Chapter 81

It took a long time to tell Leslie the story the next day. Andrew was upset, at himself more than the situation, and she listened and consoled him. She told him that things would not seem as bleak over time and that the passage of time would dull the pain as well as put things in perspective. Her comments other than that she kept to herself, saying she would talk about it more when he was calmer.

At school on Monday Suzanne picked up on his down mood, so Andrew explained that he wouldn’t be seeing Allison anymore. She accepted that without comment although Andrew guessed that was not the end of the matter with her. The school had a full week of classes in the penultimate week and it kept his mind occupied by staying busy. Andrew wanted to try and get the final module of the 9^th course of his computer science degree finished that week. He was going to be away at university visits the following week and then right back down south in Kent the week after at the Sappers course in Chatham. He worked hard every night that week getting the program finished so he could send the disk off with his final coursework. Friday morning at 12.30am it was done and Andrew fell into bed, tired but pleased.

He skipped both his morning run and swim and still barely made it to school on time. After getting a mild telling off from Suzanne for missing the swim, he explained on the walk up to Assembly that he had worked into the night to get the last piece of coursework complete.

“There are not enough hours in the day for you to do everything. I was more surprised than anything that you weren’t there, you are nothing if not a creature of routine.”

Andrew snorted at this. That could go on his tombstone.

“Remember I won’t be here Monday or Tuesday either. I am in London on Monday and Cambridge on Tuesday.”

She nodded.

“I’ll cope for two days Andrew!”

“I know you will. Sorry, I am just a bit wiped this morning.”

The day dragged as he fought yawn after yawn. This was the last Friday of school, the term would end the following Thursday so the final parade of the CCF year was more formal with announcements, farewells and promotions as well as the more mundane logistical issues for the camp at Barry Budden. Peter Thompson, Andrew’s good friend, was promoted to sergeant and made the senior cadet of the Army section of the CCF. He was not the overall senior cadet that was the Navy guy. Andrew was promoted to sergeant as well and would lead one of the two Army sections of the platoon. Pete would lead the other one and be in overall command. Personally, Andrew was pleased at this arrangement, he got some responsibility but Pete got the prestige of leading the group. The farewells included their friend Don who would finish school the following Thursday. He was going to Glasgow University to study History in the autumn. Pete and Andrew would miss him, Pete more than Andrew in all likelihood.

After the parade was dismissed and he had said his goodbyes to Don Andrew headed off to the Commonwealth. There would be some fun at the camp for the guys leaving the platoon but as he was missing that he said farewell to Don that Friday. Pete and Andrew had taken their friendship outside of school by going to gigs but Don and Andrew had not. He had been a good friend in both class and the CCF but they knew little about the other. The chances of them seeing each other after the following Thursday were going to be limited.

Andrew thought about the nature of friendship on his walk over to the Pool. Don was a friend but he was a limited friend. Andrew idly mused about how many friends you could have, and if there a natural limit where it is not really friendship but more of an acquaintance? Leslie, Julian and Suzanne were his closest friends and until this last week Allison had been not far behind. Pete was the guy he was closest to in school now that Julian had left. As Andrew walked he thought about people in his life who could be counted as friends. It was an odd group. Brian Campbell was a mentor and father figure to him but also a friend; whereas Julian’s dad was part of the business’ brain trust. He was more friendly with Mhairi than with Creighton but they were both more than acquaintances. Although Harry Strachan was an austere and remote man, Andrew knew he could talk to him about issues if needed. Dave and Gord at the Food Bank on the other hand fell into the acquaintance category.

What about ex-girlfriends? That was too narrowly defined. Other than Hannah for six weeks he had never had a girlfriend. The woman who he had gone out with was broader and more inclusive. Both he and Suzanne had lost touch with Paula since she left two years previously. Suzanne and she had exchanged Christmas cards but there had been nothing between them in six months, it was even longer with Andrew.

Andrew never had been able to get in touch with Kenzie and since being told of her pregnancy had heard nothing. He had no idea if she had the baby, whether she was married, anything. That had been the ultimate physical relationship. Mareikura and him, on the other hand, still maintained a steady if irregular correspondence. They put notes into birthday and Christmas cards and normally there was one long letter during the year as well, sometimes two.

Moira had dropped him like two day old fish. Andrew was surprised to realise that he had a better relationship with her father than he ever had with her. Moira got what she wanted out of the relationship, she passed her Maths exam. Everything else was a pleasant diversion. He doubted he would ever hear from her again. And that was okay, as Moira had provided an outlet for his teenage horniness. Tanvi and Katie were graduating with Allison the following week. He still did not think of them separately. All year they had been more than cordial but less than friends. Andrew didn’t know what to call that, superficial friendliness maybe. Everyone had moved on and nobody bad mouthed anyone.

Alessandra was so long ago that they had managed to outgrow being uncomfortable and become friendlier again that year. He was still too Scandinavian Protestant for her but they chatted most days in, or between, classes. Hannah was better as a friend than as a girlfriend and they had parted as friends and stayed as friends. She was going to be deputy head girl the following year and was pleased with the recognition. That left the four from the current year.

Kate and Andrew had done nothing other than kiss and like Hannah were better as friends than as anything more. After the exams their nights out had stopped without discussion or comment. They moved on and stayed good friends. June was an enigma, as she was the most self-centred woman he ever went out with. But she was a good laugh, could becoming smoulderingly sexy faster than he could believe possible and was enthusiastically helping him at Fran and Nikki’s commitment ceremony. Andrew’s photography was getting better as a result of the time they spent together where she was showing him different poses, and how some positions looked better than others. And at the same time June herself was posing ever more provocatively. He and Allison were a recent and painful wound, too intense right now to be friends. Even if they never got back together he hoped that there was a trust and a friendship in the relationship and that one day they could be at least friends.

And that just left Suzanne. One of the trio of close friends Andrew had. Very different than him in a lot of ways but the perfect foil for him at school. The person Andrew saw and talked to the most in his life, more even than his parents. Friend, girlfriend, kept apart, friend, classmate and friend, classmate and closer friend, girlfriend, lover. The roll call of their three years was long and varied. Without her school would not be the same. Even one term of swimming had bought them closer. They knew the day was coming when their paths would diverge, but the roots of their friendship were strong.

So there were all the young women who Andrew had gone out with. But there was one person who Andrew saw regularly but who he didn’t think of the same way. He and Maggie Fife still met, every month or so and theirs was another friendship that had deepened and grown. It was an hour after work and school, it wasn’t like they were constantly in each other’s lives. Perhaps the most important thing that Maggie taught him was to grow up about woman’s bodies. And she had been doing it for nearly five years. Her attitude of ‘it’s just a pair of tits, relax’ was hugely important.

Now Andrew knew he was an odd teenager, there was no point in denying that. He had a life so regimented it felt like it was run to a timetable, not just at school but all the time. He didn’t ‘hang out’, he knew nothing about the latest and greatest. Well anything, other than computers and a bit about photography. He also didn’t smoke or drink. And most of all he wasn’t a bragger. Some of the rugby guys might have been laid more than him but there was nobody else close. But in the walks between class and on prefect duty in the playground Andrew heard the snivelling drivel of teenage boys talking about sex. Constantly. Andrew was not some kind of monk, he had a surfeit of hormones just like everyone else. But the epic exaggeration of the drivel about sex made him unsure whether to laugh in their faces or shake his head in despair. The idea of talking to a woman discussing posing naked for him? There were so many lessons from the memorable afternoon on the ward with Leslie and Faith and at different times Andrew thought of different points as the most important. But not bragging was clearly the most important one.

Andrew had given Maggie some money and encouraged her to buy some tight fitting clothes, and lots of lingerie and stockings. He had then photographed her in, and out, of those clothes. And six weeks later had sat and gone through the photos with her, selecting the ones they both thought were the best. As the school year drew to a close they were talking about the next shoot. What had started as an expectation of shoots every two months had grown to three and was now every six months. As to what Andrew felt for Maggie, well that was all over the place, completely complicated by her two personas. It was bad enough trying to figure out his feelings for Maggie but the impact of Monica on everything just made it worse. Maggie was a flirty exhibitionist who liked posing naked. But she hid that side of her behind Monica the model. Which to a freshly turned 17 year old was confusing as hell. And yet when it came down to it, this most mismatched of couples got on. At a certain point Andrew just had to accept his good fortune.

There was one person who Andrew had not accounted for in his thoughts on the list of women he had gone out with, and guess who he ran into that Friday night? The future Princess herself. Andrew never saw her when he was swimming, he was distracted by his thoughts on the last couple of weeks and how he had spoiled everything with Allison. He regretted how intense he had been with her and knew that he carried the bulk of the blame. So he was not paying attention to his surroundings, just swimming away. After a tiring swim Andrew showered and changed as usual and then headed for home. When he came through the front door he was confronted with Arabella being hassled by three young Neds. Typical minor sex pests who constantly make women’s lives uncomfortable and generally are without worth in society. They were all late teens, early twenties and they were plainly harassing Arabella, walking alongside her, crowding her. With his heart racing Andrew walked swiftly up to Arabella and pushing one of the Neds out the way asked her.