Mars? Yeah Right!

Chapter 18

18

The town's main street was absolutely packed. I practically had to elbow my way through to get to the massive stage that had been put up for all the music acts. Right now a band called Liar Liar from the next town over were playing, totally lost in the music. I stood and listened to them for the while; they were quite good and I thought it was amazing that they had been discovered only a year ago and were already doing so well. As far as I knew, they were only here for a few days before they went off on yet another European tour.

"Aine! Aine, hey!"

I turned to see Teresa waving enthusiastically at me from across the street. For a minute, I felt a surge of relief; she appeared to be alone. But then to my annoyance, Connor suddenly materialised, wrapping an arm around her while she giggled and blushed like a simpleton. I sighed. I had been hoping to avoid Romeo and Juliet until I could get the latter on her own for a little chat about how dumping her twelve year friendship for her two week relationship was definitely not a good idea.

 I thought about running, but decided this would only create problems, so I (very very unwillingly) made my way over to the pair. I was treated to a stranglehold hug when I reached my destination.

"Oh, I'm so glad I ran into you Aine!" Teresa gushed idiotically. Another thing that infuriated me about her and Connor's newfound joy was that my friend seemed to have forsaken her own sensible, quiet personality in favour of a new, more airheaded one especially for it. "We were just going for coffee, do you want to come?"

No.

"Sure," I said, smiling halfheartedly. There was no way I could refuse without offending. As such, I  spent one of the most painful hours of my life inside a cramped, steamy little coffehouse, watching the world's most nauseating couple cosy up together and act like idiots.

At one stage, Teresa had to go to the bathroom, thus leaving me alone with her boyfriend. I was more than happy to sit in silence while I stared out the window. Connor, unfortunately, had other ideas.

"So.  How long have you and Terry been friends?"

"About twelve years."

"Does she ever talk about me?"

Dear God....

"Yes."

"How often?"

And on and on and on this went until the subject of our discussion came back to preoccupy Connor's mouth (ew) for the remaining time.

Finally, Connor got a text from Brendan telling him that he needed to go backstage and get ready to perform. The three of us made our way back into the crowd and over to the side of the main stage.

"Good Luck!" Teresa squealed, throwing her arms around his neck. Connor returned the stranglehold, then gave her a big, sloppy (nauseating) kiss.  When he had disappeared, Teresa turned to me, beaming. "Isn't he so sweet? Let's go and get a good spot up front so he can see me when he's playing."

"Actually, Terry, I-"

But I found myself being hauled bodily through the suffocating crowd before I could think of a way to get out of this arrangement. If we were somewhere that was visible to Connor, then we would be visible to Eamonn, a fact that struck me as being very, very dangerous. I decided to do what I came to do- try to talk some sense into Teresa- and then get out of there before the concert started. That way I wouldn't be around to endure whatever horrible surprise Eamonn apparently had in store for me.

"Teresa, I need to talk to you. It's important."

She turned to look at me, her features twisted in an achingly familiar expression of concern. She almost looked like my real best friend again, the pre-boyfriend one who was actually there for me when I needed her. "What's up, Aine?"