Breaking Hearts Has Never Looked So Cool

Through the kitchen doorway, you could just about get a clear view of the goings on in the living room. As I stirred the Bolognese sauce with all the care and attention my mother would have instilled in the task, I could see the guys frolicking around in the living room – generally acting like the little kids they were at heart.

“Can you believe they made us make dinner?” I said incredulously, “It’s such a cliché…sexists”

Annabelle was more just ‘pretending’ to help. She was fiddling with the spaghetti strands, hovering over the pan of boiling water in front of her before throwing them in to cook.

“I know,” she concurred, “But I’m actually pretty psyched because now I can talk to you about your long, long, steamy journey with Gerard,”

She drew out the vowels of long and steamy in a way that made her sound like she was trying to talk dirty. She grinned at me in her usual cheeky way, her eyes ablaze with the excitement of the situation; or perceived excitement, anyway.
I looked at her sceptically before responding, “there was nothing steamy about it,” I snapped, “and shh! They’ll hear you!” I gestured towards the doorway.
She half-glanced towards the living room. It seemed that Frank was running around the sofa as chased by Ray, while the others sat around laughing at their antics.

“They won’t!” she said, dropping her voice to a hiss all the same, “they’re not even listening at all,”
I sighed, peering anxiously at them again, “still…”

“Anyway,” she dropped the spaghetti strands into the fearsome boiling water, “it was certainly steamy enough to keep him distracted from the road…70 miles too far north indeed!” she winked at me cheekily.

“Shut up!” I replied playfully, “we were just talking and lost track of time…”

She smirked at me knowingly, “You like him, don’t you,” she said.

“No!” I answered a little too quickly, “can you fetch me some plates please?”
She shook her head at me and did as she was told, returning with 5 plates of different designs,

“Denial,” she said simply, crossing the room again to pull some cutlery out of a nearby drawer.

“Whatever,” I breathed, surveying the cooking of the meal in front of me.

“I must say,” she said, renewing her input into the conversation, “I’m disappointed that you didn’t make the most of that opportunity!”

“If you’re talking about Frank’s suggestion of, so eloquently put, ‘pulling over for a fuck,’ please desist now,” I said sarcastically,

She rolled her eyes and shoved me, but not too hard. “I meant about the rooming situation,” she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, “I shotgunned the double room with Mikey so that you and Gerard could take the double bed in the other room!”

My eyebrows shot up way into my fringe and I shook my head at her, “you are unreal,” I said, draining the pasta,

“However much you deny it,” she said, rushing forth to offer me her aid, “there’s chemistry between you two.”

‘Pay no attention to it,’ I told myself inwardly, trying to block out her words. ‘Don’t get too attached.’

We loaded portions of spaghetti Bolognese onto seven plates and placed them down. “Boys,” I called, feeling remarkably like a housewife from the 50s, “dinner’s on the table,”

They came thundering in like a herd of antelope and rather noisily took their seats.

“Awesome!” called Mikey, a smile stretching his features,

“Thanks cuz,” said Frank, taking the seat next to mine. Gerard had been hovering there as though he might have been planning to occupy that chair, but it seemed that Frank had been totally oblivious to that fact. For the second time that evening Frank had slightly disappointed me by becoming an obstruction to my…interest with Gerard. That was all I could think to describe it as. What the hell was it anyway?

The minute we all started eating, the conversation immediately died down, and was replaced with a sort of disgusting slurping that can only come from futile attempts to eat spaghetti gracefully.

“This is amazing,” said Ray enthusiastically, red sauce dripping down his chin, “really fucking amazing,”

Frank nodded, apparently unable to stop shovelling the stuff into his mouth to speak.

“Connie pretty much made it all by herself,” said Annabelle, looking glowingly at me,

“Is there anything the girl can’t do?” asked Gerard from his seat, his hazel eyes seeking mine out. When I looked at him, I was forced to immediately look down again, a blush rushing onto my face. I hoped furiously that no one had noticed and focused instead on trying to clear my plate in as lady like a way as possible.

What next? Possibly the worst end to an evening ever; full and sleepy, slightly exhausted from the day’s travelling, we decided to turn in and get the party properly started the following day. So much for being wild teenagers.

Returning from the bathroom with my teeth cleaned in my pyjamas made me feel slightly unnerved. The boys were all in bed already, and stalking into the room in a pair of alarmingly small red shorts and a long sleeved white top made me feel uncomfortably exposed. I could feel pairs of eyes on me, studying my legs and the small part of my midriff exposed; the top sat just above my hip bones.

‘Well,’ I thought cheerfully as I slid into bed with Frank, ‘at least I know someone wasn’t looking.’ Frank was like my twin brother.

“Night!” called out Ray, shutting out the light.

It had been an intriguing day. What worried me though, was the fact that the one face I saw in my mind before I managed to drift off to sleep was Gerard’s…

‘Don’t fall for him’ I told myself, but I knew in my heart that it was already too late…the process had already begun.