The Dangers of Pursuing Red

Chapter 2 - Red Hair and Adrenaline

Copyright © 2012 Dominic Eagle

All rights reserved

CHAPTER 2 - RED HAIR AND ADRENALINE

 The rest of college on that Friday passed in a dreary blur, as I mentally attempted to erase what I’d done that very same morning. It was no big deal. I’d done no real damage to anybody, right? Well, I suppose I had, but I was sure neither Laura, nor any of my other friends, ever needed to know that.

As I stepped out into the main canteen area during my lunch break, I was somehow taken by surprise by the daily ritual of being pounced upon by my somewhat-stupid friend, Chris Moore. Usually I was prepared for his antics, but I’d let my mind drift on this particular occasion.

                “Bro! I heard the big news. Well, not big news… That makes it sound quite good… Which it isn’t, of course... You know, I’m talking about the troubles between you and your… Well, I suppose she’s your ex now…” Chris spoke in his usual nervous, rambling tone, so I continued to walk onwards, clutching onto the plate of food that he’d almost made me drop. Yet he still buzzed over my shoulder persistently, like a nuisance insect that refuses to realise it isn’t welcome. “So anyway, I was saying to Adam that um… Well, you’d like to come to my party, right? I mean, he said you wouldn’t, but-”

                “- If you give me one inch of breathing space in the next ten seconds, I’ll come to your stupid party. Okay?”

                In a comical act of desperation, poor Chris lurched backwards, tripping over his own shoelace and crashing to the canteen floor. It wasn’t quite as humorous as watching Jennifer’s husband, Mr Hills, get beaten in a fight by a ‘Sold’ sign, but it managed to distract me from my own awful thoughts - which was rule number three of not caring.

                I seated myself at a table with four of my other friends: John, Adam, Melissa and the newly-acquainted, lovely Laura. When Chris had overcome his minor injury, he got up and joined us at the table too.

                “So Chris, what’s this great party gonna be like tonight? Sex, drugs, booze and finding a suitable woman to pluck your own cherry. Yeah?” Melissa pouted maliciously, going through her usual routine of teasing Chris, as it was blatantly obvious to everybody else that he liked her… And she loved it. Unfortunately, Chris had always been missing a few screws in his little ol’ mind, rendering him incredibly shy and agitated by mostly everything. Not that he’d have trouble with the ladies otherwise, as he was alright-looking.

                “Um… I’d love to see whatever lady you’ve got lined up for me, but… Well, you see, I’ve got a girlfriend of my own right now,” Chris stuttered before drawing his eyes to his lap, to shield himself from the intrigued look Laura seemed to be casting at him. That was the similarity between Chris and me - we didn’t like new people, or change; but for him it was due to nervousness rather than my lack of effort.

John spurted flying pieces of mashed potato all over his maths homework in reply to Chris’ comment. “You’ve got a girlfriend? You? Chris Moore?”

“Don’t patronise me, maths boy. You’ve paid more attention to that booklet in the past ten minutes than any girl’s ever paid to you in your entire life.”

This confident retaliation from Chris was completely unexpected by the rest of us and resulted in a round of laughter. Even John couldn’t resist.

“I’ll give you that one mate, so long as you supply us with a bit of weed tonight. Do you fancy it, James?” He looked at me expectedly.

“It wouldn’t be a party without me, would it?” I replied nonchalantly. “Alright, I’ll go. But I usually stay away from having drugs, they make me go funny.”