A Hope Christmas Love Story. Julia Williams

kind of parents abandon their children in the middle of exam year? It’s rubbish and Izzy isn’t dealing with it too well.

      Anyway, that’s why I’m so late and preoccupied and I don’t see Melanie till the last minute, so we end up in a rather embarrassed, tangled mess on the floor. Oh god, it would be her. She must think I’m a complete twat.

      “I am so sorry,” I say, helping her up. “I don’t know how that happened.”

      “Me neither,” she says, giving me a quick shy and completely endearing smile, and gathering up her books and pens. “It’s just as much my fault as it is yours.”

      As we sort ourselves out, we register that we are now fifteen minutes late, the magic number after which the college will ring our parents if we’re late too often. Not that my parents would give a damn about that. And I’m eighteen anyway, so as far as I’m concerned so long as I show up and do the work it doesn’t matter what time I roll up. After such a disrupted year last year, studying and getting it right is all I care about.

      We slink into class to the inevitable sardonic phrase, “Nice of you to join us, Miss Carpenter, Mr Harris,” from Tom, our tutor, and knowing grins from the rest of the class. I’m cringing so much I daren’t look at Melanie. After two weeks here I’ve taken an instant dislike to Tom. It seems I’m not alone. He’s not very popular, judging by the brief chats I’ve had with people in the coffee bar.

      My dislike of Tom has intensified by the end of the lesson, as he spends the whole of it trying to catch Melanie out. He seems to have a real grudge against her, I don’t know why, as she’s so clearly star pupil material. She certainly seems to know more about The Bell Jar than anyone else in the class. I’m baffled by the way he treats her but Melanie just shrugs her shoulders when I ask her about it.

      “He hates me being late,” she says, “but Monday mornings, you know what they’re like.”

      I do know what they are like. But I doubt Melanie has a clue how hard it is to get yourself and your sister out of the house on time, and run a home. I don’t think anyone knows what that’s like. Least of all, Tom.

       Chapter Three

      I tell myself to stay away from Will. It’s far easier and less complicated if I avoid boys. Besides, who in their right mind wants to take on an eighteen-year-old single mum? Not that I’ve even mentioned that in the short time I’ve known him. I haven’t really told him about anything that really matters.

      But he’s good company, and I think he’s lonely. And I’m lonely too. I know people at college – Karen and Lizzie are always friendly – but I haven’t got any close friends, the way I had at school. And my mates in Hope Christmas have all gone to college this year. My best mate Shaz is full of tales of drunkenness and mayhem. I try not to, but I can’t help envying them.

      The girls at college are nice enough, but they’re all younger than me, and though they’re focussing on their studies, outside of college they just seem to want to party. Our lives are worlds apart. I drift around the corners of their social lives, Lizzie often invites me for drinks, but I don’t join in very often. Mum and Dad are great about babysitting if I want them to, and even my brother James will step in if they can’t do it, but I don’t think it’s fair to impose on them, so I turn down most of the invitations I get. And they don’t come round so frequently anymore.

      So it’s nice that Will comes and seeks me out at the coffee bar, and asks my opinions about essays. I tell myself he’s just being friendly and we’re mates, so I can still feel in control. I’ve not even given him my mobile number, and we never meet away from college. We’re friends, that’s all. And that’s the way it’s going to stay.

      ***

      After we bumped into each other the day we were late, it’s suddenly become easier. Melanie is often on her own in the coffee bar at break time when most people go to Shrewsbury. I go sometimes with a couple of the lads, but I’ve got so much work to catch up on, I don’t want to get distracted. So most of the time I stay in the coffee bar too. If Melanie’s not there, she’s in the library studying. I swear that girl always has her head in a book. She studies with a sort of manic intensity, as if she daren’t ever stop. I ask her about it one day, and she mutters something about being under pressure to do well, so I assume her parents are always on her case.

      She doesn’t talk about her family much, and I know very little about them. She has two sisters and a brother. I have no idea what her parents do, or where she even lives. It must be a way from here, as she drives in every day. I’d push her on it, but I get the feeling she’d just clam up on me if I ask her. She seems happy to talk about anything except the personal.

      I also get the feeling that someone hurt her pretty badly; she’s so wary and shy of me, like a damaged fawn. I’ve not even held hands with her yet, though we do now give each other an awkward hug on meeting. And a peck on the cheek when we say goodbye. I’d like to move things on a bit further, but I’m wary of pushing her away. And I really don’t want to do that.

      Because somewhere between our meeting at the college gates and now, Melanie’s become very necessary to my existence. In fact, I think I’m falling for her hard. Which wasn’t part of the game plan. Not at all.

       Chapter Four

      Somehow it’s early October and the leaves are turning yellow and falling off the trees. I’m lucky to live in a place like Hope Christmas, which always shows nature off to its advantage. But the weeks are flying past. Lou Lou is saying more every day and turning into such a little bundle of fun I am finding it harder and harder to leave her. Even though I know she loves nursery, and on her non-nursery days Mum is there to look after her. I know it has to be this way, but sometimes I really hate it.

      At least college is going well. It’s hard work, but I’m loving the subjects I’m doing and I’m glad I’ve met Will. I don’t know where it’s going, but it’s nice to have a proper friend at last. He’s so easy to talk to and I miss him when he’s not around. Most days now we have lunch together. And sometimes in our frees, if we’re not too stressed about work, we sneak off for a coffee in town – something everyone else does, but I’ve never had reason to till now.

      He knows to buy me a hot chocolate; I know he always has an Americano. I like that, on the sharp crisp October mornings, warming our hands on our takeaway drinks, and wandering round Shrewsbury. Will’s a mine of information. He knows all about Roman history and other stuff. And I love the way he gets animated when he’s explaining something to me, then looks awkward and says, “I’m not boring you am I?” It’s really cute. In fact he is all round cute, and if I hadn’t foresworn boys …