Undercurrent

Chapter 4

I got off the bus a few stops earlier than I'd planned to. After a pretty full-on day of filling in forms and listening to talks that I was pretending to be interested in, I decided I needed a bit of quiet. I took the coastal path, heading down towards the beach. I hadn't really planned to end up there but somehow, my feet seemed to know where to go. I needed to be somewhere familiar; I needed somewhere to recharge a bit.

I reached the rocks fairly quickly, sat down and looked around. For September, it was still quite warm so the breeze coming off the water wasn't a problem. I started flicking lazily through some of the leaflets I'd picked up from the stalls that had been around the college. I wasn't really sure how interested I was in any of them, but I suppose I'd felt like I should take them to be polite.

"Hey stranger," I heard Zach coming across the stony beach. "Thought you'd forgotten about me."

I swatted him with my handful leaflets as he sat down next to me. "I saw you the other day! You're starting to get clingy, you know?" I laughed. "How did you know I'd be here anyway?"

"Didn't," he said, pulling his knees up to his chest. "Just thought I'd come down here for a bit after school. Needed a bit of peace."

"Snap."

He turned to me. "How was your first day? Make lots of new friends?"

"You know me: social butterfly."

"I'll take that as a no, then," he smirked. "So, anything interesting happen?"

"Well, let's see," I thought back over the day. "I nearly missed the bus because Mum decided we needed to have a full-on banquet for breakfast, ended up in the wrong line for ages and then thought it'd be a good idea to barge into someone on the stairs and throw myself on the floor for good measure." I decided not to mention that I sort of knew the girl I'd bumped into. It wasn't like we were friends or anything so I didn't think there was much point.

Zach burst out laughing. "Of course you did. Classic Nina!" He was right, it really was.

"Go on then," I said, wanting to take the focus away from me. "How was your first day?"

"Same old, same old really. It's not like I'm anywhere new, so it doesn't really feel like a huge deal, I guess," he sighed. "It's nice not having to do PE though."

"You could have come to St James' with me," I said quietly, knowing exactly how he'd respond.

"You know I don't like change, Nina," he said, not looking at me. It was true, he didn't. Even down to the clothes he wore, nothing ever changed with Zach. He was very much a creature of habit, almost like he was trapped in a repeating cycle, choosing the same things over and over.

"I know," I said, squeezing his arm. "I know you don't."

We sat quietly for a minute or two. Silence never felt uncomfortable when I was with Zach. I didn't have this overpowering need to fill it with nonsense.

After a while, Zach reached over and took one of the leaflets that was sticking out of my bag. "Carter's Café and Catering?" he said, scanning the page. "You planning a party?"

"Very funny," I said, leaning to look at it too. "I just picked up a bunch of leaflets at the registration earlier. Felt like I needed to show my support, you know?"

"That's a relief," he grinned. "Thought I'd have to tell your Mum that you're fraternising with enemy cafés."

The café!

"Damn! I've got to go," I jumped up, stuffing my things back into my bag. "Oh God, she's going to kill me – I said I'd take over straight after college. Sorry, Zach, I'll see you at the weekend though?"

He nodded as I sped away, towards the path that led up to the road above. I looked back to wave as I reached the top but I couldn't see him. I figured he'd decided to head home too.

*

It was just gone four when I got to the café. Mum looked pretty flustered when I ran through the door. She was sat at one of the tables, looking over a spreadsheet on her laptop. I stopped, out of breath, and piled all my things down behind the counter.

"I'm so sorry, Mum!" I said, feeling terrible for forgetting to come straight from college. "I completely lost track of time and –"

"It's fine," Mum cut me off. "Don't worry about it, Nina."

Ouch. She only ever called me Nina when she wasn't happy with me. I grabbed an apron and quickly tied it. "Have you still got time to get to the bank?"

"It closed at four," she said.

Damn. I'd really messed up.

The bell above the door rang and a couple of people came in. They only wanted two coffees to take away. I didn't realise quite how quickly the summer rush would disappear. No wonder Mum was starting to get really stressed about keeping going over the winter.

I looked over to her. She was muttering something to herself as she scanned the screen in front of her, then sighed and ran her hand through her hair in frustration.

"Mum? I really am sorry," I said, the words spilling out. I knew that if I didn't get them out quickly, I wouldn't be able to say them at all. "I didn't mean to be so late. It's just that time ran away from me."

I watched as Mum's shoulders relaxed before she spoke. "No, I'm sorry, love. I shouldn't be relying on you to keep the business going. You should be out, having fun. Not rushing back to take over here. It's not like there's anything to do anyway, we've been dead all day."

"Oh," I said, quietly. "I'm sure it'll pick up again. Maybe it's just because everyone's back at school today."

"Speaking of which," said Mum, closing her laptop and taking my hand in hers. "Tell me all about your first day. How was it?"

"Well, there's not really much to tell, Mum. It was just registration and then a couple of talks, nothing exciting to report," I said, relieved that she seemed back to her normal self.

"Oh, well, never mind. I'm sure tomorrow will be more interesting," she said. "Did you meet anyone? What about the girl that was here yesterday? She seemed nice."

"No, not really," I said quickly. "I'll probably meet some more people tomorrow, though."

"Oh, I wondered if you were with some new friends after school."

"No, I went down to the beach for a bit."

"I see," she was quiet for a moment. I knew what was coming. "I do wish you weren't still so hung up on Zach, you know? You're going to cut yourself off from everyone else if you don't start opening up to other people."

"I'm fine, Mum, honestly."

She sighed. "You think you're fine now, baby, but one day you'll realise that you've missed out on so much because your life revolves around one person. One person can't give you everything you need from life, Nini. Even if Zach were –"

"I know," I cut in quickly. Mum looked taken aback by my abruptness. "I know. Look, I'll try and meet some more people, Mum. I will. I just find it hard sometimes. I'm not exactly a natural at conversation."

Mum smiled at me and I rested my head on her shoulder. "Nini, you have so much to offer but you need to start putting yourself out there a bit more. Talk to people, join some clubs, make some friends. This is supposed to be a fresh start, yeah?"

I nodded. I knew she was right.