Chapter Sixteen

"Okay, enough wallowing now. It's been more than two weeks and Kevin's made it clear he's staying with Stephanie," Bianca told Heather in an outburst on Friday afternoon. They were getting her place ready for the house party and they had music blaring from the speakers. Normally, they'd have been dancing around while cleaning and having a good laugh in general. Today though, Heather's thoughts were very much stuck on Kevin and so was doing everything with about half as much enthusiasm as her friend would've liked to see.

"But on Tues-…"

"No buts!" Bianca interrupted quickly, seeing her friend's face drop. "Be realistic okay? I know he'll be there tonight, but so will a lot of other guys. Talk to them, dance, drink and have fun okay? Kevin's moved on, so should you," she continued her lecture, getting a slow nod.

"I suppose you're right, I need to move on," Heather sighed as she sank down onto the sofa. "I can't promise it'll be tonight though," she warned her and managed a small smile, getting a hug in response.

"That's fair enough. Just don't punish yourself, okay? Don't just hang around him all night," her friend nodded, still holding her tightly.

"I'll try," Heather promised; she really would. She knew she needed to let him go.

Heather was stood in a corner of the room with Bailey and Joanne, happily drinking some beers when Kevin came in and she froze. He looked really good in his jeans and dark blue shirt. She was very aware of her promise to Bianca, but she couldn't just walk away now he was on his way over to their little huddle with a couple of beers in his hands.

"Refill?" he asked with a chuckle.

"Cheers mate, great timing!" Bailey welcomed him happily, taking two beers and handing one to Joanne.

"I always have," Kevin smiled and handed the last beer to Heather.

"Mostly," she conceded with a teasing smile as she took it.

"Yeah, yeah," he nudged her. "So, how's it been so far?" he asked them.

"Good. The music's been alright," Joanne nodded, in one of those weird head bobbing-movements. "How come you got here late?" she asked.

"Am I?" Kevin checked his watch.

"Well… you're late…-er than the rest of us," Bailey said now, getting nods from the others as his friend punched him on the arm. He rubbed his arm, giving Kevin a glare.

"I just got tied up, my mum for some reason was making a big fuss about me staying home for dinner. I dunno, she was being weird," he answered now. It had been partly his mother, but his phone call to Stephanie after dinner had taken a little longer than he'd intended; even though they'd agreed that he would go to the party tonight and come up to see her in the morning, she'd tried to convince him to come over early and skip the party, as it had been over a week since they'd last seen each other and they'd not have that long this weekend as it was. But he'd stuck to his guns; it would be too late by the time he'd get to Brighton and he'd already told his friends he'd be there tonight.

"Yeah, my mum's been like that…" Heather sighed, pulling his attention back to the conversation, getting a 'thank you' gesture from him as he motioned towards the others.

"I dun have that prob, I have me own pad," Bailey reacted, making them all laugh.

"Oh, that's a point, we haven't seen it yet," Joanne responded.

"You should have a house party next weekend, we can go out as well. Are you near the high street?" Heather suggested.

"It's Ramsgate, course I'm near the high street," he chuckled. "But sounds fab. Yeah, I might do that. Wicked," he continued.

"What is?" Bianca asked, popping up next to him.

"House party at mine, next week, week after, innit?" he told his cousin with a big grin as he nudged her with his elbow.

"Oh defo," she grinned back. "Right, can I borrow you? Just for a min," Bianca turned to her friend now and, before she could react, pulled her along.

"Careful," Heather reacted, just about managing to keep her beer straight and stop it from spilling all over her hand. "What are you doing?" she asked now, as her friend was still pulling her.

"I am going to introduce you to some guys," Bianca told her.

"But…" her friend started to object.

"No, no. You promised me, and these guys are cute," she cut her short, as she grabbed her by her shoulders.

"Then why don't you talk to them?" Heather asked back, getting a momentary hesitation.

"I will. But, it's you we're focusing on here." Her friend let go of her shoulders but grabbed her free hand. "Now… I'm not saying you need to get with them, but you do need to talk to them, be charming, maybe get one of their numbers and generally have fun," Bianca informed her, and quickly pulled her towards these three guys that were huddled near the fridge before she could object again. "Neil, Josh, Mark, this is my friend Heather. I know these guys from university," she introduced them now.

"Hi, I've known her since we were 10, though not for much longer after tonight," Heather added with a smile, ignoring the elbow her friend gave her. "You guys having fun?" she asked now, trying to be nice and keep the promise she'd made.

"We are now," the third guy said, getting a few chuckles back.

"Yeah, thanks," she nodded, thinking Mark at the least did not stand a chance with her tonight. "So, how in university did you meet Bianca then?" she asked them, not really knowing what else to ask at the moment.

"Rugby. She and her friends came to watch one time," Neil answered this one.

"Rugby, really?" Heather asked her friend, trying not to sound too surprised and give the game away.

Bianca gave her a forced smile. "Uh huh, love it," she impressed to her friend, not seeing that the guys were trying to fight back chuckles. They'd known all along that the girls hadn't come to see the rugby that day but didn't mind the white lie; they'd turned out to be cool girls.

"So, who are they?" Kevin asked Bailey as he glanced over at Heather and Bianca, figuring he was the safer person to ask than Joanne. His friend also glanced over.

"I think they're friends of Bianca's. She met them at uni two or three years ago," Bailey said, vaguely remembering his cousin had mentioned friends coming over for the party. "So, Steph couldn't make it tonight?" he asked as he shrugged.

"No, she's working today and early Monday, so I'm going to see her tomorrow morning," Kevin answered, trying not to keep looking over at his former girlfriend.

"Cool. She's nice, you reckon she'll come down here again?" his friend asked, swigging his beer.

"I hope so, especially if I do end up working here. We've tried to alternate, but with her working I'm doing most of the travelling for now," he said, following his example and finishing his beer; he didn't want to linger on the topic too much, given that it was already a sore subject between him and Stephanie. The last thing he needed right now was someone else's opinion on their situation. "I'm going to get another drink," Kevin told his friend now, bracing himself to interrupt the guys talking to Heather and Bianca.

"Bring me back one," Bailey responded before turning back to talk to Joanne.

His friend nodded and slowly made his way round the room towards the kitchen. "Who are your friends?" Kevin asked Bianca as he leaned past Heather to get a beer from the fridge. He gave her a smile when he noticed she was looking at him and passed her a beer as well.

"Neil, Josh, and Mark," Bianca told him as she pointed them out to him. "Guys, this is Kevin, another old friend of ours," she now told the others.

"Oh, nice to meet you," Josh nodded and was the first to hold his hand out.

"You too," Kevin nodded and shook his hand before shaking the others' hands as well. "Having fun so far?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'd say so," Neil answered as he gave Heather a smile, which, to the dismay of her ex, she returned; so far, she seemed to like him best.

"Good, good," he responded uncomfortably, trying to think how he could put them off. "You guys drink much?" he asked. Maybe they didn't, and they could do a drinking game. Heather could hold her drink fairly well and not all guys found that impressive.

"Only when the company sucks," Mark laughed loudly, giving them a wink.

'Charming,' Kevin thought to himself and saw she wasn't too impressed by that either. "Well, we love drinking games, right?" he said as he put his arm around her shoulder.

"Uh huh," Heather nodded slowly. "But only coz together we beat everyone," she added with a chuckle as she wrapped her arm around his waist in return, figuring she didn't care why his arm was around her, just that it was.

"Oh really?" Neil asked intrigued.

"Yeah she can drink like a guy," Kevin laughed as he merrily shook her a bit.

"Eh yeah thanks Kevin," she hesitated now, she wasn't sure if that was something to boast about to other guys.

"Sorry I'm driving tonight, otherwise I'd love to," Josh declined now.

"Oh right, course," Neil remembered. "We probably shouldn't drink too much then either," he said to Mark, who actually pouted.

"Suppose you're right," he gave in and sulked.

"Oh, that's too bad," Kevin pretended. "Do you wanna go join Bailey? I know he'll drink with us," he turned to Heather.

"Ehm…" she hesitated. She had actually been having a good time talking to Neil and Josh, but he was acting like before they'd started university, as if the last month hadn't happened. She couldn't turn down that kind of time with him, even if she did end up getting hurt in the end. "Yeah, okay," she gave in. "Catch up with you later," she managed to say to the three guys as Kevin pulled her along towards Bailey, Joanne, and Mikey.

"Sorry about that…" she could just hear Bianca apologise to them, making her feel a little guilty.