Avalon (11 page)

“Sara, would you mind if I went to Emily’s this weekend,” I asked thinking Sara wouldn’t mind.

“Holly, we haven’t seen you all week. We want to hear about everything you’re doing, this house isn’t the same without you. Please can’t you go to Emily’s another time? I really miss you.”

I thought about Leo and, even though I was desperate to spend a whole weekend with him, I knew I owed it to Sara and Stuart to go home this weekend. “OK, Sara. I’ll tell Emily it will have to be another weekend.”

“Thanks, Holly. I’m being a bit selfish, but we can’t wait to see you.”

I hung up my mobile phone and walked to the dining room where I had arranged to meet Leo for dinner. On my way, I saw Henry. We hadn’t spoken since I broke up with him.

“Holly?” he called out unexpectedly.

I looked around and walked over to him, to see what he wanted. Was he going to be nice? “Henry, hi.”

“Holly, I just wanted you to know you should be careful. That creep, Leo, can’t be trusted.”

“Thanks for the heads up,” I said dismissively.

“I’ll be here when he breaks your heart,” he finished.

I walked off towards the dining hall and mumbled, “He won’t.”

Leo was waiting for me outside the dining hall. I pushed up sideways next to him and took his hand. I had decided at this moment to walk in holding Leo’s hand while my other hand crossed my body and held tight onto his shaped arm, aware that this would be the first time people had seen us affectionate with each other in public. Leo didn’t mind, he had this way about him that let me know it was OK for me to touch anything I wanted, whenever I wanted. As always, Leo was the perfect gentleman; he opened the door for me to enter just before him. I continued to hold onto him, just because I wanted to; I was ready for questions from our peers.

I sat down and Leo took a place across from me. “I spoke to Sara tonight and mentioned going to Emily’s over the weekend. She was so upset by the idea and asked me to reconsider for her sake. So I gave in but she promised me I could go another weekend.”

“That’s fine, I just want to see you all the time. I’m being selfish too.”

“And I want to be with you too, but I’ll have to go home this weekend.”

“I’ll go home too, then.”

I stayed in my room that evening, because a casual boarder was boarding in with Leo and using the spare bed in his room. After my shower, Emily and I did a little catching up. She wanted to know all my juicy gossip, but I couldn’t tell her I had snuck out, or that I was head over heels in love with Leo. She would think it so out of character, especially considering I had said I liked him the other day, and now that like had turned into love in such a short space of time.

The following day, I got ready quickly and walked to the dining room for breakfast, excited to see Leo. My mind was on him all the time, I felt wild.... crazy and I liked it. I was for once letting go. I could see him waiting outside the dining hall again.

“Are you waiting for me?”

“Yes. I missed you last night.”

“I missed you too.” I took his hand and we walked inside.

We ate and then each of us went back to our dorms to collect a few things and met up in the quad while we waited for the bell to go. Leo had his arm around me casually as we talked and hung out chatting to Emily while she waited for Hugh.

“I’ve never seen her so happy,” Emily said to Leo.

He looked down at me and kissed my head as I smiled right into his eyes. “Your hair smells gorgeous,” he told me.

I put my arm around his waist and held on tight. “Thanks.”

The bell went. “Come on, gorgeous girl,” he said leading the way to class.

I had learnt to avoid looks from Henry who in turn had avoided looking at us, as if that might give us some satisfaction, but it wasn’t like that at all. I suppose people can really change when it comes to matters of the heart. I didn’t concern myself with thoughts of Leo breaking my heart. Somehow I knew Leo was there to stay. Leo had contradicted all my ideas and beliefs on love and finally I felt I belonged with someone.

* * * * *

Sara collected me on Saturday as she had said she would. I signed out with our dorm matron and met Sara and Stuart in the car park. Sara got out of the car as soon as she saw me and when I reached her she gave me a tight embrace.

“So how was it? Your first week boarding?”

I threw my school bag in the boot of the car and climbed into the back seat of the BMW estate. “It was great. I really enjoyed it.”

“You look happy,” Stuart commented. “Doesn’t she look happy?” he asked Sara.

Sara looked around at me again. “Yes, she looks very happy. I’m glad you’ve had a good week.”

Stuart started the car and began the drive back to the house. “How was your week?”

“The same, but without you. We’ve really missed you,” Sara reiterated. “I’m sorry you couldn’t go to Emily’s this weekend. I won’t stop you going another weekend.”

“I know.”

At home Sara fussed over me. When she said she had missed me, she really meant it. She didn’t want me to go anywhere and she wanted to do everything I wanted to do. Eventually Sara and I decided to take a walk into town and I plucked up the courage to tell her about Leo.

“I broke up with Henry.”

“Oh did you? He was such a lovely boy. What happened?”

“I didn’t want to go out with him anymore, that’s all.”

“Well that’s OK, darling. If you don’t want to go out with him, then you shouldn’t.”

“I’m going out with someone else.” I gave a wide grin.

“Already? Holly Stephens, I cannot believe it. Tell me everything.” She shoved me playfully.

“I just met this new guy at school. We get on really well and I’m really into him.”

“Into him as if he were your chosen one?” Sara dared utter the words.

“I hate the words ‘chosen one’,” I said.

“Well, you know what I mean.”

“I feel amazing when I am with him, if that’s what you mean.”

“Yes,” she nodded, “It’s more than that though, it’s as if from the beginning there’s a connection. You just know it. Like a bright light in your face, you know about it.”

“I don’t know about a light in my face, but I certainly felt a connection.”

“And does he like you?” she asked fishing for more information.

“Yes, it’s reciprocal.” I foolishly shoved back at Sara.

“Well, then... Do I need to have a little birds and bees talk with you?”

“No, you don’t have to talk to me about sex. I learnt about that in year seven.”

“Holly, you must be careful, responsible, you know...”

I put my hand up. “Sara I have just started going out with him,” I said.

“OK, well, I need you to know that if you have any questions I am here for you.”

“I know.”

I told Sara about my week, about what we were learning and what it was like to share a room with Emily. Our friendship was still strong, but our relationship had changed the moment she started getting serious about Hugh. I had never questioned her or got annoyed about her spending more time with Hugh than she did with me, instead I ‘
got it’
and accepted that I was not going to be the most important person in her life. I think because I was so easy going about her relationship with Hugh, she was also being that way with Leo.

Sara had made a beautiful dinner, gnocchi with her own personal take on my mum’s special sauce. It was delicious, the best meal I had eaten in ages, and I told her so. I stayed up and watched television with Sara and Stuart then went to bed late. I lay in my bed thinking about Leo and wondering what he was doing.

The weekend was over in a flash. Sara dropped me off at school on Monday morning and I walked straight to the quad and waited eagerly for Leo. The moment I saw him my pulse raced, I wanted to run up to him and throw my arms around him, but I didn’t because the space was now full of pupils. He walked straight over to me, beaming happily to see me.

“Good morning.” He planted a firm kiss on my lips.

“Hello,” I smiled and tucked a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

“You look amazing.” He bent forward and smelt my hair. “You smell amazing.”

“You say that to me all the time.”

“That’s because it’s true,” he said taking me into his arms.

“I like it when you do that.”

“When I take you into my arms?”

“Yes.”

“Steady on you two,” Mrs Shimper said as she walked past. “It’s a Monday morning.”

The bell went and Leo and I walked to our first class together. I noticed he had already learnt a lot of the topics we were covering this term but I also knew home schooled children were usually more advanced than students who worked in a traditional classroom situation. It wasn’t hard to see why, one on one learning opposed to group learning... well, one on one would always give the better results. However learning is not all about academics, it’s about a rounded education which meant that social contact was just as important as anything else. A lot can be said for being a team player, and having people skills is particularly important in our competitive world.

Our PE lesson today was given in the sports hall. Our teacher had organised a self-defence class with a martial arts expert, a black belt, third dan karate professional. We were paired into groups of two, one boy and one girl where possible, so Leo and I automatically teamed up. The martial arts teacher, a short stocky guy with black hair and a five o’clock bearded shadow, possibly from a Mediterranean background, asked us to listen and watch him and then perform the moves on our partners. I watched the instructor and made a mental note of the defence moves I had to make on Leo. It looked easy enough. The purpose of the exercise was for the victim to take down the attacker, or at least get away from them. Leo and I stood on a mat and Leo held me from behind with one of his arms around my neck and the his other arm around my body, pinning my arms, as instructed.

“Are you all right? I’m not hurting you I hope?”

“No you’re not hurting me,” I said. “But I am finding it hard to concentrate when you’re touching me.”

“Oh, you have no idea how much will power I’m using right now, not to sweep you away and have you all to myself,” he whispered softly in my ear.

Our instructor came over to see what we were doing. “OK, let’s see what you’ve got then,” he said to me.

I gently pushed my heel down Leo’s shin then pushed my arms up and back as quick as possible using all my strength.

“OK, not too bad,” he said. “Now let me show you another move.” He gestured for me to move and watch. “What’s your name?” he asked Leo.

“Leo.”

“Right, Leo. I want you to hold me like you were holding onto her. I’m going to show her how to do this move quickly, the one she just did but I want her to follow through with a blow to the nose and punch in the throat. So just hold on to me the same way, but you can hold me tighter than you held her, I’m a lot stronger than her. Now, in three I’ll do it.” He said winking at me, to show me how it was really done. “Watch me then, one, two, three, leg down the shin, arms up... arms up..” He turned his head slightly to look at Leo annoyed, “You can loosen your grip a bit you know.”

“Oh sorry.”

“Right from the top, one, two, three, leg down the shin, arms up, elbows back hard, turn and then punch in the nose and...”

Leo had blocked his punch to the nose, and also the chop to the throat.

“It’s just self-defence, it’s not real. If you want to spar just say the word,” the instructor said.

“I’m just mucking around,” Leo laughed.

“Showing off in front of the girl you mean. He’s not the tough guy you think he is,” the instructor said to me. “There’s always someone better, someone stronger, faster with a punch.”

“Seriously, I was just having a laugh,” Leo reiterated laughing because the instructor was taking it all a bit too seriously.

“Defence is no laughing matter. Class!” he shouted. “Can you gather around me, I have someone who thinks they know it all and I’m going to show him, there is always someone else better out there.”

Leo didn’t flinch, he wasn’t fussed or bothered in the slightest. It made me wonder if the defence guy was going to embarrass himself. I looked around the room and noticed Henry sitting in the front, a prime position to watch Leo get his arse kicked, although I had my suspicions that it was going to be the other way around.

“OK smart guy, come here,” he said to Leo. “I’ll show you properly how it’s done.”

Leo walked over and rolled his eyes.

“So hold me, I’ll use any move I want,” he warned Leo. “Of course it’s for the benefit of the class, so they can see all the different types of defence moves one can use if they were being attacked.”

Leo stood in the same position, arm around the defence guy’s neck and the other arm around his middle, holding his arms down. “Do you want me to loosen my grip a little?” Leo asked slightly cocky.