration, I had been texting Natalie and Scott, but it wasn't the same as seeing them. Especially since this would be our last time, our final year, the hardest one, and after that, we'd be spit out into the real world. Life would finally begin.

I couldn't bear to think about that right now, I just needed to get my head down for a little while longer.

"Hey, Natalie," I grinned as I burst through the door. "It's freaking amazing to see you again!"

She didn't look like she felt the same way. With her downturned mouth and red-rimmed eyes, it appeared she'd been crying. All her stuff scattered around in a mess, which on its own wouldn't trouble me, but with everything else, it looked like something tragic had happened.

"Oh my god, what's going on?" I dropped all my things and raced to her side. "Why are you crying? What have I missed?"

"It's Gaz." She burst out into a fresh round of tears and crashed against my chest. "I can't believe it. It's horrible."

What has that asshole done?

My brain immediately tried to pinpoint what awful thing might've occurred during the summer months. All looked good in their social media posts, but I knew as well as everyone else the truth never made its way to the Internet.

It took me a while to actually calm Natalie enough down to hear the full story and when I got it out of her it stunned me. I jumped to conclusions far too quickly.

"I broke up with Gaz and I feel horrible about it." She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. "I just...over the summer I started to realise everything wasn't right. I knew it wasn't going to last long-term so I figured why not end it now to save dragging it out for another year, just because we're in the same place."

"You broke up?" I couldn't believe it. I assumed she was about to revealed he'd cheated or something. "You dumped him today?"

"Yeah, I had to." She shrugged as if it was obvious. "We're in our last year of uni, we need to start thinking about the future, don't we? Soon we'll be moving away from here and starting our real lives. I know me and Gaz have different directions in life so what's the point?"

Her wise words cut deep. She was so much smarter than me when it came to real life. I needed to pull my head out my ass and start thinking smarter too. I'd been all for burying my head in the sand, but clearly, that wasn't the right attitude.

"Yeah, that seems sensible." I gulped noisily. "I take it he didn't accept it well?"

She shook her head and wept again. Maybe if he took the same attitude as me then the break up came as a massive shock. I liked Gaz well enough but I didn't see him as much of a forward thinker. He lived for the moment, and in this moment, he loved Natalie.

I could relate to that painfully well.

I needed to change the subject and fast before Natalie's sobbing became irrevocable. "So erm, what do you think you're going to do after uni?"

She straightened up and stared right at me, knowledge filling her eyes. "I'm going to be a youth worker. I did some work experience over the summer and I loved it. That's what I want. I think I want to do it in London as well. I need to live in the capital for a while, see what life's like there."

"Oh wow, you really have a plan." Shit, that meant I needed to start concocting my own if I didn't want to be left behind. "That's really something."