The Weekend - Completed

Chapter 43

The weeks which followed were unbearably tedious; at least Spain had the benefit of guaranteed sunshine. Inevitably the British summer had promised a lot in early June when I had been revising, bright beautiful days blazing through my window, enticing me from my books into the heady, flower scented warmth that lay beyond. Oh yeah those days were long gone, all I'd seen since I'd gotten back was rain, rain and more rain.

Stupidly I'd allowed myself to be tricked by the weather gods on a couple of occasions, foolishly thinking the first rays of sunshine in the morning meant a rare sunny day. After surprising myself by how much I'd enjoyed running those times I'd done it in Wrexham, on days when the weather permitted I would set off early, before the neighbour's kids could see me and pass comment. I loved the nothingness of it, in much the same way I enjoyed swimming; however what I didn't love was my uncanny ability to reach the furthest most point from my house and the heavens open. Without fail I'd come back like a drown rat every time, it was getting beyond a joke.

I'd never really been one to lie in bed half the day, unless sick I'm usually up by seven, so the days were long, really, really long. Add that to Katie being indisposed, I was desperately in need of a distraction. I can't really blame her; I'd made the same plans, to spend the entire summer with my boyfriend. It was hardly her fault that had gone tits up, besides I wanted her to be happy and God only knows why but Chris made her happy.

No I needed something to do, my final year was fast approaching and I still hadn't decided on a dissertation topic, perfect!! So until I returned to university I threw myself into my studies, I knew I'd scraped through last year and I had a lot of catching up to do. Yeah I had plenty to keep me busy.

After what seemed like the wettest and most definitely the longest summer holidays on record, it was finally time to return to Uni for my final year.

Walking back through the huge doors of the impressive red brick building I closed my eyes for a second and sighed, I was glad to be back, back to a routine I knew. Only two years earlier when I'd stood in the great foyer of the historic and architecturally impressive construct I remembered my hands shaking in my coat pockets as I scanned the impossibly high ceilings, overwrought and intimidated by its sheer enormity. How things change, now as I look round familiarity has lessened the vast space, making this beautiful entrances one of my favourite places on campus. All intimidation gone, walking in now is like being greeted by an old friend, one who doesn't know about your shitty summer, or care about it for that matter. No, here was about moving forward, getting on with the rest of my life, and whether I was ready or not was inconsequential. This place would wait for no-one, and so with desperately needed and enforced focus I made my way to my first lecture.

The damp smell of the old room hit me as soon as I stepped through the doors, well that and the unmistakable odour of my peers. I had always been dumbfounded by how good-looking every male student in Wrexham was; they clearly had my class's quota of hotties as well. My classmates were all your typical maths geeks, bumbling brainiacs, who when forced to interact with a member of the opposite sex disintegrated into self-conscious, awkwardly hormonal, quivering idiots. I smiled to myself as I took my seat; this was something else I could rely on.

There were only two other girls in my class, they had paired up on the very first day, two years ago, and saw themselves as the class eye candy. Both fairly nice, in their own way, but I feared the confidence they'd build in the two years they'd been here would be obliterated the minute they stepped back into the real world. Both girls were very plain and very frumpy, but very nice as I said before. They had once told me they had the whole geek chic thing going on, I'd smiled politely and nodded but in the back of my mind my subconscious had shouted 'freak chic more like it' to myself. But looking at them now, I could see their hope and enthusiasm radiating off them like an invisible aura. Their smiles and eyes huge and bright, I watched them enviously as they talked animatedly about their wonderful summers, with arms thrown wide to emphasise their point.