Avalon (14 page)

“Really close.” I lifted my eyebrows.

“We can come back up as soon as we see what he wants.”

I nodded.

Ryan stood at the dining table with a card in his hand and then presented it to Leo. “This is for you, for your birthday. It’s from me.”

Leo took the card, “You shouldn’t have. You didn’t need to give it to me now either. You could have given it to me tomorrow.”

“Just open it,” Ryan said.

Leo opened the envelope. It contained dinner reservations and movie tickets for two people for tonight. Leo held the restaurant voucher and movie tickets in his fingers and showed me. “Thanks, Ryan. It’s a great gift.”

“I bought them for this evening as you won’t be able to use them tomorrow because I’ll be taking you back to school in the early evening.”

“It really is a great gift, thank you,” Leo said, giving Ryan a man hug.

“So you and Holly ought to get ready to go.”

“We will,” Leo said and he ran his hand down my back and patted my bum playfully. “Come on, Holly, we better get ready.”

I agreed and ran upstairs. “How much time do we have?” I asked, hoping we could finish what we had started.

“We have no spare time. I think we are going to have to start getting ready now. Our reservation is at six and the movie starts at nine.”

I looked at my watch, four thirty in the afternoon. Where had the time gone?

We both showered; had I known we were going out for dinner, I might have been able to bring a better outfit. I did the best I could with what I had in my bag, I wore pair of high black heels which I paired with my skinny black jeans, black camisole and a fitted tailored black jacket. All in black. After much deliberation, I’m glad I decided to bring my heels, without them this whole outfit would fall apart.

I brushed my hair and left it out to hang long down my back then put a touch of mascara on my eyes and applied a tiny bit of lipgloss. A brief look in the full length mirror in the spare room revealed how grown up I looked, I could easily pass for a woman in her twenties. I paced the room in my heels as if to attempt to break them in. I hoped my feet wouldn’t suffer as the evening went on.

I left my room and knocked on Leo’s door and peered around the door. “It’s me.”

He took my hand and pulled me in, “Wow, you look.... sensational.”

I walked down the stairs holding onto the banister to help steady myself in the heels I was wearing, with Leo right behind me.

Ryan was ready and waiting to take the two of us into town. “Right, I’ll drop you both into town, and then you can catch a taxi home. You know where the taxi rank is?” Ryan referred rather than questioned.

“Yes,” Leo said walking towards the Range Rover in the garage.

“Call me if there’s a problem and I’ll pick you up.”

“Will do.”

We were in town in five minutes; the traffic lights stayed green all the way. Leo got out and opened my door and waited for me.

“You are always doing nice things for me, like opening the door.”

Leo nodded, “That’s because I want to.”

“I like it, it makes me feel special.”

“And that’s how I want you to feel, always,” he said taking my hand.

There he goes again, being so confident in his words. He always knew the right thing to say to me and I loved him for it. In fact there was nothing about Leo I could fault, nothing.

We walked a short distance to the restaurant, a small Greek taverna, and sat down at our reserved table by the window. The room’s ambience was perfect, dark brown walls with dimmed down lighters and candles, and soft easy listening jazz music played in the background making a romantic setting. The waiter handed each of us a menu and left us for a few minutes so we could read it. Leo and I ordered two cokes and a mezze to share.

We looked outside the window and noticed an elderly couple walking towards the restaurant. They were holding hands and there was something special about them that caught our attention.

“That will be us, one day,” Leo said.

I smiled. It was hard to believe I would one day grow to be old but when I did, I wanted to be just like the couple approaching the restaurant.

“What a nice gift from Ryan,” I commented.

“Yeah it is. Ryan’s a good guy.”

“I like him,” I complimented.

“So when will I meet Sara and Stuart?”

“Soon.” I lifted my eyebrows. “Sara will probably want me to herself next weekend, she likes to catch up on all my news and she’s already hinted on the two of us spending some girlie time together. That means we will probably both get manicures and pedicures, and go out for lunch. The weekend after that both you and I will need to study for our exams and then it’s term break. You could come over in the school holidays if you’re not going to spend all your time in the Isle of Wight.”

“It will have to be after the holidays, I think I’ll be away for most of it, if not all.”

“OK, so shall we say the first weekend after we return back to school?”

“That should work.”

“Do you think we are peculiar because we talk about being together forever? I mean you’re turning seventeen tomorrow and I’ll be seventeen in a couple of weeks?”

“Yes it’s kind of weird. But if you know what you want, why wait, right?”

“Right.”

“Bon Appetite,” the waiter said bowing, having struggled to find space for our food on the small table.

“Thank you,” Leo said.

“It looks delicious.” I finished as the waiter left us to eat.

“We can both serve up at the same time. There’s so much food here, I don’t know if we can get through it all,” I said as I began to plate up. “You know, Leo, you are such a gentlemen, you really are. I have never met anyone as polite as you.”

“I was brought up like that.”

“Well your parents did a fine job.”

“I’ll tell them when I see them.”

I couldn’t get any more food on my plate, I placed it back down in front of me. “Your turn.”

Leo put some food on his plate and we began to eat discussing the taste of the food as we worked out what we did and didn’t like. I quite liked the taste of the dolmades; grape leaf parcels stuffed with rice, pine nuts, herbs and seasoning; with savoury warmth and a sourness at the same time, an unusual taste sensation for me.

We finished up and Leo took care of the bill with the voucher Ryan had given him and then we walked through town to the cinema. I asked Leo to walk a little slower than our normal speed as I had not yet broken in my heels, but I was managing to walk in them quite well. Taking our seats in the theatre, Leo put my legs up on his knees, took off my shoes and massaged my heels.

“That should make your feet feel better,” he whispered.

Someone in the cinema made a hush noise, I don’t think they directed it at us, but nonetheless we remained silent for most of the movie. Towards the second half of the film I placed my legs in front of me on the floor and put my hand on the top of Leo’s thigh and rested it there, he did the same to me. Sometimes I would move my hand up and down his leg, as if trying to find a comfortable place to rest it. When I did this Leo would glance over at me, once he leaned into my ear and tucked my hair behind my ear so he could whisper, “If you do that one more time, I am going to have to take you outside and have my way.”

“Well, why don’t you then?” I suggested.

Leo stood up and pulled me along behind him. We walked down the row of seats apologising to everyone as we did so, until we made it outside. There was not a soul to be seen in the cinema corridors and Leo used the opportunity to pull me towards him using my belt. My hips slammed into his lower body, my chest met his, he took one hand and looked at my face for a brief moment and kissed me purposefully, prizing my mouth open, running his fingers through my hair, oh my if we weren’t in a cinema corridor..... my mind wondered, I couldn’t wait to get back to the house.

Eager to get home, we made our way outside. The night sky was dark and I was cold in only my fitted jacket. Leo took his jacket off and put it around my shoulders and rubbed my arms. “Is that better?”

“If I’m wearing this, you will be cold,” I said trying to take it off and give it back to him.

He held one hand up. “I’m fine,” he assured me.

Leo put his arm around my shoulders and we walked together towards the taxi rank with resolve, we wanted to get back to the house. We walked past the library, and some shops, and through a car park that led to the taxi rank. As we strolled through the car park, we noticed three men, play fighting with each other. I clocked them briefly but kept on walking as Leo led the way.

“Hey, arsehole, where do you think you’re going?” one of the guys shouted.

“Just keep walking,” Leo told me.

“Hey, arsehole, I’m talking to you.”

We kept on walking, we didn’t need any trouble. The three guys ran over to us, reasoning that we were easy targets; after all there was three of them and only two of us. They made us stop when they stood directly in front of us. I noticed two black guys and one Caucasian; the Caucasian guy seemed to do most of the talking. The two black guys looked like they might be brothers, one of them decidedly younger than the other, while the Caucasian and the other black man looked to be about the same age, perhaps in their early twenties. All of them wore black jeans, black hoodies and black jackets. The white guy chewed continuously as if he were high on something.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” the white guy spoke directly to Leo.

“Look we don’t want any trouble. We’ll just be on our way all right,” Leo said, pushing us through.

All three of them stood blocking our way forward.

“What do you want?” Leo asked, his fuse shortening.

“We want her.”

Leo looked at me and then back to them. “Well you can’t have her.”

“Who says?”

“I say,” he said confidently.

“You and who’s army?” The white guy laughed and pulled out a knife.

“I wouldn’t try and use that if I were you,” Leo said.

“But you’re not me, are you? So give us the girl, we’ll give her back when we’re done.” The three of them laughed, although I noticed the young black guy didn’t seem too happy with the situation. He was only laughing to follow the others.

“You’re not having her so move out of our way,” Leo said as he unexpectedly released me and pushed one of his hands onto the white guy and took the knife out of his hands with the other. Leo held the knife in his hands. “Now look who’s got the knife?” he said dropping it on the ground. “Now move out of our way.”

The white guy picked up the knife and took a step back, as did the other, “No. We’re not going to let you go away just like that. We weren’t ready before. You won’t get another chance to try that move on me again. Give us the girl.” he said looking at his friends for added support.

“Yeah,” said the older black guy, while the younger one just nodded.

“I will hurt you if I have to,” Leo warned.

“I’ve got the knife,” the white guy said.

“You do, but if you remember I had it a minute ago and I can get it right back, so move out of our way. I won’t ask you again.”

“Whoa... Thinks he’s a bit of a tough boy. We don’t like people who think they are better than us.”

Leo rolled his eyes, was this guy ever going to let up?

The white guy got hold of my hair and pulled it, yanking my head and me with it and took the opportunity to grab me around the neck with one of his arms and held the knife at my throat with the other. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t afraid, I was. This night had started out so well and now look at us. I looked at Leo pleadingly, my eyes sorrowful, sorry that we were in this situation, sorry that this moment could ruin our lives forever.

“Holly, don’t be afraid.” Leo told me. “I will never let anything happen to you.”

“Now don’t be stupid.” Leo said one last time to the guy, but he knew the bargaining, reasoning, negotiating was over. No more games.

Leo used speed and strength as he punched the white guy in the head and simultaneously grabbed the knife out of his hands. The white guy instantly released me due to the blow to his head and realised he had done so, and grabbed my hair again, jerking my head back. I screamed. Leo chopped down once on his arm and smacked him in the mouth. The creep had no choice but to release his grip from my hair.

“Grab her,” he told the other two while holding onto his jaw. The older of the two black guys caught me around the waist. The whole fight was getting messy but at least Leo was winning it.

“Let her go,” Leo shouted, “NOW.”

“You broke my jaw, you fucking broke my jaw!” the white guy said shocked.

“You’re lucky that’s all I broke. Now let her go, right now,” he demanded.

“No,” the black guy said getting his free arm around my throat like the white guy had done before. The white guy still lay on the ground in pain barking out instructions.

The black guy started to laugh as he humped me through his jeans. “Oh this is going to be good,” he said taking a whiff of my hair.