Expect Nothing Less [Tom Daley Love Story]

Chapter 2

Quick Note: The main character (Ivy) is not very likeable right now, and I'm aware. She's a little bitch in this chapter. Thanks for reading :) 

‘So, do you think we’ll need our two-pieces? I mean, is it cold or hot in England? Are there beaches? The two piece I bought is soooo cute. Lime green is so the new black.’

 ‘Kate,’ I said slowly, annunciating every syllable carefully. ‘It's freezing in England. And rainy.’ 

Sometimes I wonder how that girl even got into Harvard. 

‘Hey, you know, Tom Daley lives in Plymouth. He's like, really hot. Apparently, he's an alright student,’ Kate said randomly. 

‘Can you not do that?’ 

‘Not do what?’ 

'Remind me of Tom. Just looking at pictures of him gets me a little disoriented.’ 

We were standing in line at one of the domestic flight terminals in New York waiting to get seats on a flight to England. Since we had the next week off college, I had decided to go back home to New York for a day or two before heading out to visit Ivana with Kate.  

This turned out to be a stupid idea, although I didn’t tell Kate this. My stressed out workaholic parents were unwelcoming and spent the whole of yesterday telling me how inadequate each aspect of my life was turning out to be. They had treated Kate like royalty while treating me as if I were a complete nuisance. Or, in light of the fact anything I did wasn’t good enough for them, they treated me like an incomplete nuisance. I guess I only came back because I missed New York City itself. 

After what seemed like an hour waiting in the line for United 

Airlines desk 4, Kate and I finally made it to the front of the line. We were greeting by a red-haired lady with big glasses, and earrings so sparkly I had to squint while looking at her.  

‘Two first class tickets to Newquay Cornwall,’ I requested. ‘Please.’ 

‘Sorry, miss. We only have business class seats left,’ the red-haired lady told me. 

‘Yeah but I’m a VIP member. So can’t you just downgrade somebody for us?’ I asked in a voice that practically screamed ‘spoilt brat’. 

Kate nudged me to signal that I was being rude. I didn’t care. I was in an extremely bad mood, fueled by the less than warm reception from my parents. They had said some very harsh words to me. Also, I hadn’t slept properly for days. I was worrying over school results. Not to mention, the deadline for the article I was writing for the freshman newspaper was approaching. And Ivana kept ringing me every hour to check up on me.  

‘Sorry, we can’t do that. The mother and son over there took the last seats,’ the lady told me, while pointing to her right to point out a average height guy and his mom. 

‘You can tell them you made a mistake and that two VIP seats were actually reserved,’ I suggested 

‘Ivy, ssshhh! Let’s fly business. It doesn’t matter,’ Kate whispered. 

‘Yes, well they might not have VIP cards but that lady’s son is a very important person,’ the red-haired lady said. She now had a smile on her face as if she were star-struck. 

‘Yeah, who is he? European royalty? A senator’s son?’  

The lady gushed and giggled. Have you ever seen a middle aged woman giggle? I have now.  

‘No, miss. He’s Tom Daley,’ she said excitedly.  

‘So?’ For some unknown reason, my love for the diver had dissapeared. It’s just that, sometimes when I’m in a bad mood, I tend to treat certain things with indifference. The President could’ve been standing next to me and I wouldn’t have cared one bit.  

‘I got an autograph! Would you like to see it?’ 

‘Uh, no, not really.’ 

‘He won medals at the Beijing Olympics at age 14. Isn’t he great?’ 

‘Just give me the business seats.’ 

‘Yes, miss.’ 

I handed her my Amex and stood there extremely frustrated. I wanted to get out of New York. I wanted to be in first class so I could sleep my anger off or if possible, drink my way out of it. But no, a gorgeous hearththrob that happened to be an Olympic diver had booked the tickets before me. How was I supposed to compete with that?  

I wheeled my luggage to the waiting lounge while Kate scolded me. Perhaps my mother had given her some pointers during our stay. 

‘You’re acting like a spoilt little brat.’ 

‘I am fully aware of that.’ 

‘What’s wrong?’ 

I pursed my lips. I didn’t want to talk about anything.  

‘I’m going to that cafe over there to… get a juice or something,’ I said, desperately changing the subject. 

‘Come on, will you stop with the denial? What did your parents say? And Ivy, you don’t even like juice that much.’ 

‘Sure I do.’ 

I walked over to the counter. I didn’t like juice that much but being stubborn is a hobby of mine and I didn’t want to give Kate any indication that I was losing it. I felt like there was some sort of conspiracy to keep me stressing out. However, I knew I had to calm down or I would probably end up embarrassing myself. 

The girl behind the counter was serving some guy so I decided to wait for them to finish. I looked over at the fridge. Cranberry juice. Orange juice. Blackcurrant juice. Tomato juice. I wanted a coffee more than anything but I didn’t need to be edgier than I already was. I looked back at the two people to my left. I noticed that the guy had already got what he paid for (a bottle of sports water) and that the girl was just ignoring me. This fueled my conspiracy theory. It was like I had ‘please annoy me’ stamped on my forehead and I didn’t know about it. Or worse, it was like I did know about it but couldn’t get it off.  

I leered at the girl but I didn’t say anything. I heard her ask the guy for an autograph. I looked at the guy. He was average height, had kinda spiky dark brown hair and from what I could gather, was pretty athletic. He signed a piece of paper for her, then moved sideways so I could order.  

I had to keep myself from fainting and falling over. 

It was Tom Daley.