Carved in Stone: Monochrome Destiny (4 page)

The
meeting finished with that last statement.  Darren was one of Robyn’s and
she had heard rumours that he had been taken home ill after P. E. last
week.  She would pull out some worksheets for him later.

Andrew
left the room as soon as the meeting ended.  His frame was stiff as he
stepped around Robyn, but she saw him raise a single eyebrow in her direction
in abject dismissal before he exited.  The gesture angered her.

Kat
stalked over, grabbed Robyn’s arm and dragged her out of the room, past the
staircase and into a relatively quiet corridor.

“You
like him.”  Kat hissed in her ear.

“What
the hell.”  Robyn wasn’t used to being dragged around.  “Kat, what do
you think you’re doing?”

“You
like him, I saw you fawning over him.”

“Oh. 
No. I . . . ,” She didn’t like Andrew and certainly wasn’t interested.  If
anything, she was a little scared of her own reaction to him as in order to
function normally she needed to control her emotions.  Andrew; he took
that control away from her.  She should explain all that to Kat
.
. . hang on, what the hell was she doing?  “Wait a
minute.  What if do like him?  Are you going to ban me from seeing
him?”

Kat
all but growled like her namesake.  “I told you he was mine.”

Robyn’s
rage became a palpable thing.  Her control snapped.  “Is that
right?  Do you have rights over all the single men in town, in Cornwall,
on the bloody planet?  Because if that’s the case, just tell me
now.”  Kat let go of Robyn and stepped back.   Robyn’s rage was
feral,
it coursed through her body making her shake with
every word.  She was unable to back down.  “You’ve had every fucking
man we’ve met, every one.  Don’t you dare say that I can’t have this
one.
”

Kat
blinked.  “Robyn, you said you weren’t interested.”

“That’s
not the fucking point, is it?  You don’t want me to be interested in
anyone that you like and you want them all. 
Afraid of
the competition, Blondie?
  From now on, you don’t tell me who or
what I can have.”

Robyn knew she’d gone
too far, way too far, but nothing was going to stop her, the button had been
pushed.  Turning before she could say anything else, she stormed away.

How do you say
you’re sorry when you truly believe that you were right?  Yes, she’d gone
too far, Robyn had do doubts of that, but the gist of her argument remained
true.  Kat had no right to tell her who she could or couldn’t be involved
with.  The fact that the argument had been about Andrew
Obursen
was irrelevant, it could have been about anybody. 
Robyn was in no position to entangle
herself
in a
relationship.  She had no time or energy for such entrapments and was
certainly not going to risk the fallout when things would inevitably go
wrong.  But Kat didn’t know that.

With
neither willing to back down, the next few days saw Kat and Robyn living
entirely separate lives.  If one was in the house, the other was
out.  At work they were silent and at home, positively frosty.  Robyn
didn’t like it.  It was like they were surviving, not living.  Kat
had become such an integral part of her life over the months they had lived
together that losing her was like losing a limb.  But the stubborn side of
her just wouldn’t allow her to back down.

Days
became weeks.

Kat’s
triathlon was fast approaching and with the break in the weather finally
indicating that spring was taking hold, Kat was out of the house training at
every opportunity.  She ran through the woods, cycled the hills and swam
in the sea, at some little cove with a shingle beach that she had found just
after moving in, almost every day.

The
lack of Kat’s presence in Robyn’s life was a dull ache in her chest. 
Robyn knew that the triathlon had been only a pipe dream until they had fallen
out.  Something was missing, but Robyn couldn’t see how she could plug the
whole.  Not after all this time.

The
day school broke up for half term, Robyn was sitting at the dining table
attempting to mark an end of unit test before heading to bed, when she heard
the door open.  Kat was returning from a long run.  It was after
ten.  She’d been doing a lot of late night running recently, but tonight
she seemed buoyant upon her return and instead of heading straight up the
stairs in her usual avoidance, she danced into the kitchen and headed to the
sink.

 “We
must be missing something in this town.  There’s a secret night life we
didn’t know about.”  She poured herself a glass of water and drank it
straight down.  She was out of breath and sweaty from her run, but she had
colour in her cheeks and a jubilance that Robyn hadn’t seen in days.

Turning
slowly to face Kat as she stood by the sink pulling her hair out of its
ponytail, Robyn said nothing, aware that one wrong move could crumble this
tentative bridge between them.

“I
swear.  I have just seen half the town out there.” Kat leaned on the
kitchen worktop while steadying her breathing and pointed to the front door.

This
was the first conversation that they had had since the incident in the
staffroom.  “Doing what?”  Robyn kept it short, allowing Kat to guide
the discussion.

“Queuing up outside the abattoir of all
places.
 
That’s up that little side road on the hill.”

“Why
would they be doing that?” Robyn’s tone was filled with her disbelief.

“I
didn’t stop to ask.  I have to keep up the pace.  But, I came out of
the tree line to cross the car park there and go down the hill the other side,
it’s really steep and good practice, and that’s when I saw them, all lined up
waiting to go in.”

Happy
that Kat was talking to her, Robyn didn’t question Kat’s story.  “Why does
that mean that we’re missing out?”

“Well,”
Kat leaned one hip against the cupboards, “It’s Friday night and this town
can’t seriously be as boring as it appears.  My guess is that it was a
rave.” She looked earnest enough, but Robyn knew when she was being goaded.

“Who
was there?”

“It
looked like most of the town, the Head, that Jane Symonds, the guy from the
fruit and veg shop and that kid who was sick a couple of weeks ago, Darren
something.”

“Pascoe,”
Robyn completed the name even as she rolled her eyes.  The image of the
Head Teacher at a rave was not a good one.  Well into his fifties, David
Rowe was a staunch professional who always dressed in impeccably well pressed
suits with matching ties with a shining gold tie bar.

Kat
began to laugh and the sound was music to Robyn’s ears.

This
was the opportunity she needed.  “I’m sorry I snapped at you.”

Kat
stood startled by the frank apology.  “I’m sorry I lost my temper
too.  I . . . I really liked him . . . more than I should.  He . . .
well, he resisted every one of my persuasions and I couldn’t understand
why.  When he helped you, I was jealous.”

Robyn
finally began to understand why Andrew, of all the men that had been in and out
of Kat’s thoughts, had become so important.  He hadn’t fallen for her
charms.  In the six months she’d known her, Kat had never been turned
down.  She knew how to flirt, how to get just what she wanted, but Andrew
had resisted.  Robyn didn’t know why, but she was happy to hear that piece
of information even as she could hear the sorrow in her friend’s words.

“I’m
not interested in him.  I just used him as an example.  There’s
nothing between Andrew and I, nor will there ever be.  I’m sorry.  I
won’t stand in your way if you really like him.”  Robyn stood to take
Kat’s hand. 

Kat
smiled.  “I think, after all the effort I’ve been putting in, that I
should move on anyway.”  Kat took Robyn in a hug before pulling back.

“He
hasn’t fallen for your charms?”

Kat
laughed but it wasn’t full and heady like normal.  She was embarrassed. 
“He hasn’t fallen for anything and I’ve really outdone myself.  In fact,
I’ve made myself look like a complete bloody idiot.”

Robyn
smiled.  “He wouldn’t have thought you were an idiot.”

Kat
groaned.  “Oh, you don’t know the half of it.  I think I might have
lost my mind a little.”

She
wasn’t the only one who could lose her mind around Andrew
Obursen
.

“So,
are we
back
to being friends again?”  Robyn asked
tentatively.

Kat
put her arm around Robyn’s shoulder, emphasizing their height difference and
pulled her into a hug. 
“Yeah, about that.”

Robyn
stiffened.

“You
recall that you owe me a favour for driving you everywhere for a week?”

“Yes.”

“Could
you drive me to the train station tomorrow and pick me up on Wednesday?  I
don’t want to leave the car there if I can help it.”

Robyn’s
knotted stomach relaxed. 
“Of course.
 
That’s no problem at all.”

“You
don’t mind?”

Robyn
grinned.  “I don’t mind.”

Robyn was awoken
by clattering noises emanating from downstairs.  Sauntering down the
narrow staircase, she found Kat packing in haste.  The woman was perhaps
the most disorganised person on the planet.

“You
didn’t think to do that yesterday?”

Kat
looked up and grinned.  “Nope, I like a challenge.”

Kat
threw things into a large backpack and ran up the stairs as Robyn swept into
the kitchen.  She had time for a cup of tea.

Before
long they were in the car on the journey to the station.  It took nearly
an hour to get there thanks to a combination of distance and the other traffic
on the narrow winding roads.  Half term and the unseasonably clear weather
had brought with it a deluge of tourists.  The slow cars clogging up the
roads frustrated Robyn, but the constant bends and high banks made overtaking
difficult if not impossible.

They
got to the platform with about ten minutes to spare and Kat wandered off into
the ticket office to buy her ticket, never one to be organized and purchase it
online in advance to get the discount.

As
Robyn waited patiently on the platform, she studied the other passengers as
they stood looking up the lines awaiting the train’s arrival.  Though not
busy, there were a few passengers about to start their journey, whether going
away or heading home.  She imagined herself popping up to London for the
weekend, seeing a show, going out, eating somewhere nice, shopping on Oxford
Street and thought about running the idea past Kat.

Wondering
about each of the individuals destinations, Robyn noticed a man taking a bit
too much interest in her.  He was in his late thirties wearing tatty jeans
and a dark leather jacket that had deep, cracked creases along the
sleeves.  He was handsome in his own way, but he was unshaven and swarthy,
and the way he looked at her gave her the chills.  His eyes were dark and
there was something hollow about them and something possessive about his
stare.  She broke the eye contact and looked down at her shoes. 

When
Kat reappeared with her ticket in hand, she picked up her stuffed pack and
despite its size and weight, deftly slung it onto one shoulder.

“It’s
an open return, but I’ll be on the 3 o’clock Wednesday afternoon if you’re
still okay to pick me up? I can get a bus and taxi you know.”

“No
it’s fine, I’ll be here.  A bus and taxi will cost you more than next
month’s rent.” Robyn smiled, knowing that the money never worried Kat. 
She wasn’t a great spender.  In fact, she had very little stuff at all.

At
that moment Kat’s phone rang, well, not a ring really; it shouted at her
“Answer me! Answer me! Answer me!” over and over again,
persistently
increasing
in volume until she answered it.  This, of course, got
them a lot of attention.  The other passengers looked over at them until
Kat pulled out her phone.

The
phone was bright, even Robyn knew that, she also knew it was fuchsia pink
although she couldn’t see it, and it was covered in ‘bling’ as Kat called
it.  The cover was encrusted in plastic jewels. Set between the pink ones
were white stones, making up heart shapes against the fuchsia.  The faceted
stones glinted in the sunlight as Kat placed it to her ear.

 “Hello
. . . . Yeah . . .  Can’t really talk now I’m waiting for a train. . .
.   Yes I’ll be up there soon . . . I know.  I’ll see him on the
start line. . . Nope, neither of you will see me again after the first bend. .
. No, he has so not seen my arse. . . Well, he’ll have a good view of it if I’m
in front won’t he?  . . . Bye.”   Most of the other passengers
had lost interest but the swarthy man who had been staring at Robyn earlier, now
studied Kat.  She noticed of course, and scrutinised him rather obviously.

“He’s
a bit of alright.  A little old perhaps, but you can learn a lot from
older guys.”  She dug Robyn in the ribs with her elbow.

“A
bit creepy if you ask me.” Robyn eyed him suspiciously.

“Oh
no, I like them dark and mysterious, it makes it all the more
interesting.  Besides, I’ve told myself to move on.” And with that, Kat
gave him a brilliant smile.  He had to have been in no doubt that she was
interested.  “I think right now is just as good a time as any to start.”

“Kat,
I haven’t even asked you where you’re staying.”  Robyn knew very little
about Kat’s plans actually.

“Oh, with an old friend, Danny.
  That was
her then.  She’s a runner.”  She smiled as the train pulled in but Robyn
still felt discomfort inside.  Kat didn’t speak much about her old
friends.  She sporadically used Facebook but didn’t spend a lot of time
dwelling on relationships of the past.  Kat liked to move around and move
on.  Robyn was surprised that she had made contact with this Danny at
all. 

The
train pulled into the station as Kat leapt at Robyn, holding her in a tight
bear hug.  It was a show of friendship, a show of forgiveness and one that
was over too swiftly as Kat ran for the train.

“Remember,
3 o’clock on Wednesday,” Kat shouted as she played the damsel in distress role
a little too perfectly and the swarthy guy, seeing his opportunity, helped her
drag her oversized pack onto the train.  Kat flung back a grin.

“Come
back with a medal.” Robyn shouted as she turned.

With
one last wave, Kat was gone.