eighteen

The students returned to Aberystwyth in the second week of January, following a break for Christmas and New Year. The small Welsh coastal town had had a thick, festive covering of snow when they left it but on their return, the constant drizzle that had blighted their lives returned with them. The short walk from his car to the hall left Dylan feeling as if he'd just had a cold, dirty shower. The excitement of late December felt like a distant memory and the prospect of the new term amplified usual January gloom. Ahead lay a week of intensive revision, followed by two solid weeks of exams.

Dylan was looking forward to seeing his friends and catching up with their holiday exploits. The Union and other campus bars were not yet open, so Dylan and his friends braved the elements and walked into the town for a drink. Despite the impending workload, everyone that Dylan spoke to professed joy at being back together, and back in Aber.

Joanne in particular seemed happy to be back. "It's so good to be back, Dylan," she told him for what must have been the seventh time.

"You do realise that the exams start a week on Monday?" he said.

"I know, but there aren't that many. And they won't be that hard will they? After all, it's only the first year. Besides, once the exams are over, Natalie and I have some very exciting modules to do."

"Have you changed subjects then?" said Dylan.

"No, we're still doing French and German. Just because we don't blow things up, or discover the mysteries of the universe like you and Dave, doesn't mean we don't get excited. Languages are fascinating, especially at this level. It's brilliant learning all about other cultures. And..." She emphasised the word. "We have to start planning our year abroad."

"I thought that wasn't until your third year."

"It isn't. But it takes a lot of planning. We have to look at the universities in France and Germany to see which suits us best, and then write our applications. If you want to go somewhere like Paris or Strasbourg, you have to apply early."

Revision sessions replaced normal lectures during the first week of term. Dylan received a nasty shock from the teaching staff at his first session. The head of the Physics department advised them that the first year exams were designed to sort out those who would pass the degree course and those who wouldn't. The remaining two years of the degree would just determine the level of the honours that they would receive.

Once the exams started, Dylan found out exactly what his tutors had meant. Not only were the exams monstrously hard, the time allotted to each one was about half as long as he felt he really needed. He left more than one exam with the feeling that he'd had to rush the final few questions, answering each one at least half as well as he would otherwise have done. Julie offered him some comfort by agreeing that she had found the exams hard, but to Dylan's horror Dave strolled out of each exam with an air of satisfied confidence, proclaiming each to have been even easier than the previous.

The weekend came as a welcome relief. There may have been a week of horrific exams left, but Friday night meant two free days ahead. It was time to blow off some steam. It was time to get pissed. After the ritual of getting ready, the Ground Floor residents gathered, as always, in the kitchen and began the evenings drinking with some cans from the nearby off-licence. They were planning to go into town again, despite the continued awful weather, and they needed to steel themselves against the elements. Opening up his second can, Dylan noticed for the first time that someone was missing.

"Andrea, didn't Jo come up with you?"

"No. I called on her but she said she wasn't ready. I reckon something must have been wrong though, she wouldn't let me in, which is unusual."

"Oh," said Dylan, "I might go down and see if she's alright."

"No," said Natalie a little too loudly. The whole room looked at her. "You can't do that Dylan."

"Why not? Do you know something, Nat? What's going on?"

"He's here," Nat said.

"Who's here?" Frank asked. Dylan already knew the answer.

Natalie insisted that the others go. She wanted to talk to Dylan alone for a while. Frank, Dave, Mark and Andrea said that they wanted to know what was going on as well, but Natalie was adamant. She kissed Frank on the cheek and told him that she and Dylan would meet him and the others in the Glengower. Reluctantly, Frank led the rest of the group out of the kitchen and into town.

When they were alone, Natalie held up her empty glass. "Got anything a bit stronger?"

"I've got some Archers in my room."

"That'll do."

They retired to Dylan's room and he poured them each a glass of schnapps.

"Did you know that you were the only person that Jo went to the trouble of buying a Christmas present for? Besides me I mean," Nat said as she took the glass from Dylan.

"No, I didn't."

"Well you were." Nat took a sip from her drink.

"What your point Nat? What's this got to do with John?"

"Sorry Dylan," said Nat. "I get so used to playing the dizzy blonde around men, that sometimes it's the only way I can be. Force of habit, I guess. My point is this. When I first met Jo, she was a mess. It was halfway through year ten, her parents had split up and her Mom had moved them both to Tranmere from Chester. She was the new girl at school, and it's hard being the new girl at that age. I don't know why, but Jo and I just clicked. It was as if we'd been waiting to meet each other our whole lives. Dylan, she's more than just my best friend. She's like the sister that I never had."

"I don't see what this has to do with her buying me a Christmas present."

"I'm coming to that. I love Jo, and that's why it was so hard to watch the way that that bastard treated her."

"I think that's the first time I've heard you swear, Nat."

"Really? Well, try this. John Rothwell is the biggest Fucking Wanker I have ever had the mis-fortune to meet." Nat took care to over-pronounce the expletives. "Don't look shocked, Dylan. I just want to make sure you understand the way I feel about him. He's here to take her home, Dylan. He's here to take her back to his home, so he can use her, the way he did before. We have to stop him. And I think that you are the only one who can."

"Nat, let's pretend that I'm really, really thick. Explain why it's up to me."

"I've seen Jo when she's with you. She's more comfortable with you that she is with anyone else here, except me, obviously. You talk for ages, the same way she and I talk. She's a much more popular girl here than she ever was at home, and she's got a lot of people that she considers friends. But she went to the trouble of buying you a gift. That should tell you all you need to know. She has clicked with you in a similar way she did with me. I don't know why, so don't ask. No offence, Dylan, but I don't see what's so much more special about you than say, Mark or Rich. Except that you need her as a friend as much as she needs you. And I know that you would be devastated if she left Aber for good."

Dylan said nothing.

"How much has she told you about her and John?" Nat asked.

"Just that she did some things that she was ashamed of. She wouldn't say what things, but I can guess."

"I'm not going to fill in any blanks for you, that's up to Jo. When and if she's ever ready. But I will say that if we don't do something, then he'll dominate her, the way he did before. He'll make her do something that she doesn't really want to do, and make her think that she wants to. He gets inside her head, and messes around in there. She can't think straight."

"So what do we do? March down there and tell him to get lost?"

"No. He won't listen, but he will probably punch you. The only way to end this is to get Jo to tell him to leave. We, or rather you, need to make her see that she has that choice. Once she knows that, she'll do the rest."

"But why me and not you?"

"I did all I could just getting her here in the first place. She needs to her it coming from someone else. And you're the only other person that I think she'll listen to."

Natalie had arranged to meet Jo and John in the Cambrian, and that meeting was now a little under half an hour away. There wasn't enough time for Dylan and Nat to walk into town, so instead Dylan drove them, intending to leave his car on the Footy Club car park overnight, and collect it the next day. As he drove down the hill Nat gave him more warnings.

"I ought to tell you Dylan," she said, "that John can get very jealous. It depends on what mood he's in, and whether or not you're one of his 'special' friends, but if he does get jealous, then he gets violent."

"How violent, exactly?"

"There was this one time that we went to a birthday party for a friend from college. It was at one of the clubs in the city. A couple of hours in, John went to the toilet and Jo got talking to the birthday boy. She wished him happy birthday, as you do, but then, typically of Joanne, they got talking about an essay that they'd been set. To cut a short story even shorter, John got back from the loo, got the wrong idea completely and set about the poor lad. If the bouncers hadn't stopped him, or heaven forbid he'd had a knife on him or something, then he would have killed him."

"So let me get this right," Dylan said as he pulled into the Footy Club car park," I have to persuade Jo to tell this man, who seems to be able to control her, to leave her alone and go home, but I have to do it without making him jealous in any way, just in case he gets violent and kills me?"

"Exactly," said Nat, effortlessly slipping back into her dizzy blonde persona, "Should be no problem at all."

A Short walk later the pair met up with Jo in the Cambrian, and she quickly introduced Dylan to John. Dylan had been expecting a huge man, in the nightclub doorman mould, but he couldn't have been more wrong. John was no taller Dylan, perhaps a little heavier, but more overweight than muscular. Jo gave John a potted version of Dylan's recent history but she left out her role in it entirely, giving Dylan the impression that she didn't really want John to know how important he considered their friendship. Drinks had been brought, but had to be rushed because Natalie was eager to get to the Glen to meet up with the rest of their friends. At the Glen, there were more introductions and more drinks. Natalie was keen to get everyone along to the Bay because she wanted to have a dance. While the Ground Floor generally did as Nat wished, most of the boys wanted to stay with their new drinking partner and exchange stories. John told Jo that he liked the atmosphere in the Glen, and she subsequently told Nat that she intended to stay with John, so Nat had to stay in the Glen or go to the Bay alone. Given Jo's usual love of the Bay, Dylan considered her decision to stay as a sign of the power that John could wield over her. John meantime was charming the lads of the Ground Floor. He came across as a likeable and amenable man, eager to talk with everyone and have fun. Dylan did notice that John was less friendly with Natalie, but this was only because Dylan had been surreptitiously studying John, trying to work him out of himself.

The Ground Floor had never stayed in the Glen for an entire evening, it always seemed too crowded, despite being the largest pub in Aber. Besides, Natalie and Jo always insisted on getting to the Bay early to avoid waiting in the queue. As the time flew by, it seemed that majority of people had the same desire to dance that Nat and Jo usually had. By eleven, two hours before the Glens extended hours closing time, the only people left in the pub, besides the Ground Floor, were those who were clearly more interested in their beer than mate-hunting.

"We should get going," John suddenly announced.

"Why?" Frank asked, "There's still ages till closing."

"Jo and me have an early start in the morning," and turning to Jo finished, "Isn't that right love?" Jo said nothing but John continued on her behalf, "Jo's coming back home with me, and I'd really like to get back before dark. She's been really homesick, and the work has just been too much for her."