Last Summer.

“Ava’s got a boyfriend!” Ashlee called out the minute we stepped over the thresh hold of our new house. Luckily, my mum didn’t hear her as her words were blocked out by the smoke alarm ringing out as my mother tried, and failed, to stop it.

“Sick of the house already you’re trying to burn it down? Wouldn’t it be easier to move away?” I asked her after helping her pull the plastic covering of the smoke alarm before pulling the battery out of its socket.

“What? And Leave your boyfriend behind? I think not.” My mum said grinning.

Damn. She heard.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” I insisted, following my sister into the kitchen, where there was several boxes filled with plates, cups, glasses and cutlery, and a few half empty boxes filled with tins of baked beans. Looks like we’ll have having beans on toast for a while. “He was just being friendly because he knew I was new to the area. Ashlee made friends with his younger brother, I don‘t see you having a go at her!”

“That’s because she’s six, not sixteen. Her intentions are innocent.” My mum said, before laughing, “Gosh, you do get wound up like your father!”

“I probably won’t see him again anyway, and if we do, its not like we’ll be friends. He was just being nice.” I said, avoiding my mothers knowing looks by helping to unpack one of the boxes filled with tins of food, hoping that if she acknowledged my help she’d back off a bit.

“When guys are being nice, they’re only after one thing.” my mum said, coming over to me and joining in with the unpacking.

“Can you keep your mind out of the gutter, please? He showed no interest in me that way.” I insisted.

“He bought her an ice-cream and said she was cute!” My sister called out, making herself apart of the conversation me and my mother were having. My mother looked from Ashlee, back to me and gave me a look which just oozed “I told you so.”

“He probably says that to every girl he meets.” I said to my mother, before turning to my sister. “And you, Ashlee, can be a pain in the ass at times, you know that?”

“I know.” She said, grinning up at me, showing all her teeth - well apart from the ones that had recently fallen out and that the tooth fairy was ‘going to give you something once we have settled into our new house’ which frankly, could be awhile. “Mommy, what are we having for tea?”

“Fish fingers and chips, if they’re not burnt!” My mum said, quickly half-running-half-walking towards the oven, and pulling the door open at a speed. It was then I excused myself up to my room and told my mum not to bother saving me any fish fingers or chips, and that I’d grab something myself later on that evening.

When I went up to my room, I had seen that my bed was assembled in the corner of the room, with an old duvet with an old ‘Winnie The Pooh’ bed sheet covering it. One corner of my room was filled with around right boxes - three of them were clothes, two were all my CDs, DVDs and books, whilst another had my small TV and a DVD player in it, along with a small cheap walkman with a pair of speakers. The other two boxes were filled with other various bits and pieces, posters, photos, some old toys and other things of that nature. I pulled out my walkman and speakers, and grabbed a CD out of the box at random, and the began assembling the bookshelf whilst Slipknot’s “Iowa” album played out.

Once I had done with the bookshelf - an easy job to do, Ashlee could’ve managed to assemble it herself, I began emptying the box containing the CDs and placing them on the shelf. Once I had done that, I started placing some photographs on the shelves, stopping when I reached some more recent photographs. It soon dawned on me that my CD had stopped playing, and I was still staring at the same photos. They made me miss London even more, and I wasn’t even that far away.

Fuck.

**

“Bye, Mum!” I called out, stepping out of the front door. The smell of the sea lingered in the air, a smell I wasn’t getting used to quickly. I pulled my jacket further around body, the street was empty majority of the curtains were still drawn on the houses, and I managed to find the back alleys with ease. I could remember the route easily enough that James showed me, and soon ended up on the main street. I could recall seeing a could of arcades in amongst the small ‘fun fair’ rides on one of the piers, so I headed in that general direction until I found the place I had found. I walked around, looking for any games that caught my attention, and saw a Pacman machine. A classic game, which could always get the gamer in me out. I placed the correct amount of money into the slot, and the game loaded up instantly.

“Hey, Ava!” A voice called out, just as I was on my last life. I turned around, confused as to who would know my name when I had only just moved there.

James.

It turned out that James was almost as big as a Pacman geek as me, and had came to the arcade to play on that game. As we were talking, I was oblivious to my last life being taken away by the ghost ‘Blinky’ and only realised what had happened when the words “High Score” flashed on the screen.

“Ahh, better luck next time! Mind you, you’ll never beat me.” he said laughing as he heard the music that signified the death of the game.

“Oh, are you the James I just beat on the high score?” I asked him, laughing at his face when he realised that I had indeed beaten score on pacman, and with skill by just ten points. As I looked at the other high scores by the name “James” it seemed like him getting the highest score was a fluke, and he hadn’t got anywhere near to it again. “God, you need to get a life!”

“I need to get a life? Excuse me Miss “I just moved here, but I’ve already got the high-score on pacman!” He said laughing along with me, “But that totally deserves an ice-cream. I’m buying”

“Nah, I’ll buy. A ‘sorry for kicking your ass’ gift.” I said, “And what is it with ice-cream here? Is that all what you eat here? Because I could kill for a burger.”

“There’s a McDonalds up the road, if you wanna go there.” He said, and I nodded, before adding that I was starving and might just order three meals for myself. We began walking down the street, James leading the way, when I recognised a familiar golden arch in the distance, and looked over to James who had also noticed it.

“Race you there!” he said, beginning to run down the street, gaining weird looks from people. I began following him at a pace, soon catching him up, and not wanting to be a loser, I hit him in the shin with my bag to gain the lead. Together we pushed the doors open and ran into an empty McDonalds, laughing loudly which disturbed very few customers from their Big Macs, which frankly they could do distracting from as they looked like they never left the place, and the congregation of the workforce behind the counter. We stifled our laughter as we approached the counter, aware of the looks people were giving us.

“I’d like a happy meal with extra happy.” I said to a spotty guy behind the counter, who had a face like a smacked arse and didn’t even crack a smile at my joke, although I think James was laughing enough for the whole of the room He seemed like the only person in Southend with a sense of humour. The guy behind the counter seemed to rush extremely quickly to get our food, slamming it down onto the tray and almost hissing when we asked politely for some ketchup. We took our food over to one of the corners by the window, with those large spinning chairs in the bright green and purple and orange colours, the kind of chair Dr Evil sits in in Austin Powers.

“I don’t think they seemed pleased to see us” James said, slipping into the seat across from me.

“Oh, you’ll get used to it. I have that effect on everyone.” I said, watching James take a huge bite out of his Big Mac as I casually place a few fries into my mouth, suddenly aware that I was with a guy, so although I was starving, I didn’t want to be seen stuffing my face.

“I thought you were starving?” James asked me, raising an eyebrow, “You’re barely touching your food.”

“I’m savouring it,” I said, “Trust me, you’d understand if you’ve ever tried my mums cooking. She almost burnt the house down by cooking oven chips, and generally a chip pan is needed for that.”

“Sounds like your mums got talent.” he said laughing. He had almost finished massacring his burger, yet I had barely started on my chicken nuggets. “How are you settling in, it was your first night here last night, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” I said agreeing with what he said, “It’ll be better once my room is done how I want it. So, I can either paint it myself or wait for my mum to do it. I don’t know which idea would be wiser.

“Does it need painting?” He asked me and I nodded, “I’ll help you. You could have a paint party or something.”

“A paint party sounds awesome. Slight problem. I don’t know anybody except you.” I said to him sighing.

“We should go down to the skate park.” He said aloud to himself, looking at the few strands of lettuce left in the box his burger came in, “Matt and them should be there. They’re awesome. You’ll love them, and they’ll love you.”

“Wow, you could be the new hitch.” I said sarcastically, “But sure. Why not.” I agreed and huge smile appeared on his face once I said that. He chucked the cardboard cartons into the main bag his food came in and quickly walked over to the bin.

“Come on then, let’s go.” He said, looking at me as if I was crazy for still eating my meal and sitting down. I held up the box my chicken nuggets came in and my drink of coke, and he looked at me with a confused look on his face.

“Uh. Girl here. Food still on plate. Doesn’t eat like a pig.” I said laughing, and he slumped back in his chair laughing as I finished my meal.