Falling Fast

Chapter 22 - Rent Boy

Lexie wasn’t best pleased when I told her I’d managed to wriggle out of cleaning duty as we stepped off the bus at the end of the day, but at least it stopped her from regaling me with what Sergey had texted her during the day. Before lunch I’d wanted to ask her about the kiss and have a nice girly chat about it, tell her about my kiss with Grigory maybe, but now I was too fed up with the subject to even think about broaching it with her. I was so glad the subject of post-party-punishment made her shut up. She hated the idea of cleaning the mess she’d made without me there to do most of the work for her. Nevertheless she dutifully picked up Grigory’s spare key from our kitchen unit and went over there. I would have gone to see Grigory, but since his car wasn’t parked outside I stayed at my house to get a head start on these extra sewing projects I now had.

I flopped down on my bed with a happy sigh and closed my eyes. Grigory had kissed me. It had really happened. And even if I didn’t see him today or tomorrow, I’d definitely see him on Wednesday.

“I’m going to have to help with the writing, aren’t I?” Dan asked with a groan, shattering my quiet moment of bliss.

I opened my eyes. “Yeah. Probably. Alyssa can help you. I think she’s in the other lit group. But Sophie seems pretty dedicated. She’ll probably watch a bunch of episodes to get to know the characters before she starts writing properly.”

“I hope so,” he sighed and sat on the edge of my bed. “I know nothing about writing.”

“You got an A star when we did creative writing in GCSE lit.”

“I ripped off a TNG episode,” he shrugged. “Only got away with it because she don’t watch it.”

“Just… focus on becoming Data or something. Deal with the writing part later. You got a book about their costumes?”

He scoffed. “Of course. It’s only the first one I got.”

He got up and turned to the book case that was next to the bed. There was one behind the bed too. The shelves that were above Dan’s bed were actually used for books, but mine were filled with odds, ends and a lamp. The one Dan was looking at was floor to ceiling and filled with sci-fi novels and various "the making of Trek" type books. There was another one next to that as well which was filled with books I had never bothered to look at. Fortunately the rest of the walls were book free otherwise I would have felt like I was living in a library. He plucked a book off the shelf and passed it to me.

“All about the costumes. Kaplah.”

I just shook my head and got my note book and sketch pad out once again wondering why we didn’t have a desk in here even though there was plenty of room. To be honest we probably could have had single beds like normal people, but for some reason the sticker covered bunk had stayed. It was like a work of art I supposed, that was a study in contrasts. Dan had Star Wars, Star Trek and other nerdy stickers on his bunk. I had flowers, hippy stuff and butterflies. Where as Dan’s had been haphazardly stuck on, mine was more arty.

Whilst I worked I listened to the recording from Friday’s Russian class, but only sort of paid attention to it. It didn’t help that Lex kept on texting me about the woes of tidying. I sent a few smug messages back about how I was curled up on the sofa watching TV with a cup of tea. It was a total lie, of course, but it was fun winding her up.

By eight I really was watching TV with a mug of tea. Predictably it was Star Trek. Mum and Dad were lounging on the sofa together so I was squished into the chair with Dan. It was pretty big for one person and as young children it had been the prefect size for both of us, but now we were squashed and practically sitting on top of one another and he kept on elbowing me whenever he lifted his drink to his mouth. So of course I nudged him back.