Loveless (Osemanverse #10)(88)

‘Wait, you’ve been talking to her?’ Rooney said, sitting upright.

‘It’s not me she has a feud with. We’re still friends. We’re at the same college.’

‘You can get her to come back, then. She’ll listen to you.’

‘I’ve tried.’ Jason shook his head. ‘She is angry. And Pip doesn’t forgive easily.’ He looked at me and Rooney. ‘I mean … I sort of understand why. What you both did was incredibly idiotic.’

Jason knew about the kiss. Of course he did – Pip probably told him everything. I felt myself go red out of sheer embarrassment.

‘What did you do?’ Sunil asked curiously.

‘They kissed and Pip saw,’ said Jason.

‘Oh.’

‘Um … can we explain our side of the story about that?’ Rooney asked.

‘I mean my guess is that you were drunk and it was Rooney’s idea,’ said Jason. ‘And you both instantly regretted it.’

‘OK, that’s … that’s fairly accurate.’

‘So what should we do?’ asked Sunil.

‘I think Georgia and Rooney are just going to have to keep trying to talk to her until she’s willing to listen. Maybe one at a time, so she doesn’t feel like you’re ganging up on her.’

‘When?’ I said. ‘How?’

‘Now,’ said Jason. ‘I think one of you should go to her room and just apologise to her face. You haven’t actually tried apologising in person yet, have you?’

Neither Rooney nor I said anything.

‘That’s what I thought.’

An idea flashed into my mind. ‘Pip’s jacket. One of us should go and give her back her jacket.’

Rooney snapped her head round to me. ‘Yes. That’s been in our room for, like, months.’

‘Want me to run back and get it?’

But Rooney was already getting to her feet.

Once she returned from St John’s with Pip’s denim jacket in hand, Rooney demanded that she be the one to go to talk to Pip. She didn’t even let me argue with her – she just swung the door open, stepped outside, and said, ‘Which way is her room?’

Rooney still blamed herself for the whole thing, it seemed. Even though Pip had many more reasons to be angry with me.

I went with her part of the way, but stopped round a corner a few metres away so I could listen to the conversation. It was evening, and dinner had finished, so hopefully Pip would be there.

Rooney knocked on Pip’s door. I wondered what she was going to say.

Was this a terrible idea?

Too late.

The door opened.

‘Hi,’ said Rooney. And then there was a noticeable silence.

‘What are you doing here?’ asked Pip. Her voice was low. It was strange hearing Pip so genuinely sad. I hadn’t heard her like that very much before … all of this.

‘I …’

I expected Rooney to launch into a big speech of some sort. To deliver a heartfelt and forceful apology.

Instead, she said, ‘Um – your … jacket.’

There was another silence.

‘OK,’ said Pip. ‘Thanks.’

The door creaked, and I peeked round the corner just as Rooney swung out her arm to keep the door open.

‘Wait!’ she cried.

‘What? What do you want?’ I couldn’t see Pip – she was too far inside her room – but I could tell she was getting annoyed.

Rooney was panicking. ‘I … Why is your room so messy?’

This was definitely the wrong thing to say.

‘You literally cannot stop yourself from making snidey comments about me, can you?’ Pip snapped.

‘Wait, sorry, that’s not what I –’

‘Can’t you just leave me alone? I feel like you’re haunting me, or something.’

Rooney swallowed. ‘I just wanted to say sorry. Like … properly. To your face.’

‘Oh.’

‘Georgia’s here too.’

I felt my stomach drop as Rooney pointed towards where I was hiding round the corner. This hadn’t been the plan.

For someone who supposedly knew a lot about romance, Rooney sure as hell didn’t know how to pull off a grand gesture Pip stepped a little way out of her room to look, her expression dark.

‘I don’t want to talk to either of you,’ she said, her voice cracking, and she turned to go back inside.

‘Hang on!’ I was surprised by my own voice leaving my mouth, and by the way I scrambled towards Pip’s room.

And there she was. Her hair was fluffy and unstyled, and she was wearing a hoodie and jersey shorts. Her bedroom was extremely messy, even for her. She was clearly upset.

But she wasn’t as angry as the other week outside the pub.

Was that progress?

‘We thought it might be better if just one of us spoke to you,’ I blurted. ‘But – um, yeah. We’re both here. And we’re both really sorry for … you know. Everything that happened.’

Pip said nothing. She waited for us to continue, but I didn’t know what else to say.

‘That’s it, then?’ she said, eventually. ‘I’m supposed to just … forgive you?’