Place In My Heart

"Whoa." she heard as she left the room. She couldn't help but press her back against the stone coloured walls and linger by the open door way. She was slightly anxious to discover what sort of impression she had pressed on the thoughts of the people that had only been introduced to moments before. Judging by the outburst that first met her ears, and struck her curiosity, it was promising. A chauvinistic and slightly vulgar one- but decent none the less. She accepted it as flattery, but waited to hear something other than a monosyllabic utterance about her.

"Oh God, Nina. If I get depressed will you bring me a girl like that?"

"So you bring her into our lives for the gay one? Cheers Nina."

"Let me get this straight, you two shared a room for years? Jesus, I know what I'm getting off to tonight."

She held back the bubble of laughter that was burning the back of her throats, smiling silently instead. Her hand had been shaken four time within half an hour. Enough time for her mind to memorise each face and remember the name that accompanied it. She'd already grasped personality traits of each and was able to make an educated guess at who said what.

Yet the boys sitting in the living room weren't her reason for sitting along side Nina as they drove from London the day previous to be there, in a modest three bedroomed house in Helmsley. With a shake of her head, she pushed up from her slouched and supported position and stretched her weary muscles. Reaching skywards and raising onto the balls of her feet, to release the throbbing sensation that was constricting them.

Quietly, she stepped towards the bottom of the staircase. Before she moved any further, she bent her knee behind her and upwards, so she could catch the wooden heels she wore and slipped out of them. Placing the patent black courts beside a pair of brown leather shoes that pointed at the front. She took a second to admire how they complimented each other beautifully, a match in shoe heaven.

She wiggled her bare toes and bounced up the staircase quickly. She stuck to the vow she made mentally and didn't give the photographs on the wall anything more than a passing glimpse. She was slowly piecing together her own idea of what this boy looked like and didn't want to cheat her imagination.

He'd stayed in his bedroom upon her arrival. To her complete understanding and Nina's frustration. She'd insisted on giving him space, when her friend wanted to go and drag him down the stairs. Yet she was too tempted to steer completely clear, hence her making an excuse to use the toilet.

Judging by the soft sound that grew louder as she approached a firmly shut door, he was preoccupying himself with vocal practice. A luscious noise she was certain she was certain she heard on episodes of Hollyoaks and whenever she stepped inside Topshop.

She was never the sort to knock and a wait to be acknowledged. She preferred catching people off guard while they were mid-motion, rather than tap on the door and give them for-warning. Coralie's female, teenage heart skipped twice at what she walked into. Startled blue eyes peered widely between locks of curly chestnut hair. Mouth hanging wide and lyrics frozen on his tongue. Yet she initially noticed the exposed skin of his torso and her eyes wandered south to a pair of skin tugging trousers that no longer left anything to her imagination.

"Hello," she smirked lightly, pulling on the hemline of her blue gingham dress "I'm Nina's friend, Coralie."

He nodded, then quickly snatched his gaze away from her face and jumped off his unmade bed. She had to stop herself from protesting as he moved towards his wardrobe and pulled out a khaki coloured cardigan, slipping it on and buttoning it up. He faced her again, cheeks flushed in a natural blush that females strived to achieve with products.

"I'm George." he told her, and the short sentence spoken in his Northern accent made her internally swoon. She didn't give it away on her exterior, however.

He watched intensely as she invited herself into his room, falling onto his bed. Only making him extremely cautious of the relaxed girl. Where as he stood awkwardly in his own personal environment, not knowing what to do with himself.

"Your voice is amazing," she told him "it makes me actually want to buy your album and listen to it."

"You don't know who we are?" he asked quickly, hoping it didn't make himself pompous and that it came across that she should.

"I'm pretty sure you've appeared in the soundtrack of my every day life at some point, but not the starring song you think of straight away," she shrugged her shoulders. "Though, I desperately want to hear you properly now."

Finally, he smiled. Falling into a place beside her, but a gap between them that could have easily fit two more bodies in comfortably. "Your name is really pretty. It suits you."

He was surprised by what came out of his mouth as much as she was. It was the first compliment he had payed a girl outside his family, or close friends, for a very long time. He'd never wanted to until that moment, when it just seemed like natural instinct was taking over.

"Thank you," she accepted politely, tucking a strand of her honey coloured hair behind her ear "So George, you should feel pretty honored."

"Why's that, exactly?" he played along, smirking.

"You're the reason I've abandoned my very hectic life in London to spend some time in this lovely place. I must say I'm grateful. From what I've seen driving through, it's very beautiful."

"I take full credit for it, in that case."

She turned her face to look at him, feeling it'd be much easier than she expected to say the next few words like she planned "Do you fancy showing me around then? Tomorrow or something. Right now I want to do nothing more than go back to Nina's and recover from the car journey. I'm afraid I look and feel quite gross."

Then he paused. He knew she was doing this purely because of Nina, and that felt odd to him. What perplexed him was how he found himself wishing there was anything more behind that fact. An attraction, of some sort, on her side too. Yet it seemed all wrong for him to accept, he barely knew her and an organ inside his chest still possessed a dull ache for someone else.

"I'd love to." he said, smirk developing into a sincere smile.

She mimicked his action, before standing up and approaching the exit of his room. Coyly she looked over her shoulder and said softly "It's a date."

Before she completely disappeared out of his sight, he felt the need to slip in the final word of their brief encounter. "Coralie, if this is you looking gross, I'm desperately awaiting tomorrow." He cringed at his words, knowing that the sooner he got back into the swing of flirting, the better.

But he was relieved when she laughed sweetly, before walking away.