Unfamiliar Ceilings

It’s been three days since the encounter in Dean’s bedroom, and I hadn’t seen either of the Owens brothers. During those three days, I finished decorating my bedroom, helped Stephanie clean the whole house and made the phone calls home that I’d managed to postpone until then.

I’d missed so much, considering I’d been gone little under a month. Melanie and Ryan were now officially some kind of item, which I may have been really, really unhappy about a few weeks ago. Now I don’t care. It felt like London was my home, Mark’s house was mine and Stephanie was my mum and that’s all I needed. I didn’t need Melanie or her back-stabbing ways, or boys with dark eyes that went for previously mentioned backstabbers.

At around half past ten on the day I finished my bedroom, as I was standing back to admire my work, my phone started ringing from the vanity table covered in an old bed sheet to protect it from any paint damage. I didn’t know the number and almost decided to let it ring out. I pressed pause on my iPod dock, stopping the flow of Fate by Lydia and pressed the answer button.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Hey, Leila?” a female voice spoke. “It’s Anna. I know this sounds really weird, and really stalker-ish, but I got your number off Johnny on Friday. He mentioned he hadn’t seen you a lot since then.”

“Oh, yeah. Hi, Anna,” I said, smiling slightly. “Yeah. I’ve been a bit too busy to come out over the past couple of days.” Plus I feel like a complete outside whenever I go around with people I don’t know.

“Oh, understandable.” She laughed. “In that case, I was wondering if you wanted to come shopping with me today? If you don’t it’s seriously fine, I’d just like to get to know you more.”

“Sure,” I said. “That’d be good. When and where?”

We set up a time and a place to meet and I asked Stephanie is she’d be willing to drop me off there. She said it was fine and she was glad I was getting out of the house again. Since I’d only not gone out of the house in three days, I don’t even know what she meant by that. I’d just about finished getting ready, dressed simply in an oversized white CGCB’s tank top, a pair of denim shorts, and my old black boots, finished off with plain grey, knee-high socks. I left my hair as it was and applied my make-up.

Stephanie was waiting out by the front door. It was open and she seemed to be talking to somebody. I walked carefully down the stairs and made my way over to her. I scowled a little bit when I saw Dean standing there, making chat with my stepmother and no doubt working his charm on her. I hitched my red and white striped tote bag back up onto my shoulder, tapping my foot a bit as I waited.

“Oh, Leila, there you are,” Stephanie said. “Dean said he’d like a word with you.”

And then she winked at me, and walked off to her car. She unlocked the driver’s side of the car and climbed in, just sitting there waiting for me. Mental.

“What do you want?” I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest. So not in the mood for more Dean related drama.

“I came over to apologise actually,” he said, looking down at his feet. He seemed really uncomfortable; he obviously didn’t do this a lot. “I was out of order.”

“Johnny put you up to this?” I sighed, exiting the house and closing the door behind me. I was going to walk away over to the car before he could respond, but his hand was on my elbow before I could.

“No!” he said, looking at me this time. “He doesn’t even know about it.”

I nodded and patted his arm, like the patronising cow I was and went to walk away again. “If that’s everything, I have to go.”

“Actually,” he said, stopping me where I stood. “I was wondering if you wanted to do something today...but you’re obviously busy. So, maybe later?”

I raised my eyebrows. “What?”

“Do you want to do something later? As in, tonight?”

“I have plans with Anna, and you’re an arse.”

He scowled and rolled his eyes. “Come on, I’m trying to be nice. Think of it as my way of apologising, please?”

Wow, did Dean Owens just show me he had manners? Like, actually, gentlemanly manners? Okay, so this was a bit priceless; I never thought he’d talk to me again, never mind actually apologise, and then want to make it up to me. It was cute, and he did look absolutely gorgeous today with his hair all silky, in a white Fred Perry polo shirt and a pair of dark skinny jeans.

I thought for a second before saying, “Fine. What you got planned?”

He laughed. “I don’t know. Film? Food? Sound okay?”

I just sighed and shook my head while I shot him a little smile. “Okay. I should be home around six.”

Okay, has somebody finally given this boy a slap? Or a personality transplant? After I agreed he smiled like a little kid on Christmas morning, gave me some awkward, one-armed, sideways hug and trotted back down the path, out of the gate and back to his own home. Surreal.

*****
“So, you don’t like Radiohead?” Anna asked again. Why could these people not grasp a simple concept?

“No, I didn’t say that,” I laughed, walking alongside her. “I said they were okay. Placebo are still better.”

She scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Johnny said you were mental, but preferring Placebo over Radiohead?”

I know I love how Johnny has the exact same opinion too. I couldn’t help noticing how well...undeniably perfect they were for each other. I briefly considered bringing him into conversation, but then scared myself completely with the possibility that she’d think I was either a) a crazy bitch who wants to get into her business or b) desperately lusting after Johnny, so I wanted to know if she liked him.

So, I didn’t want to ruin a chance at the only normal friendship – aside from Johnny – that I’d be able to build up while I was here.

We’d been at it for about three hours, walking through central London and looking into shop windows. Apparently Anna’s family were rolling in it, so she could afford the whole of Oxford Street or something. It made me smile how she’d rather go bargain hunting with me than actually spend money on clothes that were over £20. It was around three in the afternoon, and we each had three bags apiece. Anna had taken charge of my newly charged iPod, deciding she loved everything but Placebo on it and calling a veto on that for the rest of the day.

Anna was humming along to something by The Vines as we thumbed through the racks of a very, very dusty old vintage shop that she’d introduced me to. I felt extremely plain standing next to Anna, with her bright pink hair cropped short and her eccentric fashion. The girl could make a potato sack look like the next Versace creation or something.

“Hey, we should play a game,” she laughed, grimacing at a rack of Christmas-style sweater-vests that smelled of mothballs. “You pick me something to try, I’ll pick you something.”

What could it hurt? I nodded my head and went through the racks of clothes. The joker in me found her a pair of bright blue plaid golf trousers, one of the mothball sweaters, a black slip dress with insane geometric patterns on it and a Trainspotting T-shirt.

She looked at my stack apprehensively. “I may have met my match.”

She laughed and we swapped piles, dragging those and the rest of our things into the only two changing rooms the shop offered at the back. Just after I’d struggled into a pair of leather bell bottoms – are leather bell bottoms even possible? – Anna whipped back my curtain and struck a pose in her golf trousers and the sweater vest.

“Plaid is already good,” she pouted. “I just make it better.”

I laughed and shook my head. She then looked down at my bottom half and raised her eyebrows, and I saw her eyes pop out of her head.

“You should wear leather pants more often,” she laughed. “Okay, next change!”

I laughed and mumbled a quick shut up before going back to the pile of clothes, glad to be rid of the sticky leather trousers. I grabbed a brown checked shirt with a white stain on the sleeve – don’t want to know. The only problem aside from the stain was that it stopped about ten centimetres above my navel. I paired that with my denim shorts and waddled through Anna’s curtain.

She caught sight of me in the mirror and laughed. “You look like Jessica Simpson in the Dukes of Hazard film. But dark.”

“Momma told me to bring in the pigs,” I chuckled, putting on my best hillbilly voice. Anna laughed again and adjusted the black dress with the patterns.

“I hate you,” I said. “That actually looks so nice.”

“I don’t know,” she smirked. “I liked the pants more.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah. Seriously, you should get the dress. It looks so nice.”

She just smiled at me in the mirror before turning around and shoving me out of the changing room, telling me to get dressed because she was hungry. I caught the eye of the shop owner’s son behind the counter. He was staring at me open-mouthed, eyes glued to my stomach. I gave him a quick wink and slipped back into the changing room.

I swear Anna’s personality’s rubbing off on me.

*****
Anna bought the dress in the end, after much convincing from me. We found a little cafe around the corner from the shop we’d come from to have some food. I wasn’t too hungry, so I just ordered a cup of tea and a biscuit, while Anna had a lovely greasy baby cow on bread...just saying.

“So,” I said, while she dipped her chips in some tomato sauce. “You and Johnny?”

She rolled her eyes. “Not what it looks like. We’re just good friends.”

“Hm,” I murmured nonchalantly, swirling the wooden stirrer in my tea. “I thought you liked him when I first saw you together.”

“Nah, wrong idea, Leila,” she smiled. “He’s like a brother to me.”

I just returned her smile and let the subject go. Poor Johnny. I drank the last of my tea and checked the time on my phone. It was five o’clock. Mark’s is at least half an hour away from here, I’m sure. I looked back up at Anna, who’d just finished chewing the last of her burger and gave me a curious look.

“I have to get home,” I said. “I have plans with D-Stephanie.” Stupid! Why didn’t you say “dad”?! That begins with D too!

Anna just nodded, extremely slowly and gave me a look that resembled insanity – I’m assuming she thought it looked knowing. It didn’t. As long as she didn’t tell me to be careful, I won’t have to murder her where she stands. She offered to walk me to my bus stop.

“Yeah, whichever one that is,” I laughed. She gave me an incredulous look and I said, “What?! Every time I’ve been here I’ve had a lift off somebody.”

“Wow, you’re such a princess,” she smiled. “What would you do without me then?”

I had an urge to say “ring Stephanie”, but thought better of it. She showed me the way to a huge bus terminal, where there was a bus for every part of London; Croydon to Vauxhall, Central to Camden. She dragged me up to the board full of destinations and which bus to reach it. I told her the name of Mark’s road and discovered she lived a few streets over from it, in which case, I’d be catching the same bus as her. The ride back was a silent one, and I think I checked the time on my phone every couple of seconds, and fiddled with the end of my shorts or my hair nervously.

Anna just laughed and rolled her eyes at me. Cow.

Before I could even check the time on my phone again (5.34pm), Anna was standing up and pulling me along with her, off the bus and onto the corner of Mark’s road. She hugged me goodbye and whispered something that sounded curiously like “good luck” in my ear, before I started trailing back to Mark’s house, trying my hardest not to hyperventilate and basically act like a total girl.

Why was I so nervous? It was just Dean, wasn’t it? An arrogant, conceited arse with an ego the size of bleeding Russia. Why do I care? I thought it might have been that little glimpse at his nicer side this morning that got me nervous. He had two sides to him, but I hadn’t found that out yet.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Mark called when he heard me come through the front door. “Have a good day?”

I made my way to the kitchen, leaning against the doorframe. I smiled and said, “Yeah, really got to know Anna better too.”

“She seems like a nice girl,” he said.

“You’ve never met her.”

“I trust your judgement.”

I laughed and shook my head, turning around to make my way upstairs. I had less than half an hour to get showered and changed. I called back to Mark that I’d made plans for the night, and he shouted back the normal curfew of one in the morning, though I doubt I’d be out that late.

So, after taking the world’s fastest shower ever, I flung open my wardrobe doors and searched through the bags for something appropriate. Cinema? Casual? Yes. I was in the midst of leaning over to pick up my plain black, spaghetti strapped dress when my text tone sounded loudly from behind me on the bed. I flipped it up and read it:

From:Dean Owens
Time: 5:57pm

Hope you didn’t forget. I’ll be round in about fifteen minutes – D

Poo.