The Play -Complete

It was Sunday. Alan called my mobile but I ignored it. I didn’t know what to say to him after he told me he loved me the night before and I left the Theatre before he could catch me. He left me a massage but I didn’t listen to it. I had to get my head straight first and I knew hearing his voice again would just send me over the edge.



I wandered into the lounge and plonked myself onto the sofa next to Tina, who looked over at me.



‘Trouble in paradise, Carrie?’ She raised her eyebrows. I hadn’t told her a thing about Alan, I wouldn’t have been able to bear the third degree.



‘Could say that.’ I muttered and stared at the TV screen. ‘Tina, how do you know if you are in love with someone?’



‘Oh my god. Cal’s in love with you!’ She exclaimed and grabbed a cushion, hugged it to herself.



I sighed inwardly. ‘Say he is, right, and he’s told me that he loves me, but I don’t know how I feel about him…what do you think I should do?’ I bit my lip. Tina was sometimes good at giving advice, but only sometimes and I had no one else to ask.



‘You need to work out how you DO feel about him. Maybe compare it to how you felt about Craig, when you loved him obviously, not when he did the dirty on you.’ Tina looked at me closely as if trying to se my brain working.



‘I thought about Craig all the time…’ I mused ‘ and thinking about him, his voice, his kisses, made my stomach flip… all I wanted to do was to be with him…’



‘Well.. that’s either a crush or the start of true love, but I think there’s more to a real love than that. It’s not just about sex and snogging!’ Tina guffawed, her ginger curls bouncing around her shoulders with mirth.



‘Well, what if you feel all that but you also enjoy the person’s company, even when you’re not talking? And you have a lot in common, taste in music, films…acting..’ I stared at her. She was doing OK today.



‘Then you have friendship. You need friendship when you love someone.’ Tina stated simply.



I grinned at her, then started to laugh. I grabbed her cushion and threw it back at her.



‘Oh my god, Tina… I’m in love…’ I gasped, then realised I had ignored Alan’s call and ignored his message.



‘Phone!’ I cried and ran into my room to get my mobile, running back into the room to sit back down again as Tina say beside me, giggling as I tried to listen to the message. Tina was still giggling as I heard Alan’s voice drawling into the phone and my jaw dropped. I closed the phone and stared at it, then at Tina.



‘What time is it?’ I mumbled.



‘Half ten…. Carrie, what is it?’ Tina touched my shoulder gently.



‘He’s coming here…ten minutes…’ I was dumfounded. I couldn’t hide him from Tina now. I looked down at my fuzzy pyjamas and groaned. ‘Gotta get changed!’ I cried. ‘Don’t answer the door, Tina… I’ll get it when he gets here…’’



I leapt up and into the bathroom, turning on the shower quickly and letting the hot water soak my hair and glide over my skin as I grabbed my razor. I shaved my legs quickly, trying hard not to nick the skin and jumped out of the shower and into the bedroom, rummaging in my drawers for clothes. I seriously needed to do laundry and I had nothing to wear for lunch. That was the message. We are going for lunch. Not an invitation, it was a direct instruction. What had happened to my independent ‘no one tells me what to do’ streak I don’t know. I knew I couldn’t find clean knickers and that the dress I wanted to wear was screwed up in a ball at the bottom of my overflowing laundry bin. I bounced to the wardrobe and flung it open. Denim skirt, that will do, and the red gypsy top Craig never liked so I never wore it… perfect. Now, I still needed knickers…



My heart stopped as I heard the doorbell go. Tina was half way down the stairs and I followed her quickly. ‘I’ll get it Tina!’ I cried as I ran after her, my towel just covering my modesty.



‘Don’t be daft, you need clothes on… get dressed, I’ll get him a coffee…’ Tina waved me away. I followed her anyway. I had to see this for myself.



I stood on the stairs as Tina opened the door. Alan was wearing a dark blue suit with a white shirt, opened at the neck. He was carrying a large bunch of yellow roses. He looked so handsome my heart was in my mouth and I almost forgot about Tina. She wasn’t speaking, in fact she was just staring. Alan smiled at her.



‘Hello. You must be Tina. Is Carrie there?’ He asked her. Tina nodded and pointed up at me, not taking her eyes from his face. I sighed, I knew it would be this bad, I just knew it. I wrapped the towel around myself and padded down the stairs, pulling Tina aside by her shoulders.



‘Come in Alan, please. Ignore the mess… we’re poor students with no cleaner!’ I grinned.



Alan smiled a little tight smile at me. He looked uncomfortable and nodded at Tina. ‘She OK?’



‘Ahh…she just loves you. Like we all do.’ I caught his eye and smiled at him.



He opened his eyes wide and smiled back before breathing a sigh. ‘Thank God…’ He whispered. ‘These are for you, by the way…’ He handed me the roses, they smelled wonderful.



I turned to Tina and clicked my fingers in her face. ‘You said you would make him a coffee, Tina… you can remember where the coffee is, can’t you?’ I laughed as I pushed her up the stairs.



Tina turned to me half way up, causing Alan to bump into me as I stopped. Putting her hands on hr hips her eyes glared brightly. ‘You told me it was Cal you were in love with!’ She spat at me. Oh god, here we go, I thought.



Alan peered around my waist slightly. ‘That’s my fault, Tina. I made her promise to keep me a secret until I knew where we were heading. Now I know, she doesn’t have to hide me any more. I’m sorry. Will you ever forgive me?’ He grinned at her.



Oh he was very smooth. Tina beamed at him. ‘Sure, Alan..’ she purred his name and I rolled my eyes at her ‘I forgive you. Coffee is it?’ She danced up the stairs and I turned to look at him.



‘Nice one, thanks!’ I smiled.



‘You’re welcome. Tina will be the least of your worries soon anyway.’ He smiled at me ‘I have a surprise for you…’



‘Really? Hope it’s a good one! Come up, but don’t go into Tina’s room…she has a shrine dedicated to you in there that would make your toes curl…’ I walked up the stairs and showed Alan into the lounge, grabbed my furry slippers and went to get changed.



When I walked back into the lounge there was no sign of Alan…or Tina. Curious, I wandered down the hallway and could hear voices from Tina’s room. I stood at the door and grinned. Alan was signing all of her pictures of him that she had stuck around her mirror, and the huge posters on her wall. Tina was glowing and I laughed at her.



‘Where’s your camera, Tina?’ I asked her. Her eyes flew wide.



‘Oh my god! YES!’ She cried out. Alan chuckled and stood smiling, his arm around her shoulder as they posed for photographs. ‘Thanks so much Alan…’ she gushed.



‘My pleasure. Now, I have an important date… see you soon, I hope, Tina…’ He handed her his coffee cup and she gazed at it. I sighed and knew she would never wash it as long as she lived.









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OK, Ok... I wasn't planning of having them fall in love, it just sort of happened, what can you do...they have minds of their own these characters.



Still... lemons coming...one more chapter than the epilogue