Perfectly Reflected (4 page)

I had done my best to ignore Rob, who was leaning nonchalantly on the end of the bar. Grace had made sure he’d seen me as soon as we walked in, and I could feel his eyes following me around the room. His girlfriend Ashley was conspicuous by her absence.

“Where’s Ashley?” I whispered to Grace fairly early on, when it became apparent that Rob wasn’t waiting for her.

“Ah, well, funny you should ask… I was just in the loo with Mia and she told me that Ashley and Rob have had a bit of a row.”

“Really? What about?”

“Well, it seems that Ashley still thinks Rob’s got a thing about you, and she’s given him an ultimatum.” Grace dropped her voice and looked around. “She told him that she didn’t want him hanging around at parties where you’d be and refused to come, assuming he’d stay at home with her. Of course, he just came anyway.”

“Well, how dim can you get? Did she really think he’d let her boss him around like that?”

“I know, you think she’d have picked up something from all the problem pages she’s read over the years. But actually, it looks like she was right about one thing: he can’t take his eyes off you.”

“Huh, well, he can look all he likes; I’m not going to fall
for any of his drivel again,” I snorted, trying not to look in Rob’s direction. I could see that he was watching us both over the rim of his glass, so I turned my back in what I hoped was a subtle manoeuvre.

Grace smiled at me; I was obviously not being quite as casual as I’d thought. But at least I could no longer see Rob; I didn’t want him ruining my evening.

Abbi was there, keeping her distance, but didn’t seem quite as wound up as she had been earlier. I took Grace’s advice and left her alone, hoping that in time she’d come round. About halfway through the evening Jack turned up, and Grace became welded to his side.

It made me smile to watch the pair of them. They were very well suited and I hoped that the relationship would last the summer. They were both pretty loyal, so I thought it was likely, especially as Grace ending up in hospital had obviously proved to Jack how much he cared about her, and they had become inseparable. I watched while the two of them danced together, so comfortable and at ease with each other. He was always looking out for her, checking that she had what she needed, if she wanted to dance or not, or needed air. I could happily watch them all night. I knew that if Callum were here, that is how he would have been behaving towards me. The idea made me smile, but as I watched I became aware of another, unfamiliar, feeling too. I was jealous; jealous of their ability to be together, to hold each other, to do the mundane things in life. I couldn’t do any of that with Callum, and there was no chance that I
would
be able to do them either, however long I waited.

I was lost in my thoughts and realised too late that Rob was heading in my direction. I was standing at the side of the hall, and
when he got to me he leaned towards me to talk, bracing himself against the wall with his arm above my shoulder. It was an odd stance, as if he were trying to box me in.

I crossed my arms and glared at him, then raised my voice to be heard over the pounding music. “What do you want?” I asked in my best dismissive tone. We hadn’t actually spoken since he’d abandoned me in a restaurant. I wondered if he was going to mention that.

“You,” he shouted back, looking me deliberately up and down. I quickly looked away before his eyes made it back to mine, which threw him rather. “So how are you? Fully recovered?” he continued quickly.

I shrugged, and wondered briefly if I should ask him about the computer files. I really wanted to know what he was up to, but didn’t fancy explaining that it was Ashley who had told me; I bet he didn’t know she had been snooping on his computer. In the end I said nothing, and waited to see what he was going to do next.

He was obviously keen to talk. “I’m glad to see you’re feeling better. You gave us all a bit of a scare.” He smiled his most melting smile, which just a short month ago would have made me weak at the knees, but I had become immune to his charms.

“I’m feeling perfectly OK, thank you,” I replied icily. “The only thing that’s still upsetting me is the fact that someone –
someone
,” I emphasised, “is spreading a rumour that it was a suicide attempt.” I glared at him again. “Aside from being a complete lie, it’ll really upset my parents if they hear it.”

“Really? Has someone being doing that?” He shook his head in mock disgust. “Some people just don’t think.”

I had to admire his attempt to brazen the whole thing out. He was almost completely convincing. But I didn’t reply, just
continued to glower at him. I wasn’t going to blink first. It took all my self-control not to smile when he finally dropped his gaze to the floor.

“It must be tough for you, watching him, though, eh?” He nodded in Jack’s direction. When I had dumped Rob he had quickly made the assumption that I was carrying a torch for Jack, as he knew the two of us were friends, and Jack had just started seeing Grace. What Rob had never noticed, because he wasn’t really interested in anyone but himself, was that Jack and I were more like brother and sister, and fancying him was the last thing on my mind.

I looked at him, trying to decide what value there was in putting him straight. In the end I gave him what I hoped was a disgusted look, then turned back to watch the dance floor again. Grace and Jack were giving their all to the current number one, oblivious to everyone else around them, their yellow auras as bright and vibrant as the pulsing disco lights.

Rob tried again, determined not to be put off, raising his voice as the music ramped up. “It’s good to see you, and looking so gorgeous too…”

I looked up at him; the disco lights were flashing on his face now, giving him an eerie green look and dead-looking eyes. I couldn’t help thinking that it rather suited him. I leaned in towards him and shouted in his ear. “Where’s Ashley? Had enough of you already, has she?”

“Ah, well, you know. I think she had other plans…” He was squirming a bit now, and I was enjoying myself.

“Oh, really? I heard that she dumped you. Bit mean of her, don’t you think? I know you were so looking forward to your little Cornish holiday.” I stood up straight and put my hands on my
hips, daring him to deny that he’d found a substitute for me on his little jaunt.

“Actually, Ashley hasn’t dumped me, as you so poetically put it. But, well, you know, sometimes plans need to be a little … flexible. In fact, I was hoping to talk to you about that again.” His hand, which was still bracing his weight against the wall as he leaned in, slid a little further down so that his arm was resting on my shoulder.

I couldn’t believe it. After all that had happened, he was trying to chat me up again! I really didn’t have the stomach for all that. “Rob, don’t flatter yourself. You know perfectly well that I refused you before, and I’m not about to change my mind now!”

“Alex, I think you’re still a bit confused. Maybe when you came round from the coma you forgot a few things. But I’ve not forgotten how much we fancy each other. How about letting me give you a refresher course?” He ran the fingers of his free hand through his beautifully cut blond hair, giving me the full benefit of his smouldering eyes: eyes that flashed with confidence.

I quickly stepped to one side as he tried to lean in towards me and he fell slightly forwards, a look of surprise on his face. “What do you think you’re playing at?” I raised my voice even further. “I told you before, I have no intention of going out with you. Not now, not ever. Understand? I’m amazed that Ashley hasn’t seen through you yet. It can only be a matter of time.” Luckily the music was still loud, so although I was shouting at him, no one else seemed to have noticed.

Rob stood there smiling at me, in an almost creepy way. “Hey, don’t panic. It’s cool. All I’m saying is that we can still be friends.” As he said it his eyes dropped to my hands and then to the amulet. His eyes flicked back to my face for a second, and then
his tone changed. “Is that the bracelet that Grace gave back to you in the hospital? The one you found in the river?”

I automatically folded my arms again so that the amulet was protected. “Who told you that?”

“Someone mentioned it when you were recovering. It’s very unusual… Can I see it?”

I felt my eyes narrow. Something felt very wrong about this conversation. “Actually, Rob, no you can’t. And we are not going to be friends either. Do you really think this is the best way to treat Ashley?”

“Oh, she’ll get over it,” he said in his more usual swaggering way, then swiftly became conciliatory again. “Honestly, Alex, I know we had a bit of a false start, but we could put that all behind us and start again.” He reached towards me as he spoke. As his hand reached my arm I saw his eyes flick down to the amulet and a little yellow light popped on above his head. I snatched my hands back behind me. I couldn’t put my finger on why, but I knew that I didn’t want Rob anywhere near my only link with Callum.

“Come on,” he wheedled, pulling my arm out in front of me. He was too strong to resist without making a scene, and was soon holding my wrist firmly, examining the amulet from all angles. The yellow light over his head was getting brighter, but I couldn’t work out why.

I tried to jerk my hand back. “Leave it, Rob. I asked you not to do that!” I looked wildly around for some way to escape, but just as suddenly he let me go, a strange smile on his face.

“Touchy! I only wanted to have a look. Grace told me it was a bit unusual, that’s all.”

The whole thing stank, but I couldn’t understand why he’d
be so interested. “Whatever,” I grunted, as I crossed my arms firmly, making sure the amulet was safely out of sight.

Suddenly the music changed; it was coming towards the end of the evening and the DJ who had taken over from the band was winding things down with a ballad. I didn’t want to be anywhere near Rob when the slow dancing started. I stood up as straight as I could. “Are we done? Good, go back to Ashley, Rob, and stop spreading your sick lies about me.” Before he could respond I turned quickly on my ridiculous heels and moved as purposefully as possible towards the Ladies.

A number of my friends were in there, moaning about how rubbish the boys were being. As usual all the best-laid plans about who was supposed to be dancing with whom at this point had fallen down, largely due to the lack of involvement of the boys in the planning process. The ones who were dancing had picked the wrong girls, and the vast majority were still clustered around the room, watching what was going on.

“Oh, hi Alex,” said Lydia when I appeared. “No one to dance with then? I thought you and Rob might be…?” She left the question dangling.

“Not a chance. After what he did to me I don’t even want to talk to him. He was just a bit difficult to shake off. How about you? I thought that you were going to have a go at Marcus?”

Lydia looked forlorn for a moment. “He’s taken no notice of me all evening. He’s never going to ask me to dance.”

“Well, he’s going to have a hard job when you’re in here,” I pointed out. “When I came in he seemed to be scanning the room. Maybe he was looking for you? You could always surprise him by asking him to dance, you know.”

“Do you think I should? Really?”

“What have you got to lose? He’s a bloke. They never refuse to dance, not when it’s the slow ones.”

“Maybe I will!” she announced with surprising vigour, and marched out of the room. I smiled to myself, and then couldn’t help looking in the mirror, just in case. But Callum wasn’t there. I suppose it was late, so I wasn’t expecting him, but his absence always left me feeling just a little empty.

After washing my hands and checking my make-up as slowly as possible I wandered back to the hall. The last dance was just finishing. Grace and Jack were entwined, as I expected, so I looked around to see what other gossip was going to be doing the rounds on Monday morning. Through the flickering cloud of little yellow lights, which only I could see, I could make out Lydia and Marcus in a limpet-like embrace, so that strategy had clearly worked. As the lights came up and the music faded others emerged blinking from the arms of their partners. As ever, some looked smug and didn’t let go, but some, if not actually leaping away from each other, looked vaguely embarrassed.

Grace and Jack sauntered towards me. “Hi, Alex, had fun?” Jack asked, ruffling my hair, which made Grace shriek in horror. “You girls wait here for a minute and I’ll walk you to the car.” He wandered off in the direction of the Gents. Grace and I started on the usual hunt for the bags and various bits and pieces we had distributed round the room during the evening. We ended up behind the bar, looking through a pile of jumpers that had been dumped in a corner.

“What were you and the gorgeous Rob talking about earlier?” asked Grace, her eyes twinkling mischievously. “Are you guys friends again now?”

“You must be kidding; he’s such a loser. I can’t believe he’s
treating Ashley so badly. And anyway, after what he did, trying to come between us over Jack and letting people think I was suicidal because of him, I don’t want to be anywhere near the creep!”

“He couldn’t tempt you away from Callum then?”

“Absolutely not! Callum is a decent guy with morals, unlike slimeball Rob Underwood.”

“It’s
such
a shame Callum’s not here. I’d really like to meet him.”

“Callum, eh? I’d like to meet him too.” The unexpected voice made us both jump. Rob was standing in the doorway, looking very smug. “Secret boyfriend, is he?”

“He’s hardly a secret, just none of your business,” I retorted. “We were actually having a private conversation, if you don’t mind.”

“It wasn’t that private. I was just standing here, keeping myself to myself. You mentioned Callum!”

“But not to you.” I turned my back on him. “Grace, have you got everything? I can see Jack waiting for us,” I added pointedly.

Rob whipped around to look for Jack, clearly still nervous about what he might do. Grace and I exchanged a conspiratorial glance. “Oh, good,” said Grace, winking at me. “I think he wanted a word with you, Rob.”