HELPLINE

ELEVEN

E L E V E N // I S A A C

The next day, I arrived at Mike's and Shania's flat at about eight, the same time as Henry Waters.

"Hey," he nodded. "And don't worry, Shania promised she's cooking."

"Isaac! Henry! Hi!"

Shania - who was much shorter than I thought she would be - enveloped me and Henry in a bear hug. "I'm so glad you came!"

"What else were we going to do?" Henry muttered grumpily, and Shania slapped his arm lightly.

"I was being polite," she hissed, and then turned to face me with an almost blinding smile. "In you go, Isaac, love."

The flat was almost cold - which was brilliant, because it was still boiling outside - and cosy, with cushions and bright colours everywhere.

"Now," Shania said, sitting us down and leaning backwards on the balls of her feet. "You're probably wondering why Mike's not here -"

"No," henry said, paling slightly.

Shania grimaced. "He promised it's a fail-safe recipe -"

She and Henry then proceeded to have some sort of stare-off.

"I'm sure it'll be lovely!" I said.

Neither one of them replied.

❄

Half an hour later, we were all sitting down for dinner. Mike seemed cool - he played rugby - and the fish pie in front of us didn't look too bad. It looked nice.

Mike helped us all to some pie and we both dug in immediately - Shania and Henry, however, decided to just stare at their plate for several minutes.

Then i tasted the fish.

❄

Subtly, I excused myself from the table. for some reason, I had decided to keep on eating the fish, which was practically raw, and I could feel my stomach punishing me.

I hurried into the bathroom (Shania gave me directions) and I was just having a drink of water when Henry appeared behind me.

"Hey," he smiled, "You okay?"

And then it occurred to me how good Henry Waters looked tonight, with curly hair and his nice blue jacket, and how much I really wanted to kiss him -

Then I threw up on his shoes.

❄

a.n: now edited