Chapter 18

I got Kathy safely back home, and said a long goodnight to her, mainly reassuring her that she had neither said nor done anything wrong, but I didn’t want to feel that I was pushing her further than she wanted to go. I stressed the wanted, rather than was willing, and arranged to see her at school on Monday morning. We parted with a long and sweet kiss.

I said hello to the family when I arrived home myself, then went upstairs to do at least some of my weekend homework. The maths was easy, what was supposed to be a half hour of work took me just ten minutes. The music, however, stumped me. Harmonising a melody in four parts, wasn’t easy for me, and I was at one point on my feet ready to take it next door to get Cal to help me, before I realised that I could no longer do that. After an hour I decided to abandon it until Sunday and went downstairs to get myself a drink to take to bed with me. It wasn’t until I got undressed and climbed into bed that I realised how awfully weary I was, and I was asleep as soon as I lay down.

I woke to being gently shaken by my shoulder.

“Come on sleepy head, it’s nearly ten o’clock,” my sister was saying to me, “you need to get moving.”

“OK, OK, I’m awake,” I protested, “just give me a minute.”

“A minute?” she answered, “We’ve been calling you for the past hour.”

I groaned and then realised, I’d climbed into bed last night without putting my usual sleep shorts on.

“Er, Pip,” I said, “you need to leave, I’m sort of, well, naked under here.”

“Oh,” she exclaimed, blushing, “OK, but get up all right?”

“Yes boss,” I replied, with a smile.

She left, and I got out of bed, pulled on my bathrobe and took my towels through to the bathroom.

Ten minutes later, bathed, dried and dressed, I walked into the living room.

“Afternoon, sleepy,” Mum greeted me.

“Morning,” I replied, “sorry I was just so tired last night. Did I miss anything?”

“Nothing you needed to not miss,” she replied.

“Ok, could one of you run me into town and back?” I asked.

“Why?”

“I want to get some leads for my TV, Playstation and stereo, I thought I’d get them from Argos.”

“Well, I can’t take you, I have to get Sunday dinner ready, you’ll have to ask your dad.” I went looking for him and found him in the study.

“Dad,” I asked, a note of pleading in my voice, “Can you run me to Argos and back?”

“Yes, I can,” he replied, I am capable of doing that Would you like me to?”

“Yes please,” I replied, “I want to get leads for the stuff in my room.”

“And you’re paying for it yourself?”

“Yes.”

“What about the one in the living room?”

“Don’t need one, we won’t be connecting that to a PlayStation or a sound system.”

“OK then, give me five minutes.”

Fifteen minutes later we parked in front of the Argos shop and went in to look at what they had in their catalogue.

We put the bag of leads and the extra PS controllers I’d decided to buy into the back of my dad’s Mondeo Estate and set off for home. I disappeared upstairs to install everything until Cal and her Mum arrived.

Just after one our guests arrived. I’d been told, categorically, that I was not to disappear while Aunt Mary and Cal were here, and that I wasn’t to go back up to my bedroom. The instruction was that I had to stay and be pleasant. I decided I would be, if Cal spoke to me I’d answer her politely, I’d be gracious to her, but I wasn’t going to go out of my way to do it. She’d hurt me, and I didn’t trust her. I wasn’t going to let her get back under my skin, or into my heart. Not until she could prove that I could trust her. As I’d always done, I greeted her mother with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“Hi aunt Mary,” I said smiling.

Then I turned to Cal.

“Hello Cal,” I greeted her, then sat down. Her face fell, and for a moment I thought she was fighting tears.

We all chatted amiably through dinner, although Cal and I never directly addressed each other, I was surprised, but probably shouldn’t have been when Mum nominated me, Cal and Alison to clear up and load the dishwasher. Alison, bless her, stood at the sink and did all the stuff that needed hand washing Then I dried, while Cal loaded the machine. When we finished I got us three diet cokes from the fridge, and Alison and I set off for the living room. Cal hung back.

Alison went through first, then I stopped and waited for Cal to go through.

“David,” she said, a little hesitantly, “could we go for a walk or something and talk?”

“Talk about what Cal?” I asked.

“Us,” she replied, “no, about me. About what I did, and how it was the biggest mistake of my life. And about how I can make amends and get you to at least be my friend again, even if you can’t love me.”

“Ok,” I said, “do you want to get your jacket?”

“No, it’s warm out,” she replied, “I’m Ok like this.”

‘This’ was a yellow and white floral print cotton dress, which nicely accentuated her developing figure, and went surprisingly well with her long red hair.

“Right then, I’ll let the parents know we’re going out,” I told her.

Her eyes brightened when she heard the words going out.

I slipped into the living room, told everybody we were slipping out for a while, then escorted Cal through the back door. We walked side by side to the bottom of the street where there was a small park and unusually for a warm September Sunday afternoon, it was empty. We sat, side by side on two of the swings, ignoring the sign that said they were for children under fourteen only.

“So,” I began, “you wanted to talk.”

“David, I don’t know how to convince you of how truly sorry I am for what I did in Germany. I know it’s just about unforgivable,” she began.

“No it’s not I’ve already forgiven you for what you did. What I find difficult to get over is the fact that you lied to me. I’ve never lied to you Cal, ever. I’ve never lied to anyone since I was about six. And even then it was just to avoid getting into trouble. As soon as I learned that I didn’t get into as much trouble by admitting things as I did by denying them and then being caught out, I started owning up.”

“But I didn’t lie to you,” she complained, “admittedly I didn’t tell you about it, but I didn’t lie.”

“You did, by omission,” I replied flatly, “didn’t we promise openness and honesty?”

“Yes,” she muttered, staring at her feet.

“Have I been open and honest with you?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“And have you been open and honest with me?”

“I suppose not,” she said.

“Suppose not?”

“All right,” she spat, “no. Happy now?”

“No Cal, I’m not.”

“You’re not?” she asked, a note of surprise in her voice, “why?”

“Because I haven’t got my Cal anymore,” I said, softly.

“But I’m here,” she objected.

“Yes,” I agreed, “but you’re not my Cal anymore, you’re just Cal.”

“And you’re going out with Kathy aren’t you?” she asked.

“We’re friends, but nothing more than that. She wants to date, but her Dad will only allow her to go out with me.”

“Why you?” she asked, “in particular I mean?”

“He knows me, and knows I wouldn’t hurt her, and I’m Mike’s best friend.”

“You would never hurt anybody intentionally David,” she said, rubbing my arm.

“Oh I could,” I replied, “believe me, that night in Munich I was praying for your new boyfriend to say something so I could hurt him.”

“Oh well, yes, you are an absolute terror on the rugby pitch. Talking of which you’re not playing this year are you?”

“No,” I replied.

“Why not?”

“Because the way I’m feeling right now, I might really injure someone, and I don’t want to do that.”

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

“Don’t be,” I answered, “it’s all partly my fault. If I hadn’t decided to be impetuous and come to Munich, we wouldn’t be here now would we?”

“David, no,” none of it was your fault. You coming to Munich was so romantic. It’s just a pity that I royally fucked it up.”

She blushed bright pink at her dropping of the f bomb.

“Well that’s a lesson I’ve learned for the future. No more romantic gestures.”

“No David, you’d be denying your own nature. Look, you talked about honesty. I want to tell you the whole story of Munich, but not here, not like this. Can we get together in the week and I’ll tell you everything.”

“Everything?” I queried, “do I really want to know everything?”

I paused for a moment, then went on.

“All right then, when? One evening?”

“That would be nice,” she said.

“What about your singing lessons?”

“I’m not having them,” she answered, “Mum won’t pay for them any more.”

“Would it help if I talked to her?”

“You’d do that?”

“Yes, of course. Cal you haven’t done anything to hurt your mum, so I can see no reason why she should punish you for it.”

“David I,” she stopped, tears welling, “I can’t think what to say, except I really am truly sorry. I know it’s no good me saying I would never ever do that again, but please, believe me, I wouldn’t.”

“I believe you mean that Cal. I only doubt that you can keep to it. But, we’d better get back, before they think we’ve eloped. We’ll talk later in the week, and in the meantime, I’ll talk to your Mum about singing lessons.”

“Thank you David,” she said, taking my hand and squeezing it.

We walked back in silence, close but not touching. As we reached the front door, she leaned in and kissed me softly on the cheek.

“Thank you,” she breathed.