Gravitate (4 page)

Marty held the door open for me, then placed his hand on my back to gently guide me to a
table of fresh faced students.
He introduced me to them all, and they returned my
shy smile with friendly grins.
They all seemed so at ease, so welcoming and anim
ated, that I started to relax.
I sat next to Belinda, the only girl in the group, whilst Marty and one
of his friends went to the bar.
She was very chatty, making it easy on me to avoid having to inject too much into the conversation – some people would have said she was too chatty, but the last thing I needed to cope with were aw
kward gaps in the conversation.
She was studying biology, hoping to find a cure for cancer, and she had a lisp which made h
er sound younger than she was.
She also told me she was the designated driver tonight and she didn’t enjoy watching everyone else making fools of themselves – particularly James – her tall, blond boyfriend who wa
s training to be a PE teacher.
He was on his sixth pint of lager
already and slurring his words.
Next to him sat Russ, who was on the same course as James
, and the same number of pints.

“What time did you all come out?” I had finally thought of a question to ask Belinda.

“Oh, they started at home – we’ve
only been here about an hour.
If they get mu
ch worse, I’m taking them home.
Russ puked in the car park of The Golden Lion last week; I don’t want them in that state again – can you imagine if one of them was sick in my car? I would not be happy!” Belinda cackled to herself. “I don’t think it would strengthen our relationship – oh, look, another Diet Coke headed my way!”

I turned round to see Marty and Ben car
rying drinks over to our table.
I had expected Marty to take the empty chair next to me but, to my surprise, Ben sat there, and passed a large glass of red wine to me.

“I thought you might need this after listening to Bel
inda for five minutes straight.
She’s a great girl, b
ut she doesn’t stop for breath!
I’m Ben, by the way.” I was worried he might have offended Belinda, but due to the noise of the music in the pub, she appeared not to have heard.

“Claudia,” I said, introducing myself. “Thanks for the drink.”

“No problem,
Marty said you liked red wine.
You know, you look incredibly familiar, do I know you from somewhere?” Ben’s grey eyes studied my face.

“I just started at the university, but I went to school down the road.”

“I went to an all boys
’
school
, so I don’t think that is it!”
His chuckle helped me to relax. “What is your surname?”

“Lee. Yours?”

“Ah, now I know, my dad is Sam Acton
– your dad’s business partner. You look a lot like your mum. Well, like she did.
Oh, crap, I haven’t upset you have I?” His eyes searched my face and I could see his cheeks bur
ning.

“No, no, it’s fine
. I’ll have to get used to it.
It’s nice that you knew my parents.”

“I’m really sorry, I shouldn’t be allowed a drink, I forget to filter th
e words coming out of my mouth.
I really, really didn’t mean to upset you.” He looked mortified that h
e could have caused me offence.
I thought he was quite handsome in a boyish way, as he slap
ped his forehead with his palm.
“Your first night out since it happened and you end up chatting with me, Mr Put-Your-Foot-In-Your-Mouth!”

“Would you
stop beating yourself up?
I’m
fine, it’s fine, you’re fine.
Le
t’s talk about something else.”
I placed my hand on Ben’s arm to stop h
im slapping his forehead again.
Across
the table, Marty was watching.
He smiled at me, but the smile didn’t reach his
eyes.
He had a slightly confused look – I’d never seen him look anything other than
completely self-assured before.
“How do you know Marty?”

“We’ve only known each other about three weeks, I think – he joined the rowing team I’m on, but then he had to leave due to his shif
ts and lectures for his course.
He seemed like a n
ice guy, so we stayed in touch.
We both already knew James, Russ and Bel, I suppose it is quite
a small university, after all.”

“That’s true; I thought it would take me ages to work out where all the buildings are and it took one hour – not that
different from school, really.
What course are you doing?” I realised I was actually enjoying myself, and I wanted to know more about Ben.

“Television studies.
I know what you’re thinking – I thought it would be a breeze, and originally I only signed up for it to piss off my dad; he wanted me to take a degree
in economics and work with him.
It is actually really in
teresting and bloody hard work.
What are you studying?”

“Drama and English.
I’m not sure my heart is in it at the moment.”

“Where is your heart at?”
He stared right into my ey
es when he said the word heart.
Without my permission, my eyes flickered over to where Marty was sitting – his eyes
met mine, then he looked away.
I tried to focus back on Ben.

“Um, my heart is in a state o
f shock at the moment, I think.
In deep freeze, perhaps.” I needed to get away from this subject; it was making me think back to the safety of Marty’s arms this afternoon and my heart raced just thinking
about that moment.
“Could you excuse me for just a moment?”

Belinda interjected:
“Are you going to the ladies’?
Great, I’ll come with you – it’s so nice to have another girl in the gang!” She grabbed my hand and tugged me off in the direction of the toil
ets.

We stood in front of the mi
rror, checking our appearances.
I lent Belinda my li
p gloss and fluffed up my hair.
It felt good to be out with people my own age – I’d missed having my girl friends around, even though they emailed and rang when they could; they we
re off living their own lives.

“Wow, that lip gloss is
awesome, I’ll have to buy some.
I love your hair colour, by the way, is it natural?” Belinda barely paused while I nodded. “You are so lucky – I have to
dye mine and it is such a pain.
James always complains about the smell, but I’m sure he’d complain a whole l
ot more if I let my roots show!
Oh, and don’t get me started on him whining about my fake tan smelling of bi
scuits and staining the sheets!
We women, eh, we make our hair lighter, our skin darker and what for? Men,
who then moan about the smell!
Mind you, I don’t think Ben would mind if you got his sheets messy, if you know what I mean?” Belinda winked at me, then continued without actually pausing for breath: “I’ve seen him chatting up girls before, but he’s way more into you than
I’ve seen him with other girls. Did you see his body language?
Totally leaning in towards you, legs parted, hands in his belt loops – that means he’s trying to draw yo
ur attention down to his penis!
Seriously, I study this stuff, it’s totally what apes do, but then of course, we all know man is descended from apes, well in the case of
my boyfriend it’s totally true.
Oh, and he keeps touching his mouth, like he’s trying to make you think about kissing
him.
You know it’s a good thing James is so drunk, or he would think I fancied Ben – I’ve been watching him so intently – but then watching him flirt with you totally beats listening to my drunk boyfriend and his drunk best friend talking about the greatest g
oals that have been disallowed.
Poor Marty looked like he was doing the same thing as me,” my ears pricked up when she said Marty’s name, but she seemed oblivious to the light I saw dawn in my reflected eyes, as she continued, “but then again, he’s never really shown any interest in football, and he’s too
polite to tell them to shut up.
Do you know, we really should stop chin wagging in here and get back out there to the men – my boyfriend will be doing tequila shots if I’m not there to supervise him – honestly, sometimes it’s more like babysitting a toddler than having a loving relationship!” She ushered me out of the toilets and back to the table.

Sure enough, Russ and James had their heads tipped back wi
th shot glasses in their hands.
Several empty glasses, slices of chewed lemon and an upended sa
lt shaker lay across the table.
Both men slammed the glasses back down on the table and stared at each other, willing his oppone
nt to suck a lemon slice first.
It
was Russ who backed down first.
I could feel the waves
of fury radiating from Belinda.
She pulled James to his feet and stood eye to eye with him.

“How many have you had? Five?
Six? On top of all that lager!
I honestly can’t believe you; I can’t l
eave you alone for two minutes!
That’s it, we’re going home, right now!” Belinda grabbed the now unsteady James round the waist and started hoisting him out of the pub. “Ben, please can you get Tweedledum for me, while I t
ake care of Tweedledumber here.
Goodbye, Claudia, it was lovely to meet you, I’m sorry my boyfriend is such an idiotic imbecile, I hop
e he didn’t spoil your evening.
Ben, could you hel
p me get the boys into the car?
Feel free to bump their heads on the roof of the car, it might knock some sense into them…” Belinda left the pub, steering her very intoxicated boyfriend around tables and other customers, whilst Ben
tried to do the same with Russ.
I was left alone with Marty – it was like the room suddenly grew smaller.

“Does everyone always do exactly what Belinda asks?” I felt self-consc
ious of the silence between us.

“You can’t argue with her, s
he won’t let you get a word in!
Have you had a good night?” Marty’s dimples became more pronounced when he smiled.

“I’m having a great night.” Well, I thought, I was now. “Your friends were really lovely to me.” In my head I added: I’m gla
d they’re gone and we’re alone.
I was starting to think I was going crazy; I’d only just lost my parents and here I was, getting a crush on my lodger.

“I thin
k Ben will be back in a moment.
You two looked like you we
re having a good chat together.
He’s a great guy, isn’t he?”

I never got
to respond to Marty’s question.
At that moment, there was a loud crashing sound coming from the bar, with angry shouting cutting across the hubbub of the music and laugh
ter.
Before I could ascertain what was happening, Marty had pulled me out of my seat and behind his back, shielding me from what
ever was causing the commotion.
I could hear screams and saw people running out of the pub door on the other side to where we
were sat.
Whatever was happening, it was near
us and between us and the exit.
I stood on tiptoe to sneak a peak past Marty’s sho
ulder and saw two men fighting.
A flash of silver
reflected the overhead lights. A knife.
My heart stopped as the brawling pair came closer, the knife slashing wildly out of control in the bigger man’s hand, an
d nothing between it and Marty. My heart raced.
It was only when Marty let go of my arm that I realised he had been holding on to me the entire time, keeping me protec
ted from the impending danger.
At first, I thought he’d been stabbed and I was relieved when I felt
him take a deep breath of air.
He stepped forward, away from me, and pushed the men apart with unbelievabl
e strength and dignified grace.
The smaller man fell backwards from the impact of Marty pushing against his c
hest and remained on the floor.
Marty turned his attention to the bigger man and took control of the knife in what appeare
d to be an effortless movement.
He turned around and drove the knife deep into the table where we were sitting, leaving it wed
ged through the wooden surface.
Other people now came to help restrain the brawling men, leav
ing Marty free to return to me.
For the second time that day, it wasn’t until Marty brushed away my tears
that I knew I was crying.
He held me
tight to stop me from shaking.
He was whispering in my ear, his lips touching my skin.