in time // h.s.

xvi. janet

Eighteen years old...

Harry and Kathy's relationship didn't last long. Well, they fooled around together for nine months before she left to go to college, but as we all stayed at Holmes Chapel Comprehensive in the sixth form to do our A-levels, their relationship came to an amicable resolve. But just because Harry and Kathy didn't last, it didn't mean that Harry was back to being on his own with us and looking like a tag-along. Kathy had given him a new-found confidence with the ladies, and so had going to the gym. He'd become effortlessly toned and buff and the way he styled his soft curls back into a quiff made his now sharper facial features more intense with his lightly sun kissed skin and bright green eyes. He even got a couple of tattoos, they may have been extremely random and made him look like an over-sized doodle bear, but he oddly pulled them off with little to no effort. He was popular, but he wasn't a womanizer. He didn't treat anyone badly or just use them for sex, it's simply that he was never short of female company. Years of being the perfect listener to many of the girls in our year, added to the fact that he'd grown some self-belief and learned how to flirt, had given him a tantalizing charm, made all the greater by the fact that he didn't realize what a catch he was.

I asked Matty if he was envious of him once.

"Why would I be?" he'd asked innocently.

"Because he gets to be with all these girls while you're stuck with me, that's why."

"It's never even crossed my mind," he muttered, pulling me into his chest and kissing the top of my head.

I had no doubt that Matty was happy with me, but the fact that their roles had almost been reversed must have had some sort of impact on him, even if he didn't want to admit it. After all, Harry, with his many admirers and string of dates, was leading the life all three of us would have predicted Matty, with his cheeky ways and army of fans, would have had, if it weren't for our relationship.

"You know what's funny?" he said into my hair.

"What?"

"I don't miss it at all."

"Being popular?"

"Ha!" he spat, pulling me closer and tickling me until I begged him to stop. "It never meant anything to me, but you? Now, you mean the world to me."

And just like that, my strong, loving, thoughtful boyfriend eradicated my fears... well, at least for the time being.

***

We'd come to the end of school life and our university days were looming around the corner, ready to take us on the next big journey of our lives. There was a huge chance that the three of us would end up at different places around the country, a fact we'd decided not to worry too much about until our results were collected and offers accepted, but the wait was agonizing, even if we didn't admit it.

We all had different universities down as our top choices, having decided to focus on different subjects. It meant that, if we all got the grades we'd been predicted, our friendship group would be separated for the first time in nine years. Matty, who had taken PE, Biology and English Language A levels, was hoping to go to Nottingham to study Sport and Exercise Science. Harry, who'd taken Law, Politics and English Literature, was hoping to go down south to Cambridge to study Law. And I, having studied Art, Design Technology and Photography, wanted to go to Bristol and study Photography. If everything went to plan we'd be miles apart. It was a sobering thought.

A fry-up was the only way to start results day. Our grades, and our future fate, wouldn't be accessible until ten o'clock and, seeing as we knew we'd all be up anxiously pacing around our homes, we figured getting together would keep our brains occupied. A sombre mood filled the kitchen in my house as we cooked in silence. Each of us lost in our own thoughts.