thirteen

Claire's bus back to Swansea left just before eight the next morning. Jo was waiting for her when she arrived at the bus stop.

"Are you sure you want to leave without saying good bye to him?"

"Yes. It's better this way. Here, I need to give you this." She handed Jo the key to Dylan's room. "I locked up since I knew you'd be here. I would have hated to leave the room open for all and sundry."

Jo nodded. "I understand."

"Look out for him, Jo. For me. He'll always mean a lot to me."

Claire got on the bus and waved to Jo when she was in her seat. Jo waited until the bus pulled away and then hurried over to the taxi rank to go back to the hall. She knocked on Mark's door and Dylan answered. He was only wearing his boxer shorts and he looked bleary eyed and sleepy.

Jo tried to maintain eye contact, avoiding looking down at the gaping hole at the front of his shorts. She held out his keys for him.

"What? I don't understand."

"She's gone Dylan. And she won't be coming back."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. It's just how it is."

Just as Claire had predicted, Dylan took the news badly. He locked himself in his room all day Sunday, and only came out for lunch after Mark refused to stop banging on his door.

Monday followed in much the same vain. Dylan skipped lectures and ate only when Mark made him. The rest of the time, he lay on his bed staring at the ceiling or with his eyes glued to the TV but not really watching.

On Dave's insistence, Dylan attended his lectures and lab session on Tuesday. But he steadfastly refused company the rest of the day. He even missed his badminton session Wednesday afternoon.

Mark wouldn't let him skip football practice in the evening. "If you skip sessions they'll drop you and I'll be pissed at you if that happens. It's your through passes that are making me look good."

It was Thursday before Dylan showed any sign of life. Jo called on him in the early evening, just after mealtime, and she took him not turning her away as a good sign.

Dylan slouched back to his bed and flung himself upon it. Instead of sitting on the chair, as she had done when talking to Claire, Jo sat on the end of Dylan's bed and gently placed a hand on his leg, just above the ankle.

"How are you? Or is that a stupid question?"

"Stupid question," he grunted.

"It's for the best Dylan, in the long run. You know that don't you?"

"Suppose so. I just can't understand why I have such bad luck with girls. Did you know that the two girls I was with before Claire both cheated on me?"

Dylan pulled his legs up to his chest, away from Jo's touch. The silence in the room was deafening.

At length, Dylan said, "You know, I can't understand why I feel angry about all this."

"Angry?"

"Yeah. I'm angry with myself for making such a huge mistake in the first place. I'm angry with Claire for overreacting to it. I'm even a little angry at you for not sorting it out, although I know I shouldn't be."

"Why are you angry with me?"

"I don't know. I'm so confused. I mean, even though, if I had never laid eyes on Toni, I would still be with Claire, I don't regret what I did and that doesn't make sense to me. And then another part of me is angry that I spent so much time feeling guilty, and it made no difference because Claire still left me. So that part of me is wishing that I had more fun, instead of trying to behave."

"That's understandable."

"That's why I'm staying out of everyone's way. I'm so angry that I don't know what I might do or say."

"You've got friends who care Dil. I'm sure that they'll understand the odd outburst. Besides, it might do you some good."

"Thanks, but..."

"Why don't you come down the bar with me, Mark and Andrea? We could go now, before it gets to crowded. Have a game of pool or something."

"I don't know."

"Come on. Mark's been on at me since Tuesday to try to get you out of this room. It'll do you good."

"I don't see how. I don't see anything anymore."

"Dylan, I have to tell you something."

"What?"

"You know my boyfriend?"

"Yeah."

"He's not real. I mean, I didn't make him up, he used to be real. But he finished with me just before I started here. In fact, Aber's the reason he finished with me."

"Why?"

"He didn't want me to come. He was being selfish and wanted to keep me near. 'It's me or University' he said."

"And you still came. He couldn't have meant very much to you."

"That's where you're wrong. He meant the world to me. I just didn't expect him to carry out his threat. When he did I was devastated, but I told myself that this was more important. Or rather, Nat told me that this was more important. And she was right. I have no idea if it would have lasted with him, but I know that my being here will set me up for the rest of my life."

"So why did you tell me you were still with him?"

"I was in denial I guess. But I've made new friends here and they've shown me that I'll be okay without him. And you'll be okay without Claire too."

"You think so?"

"You're going to make a big success of your life, Dil. I know that. And if Claire is too short sighted to see it too, then more fool her. She's the one that'll lose out. Come out with us. Just for a couple of hours. You still owe me a drink after Saturday."

"Alright then, I'll come, but I'm not staying too late."

Jo grinned, slapped Dylan's leg, then jumped up and headed for the door. "Well? Come on then."

Dylan, Jo, Mark and Andrea spent the next couple of hours playing pool in Rosser bar. They left before it got late and the bar started to fill. They went back to Dylan's room to play Street Fighter. Andrea proved to be surprisingly adept at it and beat both Dylan and Mark.

"I'm still upset and I'm having trouble concentrating," was Dylan's excuse.

Dylan tried valiantly to suppress his misery as October drew to a close. A three-goal victory against Bangor in the first home match of the season helped. According to Dave, Dylan was the star of the show. He created two goals for Mark with pinpoint passes, and scoring the third with a thunderous drive from the edge of the penalty area.

Lectures because more detailed, and the amount of work piled up. Some of the subjects, such as Dylan's physics course, set complex assignments. Others set large amounts of research leading to long, opinionated essays.

Evening drinking sessions became shorter, or were cancelled altogether. The reality of living on a student budget began hit home. The students increasingly looked forward to the weekends, and the chance to relax and enjoy themselves.

In the final few days of the month, Frank and Dave made a suggestion to the rest of the floor. Guy Fawkes Night was approaching. Frank discovered that there was plenty of space left on the Student Union organised trip to Alton Towers in celebration of the festival.

"I went last year," Dave told everyone over dinner. "It's the last weekend of the season, and they have a huge fireworks display just after it gets dark."

"But Alton Towers in November?" said Andy. "It'll piss down all day. Sitting on wet roller-coasters ain't my idea of a fun day."

"The forecast is okay, and to be honest, who cares," said Frank. "It'll be a laugh either way."

There was a murmur of agreement. Dave and Frank agreed to find out exactly how many people wanted to go and then book the tickets.

Dylan woke early on the morning of the Alton Towers trip. The bus left the from the campus gatehouse at six-thirty. Dylan and his friends had decided that they wanted to be first in the queue so they could get the best seats.

Dylan was very eager to go. The weekend was free of football commitments and he wanted to keep himself occupied rather than hang around. He thought about Claire when he had nothing to do, which made him miserable.

Andy had finally agreed to go after some insistent nagging from Rich. Natalie had politely turned down Frank's offer to pay for her ticket, telling him that it just wasn't her sort of thing.

The girls from the top floor jumped at the chance to get out of Aber for the day. Kerry wanted to go just because Dave was going. Toni had a similar reason and talked Julie into going too. Stacey decided to go just for the sheer hell of it, despite a mountain of work.

It was a long bus ride. Dave and Kerry saw little of it as the slept in each other's arms. Dylan and Mark discussed the prospects of the teams in football's Premiership. Most of the others either slept fitfully or read magazines. It was after ten when the bus finally pulled into the Alton Towers coach park. The passengers then had to wait on the bus while one of the Union officers collected the park entrance tickets, and then distributed them along with guides to the park.

It took another ten minutes for them to get through the turnstiles, after which the Davies Bryan residents congregated by the dancing waterfalls and tried to avoid the various jugglers, clowns, and men in giant dog costumes.

"Right then," said Dave, rubbing his hands together. "What's the plan?"

"Well, I need to pee!" said Toni. "Where're the toilets?"

Five minutes later, they met up again in the same spot.

"Plan then?" said Dave.

Everyone wanted to go on different rides first. They finally agreed to split into two groups and meet later for lunch, before splitting up again for the afternoon and meeting up again for the fireworks display in the early evening.

Dave, Kerry, Dylan, Mark, Toni and Julie made for the park's two huge water rides. They figured that the queues would be shorter early on, and at least they would have all day to dry off if they got very wet.

The others weren't keen of the prospect of a thorough soaking because even though it was a glorious autumn day, it was bitterly cold. Instead, they headed for the park's showpiece ride, Nemesis, which was on the far side of the park.

Dave insisted that the White Water Rapids would have the longer queues throughout the day and was the ride to go for first. Both this and the infamous Log Flume had notoriously long queues, but they were fast moving. Dylan and company were in sight of start of the ride a lot quicker than they expected.

"I should have gone with the others," said Kerry. "I don't know how I let you talk me into this David."

"Now Ker, don't start trying to blame me. I didn't hear too many objections back there."

"Well, if I get really wet I'll kill you. You know that my hair goes all frizzy if it gets too wet."

"I'll buy you one of those plastic ponchos, that'll keep you dry."

"That's a good idea," said Dylan. "We should all get one."

The others murmured agreement and at the next kiosk they came to they all brought one.

"I feel ridiculous," said Kerry after putting on hers.

"But you'll still look lovely," Dave said. He pulled her towards him for a kiss.

"Oh god, pass me the sick bucket," said Mark. "The way you two are going on I might have to throw you in the river." He pointed to churning water running below the bridge they were standing on. Everyone laughed.

As they got nearer to the front of the queue Julie's nervousness began to show.

"I can't do this. What am I doing here?"

"Come on, Jules," said Toni. "This is one of the tamer ones."

"But what if I fall in, or the boat capsizes?"

"You'll be fine," said Dylan. "They do thousands of runs every day, and I've never heard of an accident yet."

"I did." Julie started to sound more panicked. "There was this girl. It was last year, or maybe the year before, and she fell in and lost her ear."

"Bull," said Toni. "Besides, it's too late to pull out now, it's our turn."

It was indeed. A attendant guided them towards the next circular boat.

Toni gently pushed Julie after the others and whispered in her ear. "Don't let me down, Jules. Please don't let me down now."

They ran to catch up with the others, and took a seat in the boat. The seats were in pairs around the perimeter of the boat, facing inwards. In the centre was a circular handrail. Between each pair of seats were the steps into and out of the boat.

Dave sat next to Kerry. By the time that Toni and Julie reached the boat, Mark and Dylan had taken seats in separate pairs. Toni sat next to Dylan, and Julie flopped down next to Mark. Moments after Julie had sat, the boat was hurled into the man made raging torrent.

The wind was blowing hard and the River Rapids ride was having one of its rough days. Each of the artificial rapids seemed stronger then when Dylan had been during the summer. As the giant rubber ring of the boat hit each wave, masses of water kicked up and splashed inside.

Dave was desperate not to get wet. He moved around the boat avoiding the water, but only succeeded in getting the wetter still. The others got drenched too. When they passed through the waterfall valley, the spray blew all over them. To cap things off, the fountain at the end of the ride, which threw a jet of water high into the air, hit the boat dead centre, soaking everyone even more.

They were shrieking with laughter when they finally disembarked. They immediately joined the queue for the other wet ride, the Log Flume.

The boats for the Flume also sat six, but were long and thin instead of round. Dave, Dylan and Mark fought over who should go at the front of the boat, each of them convinced that the water would go up and over the person at the front and hit those further back.