Chapter 11

Jack led them up the street to Cindies. It was not the name on the sign outside the door but known as this to all Cambridge students. It is one of the places that was mentioned several times by the Trinity Student Union people. It was a freaking zoo, hot, sweaty, packed and loud. Andrew’s kind of place! He could feel himself retreating into his shell. Andrew forced his way to the bar, a 6’5” battering ram which didn’t make him a lot of friends but did get them served quicker than the polite version. Andrew looked out over a sea of sweaty humanity and wondered what the hell he was doing there. He was bumped into as a group of drunk students tried to get past him to the bar, near the front was Nigel but he was already oblivious to his surroundings. The likelihood of chucking three nights in a row were high based on the way he was already staggering. Andrew wasn’t his brother or any kind of relative but felt he needed to try and get Nigel to calm down a bit. He was going to be sent down if he kept this up. Andrew was in no position to be or feel superior so left him alone but vowed to talk to him the next day when he got back from the department.

The place was so noisy that none of the four of them could talk but that didn’t stop them trying. There were more blokes than there were women, at least at first glance. However, there were lots of women in the place, including several large groups of women, indeed it looked like there were more women than men on the dancefloor. Andrew stood watching the endless stream of gallant suitors try to prey upon these groups. He didn’t understand what was going on but as usual Jack had the answer. He pulled Andrew down so he could hear the shouted words.

“Cambridge School of Art students. A lot of the courses are heavily skewed to female students so you can imagine they are really popular. However, they also get a lot of crap for not being at the University so the relationship is always fraught. One of the guys on the course this morning had an older brother who graduated last year and he gave us the scoop.”

Andrew thought he had left all the high school drama behind him but no, it carried on even there. Then a really tall women suddenly caught his eye, she easily had to be 6’2” maybe even taller. She caught him looking at her and Andrew held her gaze and smiled. She mouthed ‘dance’ at him and he nodded so they both left the safety of the herd and made it to the dance floor. Now Andrew knew he was a hopeless dancer, Suzanne had been giving him shit about it for years. In the crushing confines of Cindies’ dance floor neither of them could do anything other than sway and brace themselves to stop being shoved around. After one song like that Andrew was ready to get off the floor and so was his tall partner. She led him away from the bar and he found himself in an area where at least they could talk without having to scream.

“I think you are the only guy here who is taller than me.”

There were years of frustration just in that one sentence.

“Hi, I am Raquel Peters.”

Rather than shake his proffered hand she pulled Andrew in for a hug, which then last a couple of beats longer than you would expect on first meeting someone.

“I am Andrew McLeod, nice to meet you.”

Andrew could tell that Raquel was more than a little drunk and was being quite touchy. It seemed to Andrew that now she was having to converse with someone the booze was more obvious. Standing upright she was able to manage but everything else was a mess. Raquel was also in full-on Fresher’s mode. She wanted to get laid, Andrew had showed up and now it was time to proceed to the second part of the evening. He couldn’t tell if she was an athlete but she was tall and solid muscle. He guessed she was at least 12 stone maybe even 13, around 80kg. She was leaning against him now and Andrew was starting to have to hold her up. In the space of a few minutes he had this tall, solid woman in his arms. She was professing the need for him to fuck her, worryingly loudly in his opinion, and Andrew had no idea where the hell she lived. Time to get her back to her friends. He got her back over to where her friends were standing around and they quickly realised that Raquel was blind drunk. Other than being a man and going to Cambridge University Andrew was blameless, in other words he was still to blame despite having done nothing other than dance one dance with her. Have you ever watched three small woman try and handle someone nearly a foot taller and who weighs half as much again? It was a clown show. 10 minutes later Andrew was walking with them back out of the town centre to the dorms of the Art School. Raquel was really drunk, two of her friends were drunk but holding it together and one poor girl was in charge of this shitshow. Lisa, the soberest one, kept them moving forwards and 20 minutes later Andrew was half holding half dragging Raquel into the dorm. Lisa banged on Raquel’s door and after much muffled cursing her roommate opened the door. She helped get Raquel to the bed and Andrew laid her down carefully, managing to avoid the octopus arms and resisting her exhortations to hurry up and fuck her. He retreated back into the corridor for a second. He had a quick chat with Raquel’s roommate.

“Sorry to dump her on you like this, but she was like this when I danced with her. It seemed to hit her all of a sudden and I had to help get her home. I’m Andrew by the way.”

Raquel’s roommate took his breath away. Medium height, shoulder length deep dark red hair and sparkling green eyes coupled with pale skin.

“Manners in the middle of the night, how charming.”

A strong Liverpool accent was evident.

“I am Cassie, the roommate of this drunk fool. Thank you for helping bring her home, it needed someone your size. Lisa would never have managed.”

Much as Andrew wanted to stay and chat to this lovely woman it was late and they were standing in the corridor of the dorm.

“It was not a problem, I could hardly walk away given that I am one of the few people taller than her. She sort of clung on to me and we marched down the street. Anyway, sorry to leave you with her.”

Andrew tried not to stare at Cassie any more obviously than he was already.

“I am sure we will see you around Andrew. Cambridge is a small place and when we see the white horse outside we will know that our gallant knight is within.”

He laughed at the characterisation but knew that he was one smitten kitten. Andrew was definitely going to run into Cassie again. As he walked back into town he had to laugh. The OTC evening had gone well, he had met three decent blokes and had the makings of a friendship with them, including Matt who was on his course and in his College, and then to top it off the disastrous dance had turned out wonderfully. The sparkling eyed Cassie would be in his dreams tonight. Then all his pleasant thoughts were cast aside when he finally got back to the College. Nigel was slumped at the gate and a disgusted looking Porter was standing over him.

“Fuck’s sake Nigel, blind drunk again.”

Andrew looked over at the Porter.

“He is in the room next to me in Angel Court. I will get him back.”

“Thanks. Two guys got him this far but they were from down the street.”

That could mean any one of a dozen colleges. The Porter helped Andrew get Nigel to his feet, but no sooner was he on his feet than he gave every indication that he was going to throw up. Both of them immediately grabbed his arms and stood behind him so that when the vomit came it was out and away not just from them but Nigel as well. After the third dry heave it looked like he was done although the smell was revolting.

“He did that in the corridor last night so at least we should be saved that.”

“Oh, he’s the one, is he?”

The Porter’s tone left no doubt that Nigel’s card was marked already.

“I’ll get him to his room and make sure he is on his stomach with the bin close to hand.”

With a nod to the Porter Andrew dragged Nigel back to his room. The corridor was quiet when they got there and Andrew found the room key in Nigel’s jean pocket. Five minutes later he was finally back in his own room, cleaning his teeth and shaking his head. Two drunks in one night, enough already. Despite all the drama Andrew had not got to bed too late so was up at his usual time and after exercising went out for his run. He waved at the same Porter from the previous night as he headed out. 80 minutes later Andrew walked back through the Gate as one of the maintenance staff was coiling up a hose after washing away the evidence of Nigel from the night before. Malcolm seemed to be an early riser the same as Andrew and once again joined him at breakfast.

“Hey, I never saw you after dinner, where did you end up.”

“I am applying to join the Officer Training Corp so was at the Territorial Army Centre at an open evening, then went for a drink with some of the other guys and ended up at Cindies.”

He explained drunk Raquel followed by drunk Nigel.

“Oh man, Nigel is a lucky git. He is out of control with the drinking, what is that, three nights in a row puking drunk?”

“Yeah, and he was already known to the Porters, with last night just reinforcing it. I hope he gets it together because he is heading for quick exit if this carries on.”

“We are already one down in the corridor.”

Andrew looked shocked.

“Who?”

“The South African. He came by last night for all his stuff. The gossip is that he is the Ambassador’s son and they decided to take him out of the College and put him in a flat. He will still attend but he will not stay here. They were worried about anti-apartheid protests. That would have been weird having people protesting someone on the corridor, you would have been opposite his door.”

“Well at least we don’t have to put up with the bigot all the time as well. Imagine how Navya would have felt having to see him every day.”

They finished breakfast and headed off to the final day of preparation before classes actually started. That day was way more practical, review of the timetable, scheduling of labs, suddenly it all seemed very real. The only thing out of the ordinary was when they were split up for their labs and the loudmouth arse Johnno started whinging about been paired up with a girl. He was making no effort to keep it down and the girl looked furious, miserable and embarrassed which was an interesting look to pull off. When it was time for lunch one of the guys in Andrew’s group, without a word to any of them, picked up his stuff and moved over to loudmouth’s table. He seemed to be a friend of the loudmouth because he put his stuff down and pointed over to Andrew’s table. The female student looked askance but the other two just ignored her. Three minutes later she walked over, managing to look even more embarrassed.

Loudmouth and his sidekick had gone to the Professor and announced the swap as a fait accompli so the lab group became Andrew, Matt, Keith Quincy and Olivia Dupree, just about the smartest person on the course. Over the next four years Matt, Keith and Andrew would give thanks many times to Johnno and his mate for their misogynistic stupidity. Every time Andrew focused on karmic balance good things happened. This was his reward for dealing with Nigel. Olivia was at Newnham and did not head the same way as Matt and Andrew. Keith was a short distance away from the department at Downing. Once it was just the two of them Matt wanted to talk about the night before.

“We saw you pull as soon as you got there, you must have been the only guy she could look up at.”

Matt seemed to have taken the speech about being discreet to heart as didn’t press for details although Andrew could tell he was keen to know.

“Yeah, well that didn’t turn out very well. She was totally pissed and I had help get her back to her dorm, all her mates were tiny. Then when I got back to College I found the guy in the room next to me, Nigel, passed out at the Gate, and I had to get him to bed as well.”

Andrew was laughing at himself by the time he was done which was just as well because Matt was pissing himself with laughter.

“Andrew, that is epic. Two drunks and not even a kiss.”

Andrew had not told him about Cassie and her sparkling eyes. Matt headed off to Burrell Fields and Andrew made it back to his room. He closed the door, put his headphones on and had a two hour nap. He had no idea if anyone knocked on the door, he was fast asleep. He ate dinner chatting to a couple of guys reading Politics and headed back to his room. After the previous evening he was ready for some peace and quiet. He had the music on and was relaxing getting everything ready for the start of classes in the morning. At 8.15 Andrew heard a knock on the door and Helena and Navya came in.

“I swear for someone so bloody enormous you are a hard man to find sometimes.”

Helena was in good form.

“Good evening to you too Helena, Navya. How are you both?”

“We have been less busy than you by the sound of it. Malcolm told us at dinner that you rescued Nigel last night. He was looking for you earlier and may come by later.”

“Yeah, a couple of guys had got him to the Gate and the Porter was figuring out what to do with him when I showed up. He managed to puke in the street this time and then I got him to bed. I hope he settles down because he can’t keep getting blind drunk every night.”

“Where were you last night? Nobody saw you after dinner?”

Navya sounded just like someone’s mother.

“You are too young to be a mother, so calm down alright? I was at the OTC Open Evening so I had an early dinner and then walked over to the TA Centre beside the airport. I met a few guys there and we went for a drink afterwards. They talked me into going to Cindies and then it all went pear-shaped.”

He proceeded to tell them about Raquel and how he had to help her home even before dealing with Nigel. They were both laughing at him by the time he was finished.

“See, nothing good comes of drinking.”