Our Little Secret(26)

Freddy stood at the main entrance in a waistcoat and tails. When we were ten steps away from reaching him, HP suddenly grabbed me around the waist and pressed me to the rusty college brickwork.

He kissed me full on the lips. “Let’s have an epic night.”

I wasn’t usually one for public displays of affection but honestly, I could have ditched the entire ball and just gone back to my room with HP right there and then.

“Ladies and gents.” Freddy arrived at our side, his eyes darting. “I hate to push in, but if we don’t hurry all of the champers will be gone.” He stretched in past HP’s chest and kissed me on the cheek. “You’re looking enchanting, my darling. I’m reminded of A Clockwork Orange.”

“Good.” In heels I was exactly Freddy’s height.

“Shall we?” He flourished us towards the entrance, and we all trailed through the grandeur of the main doors together. Keble’s quad is six times the size of Hertford’s, and they’d jammed it full of every fun activity imaginable. With the college buildings as a parameter, the inner lawns thudded with music. We stood, wide-eyed, looking at the spread.

To the left of us was a huge beer tent, nudged to the right by bumper cars rented from the carnival. They’d set up a greasy pole in the very center of the quad for students to straddle while they hit one another with pillows, and next to that was a bungee rope that you had to run hard and fast away from in a Velcro suit, only to be whipped backwards and stuck to a wall like a bug on flypaper.

We didn’t know where to start.

“I vote beer,” shouted Ezra above the din. He and HP headed through the flaps of the white marquee, leaving me standing alone next to Freddy. He put his arm around me.

“Have you been enjoying your week, Ms. Petitjean?” His teeth blushed from too much Malbec. He must have started early.

“It’s been fine.” I put one hand on his lapel. “Listen, I’m sorry I was a bitch to you at Coco’s.”

“Oh, pish-posh. Let’s not bother with piffle.”

“But you’ve been kind to me, Freddy. From the very start.”

“Well, you’re special, my darling. Not everyone’s as brilliant and unkind as you are.”

I turned to see if he was joking and felt relieved when he trumpeted his nose into his spotted handkerchief. “Come on. We’re wasting time. Let’s go and find the champers.”

Inside the beer tent, it was even louder and the walls shone slick with heat. We spied HP and Ezra by the bar and started to push our way through the bodies towards them. I slipped under the elbow of a man in a white dinner jacket and popped up into the middle of the boys’ conversation. HP was roaring with laughter and a girl in a sky-blue, skintight dress was touching her hand onto his forearm as if to say, Stop it immediately, I can’t take any more of your fun.

“I’m serious,” Ez was yelling. “We got home with no shirts and a black eye each and his mom took photos of us.”

The girl shook her head, the locks of her blond hair tickling at her bare shoulders. She was slim, wore very little makeup and had freckles across her nose and a strange, dark tan on the bottom half of her face that made it look like she’d dipped her chin in cocoa.

“You guys are awesome.” I could hear she was Australian.

“Hey.” I inched myself into the outer curve of the circle. “Did you get me a drink?”

Ezra and HP looked sideways at each other.

“I’ll go,” said Ezra. “What are you having?”

I stepped with Ezra to the bar, looking back over my shoulder distractedly to see HP hunker down and listen to something else the girl was saying. When he replied he covered his mouth with his hand to make sure he didn’t spit on her. He only did that when he was making an effort.

“LJ!” Ezra poked me in the back with a stubby finger. “What are you drinking?”

“Champagne. And one for Freddy. Who’s the girl?”

“She’s an Aussie, just back from the Alps; some kind of snowboard instructor.”

When he handed me two glasses of champagne, he shoved them and they spilled a little. He wiped his fingers down his lapels and hurried back into the circle. Freddy stood behind me and reached over to take his glass.

“Bloody Australians,” he said into my ear. “Who wears flip-flops to a ball?”

I glanced at the girl’s feet and headed back into their circle.

“Why’s your face half brown?” I asked. HP, Ezra and the girl turned to me.

“Spring skiing,” chorused the boys.

“What’s with the tattoo?” I nodded at her left forearm, the inside of which was inked with an elephant, decorative and colored.

“Elephants are heaps beautiful. They keep soul mates for life and mourn their loved ones.” Her teeth blazed whiteness. She looked like she ate nothing but apples. “And I like their knees.”

I snorted.

“Little John, we’re going out to do the bungee run. You in?” HP drained his pint glass.

“God, no.”

“Little John? Cool name! Like the Merry Men!” The true blue of the girl’s eyes shone. “So which one of you is Robin Hood?”

HP and Ezra both pointed to their own chests.

“What’s your name?” I fired back.