3 Heads & a Tail (2 page)

To the side
,
the stairs carried on upwards
towards an
attic room, which was closed with a hatch-like door. That was the
room of the
third housemate
whom Josie hadn
'
t
spoken to
. Apparently
,
whoever it was had gone to the same university as Ben and they had been friends ever since.

“
I
'
m glad to put that down!
”
gasped
Josie, placing the
heavy
box on the steadily accumulating pyramid in the corner
of her new room
.

She
glanced
around
at the bare
walls
,
painted
a dusky
purple, and
remembered that Ben had asked what her
favourite colour was – purple!
Had he painted it?
No, i
t must have already been
that
way
!
On the white carpet sat a
pine bookcase,
a
tall
wardrobe,
a
chest of
drawers and a
double
bed
. A round, see-through ball perched on the light
fitting
above her
head, but it wasn
'
t
necessary. Bright s
unlight
cascaded
through the window, washing a yellow glaze over everything.
She
smiled
to herself. It was going to be cosy and
warm
in here
.

“
Get with it
,
lazy bones,
”
said Kay, staggering in
behind her
with two boxes.

“
Okay,
s
trong man!
”
joked
Josie, b
acking out of the door.
“
Oo
h,
check out your big
muscles!
”

“
So you noticed?
”
asked a voice from above
.

“
Oh!
”
Josie jumped and turned round with a gasp.

The hatch above the stairs
was open
and a face
with a
rather
broad
grin stared
out
. It
was also
a
rather attractive
face
. The wo
rds airbrushed and P
hotoshopped
sprung to mind. He
just
had to be.
No
one was that perfect.

“
W
hoa
,
”
whispered Kay, stepping out of the room. Josie went
the colour of
beetroot
. She could have kicked herself.

“
I
'
m Dav
id,
”
said Mr Model Man, sauntering
down the stairs. He flicked the dark hair out of his dark eyes. His
blue
jeans looked sprayed on
, to Kay
'
s admiration,
and t
he definitive l
ines of a six-pack rippled be
neath the
thin
material
of his T-shirt
.
Both of the girls stood transfixed. It was like some af
tershave advert on TV. A truck
load of
cheesiness, rubbish music
, a glitter ball
and
smok
y
lighting was meant to accompany this entrance.

“
Nice to meet you
, ladies
,
”
he
drawled
, giving a slow-motion smile that didn
'
t seem to have an end. He
stopped right in front of them, inches from their faces.
Kay tried to lift her eyes from his che
st, but found they were stuck, r
ooted
to the spot
. Josie sighed and
concentrated on not going
red again. This was goi
ng to be her housemate
. This was going to be her housemate?!

“
I see you
'
ve met,
”
said Ben,
appearing at the top
of
the stairs
,
armed with a couple of
huge
black sacks.

“
I
'
m J
osie
– I
'
m moving in today
,
”
she
announced
, determined not to m
eet Ben
'
s eyes in case her face turned into a tomato again
. Kay was grinning inanely
,
frozen to the spot
like a rabbit dazed by headlights
.

“
H
ow can I help?
”
asked David, stroking his hair back again and leaning an arm on the wall.
Kay
'
s eyes trailed along his bicep.
She shivered in the breeze of testosterone.

“
You can start by taking some of the boxes out of the van
,
you big oaf
!
”
replied Ben, taking the sack
s into Josie
'
s room.

“
A
y
-ay
!
”
laughed David, pretending to
salute
him.
The girls
giggled.

Ben
put the sacks down. He
could have guessed that his friend would work his usual charismatic magic within seconds
,
and he had...
yet
again! Ben sighed to himself,
straightened his back and
clicked his hands togethe
r
.
This
always happened. Girls would suddenly turn to jelly, trip over, go giggly, walk into inanimate objects – and
even
animate ones
– as soon as David made an appearance. Ben used to wonder if
David had
done some amazing thing in a past life and karma
was
now
rewarding him triple time, o
r
perhaps
he had a painting in the attic that was fast becoming ugly.

Ben pushed his glasses back on his nose and
walked
out of the room. The others had already
returned
to the van
to gather more things
.
He imagined David posing
, flexing his muscles as he lifted boxes
. Oh well, that
'
s life!
He hoped Glen wasn
'
t too bored, sitting in his room on his own.
Ben had left the TV on for him.

Half an hour later, they had finished
bringing everything
in
and were standing in the kitchen sipping mugs of steaming coffee. Josie wrapped her hands around
her mug
and smelt it, drawing in the
relaxing
aroma
.

“
W
here were you living before?
”
asked David, flicking his hair.

“
With me!
”
said Kay, before Josie could answer.
“
I broke up with my boyfriend and she moved in for a while, but then I had to move
somewhere smaller
when
the flat sold
, so I
'
m
living
on my own
now
.
”

“
And you
decided to come
here,
”
finished David.

“
Yep, that
'
s about it,
”
smiled Josie.
“
We were good flatmates though.
”

“
Sure were,
”
said Kay
, moving slightly nearer to her prey
.
“
But now I
have
my own
place
, all
to myself!
”

“
Is it nearby?
”
asked Ben
, glancing at David
,
who looked disinterested
in Kay
'
s blatant flirting
.

Kay didn
'
t break
her gaze, which was fixed on Mr Model.
“
It
'
s not far. Maybe you could pop round for coffee some
tim
e and I can return the favour?
”

But it was me who
made the damn coffee, thought Ben.
Jesus
.

Josie smiled
at Kay
'
s
direct
ness.
That was something
Josie
always
had a problem with,
g
etting
straight to the point, b
ut then a lot of the time she
had no idea what the point was.
The real point that is, which seemed to change with the whims and tides of the day. In fact, what was the point of most things?

“
You seem deep in thought,
”
observed Ben.

“
I was just t
hinking,
”
said Josie, glancing at
Kay
, who
was telling
David
about the supremely amazing cookies she could make –
if he came round for
coffee that is
.
“
I
was
wondering
about
the
real
point of most things
.
”

“
How do you mean?
”

“
Well, you know, sometimes you just do things
not thinking
about
the point, and they
'
re cool. Other times you think too much about the point of something and you can burn it out by thinking...
”

“
...t
hat it has a real point?
”
finished Ben, cupping his coffee.

“
Exactly,
”
smiled Josie.
“
I think you
can overanalyse things. M
aybe it
'
s best not to think of the point
,
and just jump in
and do it,
and t
o hell with the point.
”

As she said the words, they both looked
at
Kay, who seemed to have David
almost
pinned up against the wall. They were talking
very
intently
,
or
rather she was talking intently
and he was kind of
wriggling to escape
.

“
You see my point?
”
asked Josie, sighing.

“
I do!
But I
'
m
not sure he
'
s seeing it.
”

Josie giggled.
“
And she
'
s seen it far too
often!
”

Ben laughed an
d put his coffee mug down
.