Loveless (Osemanverse #10)(65)

The Bailey Ball wasn’t confined to one hall – it spread throughout the ground floor of the main college building and into a marquee on the green outside. The dining hall was quickly transformed into the main dance hall, of course, with a live band and a bar area. There were several themed rooms serving food and drink, from toasties to ice cream to tea and coffee, and a cinema room that was playing all the different movie adaptations of Romeo and Juliet in chronological order. The corridors that we hadn’t seen yet were decorated so intensively that you couldn’t see the walls any more – they were covered in flowers, ivy, fabrics, fairy lights, and giant crests for ‘Capulet’ and ‘Montague’. For one night only, we were in another world, outside the rules of space and time.

‘Where shall we go first?’ said Pip. ‘Cinema room? Marquee?’ She turned round, then frowned, confused. ‘Rooney?’

I turned too and found Rooney a few paces away from us, leaning against the wall. She was drunk for sure, but she was also looking at Pip almost like she was scared, or at the very least nervous. Then she covered it with a wide grin.

‘I’m gonna go and see my other friends for a bit!’ she shouted over the crowd and the music.

And then she was gone.

‘Other friends?’ said Jason, confused.

‘She knows everyone,’ I said, but I wasn’t sure how true that rang any more. She knew a lot of other people, but I was starting to realise that we were her only real friends.

‘Well, she can fuck off, then, if she’s gonna be like that,’ said Pip, but her heart wasn’t in it.

Jason rolled his eyes at her. ‘Pip.’

‘What?’

‘Just … you don’t have to keep doing that. We both know you like her.’

‘What?’ Pip’s head snapped up. ‘What – no, no I don’t, like – I mean yes I like her as a person – I mean, I admire her as a director and a creative person but her personality is very intense so I wouldn’t say I liked her, I just appreciate who she is and what she does …’

‘But you fancy her,’ I stated. ‘It’s not a crime.’

‘No.’ Pip folded her arms over her jacket. ‘No, absolutely not, Georgia, she’s – she’s objectively extremely hot and yes in any ordinary situation she would be exactly my type and I know you know that but – I mean, she’s straight and she literally hates me, so even if I did, what would be the point –’

‘Pip!’ I said, exasperated.

She shut her mouth. She knew there was nothing she could say to hide it any more.

‘I think I should go find her,’ I continued.

‘Why?’

‘Just to check she’s OK.’

Pip and Jason didn’t protest, so I left to go and find Rooney.

I had a feeling that, if she continued to get even drunker, she was going to do something she regretted.





Rooney was nowhere to be found. There were hundreds of students swarming the college, and it was difficult to even get through the corridors, let alone spot anyone in the crowds standing around chatting, laughing, singing, dancing. She was in there somewhere, no doubt. Rooney seemed to operate like she was a video-game protagonist in a world of non-player characters.

I hung around the marquee for a while, hoping she might show up, but even if she was here, I probably wouldn’t have found her. It was packed because this was where all the fun activities were – a photo booth, popcorn and candyfloss stalls, a rodeo bull, and the main attraction: ‘Capulet vs Montague’, which looked like a bouncy castle with two raised platforms inside, upon which two students would battle it out with inflatable swords until one person fell down. I watched a few people play, and I really did want to have a go, but I didn’t know where Rooney was and I’d have felt kind of embarrassed to ask her. I guess I had this feeling that she’d just say no.

I got another drink from the bar, which I didn’t need because I was already drunk, and stumbled aimlessly around the ball and all its various rooms. The more I drank, the more I could space out and not care about being alone, in every sense of the word.

It was hard to forget, though, when every single song that was playing overhead was about romantic love. Obviously this was deliberate – the theme was Romeo and Juliet, for God’s sake – but it still pissed me off.

Everything started to remind me of the prom afterparty. The flashing lights on the dance floor, the love songs, the laughter, the suits and dresses.

When I had been at that party, I had felt that this was my world, and one day, I would be one of these people.

I didn’t feel like that any more.

I would never be one of these people. Flirting. Falling in love. Happily ever after.

I went to curl up in the tea room, only to find myself stuck opposite a couple who were making out in the corner. I hated them. I tried to ignore them and drank my wine while scrolling through Instagram.

‘Georgia.’

An incredibly loud voice shattered the relaxing atmosphere of the room, startling everyone in the room. I turned towards the door and found Pip there in her green jacket, one hand on her hip and a plastic cup undoubtedly full of alcohol in the other.

She grinned sheepishly at the sudden attention. ‘Er, sorry. Didn’t know this was the quiet room.’