Aurelia Rowl - Popping The Cherry

‘Yay!’ Gemma did her clapping thing. ‘Now, on to the deadline.’

‘What? Nobody said anything about a deadline.’

‘Go on, you tell her, Piper, seeing as it was your ingenious idea.’

‘Well,’ she said, her eyes glinting with pride. ‘What better date than your birthday, what with it being Valentine’s Day?’

‘Isn’t it just perfect?’ Gemma was having way too much fun with this.

‘Yeah, great,’ I said flatly.

‘Plus, it gives you loads of time to meet someone you like,’ she added. That much was true at least. ‘And there’s no time like the present, eh?’ she said, waving at somebody who must have just come into the canteen.

‘Huh?’ I turned in my seat and followed her gaze all the way to the guy from her Drama class—Sean something-or-other—who returned her wave and changed course.

With a sinking feeling, I checked the list of candidates. Sure enough, Sean Cole was in at number three. And he was now headed our way. There wasn’t time to fold the shortlist neatly, so I screwed it up in my fist and rammed the damning evidence into my bag. From my hunched position, I watched as a pair of brown suede Vans came to a stop directly behind me.

‘Hey, Gemma,’ said a deep voice with a soft Scottish lilt. ‘Did you want me?’

Caught red-handed, I froze, still collapsed in my chair like a moron. You could always rely on me to make a good first impression—not!

‘Hey, Sean.’ Gemma’s voice sounded muffled from my position beneath the table. ‘I thought it was about time I introduced you to my best friend.’

Say what?

I shot up so fast that I caught the back of my head on the edge of table, hitting it hard enough to make a loud bang. If Sean had any sense he’d back away slowly from the crazy girl before I did anything else stupid. Instead, he hovered, waiting to be formally introduced. Maybe he felt sorry for me, or thought he was being punked. Once my eyes stopped watering, I glared at Gemma, giving her my best evil eye. To her credit, she didn’t bat an eyelid; the drama lessons were clearly working for her.

She didn’t even react when I ‘accidentally’ kicked her under the table as I twisted in my seat to meet cherry-popping candidate number one. Sean was standing so close to my chair, I had to tip my head right back to see him. The weird perspective made him look like a giant. He could probably see straight up my nose, too. Jeez, would my misery never end?

‘Hi, you must be Valentina,’ he said, turning his brown-eyed gaze on me and offering me his hand.

‘Yep, that’s me,’ I said, placing my hand in his. ‘But everybody calls me Lena.’

‘Pleased to meet you, Lena,’ he said, bending from the waist in a bow. Cute and charming, but I felt nothing, no tingles or flutters, not even when Sean lifted my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss onto the backs of my fingers.

‘You too, Sean.’ I could see why he was taking drama. Sean practically oozed charisma, definite actor calibre. In fact, he probably had a whole entourage of swooning groupies already, and judging from the sigh I’d heard behind me, Flick was more than willing to become a fully fledged member. My friends weren’t the only ones capable of playing matchmaker. ‘So tell me, Sean, have you been introduced to Felicity yet?’

‘No, I don’t believe I have.’ Sean followed the direction of my free hand.

The moment his and Flick’s eyes met, I was all but forgotten. Excellent.

‘Sorry to dash off,’ I said, ignoring Gemma’s scowl as I stood and lifted my bag onto my shoulder. ‘I have to get a book from the library before my next class, but it was lovely to meet you, Sean.’

‘You too, Lena,’ he said.

‘Oh, I need to go to the library, too,’ Gemma said, leaping to her feet. Her smile didn’t fool me for a second. ‘We might as well walk together.’

Oh goody!

‘Sure thing,’ I said, struggling to maintain my happy face. ‘Bye, then, see you all later.’

‘Bye,’ came the chorus of voices.

Gemma pounced the moment we were out of earshot. ‘You haven’t really got to go to the library, have you?’

‘Nope.’

‘So what the hell was all that about back there?’

‘All what?’ I said, feigning ignorance. Gemma wasn’t buying it. ‘Look, it’s no big deal. Sean wasn’t my type, that’s all, whereas Flick was just begging to be introduced. Could you not feel the vibe coming off them?’

Gemma slipped into her own thoughts for a moment and then relaxed. ‘Yeah, OK, I’ll give you that one. They did look pretty hot for each other. And all that hand-kissing stuff is right up Flick’s street.’

Phew!

‘Precisely. It was only fair to pay it forward.’

‘So where are you off to in such a hurry?’ Gemma asked.

And there was I, thinking I was off the hook.

‘I’ve got a free period, so I’m off to the baker’s. All of a sudden I could murder a pain-au-chocolat. I couldn’t possibly think why, though, could you?’

‘Uh-oh.’ Gemma came to a standstill and caught hold of my arm to stop me from walking off without her. ‘Lena, are we OK?’ she asked, all the aggression gone from her voice. ‘You’re not mad at me?’

Wow, she seemed proper worried. Scared, maybe.

‘No, we’re cool,’ I said, drawing her into a hug. ‘It’s been a crazy couple of days, what with yesterday, and now this … this mission. I just need some time to process it all.’

She did the single-eyebrow thing, as if she could tell I was holding back. ‘You sure that’s all it is?’

‘ No .’ What I really needed to do was tell her how much I hated Operation: Popping the Cherry, but how could I when it had been her idea? ‘Yeah, I’m sure,’ I said instead.

Gemma still didn’t look convinced. Her lips were thinner than usual, and she wouldn’t stop trying to use her X-ray vision on me. Time to change the subject before I cracked.

‘So can I get you anything while I’m out? I know it’s not a patch on Donovan’s but it still hits the spot.’

She huffed out a sigh. ‘No, thanks, I’ve blown all my calorie allowance already. I don’t know where you put it all.’ Gemma checked her watch, then pulled me into another hug. ‘Right, I’d better get back inside before the bell goes. Talk to you later, yeah?’

‘Will do. Go on, you’d better run,’ I said, shooing her towards the main building. The bell rang right on cue. ‘Bye,’ I called out to her hastily retreating back. She tossed her hand up as a wave and carried on power-walking.

Idiot that I was, I didn’t think to dump my text books before I left college. I envied Gemma’s speed and agility when the walk to the baker’s took longer than usual, thanks to the weight of my bag. My shoulder throbbed and sharp, stabbing twinges kept shooting up my spine in addition to the rapidly worsening tension headache. At least I’d had enough sense to bring my painkillers with me.

I fell onto the shiny silver bistro chair as if it was my new best friend—my long-lost brother even—and the old woman behind the counter shot me a sympathetic smile. She came to the table to take my order, which the staff weren’t supposed to do, so I must have looked as much of a wreck from the outside as I felt on the inside. I winced as I lifted my heavy bag onto my lap. Damned if I could find the stupid pills, though. My bag had turned into Mary Poppins’s carpet bag somewhere on the walk and I spent forever rummaging through the crumbs and hair bobbles. Man, I needed to clean out my bag more often!

OK, so it would have helped if I’d remembered putting them in the zip pocket on the front at the outset, but I figured it out in the end. Triumphant, I tossed the white plastic packet onto the table and nearly knocked the tray out of the woman’s hands.