"Mate". Nina sat down in front of Eilidh and stared at her pointedly through her hipster glasses. "What the actual fucking fuck".
Eilidh smiled sweetly and took an innocent sip of her coffee,shrugging her shoulders innocently. It was Wednesday, two days since Eilidh had returned from Harry’s,and the first time she was managing to catch up with Nina since the festival at the weekend. They were in a window table in Kember and Jones,a trendy coffee place cum deli on Byres road,just across the road from Eilidh’s salon where she was working that day.
Nina lowered her voice to a hiss and leaned forward on the table until her face was inches from Eilidh. “You are fucking famous you know,eil. There are pictures of you on twitter!”.
Eilidh’s head snapped up,suddenly listening. “What?”,she asked,quickly digging her phone out her bag. “Are you fucking serious?”.
Nina held up her own iPhone,nodding. On the screen was a grainy picture of harry and Eilidh standing side by side backstage at Leeds,watching the 1975. Goosebumps ran over Eilidh when she remembered what they had been doing merry twenty minutes before this picture must have been taken.
"Jesus Christ",she exhaled, laughing nervously. "He told me press weren’t allowed backstage".
"It doesn’t look like press to me mate,looks like a camera phone",Nina mused,as they both pored over the grainy image. Eilidh nodded slowly,feeling weirdly invaded. They weren’t even touching in the photograph, he was standing with his arms crossed smiling,while she had her lips to her can of cider.so her face was partially obscured. Eilidh shook her head. "So wierd",she stated,sitting back in her seat. "We aren’t kissing or touching or anything though, so it’s not too bad I suppose".
"So there was kissing and touching?!",Nina leaned forward excitedly and Eilidh laughed,flushing and nodding.
"Yes",she disclosed,unable to help herself from smiling. After the pub on Sunday,they had staggered back to his mums house,more than slightly drunk,and had another tug of war with whether to sleep together,with him winning of course. He had insisted that the pub wasn’t a real date, and that it would all happen in good time,while she had abandoned her dignity practically trying to rip her own clothes off. She shook her head at the memory,more than a little self conscious about it,however the feel of him through his jeans reSssured her that it wasn’t for his lack of wanting to. Trust her to find the only gallant pop star who ever lived.
"What’s he like?", Nina asked curiously,sucking on the straw f her smoothie and gazing at Eilidh with enraptured eyes.
"He’s lovely", Eilidh answered eventually,twisting her rings on her fingers. She couldn’t think of any other way to describe him without gushing and sounding ridiculous,and she was determined to keep her emotions in check,at least outwardly anyway. "He’s so down to earth- and just really,really kind and sweet".
Nina smiled softly at her friend,enjoying this. She silently rejoiced at the fact that her friend was finally moving on from the horrible break up she seemed to be stuck in. Even if it was a momentary distraction,Nina didn’t care.
They caught up on the rest of Nina’s weekend, Eilidh listening carefully for any kind of disclosure regarding her little brother,but there was noticeably none. She decided not to pry,although she felt confused and a little put out that neither had chosen to confide in her. She was closer than ever with Alex,despite him living with their parents while he was at college,and her in glasgow close to her business. She spoke to him almost every day in some form or another. He had questioned her about Harry as much as a brother would,and she had answered honestly. She could understand how Nina would be nervous to tell her,but she didn’t get why Alex was. Maybe it was just a one night thing,she mused,eyeing Nina who was typing on her phone. Maybe neither of them wanted to acknowledge it because they were embarrassed, or didn’t mean it to happen.
