Chapter 13

Wednesday 29th July

Lauren sat slumped in the lounge watching television. She and Nikki had just had tea, hurriedly again as Nikki had to get back home to help her mother. Lauren thought it was about time they had tea at her place, even if she had to take some food round there herself. Nikki’s mother was an incurably hopeless cook, and Lauren often joked that she should be presented with a certificate titled `Master Tin-Opener’. She wondered what she should do the next day, Thursday. Mike had again gone to stay with Patrik, she didn’t want to start her summer project as that would have spoiled her holiday.

When the phone rang, Lauren hardly heard it above the television. Whenever anyone called for her it was almost always Nikki so she was unprepared as she picked up the phone.

“Hi, what’s up?” she asked

“It’s me, Jim, how are you? I know I promised to call sooner but I’ve had to do so much at home” he said, realising that she was expecting someone else.

“Oh Hi!” shouted Lauren, her heart beating wildly as relief flooded over her with the realisation that Nikki had lost her bet about whether he would call her. “I’m fine, fine!”

“I haven’t seen you for ten days, four hours and twenty-seven minutes, you know” he said.

“Silly!”

“What are you doing tomorrow midday? Am I allowed to take you to the cinema? I’ll bring you back before sundown!” he said. Lauren could hear him smiling. If he had asked her to go to Timbuktu she would have said yes. She was aware of her mother in the kitchen and turned her back so that she didn’t hear.

“Great, what’s on? she asked, thinking about what she had to wear in her wardrobe. She didn’t think that she had anything pretty that was clean.

“Don’t know. We’ll see when we get there. See you then?” he asked, signing off.

“Yeah, tomorrow. Thanks.” replied Lauren as she heard the click. She had wanted to talk longer. She had wanted to talk all night, but she would have to wait for tomorrow.

Lauren felt that she did have a good memory, but at times it seemed that things went in and couldn’t be found again. So when her mother asked where she and this mystery Jim were going, it took a little while to come up with the word `cinema’. Further questioning revealed `midday tomorrow’, but that was it. Lauren didn’t know where he lived, how old he was, which cinema he meant, what they were going to see and most importantly, of course, what she was going to wear. Whether these facts were at some time in her head she didn’t know, or care. When she called Nikki she could remember even less, just that she was seeing him tomorrow and that was it.

Lauren buzzed around the house like a mini-whirlwind, washing, drying and ironing until she went to bed at about ten o’clock. She didn’t sleep until after one o’clock in the morning, not because she spent time running her fingers between her legs while fantasising about Jim, but because she had never been so excited in her life.