Chapter One
"You're coming home this summer, right?" Bianca Jones asked her best friend as they spoke on the phone. It was the beginning of June, and they were both on the verge of finishing their third-year exams. Bianca had been studying at the University of Kent in Canterbury, and so went home to Broadstairs, along the coast, every two weeks or so. Her friend Heather Fawcett was studying in Cambridge, and only really came home for Christmas and the odd weekend. Every summer she'd stayed in Cambridge to work hard to save up money.
"Yeah I'm coming home. I haven't been able to find a job here, so I might as well come back. Not that my parents will be particularly thrilled about it," Heather answered with a sigh, dropping herself on her bed.
"Why wouldn't they be happy to have you back?" her friend asked a little confused.
"Oh yes I'm sure they're jumping with joy that their 21-year-old daughter is coming back home until she finds something for herself," she answered sarcastically, getting a chuckle now.
"Well, I'm sure they don't actually mind, even if your mum will make you feel guilty about it," Bianca told her.
"Anyways, what are the plans?" Heather asked curiously. She figured her friend would have something planned if she was so adamant about her coming home.
"A lot of hanging around the bays, of course. But mainly, everyone's coming back, the whole gang from high school," her friend reacted excitedly. She was clearly looking forward to seeing everyone again.
"Define everyone," she reserved her excitement.
"Diana, Chloe, Mikey, Joanne, Andy," Bianca started listing their old friends. Diana, Chloe and Joanne had been three of their best friends throughout the bulk of high school and Mikey and Andy were friends with Bianca's cousin Bailey and Heather's ex-boyfriend Kevin. And you could be sure that if this lot were coming back, so was Kevin. Bailey had stayed in the area by moving to Ramsgate, the next town over, to work as an electrician so he was bound to be around to meet up with everyone. Kevin had moved to Cardiff after high school, which was when he and Heather had broken up. "Don't worry about Kevin, it's been like three years, right?" Bianca interpreted her friend's silence correctly.
"Yeah, three years," Heather nodded to herself. "Besides, I've not thought about him in ages. Did I tell you about Jamie?" she realised she'd started dating someone new last week.
"No, where'd you meet him? What's he like? Where's he from? Is he okay with you coming back to Thanet at the end of June?" Bianca started rattling off her almost standard set of questions, just like her friend knew she would.
"I met him in the library café. Can you imagine, we've probably been there loads of times before without seeing each other? And, I found out he knows my classmate Lucy, which means we've probably gone out with the same group of people before," Heather now started telling her.
"Well, that's unlucky," she got through the phone.
"I know right? Anyways, he's absolutely lovely. He lives in Medway, so he's not too far from us if everything goes okay between us," she added now. "Actually, speaking of Jamie, I'm supposed to be meeting him in town in an hour and I still need to get ready. Is it okay if I call you tomorrow?" Heather realised when she saw the time.
"Yeah of course. You'd better!" Bianca reacted, making her friend laugh.
"Yeah, yeah. Talk to you tomorrow hun," she said goodbye and hung up after she got a "Ciao!" back. It took her about ten minutes to get changed.
Heather quickly checked her reflection in the mirror to see if she was presentable. She ran a hand through her light brown highlighted hair to optimise the slight natural curls and freshened up her perfume with a spritz.
"Sorry I'm late, I was on the phone to Bianca," Heather apologised quickly when she saw Jamie was already waiting for her outside of WHSmith. His face had lit up as soon as he'd spotted her, so she knew he wouldn't be upset with her.
"That's okay, I only got here a few minutes ago," Jamie shrugged, with a bashful look, giving away that he had been there a bit longer, but he really didn't mind. "Come on, let's go to the restaurant," he said as he pulled her in to give her a kiss. She gave him a small smile and pulled him along in the right direction. She wasn't entirely sure why, but kissing him felt a little weird all of a sudden.
"So what's the plan for tonight?" Heather asked, hooking her arm through his, as they made their way through the high street.
"Dinner, then film, I'll even let you choose which one," Jamie informed her, with a teasing chuckle, getting a shove in response.
"Now just for that… I'm going to choose something extra macho," she told him, getting a confused look for a few seconds. Macho would surely work in his favour more than hers; it was his kind of film. "Think it through babe," she hinted. He gave her another look. And then he realised. When a couple goes to see a film, it's because they want to see a romantic film together (though of course there are exceptions, and those are usually once they've been together for a good while), not an action film.
"Okay, okay, I get it. No need to go extra macho, unless it's the only film showing," Jamie told her now, as he put his arm around her and pulled her in. Heather laughed as she wrapped her arm around his waist. "Have you got much planned for this weekend?" he asked, enjoying walking with her like this.
"Well…" she started exaggeratedly. "That all depends on how tonight goes," she added when she peaked his curiosity.
"Hm, now that sounds like a challenge," Jamie said with a smile as he kissed her hair.
Heather rubbed her eyes before she opened them and saw Jamie still asleep next to her. She turned over onto her side to look at him and smiled. She'd meant it when she told Bianca he was absolutely lovely, and he looked doubly lovely when he was asleep in her bed. And even though she told Bianca that him being in Medway might make the whole thing work, she wasn't entirely sure. Heather couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, it wasn't going to last long after they both moved back home. She wasn't sure how to deal with long distance, even if in this case it was only really an hour and a half; hardly long distance really.
She was so lost in thought that she jumped slightly when he went through her hair. "Sorry, penny for your thoughts?" Jamie apologised with a small smile.
"Oh nothing much, just daydreaming," Heather said with a shrug.
"Anything nice?" he asked teasingly as he leaned in to kiss her.
"Just reliving certain… moments from last night," she fibbed as she kissed back.
"Oh really? Care to share?" Jamie winked, kissing her again. He couldn't help laugh when she wrapped her arms around his neck and started kissing him properly.
Heather's mobile started buzzing in her bag on the floor. "Come on, answer your mobile," Bianca urged on the other end of the line. "Call me like you promised when you get this message," she spoke into her friend's voicemail.
"I'd say this was a successful weekend," Jamie smiled as he headed towards the door, pulling on his coat.
"And definitely up for repeat," Heather smiled back as she followed him to let him out.
"Are you busy this week?" he asked.
"I've got an exam on Tuesday and Friday, so this week will be a bit tense," she hesitated. She shouldn't have really wasted the whole of Saturday morning if she wanted to do well on Tuesday's exam. "But I can do Friday evening or Saturday, in fact I'll probably need it," Heather quickly added as she pulled him in.
"Friday night it is," Jamie smiled and gave her a kiss. "Good luck with the studying," he said, giving her another kiss.
"Thanks. You too, for later this week," she smiled.
"Cheers. I'll call you later," Jamie said as he opened the door and stepped out.
"Sure thing, bye," Heather gave him a wave and closed the door behind him as he set off. She trudged back up to her room and sank back down on her bed. She looked around at her clothes that were still all over the place and realised she had no idea where her phone was. She started picking up her clothes as she went along to see if her phone was hidden under them and then headed towards her bag next to her sofa. With a frown she called her voicemail and smiled when she heard Bianca's voice leave its message.
"Hey hun, what's up?" Heather asked as soon as her friend answered.
"Oh, I just wanted to double check on the date that you'll be back, because I'm organising a beach party at Stone Bay as a sort of reunion for everyone," Bianca started excitedly.
"Oh, was that all? Your message sounded a lot more serious," her friend responded, not at all enthusiastic like she'd hoped.
"What do you mean, is that all? This is going to be one hell of a reunion, and needs arranging appropriately," she told her off.
"Sorry honey. I'll be back on Friday 15th of June," Heather laughed apologetically.
"Okay, so Saturday the 16th it is," Bianca said happily. It sounded like most of the people she'd spoken to so far would be able to make that evening.
"So what exactly are you planning for this reunion then?" Heather asked curiously, her thoughts straying to her ex involuntarily.
"I can't tell you that! Not yet anyways, unless I need you to bring stuff later," her friend reacted so genuinely she made her laugh.
"Oh my, Bianca you really took it a bit far," Heather shook her head when she opened an envelope and pulled out a card, inviting her to the class of 2008 reunion. She wondered if her friend really had invited everyone; that would be a massive crowd. She could hardly imagine the police, or the local neighbours, would be too impressed with all that.
"Cuz, that is gonna be wicked, innit?" Bailey chuckled to himself when he found Bianca's invitation. Luckily, he wasn't going to be on call that weekend, which meant he could have a good few drinks with his old mates. Kevin was the only one he'd really stayed in contact with, apart from his cousin, so it would be good to see everyone again.
"Oh great," Kevin muttered to himself when he opened the invitation. He knew that if Bianca was organising it that Heather would definitely be there, although the invitation did say to bring any new partners. "Steph honey, I'm afraid we're going to have to go to a kind of reunion that first weekend at home in Broadstairs," he called to his new girlfriend, who was in the kitchen. They'd met in their first year but didn't start dating until the end of their second year. It had taken Kevin a while to feel ready to go out seriously with someone again.
"Really? We have to go?" Stephanie asked a little hesitantly as she walked out of the kitchen to sit down on the sofa next to him.
"Well kinda, I haven't seen all of these guys in about three years. It'll be fun, you'll see. It's really the best kind of introduction to Broadstairs and her bays anyway," he tried to assure her as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder.
"I suppose. Is it far?" she asked now.
"About a five or ten-minute walk from my parents' place," he shrugged. Nothing in Broadstairs was ever particularly far to walk and his parents lived around the corner from Stone Bay.
"Okay, we'll go," Stephanie nodded, getting a thankful kiss on the cheek.
"Would you mind if I came to Broadstairs with you the first weekend back?" Jamie asked as they were sat on his sofa watching TV.
"Oh well, I wouldn't mind, but I've got a thing with my friends that first Saturday evening," Heather said with a shrug, but sounding like she wanted to say no.
"What kind of thing?" he asked.
"A reunion of sorts, though I'm not entirely sure who'll be there," she answered, resisting the urge to shrug again.
"Oh, but that sounds like fun," Jamie said, surprising her. "I'd get to meet Bianca and see the people you hung out with before Cambridge," he explained.
"Okay, sure, if you want to come along," Heather nodded now, getting a happy smile. She smiled in response, but a feeling overcame her that she was in real danger of having him fall in love with her.