‘Ahhhh!’ I screamed, running in for a hug. ‘Please come with me! Please!’
‘I might not have a choice,’ he laughed, trying to struggle away from me.
‘Oh great, so now I’m the only one who’s going to be on my own. I’ll be a loner!’ moaned Robert.
‘Oh, people will love you,’ I giggled. ‘You’ll be the popular kid as usual!’
‘You won’t have us two geeks dragging you down,’ offered Ben.
‘Well, when you put it like that,’ he chuckled, putting an arm around each of us. ‘I’ll try not to have too much fun without you guys.’
Leaving Peaswood High behind us, we wandered down to the local park – the same park that lent me, Robert and Ben its trees to climb and play on when we were younger. We spent the majority of the afternoon in the sunshine, along with most of the upper sixth. We sat in several circles (with the majority of people sticking with their friends – even at the end people refrained from socializing too much with other peer groups), and drank our way through copious amounts of wine and beer while listening to indie music. Bands like the Kooks, the Zutons and Kaiser Chiefs pumped from a portable stereo like we were at a mini music festival. Whether people had received good news or bad regarding their future, we were united in saying goodbye to the school that had been our home for the last seven years. Freedom and new beginnings were ahead of us – the world was our oyster. I can remember looking around at one point, seeing the sunshine beam down on everyone laughing and singing, and feeling like I’d entered a euphoric state. It felt warm, weightless and hippy-like.
Those feelings stayed with us over the summer months before we headed off to university, endless summer evenings drifting by with ease. The daytimes were a different matter. With three months to kill there was no way our mums would have let us bum around aimlessly; we were forced to go into Tamsgate, our nearest town, and get jobs. I wound up in a department store called Magpies in the home department (relentlessly refolding towels all day long and sighing with frustration every time a customer carelessly came and messed them up), while Robert and Ben were both at Spin – a cool music shop– having a whale of a time. It was possibly one of the only times in our whole friendship that I felt left out and jealous, but seeing as Robert was going to have to put up with me and Ben being together for the next three years, I kept my petty grumbling thoughts to myself.
The plus side to them working in Spin was that they got me a massive discount on any CDs or DVDs that I wanted. We’d all started driving that year and nothing beat the feeling of cruising along (let’s face it, we’d drive even when there was nowhere to go) with our windows down as great music pumped from the stereo. Thanks to the boys all of our cars were filled with current albums.
In return I got us all a load of sheets and towels, which might sound pretty lame, but it came in really handy when we were getting ready for our new lives in student halls …
Ben
Eighteen years old …
On my eighteenth birthday Robert found me perched in my treehouse at the bottom of my garden. I’d been sat in that spot for at least an hour and was in a grumpy, contemplative mood as I stared at an old photo of my dad and me together on my ninth birthday, taken after he’d led me outside into the garden to see his gift for me – that treehouse, built from scratch with his own bare hands. In that vintage and rare photo, my arms are wrapped around his neck with glee, excited that I had a cool den to play in. He’s laughing at my reaction with his eyes closed, a lovely image of a dad getting a hug from his grateful child. There wasn’t even a hint of the trauma that was to come just five months later. Perhaps leaving us wasn’t even on his mind at that point.
‘Happy birthday, mate,’ Rob grinned at me as he popped his head up through the floor of my wooden house and pulled himself inside.
I said nothing but tried my best to return the cheeky expression he was wearing. I clearly wasn’t very good at it, though – he frowned at me straight away, sensing something wasn’t quite right.
‘What’s up?’ he asked, crouching his body in two as he made his way through the small structure to my side – it was a tight squeeze now we were on the verge of adulthood. ‘Oh,’ he pouted as he caught a glimpse of the picture I was holding.
‘Yeah …’ I nodded dejectedly.
Robert sighed and sat down next to me.
‘Why doesn’t he want anything to do with me?’
‘Maybe he does …’ Rob shrugged feebly.
‘Dude, he knows where I live – it’s the same place he tucked me into bed for almost ten years before he fucked off with some other family. He’s got a replacement son and can’t be arsed keeping in touch with his own blood. It doesn’t bother him that I’m the product of his one singular winning sperm.’