Silent Treatment (9 page)

Dan
iel grunted.

“Yeah,
and you’re ever the optimist. It’ll be a miracle if we get picked. They must have hundreds of guys just like us trying out every year. I don’t think we’re going to stand out that much. Gaining the scholarship doesn’t guarantee us a place in the squad.” He sipped his own coffee as he looked over to Carrie and changed the subject. “Glad the tour’s over?”

Carrie nodded.

“It’s been such hard work. I knew it was going to be tough going, but when the band said they are doing seven gigs, that’s pretty much it for them apart from a couple of publicity shoots. Yeah, they might sit about and strum a guitar on the odd occasion, but we dancers have to train every single day for hours. The band want a different set up or routine at every gig. It’s absolutely shattering.” She slumped back in her seat.

Daniel leaned forwards a
nd rested his elbows on his knees.

“Don’t forget to use those exercises you
learned to help you relax. They’re not just for injuries, though I have to confess, you made an excellent recovery from the shoulder thing. Have you spoken to that old bat that did it to you since then?”

Carrie shook her head as she took a sip of the water.

“No. I wouldn’t call her and she certainly wouldn’t speak to me if I did. It’s better now, so there’s no harm done. I don’t know if I’ll be seeing her again anyway. I hear she’s not coming back to the college. Someone said she’s having a go at journalism.”

Dan
iel finished his coffee.

“Good,
so long as she’s not anywhere near you. She’s dangerous.” He finished firmly.

Paul was eyeing Lisa again. She put her hand up to her hair and smoot
hed it where Paul had ruffled her in his earlier enthusiastic embrace.

Lisa sat up straight and moved away from Paul
slightly as she saw Antonio trudge wearily out of the restaurant. He looked exhausted as he nodded in their direction and then made his way towards the lift. Lisa snuggled against Paul again.

“Are we eating together, because if we are going to the restaurant, I need to change
my clothes. I only wore this get up for travelling because it’s so comfy.” She looked down at her sloppy grey t-shirt and purple tracksuit bottoms.

Paul grinned immediately and waggled his eyebrows at her.

“Want any help with that?”

Carrie sighed as Lisa
fell about in fits of laughter. She glanced down at her own comfortable black sweatpants. They were more fitted than Lisa’s purple sloppies and her white t-shirt still looked pristine. She looked across to Daniel. He looked fabulous wearing pale denim jeans with a snugly fitting black t-shirt. She shrugged, not wanting to make a big thing of it.

“I’m not worried what I look like. I’m going in as I am.
You hungry Dan?”

Daniel laughed and stood up. He pulled himself up straight and puffed out his huge chest.

“What do you think? I can always eat. Are we waiting for you two?” He glanced down at Paul, who couldn’t seem to take his eyes off Lisa.

Paul waved him away without looking up.

“No, you two go ahead. If Lisa wants to go and get changed then that’s fine by me. Gives me time to phone my baby sister. She’s left me about twenty messages already and if I don’t get back to her soon, I’ll never hear the last of it. She’ll torture me even if I am thousands of miles away.” He stood up. “We’ll catch up with you two later maybe.”

Lisa gave them a wave as she headed for the lift. Paul kept his eyes fixed on her as he keyed in numbers on his phone. Lisa looked back at him over
her shoulder, fluttering her eyelashes and he stopped pressing the buttons. He put the phone back in his pocket and strode after Lisa as she waited by the lift door.

Dan
iel shook his head in resignation and steered Carrie towards the restaurant.

“We’ll let them have a romantic evening together shall we?”  He smiled at Carrie. “We can have something to eat and then go out onto the terrace. It’s still warm enough to sit outside
I think, if you want to that is?” His eyes questioned her.

Carrie looked down at the floor, suddenly embarrassed. It felt as though he was asking her out on a date.

“That would be lovely Dan. We can have coffee out there after we’ve eaten.”

They walked through to the restaurant and were soon laughing as Dan
iel quickly demolished half a dozen grilled king prawns then a huge plate of deliciously creamy pasta, plus the uneaten half of Carrie’s too. Afterwards he devoured apple pie and custard followed by a whole plate of cheese and biscuits.

The waiter, clearly impressed with Dan
iel’s ability to appreciate good food, showed them to seats on the terrace and left an extra-large coffee pot and a whole box of after dinner chocolates on the table.

Carrie
sat back in her chair and stared out over the lake beside them. The darkening sky and the evening lights were reflected in its mirror surface. It was so romantic that she nearly cried out in frustration as Daniel began peeling the foil from a chocolate. He passed it to her then began pouring coffee for the two of them. She nibbled the chocolate for a moment, but Daniel took it from her fingers and dipped it in the coffee.

He smiled at her quizzical look.

“I think they dip their chocolate in Europe. It’s supposed to bring out the flavour more when it’s warm.” He passed the slightly melted chocolate back to her.

She let the chocolate dissolve
slowly in her mouth then took a gulp of the hot coffee and settled back in the chair again. Daniel picked up another chocolate, his long fingers surprisingly delicate as he unwrapped the dark circle. He offered it to her, but she shook her head. The lump in her throat threatened to cut off her airways and she found herself shivering as she tried to keep her emotions at bay.

“You cold?”
Daniel asked as he put the chocolate in his own mouth.

“A bit.”
She managed to stammer. And then Daniel stood up and pulled her from the chair and onto his lap. He wrapped his long arms right around her body and hugged her into his chest.

“Better?” He asked after a few moments, resting his chin on the top of her head. She could
smell the chocolate on his breath, dark and delicious.

She nodded into his warm body.

“Much. You’re always so warm.” She could feel him smile above her.

He wrapped his shoulders around her as she snuggled in.

“Do you want to go inside? I don’t mind.” His voice was so close to her ear that she shivered violently again. He began to stand up, lifting her with him.

“No, no.” She sounded almost panicked
as he misread her body language. “It’s too lovely out here. I’ll be fine in a mo. I think I’m just really tired.”

She felt Dan
iel relax back and his arms moved comfortably around her, holding her gently as he rubbed his hands up and down the bare skin of her arms.

“Yes, you must all be after a tour like that.
I never realized how demanding those routines can be. It was impressive watching you all.”

Carrie
leaned her head against his hard shoulder and she felt him take a deep breath. His heart was thumping hard inside his chest. It was a quick, steady beat, probably a little quicker than it should have been. Maybe it needed to pump that fast to move the blood around his gigantic frame.

A cool breeze wafted up from the lake. She closed her eyes and snuggled against him again, listening to his heart
beat and his gentle breathing, smelling the subtly fragranced skin at his neck and rubbing her forehead on the day old stubble on his chin.

“You haven’t shaved.” S
he mumbled as she stifled a yawn.

His soft laughter rumbled through his chest.

“Couldn’t be asked this afternoon. When Paul decided we were coming to meet you, we didn’t bother stopping to worry about a bit of facial hair. You don’t mind do you?” He rubbed his chin lightly against her cheek.

She was barely able to speak
as her whole body began to shiver involuntarily. The words came out as a hoarse whisper.

“No, of cou
rse not. I’m just glad you came but I expect it to be gone by the time I see you tomorrow. I don’t want you to go to America looking scruffy. It’ll create a bad first impression.” She yawned again wishing she hadn’t brought up the subject of his imminent departure.

He suddenly held her even tighter.

“I’ll shave in the morning.” He spoke quietly and then looked up as the sound of familiar high pitched laughter and an equally familiar answering growl reached their ears from an open upstairs window. There was the swooshing sound of the window sliding closed and then the silent evening closed in around them.

Carrie didn’t realize that she had fallen asleep until she was being wakened as she was put into her bed. Daniel leaned down, undid her trainers and tugged them gently off her feet, then he pulled the cool covers over her and tucked them round her body. She dragged them into her chest as he stood up and moved back from the bed.

She turned over to face him
, blinking with sleep laden eyes.

“Oh, sorry.
Did you carry me up?” She tried to sit up, but Daniel placed his hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down.

“Go back to sleep Carrie. It’s really late and Paul and I have to go. We can’t stay any longer. I’ll see you, okay?” His deep voice swept over her.

Carrie laid back, yawned lazily and snuggled into the pillow.

“Night Dan.
See you in the morning.” She closed her eyes as he replied in a whisper.

“Night Carrie.
See you.”

His voice was husky in her ear and s
he felt a warm breath near her cheek. There was one last waft of his delicious scent before the door clicked closed and he was gone from the room.

Chapter Six

Lunchtime September 2
nd

Carrie leapt into her father’s arms as he crowded around the tour bus with the rest of the clamouring parents.

“Hey dad, it’s great to see you.
Where’s mum?” Carrie looked around, after she had kissed his cheek, hoping to see Daniel too but the car-park was just full of excited families.

Jim put her back down after swinging her around.

“She’s at home cooking you a welcome home dinner for tonight. We’re having a bit of a celebration seeing as you’ve not been here all summer and you go back to college next week. Half the street is coming.”

Carrie groaned.

“Oh no! How embarrassing. What are you doing that for? I just want a quiet night in.”
With Daniel preferably,
she thought privately. He was leaving the next day and she wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.

Her father
grinned.

“Don’t be silly. The
tour was a brilliant success. Everyone wants to see the most famous kid

in
our street. They all want to say well done. Helen and I have missed you terribly. We want to celebrate now that you’re home so don’t you going and being a misog about it, your mother has been to a lot of trouble.”

Carrie let out an even deeper groan.

“Okay, but I’m absolutely shattered, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t stay up too late.” She wondered how soon she was going to be able to sneak off and see Daniel in private.

Jim picked up her duffel bag and headed for the car.

“Yes well, you’re going to have to be in bed early for the next few nights. College begins in two days. You will have a lot of work to do for the next two years. It’s really important that you keep up with your education, even if the dancing is giving you a bit of an income already. At least this term you won’t be distracted by that great oaf, Daniel. I have to confess Carrie, I was glad to see the back of him. You don’t need anyone like that interfering in your life.”

Carrie had been trailing behind. She stopped dead for a moment and then rushed after him again.

“What do you mean dad? You have invited him tonight haven’t you?”

Jim opened the boot of the car and put the case inside.

“Your mother did last week, but there was a last minute change of plans. He left for America with that other huge chum of his last night, so he’s not going to be here to bother you anymore anyway. He came round to tell us as they were leaving just so your mother didn’t prepare any food especially. Pretty decent of him really, considering how much he can eat. I think your mum halved the quantity of what she was cooking. No, we’re going to have everything back to normal from now on.” Jim smiled widely and opened the car door for her.

Carrie’s feet were rooted to the spot.

“What do you mean, left last night? He’s supposed to be seeing me today.” Her chest felt as though a thick band of elastic was being wrapped around it, constricting her breathing to the point at which she thought she was going to pass out.

Her father
was still smiling stupidly.

“No, he definitely went yesterday. I know bec
ause he came to say goodbye. He and that other huge bloke had all their bags in the car. Apparently they had managed to get an earlier flight out of Birmingham that cost less than half of flying from Heathrow. Daniel seemed to think what they saved would cover the cost of their first month’s rent on campus. They had to check in at Birmingham at about two in the morning. Your mum offered to pack them a load of the food she had been preparing but they said they were going to have dinner in some hotel up there before they went on the airport. That other bloke said his Dad was flying back from some business trip in Spain and would pick up the car. Saved them massive taxi fares too, so they were happy all round.”

Carrie felt herself begin to shake, trying to think what time Daniel had put her in bed.

He couldn’t have gone! Her dad had to be mistaken.
Cold fear swept over her as she realized that he hadn’t even said goodbye to her. Tears welled into her eyes and she stopped breathing entirely as her lungs felt as though they had collapsed under the constriction of the tightening rubber band.

And then all she could feel was pain inside her chest, all she could hear was a roaring of blood in her ears. There was sudden shouting and then she felt hands on her body, lifting her, moving her, the familiar
smell of the leather in her father’s car, before darkness swept in and overtook her, leaving nothing but the sound of her own heart beating inside her, letting her know that she was still painfully alive.

Voices collided above her head. She tried to block them out, but they kept intruding and eventually she had to listen.

“It’s not normal Helen. Either she’s so exhausted from that damn tour or she’s had some kind of breakdown. I swear it’s that great oaf of a gorilla’s fault. She was absolutely fine until I told her about him leaving yesterday. Good riddance to
him if you ask me.” Jim was sounding very satisfied, though still worried.

Her mother’s voice was
slightly manic.

“Shh!
You idiot. She can probably still hear you. The doctor said she’s just in some kind of self-induced faint. And I don’t know how you can be so horrible about Daniel. I thought he was a very nice young man. He was always polite to me. I’m going to miss him, and I think that you should realize that Carrie is going to miss him too.”

Jim made a strange grumbling noise in his throat and then choked out.

“Miss him! You must be joking. I didn’t like him coming round here Helen. God! He practically lived round here that week she was sick. Carrie’s far too young to be influenced so much by someone like him. She’s got her whole life in front of her and, what with the way he looked at her, I’m certainly not going to pretend to be sorry that he’s on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I’d prefer it if he were on the other side of the Pacific, just to make sure there were a few more miles between them.”

Carrie felt a cool cloth
on her forehead and then her mother spoke gently again.

“I’m not disagreeing with you on the fact that she’s young, and I want her to do ju
st as well at college as you do but I think we have to realize that Daniel meant a lot more to Carrie than we thought. I just didn’t understand that she felt so strongly about him. We should have seen this coming. I think she’s heartbroken.”

Jim huffed impatiently.

“Heartbroken? Well, if it’s only her heart that’s she’s had broken by him, then she’s damn lucky. I still think she should have a pregnancy test just to make sure. I know he went along to a couple of those concerts during the summer. If he has gone and got her up the duff, at least we can do something about it before it’s too late.”

Carrie felt her mother
get up off the bed. She could feel the air being sucked out of the room as Helen took a long audible breath.

“You can be a miserable bastard when you want to be Jim. It’s not anything like that at all. Daniel just
wouldn’t, I know it…Paul with that Lisa, well that’s a different kettle of fish. He seems wilder somehow, still nice but just more of a player. Lisa is several years older than our Carrie and should know what she is doing. Daniel’s not like Paul. He wouldn’t take advantage of Carrie, I’m sure. He’s old fashioned, somehow more respectful. He hasn’t touched her Jim, I know it.” She spoke with finality.

But Jim wouldn’t leave it.

“Well then, that just goes to prove that he’s gay then doesn’t it. I mean just look at her. I know she’s my daughter but she’s absolutely gorgeous, any normal bloke would be all over her. He’s definitely queer if he hasn’t tried it on with her. I always suspected it.”

Helen walked across the room and opened the door for her husband. She stood back and glared at him.

“Get out Jim. You’re being utterly ridiculous. Even if Daniel is gay that doesn’t make him a bad person, and offering backhanded compliments about your daughter doesn’t make you right either. If you can’t say anything nice about the young man, then don’t say anything at all. After all, he’s not going to be back for at least three years. If he comes home then and they still want to see each other at least by then she’ll be over eighteen and there won’t be a thing you can do about it.”

Carrie heard her father muttering as he walked out of the bedroom. She heard the cl
ick as the door closed quietly and a few seconds later she felt her mattress dip as her mother sat on the side of her bed again.

“Carrie love. Can you hear me?” Gentle
, loving fingers ran down the side of Carrie’s face.

Carrie
couldn’t deceive her mother twice in one summer and gave a tiny, miserable nod. She opened her swollen eyes to look at her.

“I’m sorry mum.” Her voice was just a hoarse whisper. “I didn’t mean to spoil everything you’d done for tonight.”

Helen leaned over and kissed her daughter’s forehead.

“Don’t be silly
, Carrie. I should have realized you’d be far too tired to party all night. The food has all gone in the freezer anyway so don’t worry about it. And don’t take any notice of your father either. He’d say those sorts of things about any young man who was interested in you. He’s just being over protective. He doesn’t mean all that stuff about Daniel. ”

Carrie’s heart contracted at the sound of his name and she gave a great gasp of pain. A tear leaked out of one corner of her eye
and she sobbed almost uncontrollably. Her mother just waited it out and listened when she could speak again.

“I wasn’t going to try and stop him going or anything. I just wanted to say goo
dbye properly. I love him mum, but I didn’t get to tell him. I didn’t tell him how I feel at all and it’s going to be three years until I can! It’s so long. What if he meets someone while he’s over there? There’s bound to be hundreds of fabulously fit women out there to tempt him. We haven’t spent any time together over the summer and I’m going to miss him so much. It won’t be the same without him around.”

Her mother
laughed quietly as she pulled Carrie’s hair away from her face.

“No, it won’t. It’ll feel much
more roomy for a start.”

Carrie gave a hint of a smile through her tears.

“You should have been around when the whole team got together, then you’d know what crowded really felt like. They’re all massive.”

Helen smiled in relief.

“Well, I’m glad you can joke about it. But on a more serious note, if you really do love him then you should wait for him. These three years are going to fly by. You’re going to be so busy with your ‘A’ levels and then maybe university that you wouldn’t have much chance to see each other anyway. It’s probably best he’s thousands of miles away, rather than just a few hundred. At least you know you can’t see him.”

Carrie sniffed loudly and her mother passed her a tissue.

“I know, I ought to feel happy that he has this fabulous placement with his best friend, and that this move may make his fortune, but I just don’t. Do you know that Paul has asked Lisa to go out there with him? He’s only known her a few weeks but he can’t bear to be apart from her. As soon as he can afford to rent a place for them both she’s going. I’ve known Daniel for years but he didn’t ask me to go. He didn’t even ask me to wait for him.” She sulked miserably before she added. “Maybe I won’t have to worry about other women after all. Maybe he really is gay and I should be worrying about all those super fit guys out there.” More tears suddenly leaked out.

Helen was silent for a few seconds. Then she shook her head firmly.

“I don’t think he’s like that Carrie. I didn’t get that sort of feeling about him at all. Not that my opinion means much but I think it’s just that you’re so much younger than Lisa. You know how he feels about having a good education. He probably thought, quite rightly, that you should still be at school. I could see the way he looked at you. It was more than just friends Carrie, and whatever your father thinks or says, I’m sure he’s not gay.”

Carried gave frustrated sigh
as she scrunched the tissue to her eyes again.

“Then why didn’t he say anything to me then. I’ve been putting it out for months. We’ve held hands and he has even kissed me on my cheek. He had his hands all over my shoulder
s and neck when he came here after that injury but he never said a thing about wanting me or loving me or even anything about having a quick fumble. The closest he came to saying anything remotely serious was telling me that he was going to miss me.” She struggled to sit up.

Helen frowned
sharply.

“What injury?” She hadn’t listened past those words.

Carrie gulped as she realized she had given herself away, and then she sighed in resignation and decided to come clean.

“I pretended I was sick back in June. That cow Jen
nifer Crane and her mates ganged up on me and dislocated my shoulder on the last day of the exams. They shut me in the fire doors as I came out of the hall and my shoulder popped out of its socket. I made Daniel push it back in place.” She rushed on at her mother’s horrified expression. “He’d taken a physiotherapy course already and done it before on Paul last year when he was injured during a game, but even though he was really gentle, it was horribly painful. I came over all faint and then he was worried that I wouldn’t be fit enough for the dance tour. That’s why he was here when I said I was sick. He was doing his special physiotherapy on me.”