Ready To Run

Over Again

Wether we're together or apart

We can both remove the masks

And admit we regret it from the start

"Damn it! This can't be true," my dad cried about an hour and a half later and threw his last card on the table.

"Well, that's what happens when you don't count," teased Anne and collected her winning cards from the table.

"You can't always be so lucky," Gemma added, leaning back in her chair, satisfied.

Anne and Gemma had just given my dad his first defeat in what felt like an eternity and everyone in the room celebrated the fact with pleasure.

"Totally destroyed," cheered my mum, clapping her hands with Harry, who happened to be sitting within her reach. He then gave me an overly irritated look and made a "too drunk" gesture. I grinned.

My parents had actually already had a few things up their sleeve, whereas Harry, Gemma and I were really still harmless.

As I watched Anne, Harry and my mother play the next round, I enjoyed shoving the next piece of chocolate I had got hold of into my mouth. Well, actually Harry had got it for me, but that didn't really matter. Gaily I grabbed another one.

"Hey, Lily, how's Spencer doing?"

Frozen, I paused in mid-movement and it took me a moment to realise that Gemma had really just asked the question ... out loud ... so everyone could hear.

In an instant, all eyes were on me.

"Shut up, Gemma!" I hissed and slid a little deeper into my chair. Just now she had to dig the subject up again? For real? ... For real?

I gave Harry a quick glance and became a little nervous when I noticed that he was watching me intensely and with an indefinable look.

"Spencer?" I heard my mother's voice, "the Spencer?"

I put my thumb and index finger at the root of my nose and closed my eyes. "What does 'the Spencer' mean here?" I asked muttering and kept my eyelids closed.

"Spencer King?", Anne now interfered, "The Australian student?"

"Oh yes, Spencer King, I remember!" my dad chattered happily. "Lily brought him here last summer. He was about Harry's height and had this wild look, with all the tattoos and the fuzzy hair and the dark eyes -"

When he noticed how alienated everyone in the room looked at him, my dad fell silent immediately and raised his hands defensively. "Hey, I happen to know that you two Graces have been watching Lily's guy just as meticulously!" He pointed to Anne and my mum, who did not look at all remorseful.

"Mum!" I put on a long face.

"I'm sorry, Lily honey, but Spencer was a lot to handle."

The two women giggled and I closed my eyes again and took a deep breath.

"So, what about Spencer?"

I opened my eyes again in disbelief and gave Gemma an angry look. "Nothing's wrong with Spence. What about him? He's at home with his family, enjoying his time at the beach."

"So, Spence," Gemma wasn't impressed by my slightly charged tone of voice, her eyes flashing in amusement, "is Spence still your flatmate?"

Oh, boy.

"Spencer's your flatmate?!" it burst out of my mum and I saw Gemma smiling inside.