Luke
I had been downstairs at least twenty minutes before Tina appeared in the doorway. In the meantime, I had found out that Cara, Andy and Rob had come prepared, knowing that many places require, at least, smart dress on New Year’s Eve. Rob had run Diane home, so she could get changed, with Cara and Andy taking over my room.
So much for an hour, it had taken over two from Sam waking us, until I made it down, now at nearly quarter to eight, Tina was the only one not ready. Sam took full advantage and planted her bum on my lap and we had a long chat about earlier, making sure we were both okay.
“Luke, Luke,” Sam said, clicking her fingers in front of my face.
Sam looked where I was looking, “Shit! She just gets more and more beautiful.”
“Uhuh.”
Tina had walked into the room and it was like a ripple of silence, as people noticed her. Her hair was tied back in a plait and she had loads of make-up on for her, meaning a pale pink lipstick and eyeliner. The others had gone for a variety of little black dresses, even Cara who I would have expected in a summer dress.
Tina’s dress was an off-white number, which looked to be silk or satin. The top had a V-neck, no sleeves and clung to her body so tightly, it was obvious she had no bra on, this was confirmed when I saw the back and there was another V, only this one plunged to halfway down her back. The skirt part hugged around her hips and bum, at the top of her legs, it was pleated and flared, stopping a couple of inches below her knee. On her feet, she had flat-soled, Roman style sandals, with white leather ties that wrapped around her calves and disappeared under her dress.
“Up,” I said to Sam, who didn’t hesitate.
I walked over and took Tina by her hands, “Do me the honour of being my partner for the rest of the year and letting me have the last dance?”
I leant forward and kissed her cheek, whispering, “My beautiful princess.”
“Sorry, guys, stealing him again,” as she dragged me out into the hall.
“That’s the second time you’ve called me that, it’s beautiful, thank you.” She hugged me tightly.
Taking both my hands and looking solemnly at me, “Sweetie, you know yourself best, will you be okay with this tonight?”
“Who can say? Will you be? Will Rob or Sam? How do you deal with awkward situations? Timid Tina?”
She sniggered, “Guilty. But, hold on…”
“Don’t worry, I won’t get naked. Too soon. I have coping strategies, go for a walk and break away from the situation. Find someone to lean on and after today, I think I found three more people, possibly five.”
“I’ll be a limpet tonight.”
"Suits me," I said, leaning in for a kiss.
Just then, there was a knock on the door, so we went to answer it and it was Mr and Mrs C. After the greetings, Mrs C got Tina to stand back and do a twirl.
“Oh, that dress is lush, I loves it!” said her mum.
“You look beautiful, petal,” said her dad.
“You’re not so bad either, Luke. Those other boys here too, is it?”
I took them through to the living room, where people were now gathering and did the introductions. Our fathers soon fell into conversation and once she had shown proper attention to our friends, Mrs C was talking up a storm with my mum.
Sam walked up to Tina and me, after this, “You kept that one quiet.”
It was Tina’s turn to look confused, “No one mentioned your mum was Welsh. Has Luke told you about his thing for that accent?”
“Oh, you mean like my mummy’s?” She slipped into her Welsh accent, “He has mentioned it, I thought it was ridiculous until I saw the effect, yn gwneud ei ergyd pidyn, if you know what I mean, like.”
Sam burst out laughing and hugged Tina, “Every day, I love you more and more.”
“You know Welsh properly?” I asked
“Ie cariad, gwnaeth mam fi'n dysgu,” and when I didn’t respond, “Yes, darling, mummy made me learn”
“Cariad? Darling?”
“Ie.”
“Yes?” Tina nodded.
“So, what did you say to Sam, cariad?”
She giggled and then blushed, before pulling me down and whispering, “I said it makes your penis throb.”
My bark of laughter stopped the conversation in the room, for a second. The pair of us ran into the kitchen, like two young kids, who had been caught with our hands in the biscuit barrel.
“And don’t look at me like that. Did you never look up as many rude words, as you could, in your French-English dictionary?”
As I was leaning down to kiss her, I reached down and ran my hand over her bum, as I felt her bum, I got curious and started to try to gather the bottom of her dress, she held my wrist.
“Just be careful, you don’t want everyone seeing what’s yours, do you?”
“Oh, Miss Croft, my perfect Chinese dumpling,” we were laughing as we went back into the living room.
More people arrived and Tina received many compliments on how she looked and from the people that knew me well enough, I was questioned how I had managed it and those less so, suggested I was the luckiest in the house. I didn’t correct them, but told Tina they were wrong, I was the luckiest on the planet. I did blow all my hard work when I asked her how many brownie points I had built up.
Tina
At first, I was amazed at how Luke bounced back. The telling this morning had wiped him out, after the sleep he was back. Today changed our relationship, it had to, it changed the relationships with everyone in the room. I couldn’t talk about others, but it wasn’t necessarily that I felt closer to Luke; it was more that the previous bonds were stronger. He had opened up his darkest closet and shown me what was inside, now the door was closed it felt like he had replaced the lock with a bigger one. It was my Luke that had woken up, but he was a little different, his eyes weren’t as sad as before, he held his chin a fraction higher.
My relationship with Sam was the one that had changed dramatically. Before, according to Luke, she had treated me unlike any of his other girlfriends. Now she did really feel like she had adopted me as her sister. Mrs Evans now looked at me as not just another girlfriend, but also the first girl Luke chose to tell. Maybe this is how Arthur felt when he pulled the sword from the stone, it may have been destiny, now I’ve got to live up to the image people have created, not for me, but for that person he first told.
I wondered how Luke would be tonight, but when I thought about it, he had done this every day, for over five years. He carried his beast with him into every situation sometimes with his family, but mostly, since I had known him, on his own and he held it at bay. Yes, he had picked at the scab today, but all the same, how did he put it, he had strategies? They would be the same, only now he had more people he could turn to and more easily because they knew some of his story.
“What would happen if I took my arm away?” Luke asked.
“Huh?” I looked up at him, then down and saw we were in the kitchen with, plates in our hands.
“You were miles away, holding on tight to my arm and just resting your head on it. Do you want something to eat?”
“Come here, you,” as he leant down, I went on tiptoes and kissed him.
I noticed for the first hour or so, it was almost as if we were being shadowed. If it were just the two of us, we would soon be joined by someone who had been in the kitchen this morning. If we were talking to someone, one of them would be hovering nearby, probably in conversation, but obvious to me, they were also keeping an eye on Luke. Me, other than when we were eating, I just hung onto his arm to start, I didn’t care that people might think I was too clingy, selfishly, I knew this was for me.
Luke
I had to expect it, I suppose. You don’t tell people something like that and expect them not to react. I thought it was amusing, they thought they were being subtle, yet I saw exactly what was happening. The nice thing was, it didn’t feel coordinated, just each of them wanting to make sure I was okay. They missed two major points, firstly that, I had dealt with this for years now and secondly, that I had Tina with me.
All the furniture had been moved from the middle of the living room to create a dance floor. When the music started, mum turned the lights down. It was funny how Tina and I were talking to someone in the middle of the room and were suddenly left alone, as soon as the song started. Now, that was coordinated.
I chuckled and looked at Tina, “You dancing?”
“You asking?” she replied.
“Nah,” I said and turned to walk away. Tina nearly pulled my arm out of my socket stopping me.
I turned and scooped her up and swung her around. There was a look of panic on her face, as her hands went behind to hold her dress down. I just brought her in tight to me and we swayed together and gradually others joined us. After that, Mrs C and dad came over and cut in, this felt remarkably like a dress rehearsal. Over the next hour or so mums and dads, friends and sisters had danced with us both, without a break. They checked that we were okay, individually and as a couple, I found out after, that they had done similar with Tina. This seemed to have satisfied them, as they didn’t hover, quite so much, after this.
I went and sat at the edge, taking a break, when Tina came and plonked herself on my knee, throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me. Diane joined us a couple of minutes later, kissing my cheek and we started talking, though she had nowhere to sit. Tina noticed me getting fidgety, torn between making her stand up and offering Diane my seat. She shuffled back on my knee and patted my other leg for her to sit.
