under the cover of darkness [g.r]

prologue - prom

I got my eyes on you, you're everything that I see. I want your hot love and emotion endlessly

June 2016

"I'm amazed he's actually bothered to show up." Dani snorted, looking over to the boys huddled in the corner of the pub. Stood there, at the centre of the fuss, was George, looking as tanned as ever. From the gleam of its stitching and the way it rippled over his forearms, nipping in at his toned waist, Abi could tell his suit was far more expensive than anyone elses.

"He probably just wants to show off his racing riches," Rachel's lips returning to her disintegrating paper straw as she spoke, breaking her sentence with a slurp of her rum and coke. "Like he gives a shit about any of us now he drives cars in circles and gets paid millions for it. You know, Martin said that he hasn't spoken to any of the lads since he got his contract; they were proper pissed off." She added, gesticulating so wildly that she spilt drink down her exposed collar, making Abi cough a laugh.

Abi was unable to take her eyes off the man across the room. He was laughing, eyes crinkled and lips in the widest of smiles. Her stomach swam, churning and adding to the anxiety that was permanently there. He kept clapping the boys on their arms, elbowing them like he had never been away. She wondered if he would approach the three girls who stood by the bar. She hoped he did, missing how he looked at her when she spoke. It had been a long six months, the last time the two had spoken was early in the morning on one of their camping trips. She couldn't remember what they spoke about, but she could remember the sweat that stuck to his cheek following his morning run and how he laughed at a terrible joke she had made.

"Earth to Abi?" Dani laughed, tapping her arm. Abi looked back to her friends, cheeks flushed in embarrassment, though she just rolled her eyes and downed the last of her wine. "You've never been able to be subtle." She grinned. "Like a lovesick puppy, gazing at him like that." Did she love George? Of course she did. She'd been in love with him since they were twelve. But they were polar opposites; George was loud, a joker, knew everybody and was loved by everybody. Abi still had people she had known all her teenage years ask her what her name was.

Even in the vast room packed with the other prom-goers, his laugh punched through the air and echoed around Abi's mind like a broken record. She downed glass after glass of wine until she was too engrossed in Dani's gap year plans to care. With each rosé, the anxiety grew, and the room span faster until she was cackling along with whatever it was that Rachel was talking about and gripping to the bar like it was a crutch, their classmates dancing around the LED dance floor, hips knocking, fingers grazing, lips meeting.

"Do you know if anyone has cigs?" It was midnight by then, and they were sat in the store room of the pub alone, the only sound the faint hum of music that filtered through from the thick wooden door. It had been Rachel's idea to sneak off, whispering she had managed to get a few grams from Dan that they could enjoy. Abi left the other two girls to it, perching on an unopened box of ready-salted Walkers and drinking wine from the bottle.

"Rich will; bet he'll charge an arm and a leg though," Dani said, rubbing at her nose and then fidgeting with the same piece of hair she had twirled around her finger for the last half an hour. Abi didn't smoke. She liked the idea of smoking, being able to slip away for ten minutes and be in the briskness of the British weather, but the taste was something she'd never liked and definitely could never get addicted to. Tonight, however, something was different.

Something was telling her to make mistakes.

"I'll go and find him." She said, standing and trying to brush the creases out of her dress. As she left the back room, ensuring the door was slammed shut behind her, the cool air hit her like a tidal wave. She dipped out into the smoking area and immediately spotted Rich.

Rich and Dani had been together since primary school and were somehow the healthiest couple Abi knew. They never spoke at school, but she had had to put up with many nights of third wheeling them or observing them from afar on one of their many camping holidays, where they would always sneak off when they thought no one was looking.

"Dani said you have cigs," Abi said, interrupting Rich's conversation with one of the other lads Abi had never really spoken to. "Can I have one?" Rich looked at her like she had just confessed she'd murdered someone. Aghast, he reached into his trouser pocket and retrieved a crumpled box of Marlboro Golds.

"Surely you've never smoked, Abi." He laughed, getting a cigarette from the box. "You're too prim and proper," Rich added with a grin. Abi rose an eyebrow and cast her eyes to the cigarette offered to her.

"You know me, full of surprises." She chuckled. "Maybe I just want to try new things?" She said with a smile, taking the cigarette and placing it between her lips, already staining the paper with her lipstick. Rich tutted and shook his head, returning to the conversation she had interrupted.

"Plenty of new things to try, I'm sure." Another voice said, making Abi turn and look at George, who was suddenly behind her. He was close, watching as she fiddled with the lighter, trying desperately to get it to light. George snorted a laugh and took it from her, making it spark with one swift movement. He lit the cigarette that hung between her lips, their eyes meeting, though Abi quickly stifled a cough as the smoke hit her for the first time. George laughed at the sight, shaking his head, and she let it sit between her fingers and then looked back at him, cheeks red.

"Plenty is a stretch." Jade was all she could see as she gently bit the inside of her lip. George rose a brow and shrugged, looking at his feet and kicking away a stone on the concrete between them.

"Shame; I was going to offer to help you out." He looked back at her and then had a drink from his pint glass, amber liquid wetting his upper lip. Abi felt her stomach lurch and her eyes went straight to the floor. She was suddenly overcome by the realisation that it was just her and George for the first time in two years. Alone. She swallowed the lump and brought the cigarette back to her lips.

"Well, it depends on what you wanted to help me out with." She said, words falling before she could even think about what the reply could possibly be. She looked back to George, who was eyeing her up and down. He ran his tongue over his bottom lip. Abi's breath caught in her throat.

"How about something I've wanted to do for a very long time." He whispered, eyes lingering on her waist for a few moments too long. Heart racing, Abi placed the cigarette between her lips again, the taste better with each short drag. The silence made her heart hammer as she took the drag, trying to process what was about to happen. Smoke filled the air between them, adding to the alcohol clouding her judgment.

"You'd have to be a little more specific." George couldn't help himself as he cupped her jaw and pressed their lips together.