Текст книги "After Forever Ends "
Автор книги: Melodie Ramone
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Текущая страница: 11 (всего у книги 39 страниц)
“Well, give it to her! Put it on her finger and say this: I offer you this ring as a symbol of my undying love for you. Let it always stand as a reminder of my devotion to you.”
“I offer you this ring,” He slipped it on to my finger. His voice was quiet, yet it lingered in the room, “As a symbol of my undying love for you. Let it stand as a reminder of my devotion to you.”
“You don’t have a ring for him?”
“No, Sir.”
He sighed, “May you enjoy lengthy days filled with love. Now you have made your vows. I pronounce you husband and wife.” The room was completely silent. “Go ahead then!” He snapped, “You’re husband and wife! Kiss her, like you haven’t done that already and good luck to you!”
Oliver took me into his arms and we met for our first kiss as a married couple, “I’ll love you forever, Silvia,” He whispered in my ear.
I thought for just a second that I could pull away. I don’t know why it crossed my mind to bolt, but it did. Just for one split second there was doubt, but there was not a bit of me that wanted to do it. Instead, I stood on my toes and held on to him as tight as I could. “Me, too, Oliver,” I whispered, kissing the smooth skin of his cheek. “I’ll love you forever.”
“Forever, Love.”
“Forever.”
CHAPTER SIX
Oliver and I spent our first two weeks of married life in that little cabin only getting out of bed long enough to use the loo and head into town for food. We’d make love and sleep, wake up and talk and laugh, feed the fire, eat, take a bath, make love again, eat and sleep some more, make love again…it was just like heaven, our little heaven. I’d never been so happy in my entire life, but as the days flitted past that horrible monster called anxiety began to sneak up on me.
The morning we had to go back to Bennington, I cried.
“What is it, Sweetie?” He rocked me gently. “What’s wrong?”
“What if your parents freak out?” I sobbed, “I don’t think that our marriage is exactly legal! What if they want to annul it?”
“They won’t.”
“Why wouldn’t they?”
“Because,” He sounded completely relaxed and reasonable, “I’ve already had my birthday. I’m eighteen. You’ll be eighteen in less time than it would take for them to complete and file the papers. By the time anyone discovered it wasn’t copasetic and annulled it, we’d just have eloped again. The first time would be discarded and all would end the same. Why would they even bother?”
I knew he was right, but I was still afraid. I was really, truly happy for the first time ever in my life and I wanted Ed and Ana to be happy, too. I had this horrible feeling that they weren’t going to be. Oliver had no qualms about disregarding his parents’ wishes if he felt something was important enough, but the thought of disappointing them simply broke my heart.
Hours later, Oliver and I were sitting in his parent’s front room. We had rang my father the night before and asked him to make the drive down so we could all talk. Oliver’s parents were a bit surprised to see Daddy pull up, as we hadn’t had time to tell them he was coming, but they were pleasant as always and welcomed him right in.
“Well, what is this about then?” Ana smiled as she set down the tea tray.
My heart was pounding in my throat. Oliver looked quite cool, however. I still didn’t know if this was the best thing, springing it on everyone all at once that we’d lied about how we were going to spend our holiday and had eloped two days after we’d left school. But Alexander and Oliver had out voted me. They were sure that it was best to get it over with in one loud bang.
“Do I have the floor?” Oliver asked, sounding a bit excited, “Right then! Where to begin? Begin at the beginning, I always say! So, as you know, we all went off on holiday two weeks ago, separately at first…” He began speaking rather quickly, which was more or less normal for him. He carefully skimmed the details of events and bent truths, which included not even mentioning Alexander had buggered off to England to be with Meredith and then forged parental consent for us to be married, or that we’d gone off with each other the day after school broke up. These facts were omitted in an obvious effort to make the story easier to digest for our parents and to help all of us, who were each stone cold guilty, seem more innocent. When all had been said, Oliver had managed to spin the entire tale in less than seven minutes. I know because I was watching the clock the entire time.
“And just like that, we were married! Alex scampered off to see Lance in Caernarfon to let us alone-like and here we are now telling all of you our good news!” Oliver finished as casually as if he were announcing how he had scored on his final tests at school. He clapped his hands together, “Brilliant! Right! Now what’s to eat, Mum?”
The room was dreadfully silent for about one single second. Everybody was in a frozen state of shock. Oliver often had that effect on an audience.
“You did WHAT?” Ana screeched as she tossed her biscuit into the air. It landed in my father’s tea, causing the hot liquid to splash on to the back of his hand. He wiped it absently with his serviette, looking at Oliver as if he had explained the situation by a using combination of mime, baton twirling and smoke signals.
I could hear my sister from the doorway where she stood with Alexander. I swear she couldn’t help herself. If she was more than ten inches from him she had to somehow find a way to get closer, “What’s the big deal?”
What was the big deal? I could feel myself edging toward a full on panic attack. Oliver and I sat across from his parents and my father, exactly in the spot I had wanted to avoid being in. I gripped Oliver’s hand tightly for support as I was certain I was about to pass out. I didn’t want anyone to hate me, but just the same, Oliver was my husband now. He still smelled like soap mixed with clean earth and burned wood and I wanted to leave quickly so I could kiss him violently and endlessly and be his wife in every sense. I wanted to go back to the cabin in the wood and never see anybody but him ever again. I was still afraid that his parents would realise that the marriage was not legal and force the issue of the fake consent, even after Oliver had assured me that they wouldn‘t. I was sure they could have us annulled in about ten seconds. I was afraid to return to school as well because I knew they would never let us be together and I would have to lie alone in that dormitory full of girls who suddenly seemed like children to me.
My heart was thumping painfully. I looked at my husband and him at me. “Let’s run away,” I begged desperately with my eyes, “Now, Oliver… ready…one…two…three…RUN!”
He got my message, but instead of hurdling the sofa our parents sat on and running out the garden door as if our lives depended on it, he winked at me.
He turned slowly back to his mother, “I said,” Oliver’s voice was calm, although it did give away a hint of irritation at even having to explain again, “That Silvia and I got married the Sunday before last.”
The room was silent again. I could hear the clock. Tick, tick. Tick, tick. And the sound of a car whizzing past outside. Wiiiiiiiiiissssssh. Suddenly his mother’s Pekinese startled and made a sound as if she had swallowed herself whole. Alexander gave her a soft nudge with his foot.
All three of our parents stared at us with no idea at all of how to react or what to say.
“Is he joking, Xander?” Ana asked hopefully, looking toward the doorway for support. I could see the ends of her blonde hair shaking, but she didn't give it away if she were trembling, “Be serious now, the both of you!”
“He’s not joking, Mum,” Alex answered glibly, resting his hand on Lucy’s head.
“Well,” My father finally spoke with the enthusiasm of a soggy green bean, “Why wasn’t I informed before you did this, Silvia? You could have rang! I might have liked to have seen my daughter married!”
Oliver’s mother was still staring at us, wide eyed with her mouth hanging open, bits of biscuit sticking to her bottom lip. She moved her mouth, but no sound escaped. Finally, she gathered herself and managed a look of stunned outrage.
Edmond however, was having little problem with the outrage. He absently wiped at his wife’s face to rid her of the crumbs, but got her nose more than her mouth. His face was becoming redder as he cleared his throat, “BLOODY HELL, BOY! WHAT MADE YOU THINK THIS WAS A GOOD IDEA? OLIVER ERIC DICKINSON!” His voice boomed painfully against my ears, “GETTING MARRIED? YOU’RE STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL, YOU KNOW! YOUR MOTHER AND I WAITED UNTIL AFTER COLLEGE! DIDN’T WE? WE DID THE RESPECTABLE THING! WE DIDN’T RUSH INTO ANYTHING! BUT NOT YOU!” He pointed a shaking finger at his son, “YOU AND YOUR MADCAP IDEAS! YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN SO BLOODY IMPULSIVE! RUNNING INTO THE STREEET AND PETTING STRANGE DOGS FROM THE TIME YOU WERE OLD ENOUGH TO WADDLE! ALWAYS JUMPING INTO THE DEEP END OF THE POOL WITHOUT A FLOATSUIT! YOU’VE ALWAYS BEEN SO…SO…SO…” He seemed to be losing track of his thoughts. He paused with heaving breath and I swear he went burgundy before he shouted again, “RECKLESS! WHAT ON EARTH WERE YOU THINKING? YOU’RE ONLY SEVENTEEN–”
He took a step forward and literally punched Oliver in the side of the head. His fist against the bone sounded like a thump on a coconut. I recoiled on to the couch and drew my legs up, trying to push myself away as he did it again. And again. And one more time.
“Ow! Fuck! Dad! Ow! Stop it!” Oliver, taken completely by surprise, did his best to defend himself with his arms and elbows.
“Dad!” Alex sort of shouted at the exact moment Ana cried, “Eddie! Stop!”
“WHAT THE BLOODY HELL WERE YOU THINKING?” He bellowed. “I THOUGHT YOU HAD A BRAIN IN THAT SKULL OF YOURS!”
POP! POP!
“Eddie! Stop!”
“Dad! That's enough!”
“OW! DAD! DAMN! OW!”
“NOTHING BUT DIRT IN THERE! YOU IDIOT! YOU IMBICILE! YOU–”
Edmond stopped suddenly, a realization spreading across his heavy face. His great brown eyes grew wide and his mouth hung open as stupidly as his wife’s had a moment before. This time his skin went white. “You’ve really gone and done it now, haven’t you?” He asked quietly and then thumped himself on the head instead, “I should have known! All the time you spend together! And you swore to me you two hadn’t yet! Not in any rush, yeah? Oh! I would have expected this out of Alexander, but not you, Oliver! What fools we are! Ana, she’s got a muffin baking!”
“A muffin!” Cried my father, “House sitting she tells me and all the while she’s got a muffin!”
“What are you talking about?” Oliver sounded honestly confused, rubbing the knots out of his head, but Ana and Alexander obviously had gotten Edmond’s meaning because Ana screamed out loud in horror and Alex burst into a loud hoot which he swallowed as he covered his mouth with his hand and spun in a circle.
I sat there and cried.
Oliver looked at me, his dark brows nearly in a knot. Hand still pressed to his skull, his eyes begged me to explain why in the hell his father was talking about baking at a time like this. Then it dawned on him because his expression grew wide as the true meaning of muffins washed over him. He turned back to his father, “No!” He insisted, “She’s not pregnant!”
I felt my face turn as fiery auburn as my curly red hair.
“Are you sure, Dear?” Anna asked in a voice that sounded like it belonged to a mouse.
“Silvia’s never made any muffins that I know of,” Lucy was so innocent as she defended me from her perch in the doorway, “She can hardly re-heat steak and ale pie!”
That statement was too much for Alex to handle. He began to laugh so hard he had to remove himself from the room. His lack of control was contagious. I began to giggle, too, but Oliver had become completely irate. He rose to his feet, “I thought you people would know that I’d marry her sooner or later!” He said hotly, allowing the insult to show in pink splotches across his cheeks, “It appears you‘ve forgotten that I‘m eighteen now, Dad, not seventeen, and Sil will be eighteen in four days! So we got married and the lot of you can shove off if it doesn’t please you! It’s not like we needed your approval! We would have asked, but you’d have denied us and even then you couldn’t have stopped us! I love her! I’ve loved her forever! And she loves me! Sod you all!”
Edmond’s chin quivered, but whether it was in anger or relief, I could not say, “She’s not…not… er…you know…”
“Baking muffins?” My father finished.
“You’re sure?” Ana asked in that same small voice. “No muffins?”
Alexander roared from the kitchen.
“She is not baking anything! Nothing! No muffins!” Oliver didn’t sound quite as upset anymore, although he was still rubbing the back of his head. He turned just as his brother pushed open the kitchen door a crack and peeked out. Alexander mouthed, “Muffins!” Bursting with silent convulsions and Oliver nodded, “I know!” laughing as well, the absurdity of the conversation finally sinking in.
He looked away quickly before he laughed out loud, still determined to appear upset, but he made the mistake of looking down at me. When Alexander shut himself in the kitchen, I had completely lost my composure. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so I did a little of both.
“Are you all right?” Oliver asked me so seriously that I burst into a new fit of giggles and tears. “Look what you’ve done to her, Dad!” He shouted at this father, this time looking prepared to fight back, “Screaming at us like a complete mental! Look at her! She’s beside herself!”
“It’s a good thing she’s not harbouring a muffin,” Alexander cleared his throat and sounded very stern as he re-entered the room. He leaned over the back of the sofa and gently massaged my shoulders, “Really, Dad! Look at her! She’s obviously very distressed!”
“Yes!” Oliver looked at his brother and then turned back to his parents. “How dare you shout like that! If she were pregnant you could have damaged our baby!”
“Upset the muffin cart!” Alex offered. “Way to go, Old Man!”
Oliver laughed out loud.
By this time all of the parents looked very confused. It was Ana who finally spoke, “We just want to be sure.”
“No,” Oliver turned to her “We promise. No muffins. We’ve only been playing at the oven a short while. If we did happen to manage to mix a successful muffin, we’ll let you know in a month or so. I mean, blimey! There are at least a few recipes to test! We need to experiment, you know? Buy a book or two, see how to mix it up. So far as I know right now I like apples myself. Silvia, however, seems to prefer bananas. It may end up we both like some other sort. We’ll have to see, won’t we?” He sat back on the sofa and gave my hand a squeeze. “But at any rate to make a decent muffin you got to have good nuts and berries, so we’ve no trouble there.”
Alexander was banging his fist against the wall, loud snorts escaping him. Oliver and I completely lost our composure and fell into each other’s arms, kissing through uncontrollable laughter.
“Muffins!” He said, “Bloody muffins!” And we both laughed harder. “Lord, I love you,” He mumbled. “Marry me again?”
“Nuts and berries?” I could hardly speak, “You’re such a turd!”
“I know!”
It didn’t seem to be quite as funny to our parents. Oliver had left all three completely speechless and feeling foolish. After a short silence, Ana spoke. She stood up, smoothed her skirt, and smiled a sincere smile, “Well, Dear,” She held her arms wide for me, “Come here! Congratulations and welcome officially to the family, even if it is a bit sooner than we thought!” She hugged me and kissed me on the cheek, “We reckoned you two would get married one day! I have to make a nice supper then!”
“No,” Said my father, getting to his feet, “I’ll take us all out, how’s that? Come here, Son!” He yanked Oliver off the couch and crushed him to his chest, pounding on his back as if he were choking, “I always did like you!” He swore.
Oliver coughed.
Edmond was the last to speak. “All right then. What’s done is done. Congratulations, you two. I’ll phone Father Dominic and set up a blessing for your marriage. While I’m at it, I’ll call the headmistress at Bennington, but I can’t promise how she’ll react,” He looked at me carefully, “Silvia…if you were…you know…well, you know you could tell us. We love the both of you no matter what. We’d see you through.”
“Thanks, Eddie.”
“Silvia,” He smiled, “Don’t call me Eddie anymore. Call me Dad.”
More tears came to my eyes, but this time they were happy ones. I launched myself into Eddie’s arms and clung to him, “I love you, Dad!” I swore.
“I love you, too, Daughter!” He petted my hair, and then asked quietly, “Now you’re sure, right? Absolutely no muffins?”
“Get off it, Old Man!” Alexander slapped his father on the back, “I’m sure one day Ollie and Sil will have at least a dozen muffins, but not today. Speaking of muffins, I’m bloody starving!” He turned to my father, “Where you taking us, Phil?”
CHAPTER SEVEN
It was surreal having spent two wonderful, romantic weeks alone with my new husband and, upon announcing our nuptials, being scolded as if we were five years old by our parents, Oliver having his head practically pulverised, then being forgiven immediately, taken to dinner and dropped off at school by my father.
“Thanks for the lift, Phil,” Alex told dad as he got out of the passenger’s side of the car. He waited a moment for Oliver, Lucy and me to climb out of the back. “See you later, Sil,” He gave me a quick hug. When he looked at Oliver, his face was stone serious, “Let me know how it goes with Madame Pennyweather tonight.”
“I’ll see you at breakfast if not sooner,” Oliver replied as if he were not even concerned. “Night, Lucy Cotton!” He pulled her into a playful hug.
“Night, Oliver,” Lucy kissed his cheek, then mine, “Night, Silvia,” She gave her prettiest, sweetest smile to Alexander. “Are you ready to show a lady to her door?”
“A lady? You’re nothing more than a teensy weensy munchkin!” He teased. “I, however, am a gentleman and I will chivalrously escort even a munchkin to her door, least some foul menace cross her path.” He held out his hand in a courtly manner, making a deep bow. She placed her palm in his and giggled. Alex kissed her knuckles, “May I have your arm, Milady?”
“Certainly, Milord!” Lucy slipped her arm through his. She looked over her shoulder at Oliver and me and giggled again as Alexander gallantly led her through the gate and on to the school grounds.
My father caught Oliver’s attention with a short wave. Ollie waved back and nodded as if to say everything was fine.
The moment the car drove away I started to cry again. Oliver pulled me close, “Why are you crying, Sil?” He asked tenderly just as it began to rain.
Headmistress Pennyweather came rushing out of the gate, “Oliver! Silvia!” She held an umbrella over the three of us, “I’ve been waiting for you! I need to speak to you both, please come in!”
She took us into the building and ushered us into her office. “Sit, sit,” She motioned to the chairs in front of her desk as she hurried behind it and sat in her own, “I understand you two were married,” She said with no hint of a smile, “I suppose congratulations are in order. However, this puts the three of us in an awkward position. You see, until I have permission from the board I cannot allow the two of you to co-habitate on school premises.”
I could not stop crying. It was as if someone was removing my heart with a spoon. I had felt no anxiety at all about being married to Oliver, but the thought of him being taken away was more than I could bear. I wanted to finish school, I truly did, but it seemed such a silly thing now to be living at a place where there were classes and schedules and other people’s rules. I was no longer a child. I had left that behind in an ancient, tiny cabin on a hill. I was someone’s wife now, a woman and I wanted…no, I needed… my husband beside me. They had no right…no right at all…to take him away from me. Yet I was helpless to stop them.
Oliver still had his arms around me, holding me close to his side as we sat in those awful straight-backed chairs. I buried my head into his chest and continued to sob hopelessly.
“You’ll have to sleep in your separate dormitories as you always have,” She clicked the top of her pen, “Naturally, you’ll have to attend and complete all your courses. And your free time is, as previously, your free time to spend as you wish,” She tilted her head, “Observing proper conduct, of course.”
I didn’t listen to the rest of what she had to say. It seemed like hours before she dismissed us, although we never left her office. I sat there crying while Oliver held me close and told me it was only temporary. “We’ll be able to be together all the time soon, Sil,” He kissed the top of my head, “I know it’s hard. It’s killing me, too, but we’ll get through it. I promise!”
I knew the headmistress was still sitting at her desk. I was very aware that she was watching us and even more aware that she was straining to hear every word we said.
“I don’t want to be here!” I sobbed, “I want to go back to the cabin and be with you!”
“Me, too, Sil. Me, too, but we can’t right now.”
“No, Oliver, let’s not stay here!” I hissed into his chest, “Let’s just go! Please! They’re going to chuck us out anyway!”
“Maybe not, Love. Maybe not,” He pushed the hair back from my forehead, “The term’s almost up. They’ve never had students go and elope on them before. This is all new to them as well. They just have to make some arrangements…”
“Arrangements? Make arrangements? What about our arrangements? We’ve got a life, too, and this is like…this is like taking a step backward!” I felt slightly hysterical. It was all I could do to keep from shouting, “I can’t stand it! I don’t want to sleep without you…not once…not one night…not ever!” I shook with sobs, “Please, let’s just get out of here!”
“Silvia, listen to me,” He moved away from me so that I had to tilt my head back to look up into his face. His dark eyes searched mine as if he was looking for some sort of reason he could reach within them, “We have to graduate! What’s the point of all the time we’ve spent in school if we don’t? I’ll tell you what’ll happen. I can’t get a decent job and we can’t afford to put a lid on a basket for our muffins!” I couldn’t help it, I began to laugh. He let me rest my face against him again and held me tight, swaying softly, “You are the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. You and me, Sil. You and me, we’re magic, remember? And nobody is going to take one of us away from the other forever! So it’s a couple of nights or it’s six weeks and then we graduate. We get out of this place and we go home…”
“To the cabin?”
“My dad says yeah, we can have it,” He smiled an easy smile down at me, “I reckon we can fix it up some, mind. Put on a couple of rooms. Maybe even build us a right proper toilet,” He pinched me lightly on the chin, “And I can continue to work for the flour mill, it’s not far, and we can still go to university…”
“I just want to be with you.”
“You are with me.” He put my hand over his heart, “Here, Love. Always. Here.” He rocked me like a baby for a long time, smoothing down the curls in my hair with his long fingers.
Our headmistress finally spoke, “I’m sorry. I truly am, you don’t know how sorry, but it’s gotten terribly late. I have to ask you both to return to your dormitories.”
I held tighter to Oliver. I had made a huge circle of wet with my tears down the front of his uniform and his shirt stuck to my cheek.
“OK,” He answered her softly, “Just one more moment, please?”
I could see her through the bend in his sleeve. She nodded, looking sincerely sympathetic, “One more moment would be fine,” She told him.
“Listen to me, Love,” Oliver pulled back again just a little and looked into my eyes. He cocked his head and wiped my cheeks with his sleeve, “Just Silvia Cotton isn’t Just Silvia Cotton anymore. She’s Just Silvia Dickinson now and she’s my wife,” He moved the band on my finger from side to side, “Someone special gave me that ring a long, long time ago and I’ll tell you the story another time. But I want you to know that it’s magic, OK?” He looked around quickly, glancing at the headmistress, who was pretending not to hear, “It’s as magic as you and me. Now, go. Go and get some sleep and know that I’m thinking and I’m dreaming about you, same as always. I’ll see you at breakfast. Fat sausages and eggs and hot porridge, toast and bacon…and me. All your favourite things at one table, eh?” He looked deep into me, right into my soul, “I love you, Sil. Never doubt it, never forget it.” His grasp loosened, but he kissed me. “It’ll be OK.”
I released him reluctantly. “I love you, too” I sobbed. I couldn’t lift my head as he let me go. I just stared at his legs.
Headmistress took me by the arm, “I trust you can find your way to your room, Mister Dickinson?”
Yes, Ma’am,” He answered. “I can.”
“Goodnight then, Oliver,” She said quietly, rising to her feet, “I will take care of your young Missus.”
“Thank you,” He answered, but he didn’t move.
“I said goodnight, Oliver.” She said more sternly. I think she pointed to the door, “Go!”
He did as he was told slowly, touching my shoulder as he went.
I swear I sank right there and would have hit the floor, but Headmistress caught me, “Now, now, Miss Cotton…well, I suppose I can’t call you that anymore, but it seems so odd to call you Missus Dickinson. Perhaps I’ll just call you Silvia, if you don’t mind,” She was speaking rapidly in a tone that said it was not sure if she were addressing a woman or a child, “Now, now, Silvia,” She started again, “It’ll just be a few hours and you’ll see him again. I’m no ogre, you know, and if things were just up to me I’d give you quarters together, seeing as you are married and as far as I know there are no rules as far as being married and attending this school,” She paused again, “But it’s never happened before…and there are rules about boys and girls being in each other’s dormitories,” She squeezed my shoulders, helping me back to my feet, “I’ve been watching you and Oliver for as long as you’ve been here and I’ve seen…” We took a few steps, “I’ve seen that there’s been something special between the two of you since he hit you in the head with that ball…yes, I saw that, too…I see everything…and what I don’t see I either get told by the professors or the students…” A few more steps, we were through the door, “But, please listen to me now. I have no intention of expelling either one of you for the simple crime of getting married. It’s the natural thing that people who meet and fall in love do sooner or later...”
“Headmistress Pennyweather?” My voice was shaking.
“Yes, Dear?”
“I want you to expel us.”
She burst into laughter, a sound like bubbles that I had never heard come from her. “Missus Dickinson! The very thought!” She patted my back, “You are one of my top students! You are an excellent candidate for a scholarship to university! I couldn’t see it right to expel you just because you want to go! And I would hate to see you resign the school! I enjoy having both you and Oliver here very much! You two bring life to this stuffy place! Plus, if the two of you left I would think Alexander would go and then my detention pad would be lonely,” She chuckled. “We will find a way, I promise. We will find a way for you both to be together and see a successful finish here at Bennington.”
We finally made it to the door of my room in the dormitory. “Thank you,” I said meekly.
“You are welcome,” She smiled softly. The creases beside her eyes deepened as she put her ageing hand on my shoulder, “Sleep now, breakfast will come sooner. And please remember what Oliver said to you, Silvia. Love has a magical way of making everything work out just right. Don’t doubt it or forget it.”
She waited for me to go inside the room and close the door. I heard her shoes clicking until they turned the corner the end of the hall. “Hi, Sandy,” I said weakly, turning toward my friend, “How was your holiday?”
“Why are you crying?” Sandra asked with concern. She was standing between our beds in her pyjamas and had obviously been waiting for me for a while. There were two sodas and a half-eaten box of chocolate rings on my bed, “And why did you get here so late? I was worried! I thought you weren’t going to come back. I thought maybe you’d had a crash…oh, no! Oh my! Is it Oliver? Is he OK?”
“Oh, Sandy!” I fell on to my bed, “It’s terrible!”
I told her everything. I buried my face into my pillow and sobbed until my head pounded and my teeth hurt.
She handed me the last tissue just as my eyes swelled shut, “Well, you’ll see him soon, won’t you?” She said in a comforting tone, rubbing my back with the flat of her hand, “Oliver! Your husband! Wow, you’re the only person my age I’ve ever known who got married! But you didn’t tell me what it was like.”
“What was like?” I was breathing through my mouth like a fish out of water with my face pressed against the pillow.
“You know…it…you know…sex.”
“Oh,” I thought it was a silly question, “It was like…well, magic.”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes,” I mumbled, “But I never got my socks back.”
I didn’t hear what she had to say after that, I was sound asleep.
The news of Oliver’s and my marriage spread like wildfire throughout the school. By lunch we were being stared and pointed at. “No photos, please!” Oliver said grandly as he passed a table of gawking sixth year girls. He lifted his food tray as if to block his face, “Show starts at eleven, Everyone! It’s nearly sold out, so if you haven’t gotten tickets already, buy them soon! They’re on sale in the middle room!”
That was Oliver, always making a joke of everything. I didn’t find it quite as funny.
At dinner Lance and Merlyn joined us at our table. They came in together and took their usual seats, giving us generic greetings. Immediately afterwards the awkward silence set in.
“How you holding up, Mate?” Lance finally asked Oliver as he mashed his potato with his fork.
“What do you mean?” Oliver was perfectly casual.
