Chapter Twenty

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The room was illuminated by a single row of multi-coloured lights that were draped across the wall that also held a sign saying ‘Happy Sixteenth’. There was only enough light to see the people next to you unless you sat on the sofa underneath the lights, which was already full of half-drunk teenagers. A small area had been cleared out for people to be able to dance to the music that was coming from the stereo in the corner of the room, but no one was dancing so instead people sat there and talked.

Leigh and Dylln were over on the sofa laughing at something on his phone, her head rested on his shoulder and her hand on his chest. His arm was draped over her shoulder and he kept kissing the top of her head. As I looked at Annie I saw that she was watching them with an agonised look in her eyes. She kept mumbling something to herself that I couldn’t make out so I just left her to stare at the two of them. In the mean time I circled back to the table that had been set up and grabbed a homemade muffin and scoffed it down. I brought back two bottles of beer for me and Annie and handed her one. She smiled gratefully but carried on watching Leigh and Dylln.

“Annie?”

Her reply was a nod and a weird sound that I guessed was supposed to mean yes.

“You enjoying yourself?”

Again the reply was that noise. I huffed and poked her until she looked at me.

“Hello, I am here.”

“Sorry, I just…” She stopped midsentence and looked down, sadness filled her eyes.

“I’m just…upset.”

“I know, I’m sorry, we should never have come here.”

“No its fine it’s just…they look happy, don’t they?” Her eyes had gone back to Dylln and Leigh who were now talking about something. They hadn’t come over to say hello yet. As soon as they had walked in they went over to the sofa and sat down.

“Yes, they do.” I know there was no reason for me to feel upset and it was definitely nothing like how Annie must have been feeling, but I couldn’t help it. They could be so open about their relationship and sit there all lovey dovey and I couldn’t. They could be all loved up, and that’s how Dan and Annie had been, but how it had all changed. It made me wonder if this is what would happen to them soon.

“I miss that.”

“Hey, it’s okay, look after this we wi-” My eyes had landed on the person walking into the house, his ginger hair stood out. He was wearing a white shirt, black
trousers and formal black shoes, he had just come from rehearsing for the panto he was taking part in called ‘Puss in Boots’. He was playing the Evil Sorcerer Malevort. The normal cheery look that was always on his face had changed to a look full of anger and hatred. Dan strode in the room, two other boys following him. One was Jack, who looked kind of scared, and when our eyes met he mouthed ‘hey’ at me. The other was a scrawny brown haired boy who I had seen before when I had
gone into town with Annie and bumped into Dan and him there. He had also played one of the lead roles in Singing in the Rain and I had talked to him briefly at the bar afterwards.

I felt Annie stiffen next me. Jack looked like he was trying to talk to Dan about something and I could see him purposefully step in front of him to block Annie out of view. This instantly made me worry and move closer to Annie who was now staring wide eyed at Dan. By the way Dan was scanning through the crowds in
the room it was obvious he was searching for Annie and when he finally saw her it was clear that he was going to make an argument.

Jack was still standing in front of him with his hand on his chest ready to hold him back. The scrawny boy was whispering something in his ears whilst his eyes were watching Annie. I moved to stand directly in front of Annie in case he came over and did something he would regret.  All of a sudden he was running over here, Jack was knocked to the floor and the other guy just stood there and watched.

“If I were you I’d turn around and walk back out that door.” I said in a calm but forceful voice. Dan turned his eyes on me. They were full of anger and I moved even closer to Annie.

“Move.”

This wasn’t like Dan, he was never violent. When Jack was standing back up he came over to where we were and stood in-between me and Dan. He took my hand and held it behind his back.I felt uncomfortable with him doing this, but as long as there was a couple of people standing in the way of Annie then it was fine.

"I need to talk to Annie. Alone."

"No." came a timid voice from behind me and when I turned I couldn’t believe it had come from Annie. Neither could Dan from the look on his face.

"Its over, Dan. I can't do this anymore. The fighting. Crying every night. Wondering which version of you I'll get on the phone. I just can't anymore." Dan's eyes filled with tears but Annie’s didn’t. None of us had expected this, never in a million years.

“Annie...please...don't do this...I can change...we can go back to how it was before. Please. I love you.” He pleaded. Annie's face showed no emotion, something I had never seen before and never want to again because she wasn't her anymore. She was utterly broken.

“I think you should leave.” she said, avoiding his gaze. He took a slight step forward, tears now rolling down his cheeks, but Jack stopped him. "I think its time to go now mate."

Dan looked at him before turning and storming out the door grabbing a bottle of alcohol on the way. Jack and the scrawny kid followed. The sound of a car engine starting and moving away told me he had left and I couldn’t help but sigh with relief. “Let’s go home.” I draped my arm over her shoulders, waved goodbye to Leigh and walked out the door. Everyone’s eyes were on us as we left, the incident with Dan had caught everyone’s attention. I wasn’t surprised; the tension that had filled the air would have been enough to make people know something was happening.

There was a bench across the road, I took her over to it and sat her down so I could ring for a taxi to take us back to my house. I watched her out of the corner of my eye whilst I told the man on the phone where we were, she sat staring at the floor in shock. I’m positive that she couldn’t believe she had just ended her relationship with Dan, they had been together for nearly a year and a half and it had ended just like that. She was so vacant that when I sat next to her and tried to speak to her she didn’t seem to notice. Finally after nearly twenty minutes the taxi arrived, the man driving looked like he hadn’t slept in a hundred years and when I told him my address he just grunted and began to drive off.

It was very awkward, no one spoke and when Annie’s ring tone went off I was quite glad, little did I know that it would be a call I would never want to hear again.
I could hear the other person mumbling something and Annie kept nodding, not saying a word so I had no clue what was happening.

“St George hospital please, as fast as you can.” She was physically shaking when she sat back into the seat and put her phone back into her pocket. Her hands wouldn’t stop moving and tears were forming in her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Nothing. “Annie?” Still nothing. “Annie for heaven’s sake talk to me, what’s hap…”

“We are here, that will be £10.73.” Interrupted the taxi driver. I shoved the money into his hand and ran in the direction Annie had just been. When I got into the waiting room Annie had already talked to the receptionist and was running towards the corridor labelled ‘intensive care’. She was running so fast and didn’t seem to be getting out of breath, I was but it didn’t help that she hadn’t told me what was happening. Why were we going towards the intensive care ward? Who was in
intensive care? What had happened? Those questions were soon answered when I turned a corner and saw Annie run into a room to my left. I immediately slowed down and wearily took each step. I was scared to see who it was, but when I saw even the slightest bit of ginger hair I couldn’t believe how stupid I had been. Of course it was him; the way Annie acted made it seem so obvious. Dan.

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