off the hook.
"Bit of a dick move leaving Rox on her own, by the way," he said instead. "When I turned up some guy was grabbing her arse."
"Was it you?" Jonah joked, but seeing Elliot's expression , he turned contrite. "Right, sorry, dick move."
"Yeah, I don't reckon Rox'll be coming back here anytime soon," Elliot added after a pause. "We all know she's not my number 1 fan, and as well as me and the guy who grabbed her arse we had a bit of a walk down memory lane tonight when Henderson and co turned up."
"Lucky you," Jonah said sarcastically, fiddling with the wrapper on his beer bottle. "I take it they're still arseholes?"
"Prime examples of," Elliot agreed. "Why the hell didn't we notice that when we were at school?"
Jonah ripped a long shred of paper from his bottle and smiled bleakly as he said, "Reckon we were probably arseholes too, mate."
It was an uncomfortable thought, but Elliot couldn't really deny it. Seeing his old rugby teammates and the way they'd behaved was bringing up all sorts of faintly unpleasant memories of his time as the self-imposed king of his castle.
"Do you think it was shit, being Rox and being around us when we were growing up?" He asked suddenly, unable to stop himself even though he was pretty sure he wouldn't like the answer.
Jonah looked at him knowingly, but obviously decided to take pity on him and only said, "Yeah, I reckon it probably was."
"Still," he added after a loaded silence, "she's over it now. Killing it in her studies, Abi reckons, and it's not like anyone gives her heaps about how she used to be a cleaner or anything."
Except that they just had, Elliot thought to himself. Did he like getting under Rox's skin himself? Yes. Did that mean he wasn't going to punch Henderson's lights out if he ever again referred to her as the help? No.
"I know that face, mate." Jonah poked his bottle towards him, his expression apprehensive. "It's not a good face. That's your ‘do-gooder with awful consequences’ face and if you're getting that face on in relation to Cinders then I'm telling you right now, you should just drop it. You want to do good towards her I reckon she would say that staying away from her would be enough."
"Yeah," Elliot smiled grimly, Jonah's warning coming too late, "but where would be the fun in that?"
Chapter 6 – The Invitation and the TV on Fire
That should have been it for a while. After spending just about the whole evening with Elliot, I felt sure I'd earned a couple of days reprieve from him.
No such luck.
The day after my Haze outing I was by myself in the tiny side kitchen of the ref making up the pre-made sandwiches ready for the lunch rush. It was a boring job and cling wrap was my mortal enemy, so I was already contemplating a full on tantrum even before I heard Elliot's voice right by my ear say, "Hey, Rox."
I whirled around in surprise and had the satisfaction of seeing him take a massive leap backwards as the bread knife in my hand whisked through the space he'd previously been occupying.
"Christ!" He exclaimed. "Watch it!"
"C alm down." I deliberately turned away from him and continued cutting up the sandwiches, trying to appear unfazed by his sudden appearance even as my heart clapped wildly in my chest. "I'm really good at fighting the urge to stab you with anything more dramatic than basic cutlery."
"Good to know," he murmured, his voice all deep and, I'm sure he thought, sexy.
God , he was so annoying! How dare he saunter up and say 'Hey, Rox' like that, as if him seeking me out for a conversation was the most normal thing in the world? We weren't friends, we weren't anything , a fact I'd had to spend a good half hour convincing Abi of in the toilets of Haze the night before.
My best friend seemed to think she was sensing something between me and Elliot; an attraction or partiality that was just fundamentally not there . We'd slept together, so what? Plenty of people had sex without it meaning anything; it was just a body
"Bit of a dick move leaving Rox on her own, by the way," he said instead. "When I turned up some guy was grabbing her arse."
"Was it you?" Jonah joked, but seeing Elliot's expression , he turned contrite. "Right, sorry, dick move."
"Yeah, I don't reckon Rox'll be coming back here anytime soon," Elliot added after a pause. "We all know she's not my number 1 fan, and as well as me and the guy who grabbed her arse we had a bit of a walk down memory lane tonight when Henderson and co turned up."
"Lucky you," Jonah said sarcastically, fiddling with the wrapper on his beer bottle. "I take it they're still arseholes?"
"Prime examples of," Elliot agreed. "Why the hell didn't we notice that when we were at school?"
Jonah ripped a long shred of paper from his bottle and smiled bleakly as he said, "Reckon we were probably arseholes too, mate."
It was an uncomfortable thought, but Elliot couldn't really deny it. Seeing his old rugby teammates and the way they'd behaved was bringing up all sorts of faintly unpleasant memories of his time as the self-imposed king of his castle.
"Do you think it was shit, being Rox and being around us when we were growing up?" He asked suddenly, unable to stop himself even though he was pretty sure he wouldn't like the answer.
Jonah looked at him knowingly, but obviously decided to take pity on him and only said, "Yeah, I reckon it probably was."
"Still," he added after a loaded silence, "she's over it now. Killing it in her studies, Abi reckons, and it's not like anyone gives her heaps about how she used to be a cleaner or anything."
Except that they just had, Elliot thought to himself. Did he like getting under Rox's skin himself? Yes. Did that mean he wasn't going to punch Henderson's lights out if he ever again referred to her as the help? No.
"I know that face, mate." Jonah poked his bottle towards him, his expression apprehensive. "It's not a good face. That's your ‘do-gooder with awful consequences’ face and if you're getting that face on in relation to Cinders then I'm telling you right now, you should just drop it. You want to do good towards her I reckon she would say that staying away from her would be enough."
"Yeah," Elliot smiled grimly, Jonah's warning coming too late, "but where would be the fun in that?"
Chapter 6 – The Invitation and the TV on Fire
That should have been it for a while. After spending just about the whole evening with Elliot, I felt sure I'd earned a couple of days reprieve from him.
No such luck.
The day after my Haze outing I was by myself in the tiny side kitchen of the ref making up the pre-made sandwiches ready for the lunch rush. It was a boring job and cling wrap was my mortal enemy, so I was already contemplating a full on tantrum even before I heard Elliot's voice right by my ear say, "Hey, Rox."
I whirled around in surprise and had the satisfaction of seeing him take a massive leap backwards as the bread knife in my hand whisked through the space he'd previously been occupying.
"Christ!" He exclaimed. "Watch it!"
"C alm down." I deliberately turned away from him and continued cutting up the sandwiches, trying to appear unfazed by his sudden appearance even as my heart clapped wildly in my chest. "I'm really good at fighting the urge to stab you with anything more dramatic than basic cutlery."
"Good to know," he murmured, his voice all deep and, I'm sure he thought, sexy.
God , he was so annoying! How dare he saunter up and say 'Hey, Rox' like that, as if him seeking me out for a conversation was the most normal thing in the world? We weren't friends, we weren't anything , a fact I'd had to spend a good half hour convincing Abi of in the toilets of Haze the night before.
My best friend seemed to think she was sensing something between me and Elliot; an attraction or partiality that was just fundamentally not there . We'd slept together, so what? Plenty of people had sex without it meaning anything; it was just a body
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