He's After Me

Chapter THIRTEEN



Tonight Jem’s doing an extra shift in the hotel bar, which gives me time, at last, to catch up with Zoe. I’m looking forward to her coming round; it’s been ages since we got together outside college. But as soon as she arrives, she starts getting on my nerves. She keeps on and on about how Jem never lets me out of his sight, till in the end I just want her to go. I’ve got too much I should be getting on with to listen to crap like that.

‘What did you get for your Hamlet essay?’ she asks, changing the subject at last.

‘I haven’t handed it in yet.’

‘What?’ She looks at me in horror, like I’ve planted a bomb in the student common-room or something.

‘I haven’t had time.’

‘It’s because you’re always with Jem,’ she says, returning to her well-worn theme. ‘Tell him you’ve got work to do.’

‘Jem doesn’t stop me from working!’ I snap, fed up with her now. She looks sceptical. ‘He doesn’t! He wants me to do well in my exams, if you must know. Then I can go to London and be with him.’

Zoe repeats my words slowly. ‘He wants you to go to London?’

‘Yes.’

‘To be with him?’

‘Yes.’ What is wrong with her? She’s making me uneasy.

‘This is more serious than I thought!’ Her face is a picture. ‘He wants you to move in with him?’

‘Yeah,’ I say slowly. ‘I guess so.’

Last night, when I was filling in my UCAS application Jem had said, ‘Newcastle?’ in surprise.

‘What’s wrong with Newcastle?’

‘Nothing!’

‘Jem?’ I say warningly. We’d just been talking about how important it was to be honest and open with each other and now here he was, clamming up on me.

‘OK. It’s just that it’s so far away. When will I get to see you?’ He looks like a little kid.

I feel guilty. ‘Oh, Jem, anywhere I go will be far away. But it’s only term-time. We can see each other in the holidays.’

‘The holidays,’ he repeats, but he still looks miserable.

‘And weekends. It’s the north-east of England, not Outer Mongolia.’

But it might as well be, from his face. Then suddenly he stands up and hugs me to him, wrapping his arms around me in a stranglehold, like he’ll never let me go.

‘Come to London.’ His voice in my ear is soft but compelling. ‘We can be together all the time then.’

It seemed like a good plan. I was flattered to be asked, flattered he wanted me to share his London life with him, flattered he was thinking of us long-term.

And it would be so good to be together properly. Basically we had nowhere to go here. Nowhere to be alone. And I want to be alone with him, I really do.

So, filled with euphoria, I’d put down a London uni as my first choice and Newcastle as my insurance instead.

But now, all of a sudden, I’m nervous. Am I doing the right thing? Jem and me – it’s brilliant. I’m so lucky I met him, I love him to bits. It’s just that everything is moving so fast. Going to London to be with him is a huge commitment. One I now realize I haven’t really thought through properly.

Zoe saying, ‘He wants you to move in with him?’ has panicked me. Because, when I agreed last night to go to London, I guess I still thought I’d be doing the whole uni experience I’d looked forward to for so long. Just not in Newcastle.

I’d thought there would still be:

A hall of residence.

A poky room with a desk and a single bed with my throw on it and my posters hiding the cracks in the walls.

Freshers’ week.

Pub crawls.

Clubs.

Parties.

Late nights spent drinking too much.

Late mornings, with hangovers.

New mates.

No Mum. No Dad.

Freedom.

Only, now it wasn’t going to be like that.

Because I’d be with Jem.

Zoe is still staring at me like I’ve grown two heads. I feel like saying to her, ‘Leave me alone! I was all right with this until you started!’

But she beats me to it. She starts grabbing her things together and saying that she’s got to go. Like we’ve had an argument. Like I’ve let her down or something.

Just who does she think she is?

I don’t tell Jem any of this, of course. Soon I’ve got things more in perspective. It’s not rocket science to work out I’m just a bit stressed out at the moment, what with the year I’ve had. Dad shacking up with Jude, me worrying all the time about Mum and what Livi’s up to, stacks of college work to keep up with, Zoe being an idiot … What did I expect? No wonder I’m looking forward to getting away from this place, letting my hair down and having FUN!

And it’s still going to happen. It is! Only it’s going to be with Jem by my side.

Jem is fun. I’m discovering all the time there’s loads more to him than meets the eye. He’s not just attentive and considerate and drop-dead gorgeous and, of course, besotted with me (which, let’s face it, is really what the problem with Zoe is – she’s green with envy). He makes me laugh too – things he does, things he says. He’s got a really quirky sense of humour once you get to know him. He’s had some wicked things to say about Zoe (ha, ha) and some of my other friends. He thinks they’re a bunch of losers, if the truth is known.

He’s probably right.

I do want to be with Jem, I really do.

Stuff Zoe.





It had been a good night. He’d been spotted at one point under the bridge, he was sure of it, but he’d frozen into the shadows and the couple had walked on past. Wise move.

No one wanted to mess with a figure lurking in the dark on a cold winter’s night. Goodness knows what he might be up to.

They’d find out soon enough.