Chapter 5

Andrew no longer wondered if he was turning into a slut and had started to think that he was already a slut. Here he was on Friday night, hours after deflowering Mary, heading off to spend the night with Ara. He hadn’t bothered telling his parents the truth, he had resorted to the usual excuse of crashing at Julian’s flat.

The relationship with his parents was fraying away, one thread at a time. Five months into the year and he didn’t think he had had a meaningful conversation with either of them. He had downright lied to his father several times in order to get him to sign a document that Mhairi needed from him. What was troubling was that it wasn’t as if he was a moody teenager shutting his parents out. It was as if they had moved on. He understood that Scott took up a lot of time and a lot of their energy. Andrew liked his little brother, not that he had much day to day contact with him. The issues were all with Rowan, just as they seemed to have been his whole life. Andrew had worked hard for coming up on six years and everything he had he had bought himself. Rowan had never had to work, had never been told to pay for her schooling, pay money into the family budget. This preference for Rowan, the way that she got everything she wanted, it was a drip, drip, drip of toxins on Andrew’s psyche.

Andrew knew that this preference, this double standard was at the root of the issue with his parents, especially his father. The demand for money at the start of 5^th year, 20 months earlier, had also opened his eyes and made him much more circumspect with them. Before he contributed his money to CMS he had been a multimillionaire and his parents had no idea. They might not be in the running for parents of the year but he wasn’t going to win son of the year either. And this benign neglect had allowed him an insane amount of freedom over the last 18 months. Other than inviting a woman to spend the night at the house Andrew doubted that they would care about anything. As he had repeatedly thought, they were either the best or worst parents at the school, there was no middle ground.

When he got to the pool that night though Ara was waiting for him in the lobby looking glum.

“What’s wrong? You look sad. Is everything okay?”

“I am fine Andrew, it is just I cannot swim tonight, or do anything else for that matter. My monthly visitor has arrived which I completely forgot about last week.”

He laughed and hugged her.

“I thought something serious was wrong. Is that all?”

Andrew held her tight as he knew she would try and whack him.

“Come on, I went swimming already today, so I can skip the session this evening. Where would you like to have dinner?”

“You seem really okay with this Andrew.”

“Ara, it is one of those things, why stress about it. I will still have fun with you even if we keep our clothes on.”

Andrew finally got her to laugh and she took his arm as they headed back to their cars. He followed her so that she could park her car at the flat and then they set off to a small bistro at the edge of town. Given that Andrew rarely drank and had the car it was nice to go somewhere more discreet and romantic. The conversation was all studying to start but once they got that out of the way then it became more relaxed.

“What did you parents say when you asked them if you could stay out tonight?”

“I didn’t need the lecture about, well with my mother it could have been a lecture about many things. As usual I am crashing at Julian’s flat after we get back from a gig.”

Ara laughed. Andrew carried on.

“Ignoring the issue of me specifically, how would your parents react?”

“Full ostrich I think. Thank goodness for coming to university here. I was still a virgin when I left home and other than the thorough ravishing from you, I have not had much success. I think Mum is afraid of the answer and so knows better than to ask. I presume they assume I have had sex but it is just not mentioned. All very repressed British.”

“It seems to be a topic of much discussion in the paper with the Princes. Charles had to marry a virgin whereas Andrew seems to be much less discriminating. It was only after the fact that I thought about you the person, having to go through that scrutiny. Some fucking gossip rag photographer in my face asking whether Prince Andrew’s fiancé was a good shag.”

Ara squealed but Andrew had backed away from the table and grabbed her hand as she tried to smack him. He kissed the back of the hand and she grudgingly smiled at him.

“It is an odd life. The thing I value above all else is privacy, discretion, anonymity. To live your life in the public eye seems a terrible life. Can you imagine someone like me in the Royal Family? ‘Today the Prince spent the day in the library studying, just as he has for the last 37 days. Tomorrow he will swim and then study some more’. Can you imagine anything worse?”

Ara laughed at him.

“I think for them it is not an option, they have to be out and about meeting people, it is how they repay the country for their life of privilege. A lot of people would love to be in the public eye like that but I see your point. You paint a life for the last three or four years where you have done what you want most of which has been solitary.”

“It is true, when I think about it, but as there are no princesses to marry I don’t have to worry about such flights of fancy. Changing topic, have you made any decisions about the summer? How long are you going to spend in Dirty Water?”

Andrew always did this to her and Ara knew it.

“Grow up you adolescent buffoon, Virginia Water, as you very well know.”

“There is an even more adolescent joke in there somewhere but continue.”

Ara shook her head.

“I think I am going to stay here for at least a week after the finals are over. I will spend a month with Mum and Dad but by the end of July I will be thinking about where to spend the next two months.”

Ara looked at him directly as she said that. Andrew raised an eyebrow in response.

“What about you? What are your plans for later in the summer?”

“I think a large part is going to be spending time with my friends before I go to Cambridge. My three closest friends are all staying in Scotland, either here or in Glasgow. I am the one flying the nest and it will be really hard. I have seen Leslie pretty well every week for more than four years, Julian every week for three and half years and I have seen Suzanne every school day morning for the last three years. In some ways she is the one I am going to miss the most because she is part of the daily routine, especially now that she swims with me in the morning. I crave and need routine and have spent most of the last four years organising my life so that it is routine and comfortable. Then I just up and throw it all away. The first week at Trinity I am going to be so disoriented it will be silly.”

Ara looked sad and then asked in a low voice.

“Do you love her? Suzanne, I mean.”

He took her hand and smiled wryly at her.

“That is a very leading question.”

“I know Andrew, but the way you talk.” She sighed. “I am jealous I guess, at her having the chance to see you every single day.”

Ara was being pretty transparent with her feelings. As Andrew tried to shuffle back to the shore, he could hear the ice cracking underneath him.

“In some ways yes, I think I do.” Ara looked stricken “But I am not even 18 yet, it is still three weeks away. I think I am too young to understand myself, never mind how I feel about someone else. We are incredibly close, she is now as important a friend to me as Leslie. Co-best friends as a title seems contrived and clunky but it is where I am at. They both understand me in ways that sometimes I don’t understand myself. I think you would like them both and once your exams are over we will go out the four of us, maybe even five of us, Julian can come too, save me from being ganged up on.”

“You would introduce me to the most important people in your life? All at once?”

Andrew shrugged.

“Sure, why not?”

The topic changed but Andrew thought about all the things they didn’t say during that conversation. It was way too soon but he and Ara needed to talk about the future. Evenings like the one they had just shared conveniently overlooked a laundry list of issues they were studiously avoiding discussing. Ara’s mother being the most obvious one. They drove back into town and he circled the block looking for a place to park.

“What are you doing Andrew?”

Ara sounded confused.

“Er, trying to find somewhere to park. You asked me to stay over.”

It was Andrew’s turn to sound confused.

“Oh, I just thought that since nothing could happen you would want to go home.”

He was distracted for a second as he managed to spot a space and a minute later turned off the engine.

“Why on earth would you think that I wouldn’t want to spend the night with you?”

“Well I am on my period and well, I just, well.”

Her thoughts dribbled to a conclusion.

“I can think of nothing better than cuddled up beside you in bed. Hold you in my arms. Even better, wake up with you in my arms.”

Ara looked startled but then hugged him before leading the way to her flat. When they opened the door Ara shouted for Gwen but she was still out, so they had the place to themselves. Other than the bathroom and Ara’s room Andrew had never seen the rest of the flat and she gave him the quick tour. Given that there were only two girls living there the place was as tidy as you would expect. The kitchen/dining room was large and spacious and the kitchen was clean. The large sitting room was comfortable with seating for eight, despite the fact it was only the two of them. The room that Penny used to occupy had become the dumping ground and storage room with several large drying racks for their laundry in the middle of the room. The one closed door was Gwen’s bedroom.

They were sitting having a cup of tea and chatting about something trivial when with much bumping around and over loud talking a very drunk Gwen and another girl stumbled into the room. Ara lying between Andrew’s legs, him cuddling her caused them to screech to a halt and stare at them. They appeared to be struggling to focus. Ara smiled indulgently at Gwen.

“Hi, you look like you had fun night.”

“What’s he doing here?”

Andrew noted the interesting opening question.

“Drinking tea and talking, at the moment.”

Ara’s tone took on a harder edge. Gwen turned and she and the other woman went through to the kitchen. Ara turned and smiled at him.

“Time for us to go to bed I think.”

The idea of being forced out of the sitting room by a drunk Gwen did not sit well with Andrew, as he remembered her reaction in March when he came to see Ara. But this was Ara’s relationship and so he bit his tongue and they went through to her room. He used the bathroom and cleaned his teeth before climbing into bed waiting for Ara to finish in the bathroom. He had on a pair of pajama bottoms, which he had brought to wear at breakfast, not to bed. Ara came into the room and it was noticeable that she locked the door before climbing into bed.

Andrew didn’t know who sighed the loudest but as they slipped into each other’s arms it was obvious that they both just exhaled and relaxed. He thought there might be pillow talk but the stresses of studying had them both asleep in short order.

Andrew awoke with Ara firmly in his arms and a raging hard-on stuck in her arse. It was 6.05 and his body clock had woken him at the usual hour. Ara was fast asleep and he was able to disentangle from her without moving or waking her. After his morning clean-up he tiptoed through to the kitchen to put on the kettle and find a space to exercise. Andrew had his running shoes and was going to go for a run before everyone awoke. When he glanced into the sitting room, as the door was wide open, he guessed that some of the people in the flat would not be awake for some time. Gwen and the unnamed other woman were lying on the large couch in a tangle of limbs. Both were naked and blatantly exposed to the world. He hesitated at the door but in the end carefully laid a blanket over the two of them covering all the important areas and closed the door on the scene. Shaking his head Andrew went through to the kitchen and put the kettle on. He did his daily 200 sit ups and 100 push ups and then sat at the kitchen table nursing a cup of coffee.

He knew what he was going to be thinking about that morning on his run; his feelings for and about Arabella Lindsay. Although neither of them said it out loud last night there was an unspoken undercurrent to their interactions. What did that mean? Nothing had changed, neither bad nor good. Ara was still going to be there in Edinburgh for one more year while Andrew was in Cambridge and then she was going to be doing a PhD somewhere. But those were mere logistical issues compared to her mother, the daughter of an Indian Princess, who wanted someone better than the son of a teacher and a social worker as a son-in-law. She had made a serious play at Prince Andrew and although that had not worked Andrew knew that there were hundreds of members of the aristocracy and the son of a duke, earl or whoever was better, in her eyes, than him. In his mind that was the biggest issue, Ara’s family were not going to go quietly into the good night. Weighing against all that was their obvious mutual attraction, heart not head. As he ran round the Meadows the symbolism was too much for him, he ended up back at the same spot. Andrew had no idea what to do. Letting himself back into her flat he peeked into her room but Ara was still sound asleep so Andrew showered and went and had a second cup of coffee. It was more than an hour later when Ara padded through, all tousle haired and lovely. He carefully swept her off her feet and kissed her soundly.

“You are one of those disgustingly cheery people first thing in the morning, aren’t you?”

She grumbled good-naturedly at him.

“I have been up for three hours, done my exercises, ran for an hour, showered and am now studying for my History ‘A’ Level. You?”

“Oh, shut up. I feel tired just listening to all that.”

Once Andrew had made Ara a cup of coffee she sat in his lap sipping the brew and leaning against him.

“I can see that falling asleep in your arms will be easy but waking up in them is a whole different matter.”

Andrew laughed, but refrained from any wise cracks.

“Any sign of movement from Gwen?”

“Eh, no not really. She and the young woman with her were passed out naked on the couch when I got up. I covered them with a blanket and closed the door. I presume you will hear them when they start waking up.”

Ara looked at him in surprise but Andrew nodded to confirm what he said was true. The revelation about the goings on between the two of them appeared not to surprise her so he guessed that Gwen was considerably more open than Nikki and Fran were. Once they had finished their coffee it was time for him to head home, he wanted to calmly revise the History topics for the next couple of days in advance of the exam on Monday. Ara shyly asked if he would stay over the following Friday and he agreed. The smile between them promised a different tone to the evening than this one. Saturday and Sunday was full of revising and impatiently waiting for the exams to start. Andrew wanted to be done with studying and be done with school.

The first week of exams consisted of his ‘A’ level History on Monday morning and CSYS Physics all day on Wednesday. Andrew’s lack of recent studying, other than the final weekend, did have an impact on how he performed on the first day. Parts of his answers felt rushed and the exam felt discordant somehow. It would be borderline if he would get an ‘A’ but was confident that he had passed. That night he delayed the start of his Physics revising to talk to Gail and calm her down, as well as deal with an unexpected call from Kate. It was just like old times. He only gave them 15 minutes each before he concentrated on his Physics. Tuesday night was the same but Andrew was up at 5.45 as usual on Wednesday morning. As he had on Monday he did not alter his exercise routine and arrived at the Physics project review straight from Warrender. All the pupils sitting the exam had an appointment with the review panel in half hour blocks in the morning before the written exam in the afternoon. Andrew discovered he was in the middle of the schedule so had 90 minutes to wait until his allotted time. He went back out of the school and walked round the Meadows, trying to stay focused and calm.

When he was called in there were two reviewers. Both looked to be past the age of retirement which was standard for examiners. The 20 minute review seemed to go well, Andrew explained the theory, the mathematics, and showed the experimental evidence. After answering their questions, including one that he had revised the answer to after his study session with Mary, he was dismissed. A whole of lot of work for a 20 minute review session. The exam was easy and Andrew came out confident he had his first ‘A’, subject to the project review. The rest of the week was more of the same, revising most of the time and talking to Kate and Gail, keeping them calm, or at least calmer.

Andrew spoke to Suzanne at length on Thursday in the afternoon, when she returned from her key exam, CSYS Geography. She was wiped out; the exam had gone well and the relief in her voice was palpable. She had two exams left, CSYS’ in French and English on Tuesday and Thursday of the following week and would be done the day before him. When they hung up Andrew got the sense that Suzanne was going to bed after dinner to sleep for 12 hours, she had been that wound up about this key exam. His exams were Monday, Tuesday and Friday so would walk to school with her on Tuesday. They had both survived the first week.

Friday evening with Ara was relaxed with all the uncertainty and confusion of their previous meetings forgotten. They swam at the Commonwealth but then had gone to nice little Italian restaurant on the south side of main student area. Ara asked him about the two exams and updated him on her studying. They were trying to be relaxed and calm as if by acting this way it would impact the rest of their relationship. The juxtaposition of the obvious closeness against the outside issues facing them was always just below the surface. After dinner walking back to his car, Andrew broached the subject of Gwen for the first time.