Falling Fast - L.S

7

I was only dimly aware of the other shoppers around me. Several mothers with kids in buggies. A small knot of teenage boys lounging against a boarded-up shop, sharing a cigarette. An elderly lady pulling a shopping trolley.

As I drew closer to Harry, they faded into the background, along with the smell of traffic fumes and the sounds of cars and people talking. I fixed my eyes intently on him.

Surely if I stared at him hard enough, he'd see me? But he didn't. He didn't. We were two metres away from each other. A metre. Less.

And then he looked up.

I stopped instantly. Despite having been preparing for this moment for the whole of the last minute, I felt shocked. Dizzy, almost, at the intense, searching way he stared into my eyes.

Harry took a step on, still staring at me, then he stopped too. Beside his the brown-haired girl shuffled impatiently.

"Hi." Jeez, I sounded as if I was being strangled.

Harry narrowed his eyes slightly. "Harry?" He grinned.

I nodded idiotically. His smile was sending my insides into somersaults. I gripped my jacket tighter.

"What are you doing here?" Harry said.

"I live round the corner," I stammered. "I was... I was just out."

I didn't want to mention the fact that I was meeting Taylor and Gigi.

There was a pause. The brown-haired girl tugged on Harry's arm. But he was still looking at me.

"Er... what about you?" I said, forcing a smile. "This isn't near your school."

"No." Harry ran his hand through his hair. He glanced sideways at the girl beside him. "I'm walking Gemma down to her new job - a hair salon that's just opened down the Broadway. I've gotta go too so i know where it is, when i pick her up."

I could feel the smile freezing on my face. Friends didn't pick each other up after work.

"Oh," I said, looking down. "Right, well..."

"D'you want to come with us?" Harry said. "It's not far, is it, Gem?"

Gemma's beautiful green eyes widened with what I took to be hostile alarm. "No," she said slowly. "But we have to go now. I don't want to be late."

We set off, Harry in the middle, explaining to Gemma that he knew me from the play at school. I was completely bewildered. What was he doing, inviting me to walk with him and his girlfriend when she was clearly uncomfortable about it?

Gemma kept her eyes lowered, avoiding looking straight at me. A minute later and we arrived outside a smart-looking hair salon with the words Goode's Hair Days printed in black across the top.

"See you at six," Harry said.

Gemma nodded, mumbled a miserable-sounding goodbye, then slipped through the front door of the shop.

Harry turned to me and grinned again. "D'you wanna get a coffee?" He said.

I blinked at him, utterly confused. Could he not see how annoyed Gemma had been? "Er..."

The smile fell from Harry's face. He stared at me for a second, then he scowled. "No problem." He swung away from me and took a long stride back up the High Street.

I stared at him in horror. Then i practically flew the two-metre gap that had already opened up between us.

"I do," I said breathlessly, falling into a rapid walk beside him. "Want to get a coffee, I mean. It's just." I nodded back towards the hair salon. "Won't she mind?"