‘Anything for you,’ he winked, ruffling my hair. ‘Now, let’s go find that girlfriend of mine … I believe she’s been making you a cake.’
Maddy
Eighteen years old …
And so, the time came to head for university. We were all leaving Peaswood on the same Saturday morning in early October. Gloriously warm sunshine beamed down on us as the sun dug its heels in and refused to give in to the winter weather that was heading our way.
Robert was to travel in his own car to Nottingham while his parents followed behind in theirs. You’d have thought that as he was the youngest of three boys, both of whom had previously been sent off to university, they’d be blasé about him going away, but he was still their baby, therefore they insisted on going with him and getting him settled. Much to his annoyance.
Me and Ben were going in separate cars, while our mums and my dad followed behind.
All three of us were going to have our cars with us, which we were hoping would make the miles between Bristol, Nottingham and home appear more bearable. Plus driving still felt cool and gave us great freedom – we weren’t too keen on giving that up so soon and relying on public transport.
As agreed, at eleven o’clock Ben, Robert and the parents drove over to ours to say a final farewell. I’d said a proper goodbye to Robert the night before. He’d come over to help me pack, but he proved to be quite a distraction and kept picking me up and dragging me away from my suitcase. He’d always been athletic and strong, but in our last year at Peaswood High his pole-like frame had suddenly bulked up and become more manly, once again capturing the attention of not only the girls at school, but any female we passed on the street – occasionally males too. As ever, he liked to show off his strength, which was why he kept picking me up and plonking me back on my bed, no matter how much I protested.
As we lay on my bed, once I’d given up fighting back, he turned to me with a sad sigh.
‘I can’t believe you’re going to Bristol and that Ben’s going with you!’
‘At least you’ll have someone to keep an eye on me now.’
‘As if I needed that anyway,’ he said, pulling me closer.
‘You never know, I might be swept off my feet by some arty type,’ I laughed.
‘Don’t even joke,’ he said with a pout.
‘Oh, and there’s not going to be a swarm of girls falling over themselves to get to you, Mr Muscles?’
‘I’m blind to everyone else … you know that.’
‘Yeah, just wait until you get to Freshers’ Week and you see just how short the skirts are and just how high the boobs have been pushed up.’
He raised his eyebrows at me and laughed, ‘How high are we talking?’
Prompting me to whack him on the head with a pillow, leading to a play fight.
Eventually, as we calmly snugged in together once more, he whispered in my ear, ‘We’ll be okay.’
‘We will, won’t we?’
‘Absolutely … there’s only one girl for me and I love her with every beat of my heart.’
‘So cheesy.’
‘So true,’ he whispered, pulling me on top of him and kissing me in a way we both knew would lead to some very naughty behaviour – even with my parents downstairs.
We fell asleep at some point, causing my mum to come in a couple of hours later and shout her head off like a crazed madwoman as she spotted my unpacked suitcase. Robert later snuck off home, after more snuggling at the doorway, deciding it was about time he started his own packing – although I was sure his mum would have done the whole lot for him already.
There was nothing final about our goodbye that Saturday – even though we were entering into new worlds and new lives, it was joyous rather than sad. Well, for us it was, but you wouldn’t have thought so if you looked at our mums, who were all sniffing into their tissues before we’d even got into our cars.
The three of us stood in a huddle and hugged goodbye, Robert holding me around the waist while Ben took my hand and squeezed it three times in his ever-comforting way – I was thrilled that he’d be going to Bristol with me, that I’d still have him for constant support.
‘So, we’ll see you next weekend or the one after, then?’ I asked Robert, as we broke away, bouncing my car keys in my hand in excitement and doing a little jig with my knees.
‘Yes! We’ll play it by ear. See what’s planned for us all in our Freshers’ Weeks.’
‘Watch out for those girls, Mr Miles,’ I warned.
‘How high did you say they were again?’ he grinned, placing one hand on his chest to mockingly measure the assumed freshers’-week-boob-height, before putting his hands around my waist and pulling me close.