The Gap Year

Chapter 11

'The electrics!!' I yelled in to the cheap mobile phone which had been 'kindly' provided by Select as part of their staff benefits plan. Which is very nice of them but there are few more basic items which they could have provided me with first. Like a light that works.

'Have you checked the fuse box?' Katie whispered.

'Never mind the fucking fuse box, I'm supposed to be relaxing. It's no wonder I'm a total nut job, I can't even live somewhere where the power just works as a matter of standard.'

'We are in Greece remember, these things happen.'

'I don't care where we are, now go get Dave and tell him to sort this!'

'But he's just about to sing "Summer Nights", there's no way I can interrupt him.' Of course he is. Thank God I escaped from Spiro's as soon as the annoying old couple sodded off.

'I don't care what he's about to sing, if you don't fix this Katie then that's it, I'm coming over there and it's the final curtain, shows over, vamoose.'

I grabbed the bottle of Ouzo from the kitchen table. Who cares about not drinking on a school night, self-annihilation is the only thing which is going to prevent me from storming the stage and knifing him, and yes, this is categorically Dave the Head Reps fault, since he is the one that holed us up, his beloved employees and beautiful girlfriend, in this shit tip. It really is Fingals Cave; all dark stone walls dripping in slime and way too much exposed wiring than can be legal.

I slumped down on the doorstep and opened the bottle. At least the floor is nice and warm, and this ouzo, wow...the aniseed tingled as I held it in my mouth, allowing it to drizzle down my throat like liquid gold. Why I'll just have another one, if you don't mind? Oh you don't, that's fantastic. Glug, glug, glug. Never mind that it belongs to Katie, he, he, he.

'You've got a problem with your electrics?'

Holy shit! I shoved the bottle of ouzo behind the thyme bush and stood up, staggering. Bloody hell that ouzo really is the strong stuff.

'Your power, it's cut out, right?' Do I look so confused that I need him to repeat himself?

'I heard you the first time.' I was just struggling to speak, which most certainly has to be the consequence of the copious amounts of alcohol that I've just consumed, and absolutely nothing to do with you, the person which Dave the Head Rep has obviously sent to rectify my problem, and who judging by the way you obviously tend to your tan and hair do clearly doesn't know the first thing about fuse boxes.