Call Of The Deep

Chapter Two

Singing

I woke up later than I had hoped, for I had wished to spend as much time as possible with Jeremy. Throwing on my clothes I rummaged through my draws searching for my hardly used purse and handbag. The handbag was purple fake crocodile skin and the clasp purse had white stars and a red background. I threw my mauve leather gloves in my bag along with my red phone. The usual contents of my bag would be makeup, wipes and loose change but I needed more than that if I was going out. I was ready to go and somehow managed to choke down the cold, over-milky burnt porridge my mum had left out for me. Grabbing my keys, I shrugged on my coat and hurried out the door. Feeling slightly guilty for leaving my room in such a state, I took one last glance at the house before swinging open the gate and rushing off to the bus stop.

As soon as I turned the last corner, my eyes locked onto Jeremy and I wanted to run at top speed to him; but luckily I could restrain myself. He waved when he noticed me and I waved back, quickening my pace. Momentarily, everything else in my mind disappeared apart from me and him.

“Hey! Indigo! I’m afraid we can’t go to my house, my brothers would gossip. You know how siblings are.” He called to me, rolling his eyes. The sound of him saying my name sent shivers of delight down my spine. But he really didn’t know me. I was an only child, or so I believed. My parents never talked about their past with me, so for all I knew I could have lost siblings.

“Actually, I don’t know what siblings are like. I’m an only child.” I replied quietly, half to myself. He came towards me, probably in a gesture of comfort and said: ‘oh’. We caught the bus to a place not too far away from the school. From there we walked absent mindedly holding hands to the park. There were flower beds of polyanthus, tulips and bellis. Off in the distance you could hear children’s laughter drifting on the wind from the playground. The sun beat down on our faces even though it was mid September. This would probably be one of the last warm days of the year and I was glad I was spending it with Jeremy. Some of the trees were starting to lose their leaves. The bright colours of autumn were everywhere.

“Do you fancy an ice cream Jeremy? I brought my purse.” I offered.

“I can pay. I brought my wallet.” Replied Jeremy, grinning. We strolled towards the jolly looking ice cream van together.

“What do you want?” asked Jeremy at the back of the queue. He started smirking and shaking with laughter.

“A ninety nine flake please. And chocolate sauce if they have any. What’s so funny?” I replied eyeing the flavour menu. But Jeremy shook his head and carried on chuckling.

“Okay!  One ninety nine with chocolate sauce coming up!” Jeremy answered with a joking attitude. Finally, we reached the front of the queue and he said:

“Two ninety nine double flakes with chocolate sauce please dad! I’ll pay you back at home! This is my friend Indigo Oannes!” laughed Jeremy. I could see then why before he had started smirking. Blushing I greeted Jeremy’s dad and smiled. The big man was booming with laughter when we left; Jeremy turned around and stuck his tongue out. A ninety nine flake had never tasted as good as that one that day. I could feel a crush forming for him; I knew it wouldn’t be too long before I would be head over heels for him and I hoped in some ways he would feel the same. Off in the distance I could hear screams and booming music. I squinted against the sunlight and saw some sort of fun fair.

“Oh, Jeremy! Look there’s a funfair! Shall we go?” I exclaimed, excited by the idea of being on a ride with him. ‘On the ghost train I’d have an excuse to hold his hand.’ I thought to myself – I was conjuring up random plans to get closer to him.

“If you want to. Weird people hang around there though. I think it would be safer to stay within the park.” He answered. Mood dampened by his response, I started to doubt. “We could go on the park’s big wheel though.” He added. I snatched a glance at it and immediately agreed. Hurrying off, I took one last, longing look at the fun fair then hurried on. He offered his hand and I took it eagerly, a bit too eagerly.