Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series, стр. 9
“Ivy!” Ellie pleaded, gesturing with her eyes to go away. I had clearly interrupted their somewhat intimate moment.
“Sorry,” I went back inside and shut the door as quickly as I could.
Well, maybe I had just had my second most embarrassing moment of this year. Nope that one topped the first… What a horrible start to the year.
I headed straight for the kitchen to find Leonora and Cara deep in conversation, laughing happily with crinkled eyes and wide smiles.
“Did you tell her?” Cara asked with excitement, jumping past Leonora when she saw me.
“No. I was too late.” I was surprised how much the image of the two of them was actually painful. I didn’t know Tye after all.
“Too late? For what?” Leonora asked, leaning over Cara’s head.
“I’ll tell you tomorrow,” I scrunched my hair at the base of my scalp. “I’ve got to go home. I suddenly feel sick.” Well, it wasn’t a lie.
“I’m you’re ride, Ivy,” Leonora didn’t want to leave me again. “Let me get my keys.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s still early and I don’t want to drag you away. I’ll get a taxi. You two have a good time.” I was speaking quickly, leaving Leonora switching between her feet, uncertain what to do. “See you tomorrow, okay?”
They both nodded, offering smiles and well wishes that I felt better soon.
As I stepped outside the front door, I took a deep breath and tried to shake of the twinned feeling of anger and nausea. Those little people I once thought of as a metaphor for nerves in my stomach were doing something quite different tonight – they were fighting with each other. Brawling and turning my stomach round in circles.
Who was I kidding? As if a guy like Tye would ever be interested in a girl like me over Ellie. I had no reason to be angry. Less reason to be jealous. I didn’t know the guy. Yet I suddenly felt disgusting. Looking down at my dress with frustration and wondering why I had bothered when the only attention I had received was not welcome.
I pulled the strap of my handbag over my shoulder and tried to blow the anger away. It was time to be practical. No point standing outside the house party, I needed to get back to halls. I started walked down the street, cursing the fact I hadn’t yet received my first salary payment from the coffee shop. No taxi for me tonight. At least the party was a little closer to my halls than the bar was, more like a forty-minute walk.
I kept to the fully lit streets and crossed my arms over my chest to keep warm. It was an insanity that no uni student took a coat on a night out. We just all seemed to copy each other, agreeing we were more liable to lose them than get hypothermia for some reason. The February frost did not agree with me. I could feel it pinching at my arms and legs.
I tried to focus on the cold, but my mind kept drifting back to the awful image of seeing Ellie and Tye stood so close. I loved Ellie, we had so much fun together, but why she had to do the player thing in the first place puzzled me. I knew why Leonora did it, that was hard enough.
I had only been walking ten minutes when a car screeched to a stop beside me. I jumped back away from the kerb, amazed at the sound and fearful of what was happening. The passenger window was down, and I looked inside to see Tye staring at me from the driver side, eyes deadly serious.
“Want a ride?”
“No thanks. I’m walking.” At that moment, I didn’t want to see his face. I couldn’t picture it without the thought of gorgeous Ellie stood there with him under the fairy lights. Damn, why couldn’t he have been impervious to her charms too? The anger was still fizzling in my stomach. The night’s whole events leaving me frustrated.
“Walking will take forever.” He continued, undeterred by my answer.
“It will only be another half an hour. Easier than a piece of cake,” I turned away and stood straight to carry on walking up the path, but the car crawled along beside me. I scrunched up my eyes in realisation of what he was doing. “You do not need to follow me, you know. Any policeman watching will get suspicious.”
“You’re making it a habit to walk home from a night out by yourself,” he called from the car, choosing to ignore me. I returned the favour and refused to look back at him, keeping my focus down the road and long path ahead up to campus.
“As I said, I am a good walker. It won’t take long.”
“Even in those shoes?” This question was tinged with the smallest slither of humour.
I looked down to the black heels I was wearing as I stepped between the cracks. They were beginning to hurt, but I was hardly going to confess now. I was angry for him giving into Ellie’s charms, I was hardly going to let him think he was right about something.
“They could be running shoes they’re so comfy,” I smiled, still refusing to turn to the car as it moved along at the side of me.
“You must be freezing. My car says it’s five degrees outside.” His deep voice turned dark again with definite growing annoyance.
“This is good weather for Exeter. It’s not raining for a change,” I turned the corner and he followed down the street.
“I still don’t like you walking home alone in