Chapter Fifteen

"I didn't think I'd see you again," Kevin commented when he opened the front door and saw Heather waiting for him on one of the side steps.

"Well, I enjoyed myself during training and I've been doing well, so why not?" she said with a shrug, not saying anything about why she'd missed the last three sessions or the possible reason why not indeed; her rejected love for him.

"I'm glad to see you anyway," he told her, giving her a friendly tap on the arm.

"Thanks," she smiled wryly, the only thing that showed how hard it was for her to be there and be friends with him.

"Let's go," he said now, nodding towards his car. "Been up to much?" he asked once they'd gotten in and he started the car.

Heather gave a shrug. "No not really," she answered, omitting that she'd not done anything aside from holing up in her room when she wasn't with the group, listening to sappy music as she went through old pictures of them. If she actually admitted to that, it would be rather like a teenage drama and ever so slightly pathetic. "How about you?" she asked, getting a shake of the head back as he navigated his way along the front towards Ramsgate.

"Nope. Looking for jobs around here, helping mum around the house, went for a run the other day," Kevin listed what he had done.

"Any luck with the job?" she asked, genuinely interested. Her mother had gotten on her case about finding a job and, if she hadn't been so busy wallowing, she'd have made it a priority. As it was, all she'd gotten around to doing was updating her CV.

"Not yet. There's not much around actually in Broadstairs, but there's a few things going in Ramsgate and Margate. Though I may have to just push the boundaries and look at Folkestone, Dover, Sandwich or Canterbury," he told her.

"Thanks for the heads up," she said, managing a chuckle.

"Let me guess, Maggie's been giving you a hard time?" Kevin asked with a chuckle, referring to her mother.

"Oh yes," she nodded, laughing now and making him laugh.

"Doesn't surprise me. I wonder if they've had a conference about it, my mum had a go at me earlier this week," he suggested now, and she couldn't help giggle again.

"Maybe they have," she conceded. He gave her a glance, surprised to find her in a fairly good mood so far. He'd have expected her to be moody, resentful, depressed, angry or all of the above, but not this. "So… are you going to Bianca's house party this Friday?" Heather asked. Bianca had text the whole group earlier that afternoon to remind them about the house party they'd planned, as her parents were away for the weekend and her neighbours on both sides, luckily, were on holiday; at least there could be no direct noise complaints.

"I'm not sure yet," Kevin answered. He hesitated whether he should give the real reason, that he might be going to see Stephanie that weekend.

"Is Stephanie coming here or are you going there?" she asked, seeing right through him, making him chuckle inwardly. Of course, she knew exactly what was making him hesitate about whether to go.

"I might be going over to hers, coz she's working on Friday and early on Monday, so it's easier if she doesn't have to travel. But I'm not sure yet," he conceded now. It had been the one weekend this month where they hadn't planned yet who would travel, in case Stephanie felt that she would be okay to.

"Don't you need to decide soon though? I mean, it is Tuesday evening already," she commented now. Though she knew what he was hesitating about, she wasn't entirely sure as to why.

"Yeah I do. There's a part of me that really wants to go this house party though," Kevin admitted to her. "I mean, I don't see you guys that often and once we've all found jobs and either moved for it, or whatever, we won't get that many chances to do this kind'a thing again," he now explained.

"Uh huh," she nodded. If it had been her, she'd have said, 'I'm going to the house party, sorry honey'. But it wasn't her, it was Kevin. And in that respect, he was a lot more considerate than she was. "Is she likely to understand if you decide not to go see her?" she asked carefully, making him sigh.

"Probably not. But then, she's managed to find a job, near all of her friends, and she's even working with 2 of her friends. Whereas for us, it's less likely that we'll all work near each other, what with Pfizer leaving the area," Kevin said thoughtfully.

"Sounds to me like you're trying to convince yourself why you'd want to go… bottom line Kev; do you wanna go or not? Do you want to go see her, or not?" Heather once again saw straight through him and put him right.

"Well, that's a bit crudely put," he frowned when she boiled it down to those two questions. Heather shrugged simply; he was the one who was having trouble making up his mind, not her. "I want to do both. I want to hang out with my friends, but I also want to see her," he said once he realised she wasn't going to rephrase.

"I suppose, if you don't mind only going for two days and 1 night, you could do both. Come to the party on Friday, then go up on Saturday morning," she now suggested. She didn't particularly want to help him go see Stephanie, but she was selfish enough about wanting to see him that this might be the only way.

"Now why didn't I think of that?" he asked. "Thanks Heather," he said as he gave her hand a quick squeeze. She gave a small smile as she squeezed back.

"You're welcome," she nodded.

The club were actually quite pleased to see Heather had decided to come back; they could always use new girls and she'd shown potential by picking everything up quite quickly. Because they were still getting to know everyone else and were friends, the coach let them stick together at a post with two others, as well as in a division once they started playing a game. It was obvious that they had had years of experience playing together as, even though it was a different sport, they knew exactly how the other thought and what move they'd make next.

"Glad you managed to get her to come back Kevin," one of the slightly older ladies, Brenda, said when Heather had gone to the toilet at the end of the session.

"Don't think I had much to do with it," Kevin replied honestly, chucking his sweaty shirt in his bag and changing his shoes. He really did think it had more to do with the sport and the people and he was just something that she'd have to put up with.

"I'm sure you did. You're a couple, right?" she commented now, rooting him to the spot. He was sure it wasn't a good thing if people thought that.

He shook his head as he straightened up, dropping his basketball shoe. "We used to be. We're just friends now," he finally answered, not liking the look on Brenda's face.

"Oh okay, my bad. You look good together, that's all," she left it at that, hoping she hadn't offended him or made anything awkward. "See you next week in any case," she smiled now and followed her husband and daughter out of the hall.

Kevin swallowed hard when he saw Heather almost skip back towards him. "Ready?" he forced a smile.

She nodded and grabbed her stuff to follow him out of the hall. "I'm glad I came back," she commented once they were in the car, getting a curt nod.

"Brenda said they were as well," Kevin responded.

"Oh, was that what you were talking about?" she asked, turning towards him.

"Uh huh."

Heather looked at him a little confused; why was he being so quiet? He'd been fine during training.

"Everything alright?" Heather asked after about half an hour's silence. She'd gotten bored of trying to peer out into the darkness for any landmarks she might recognise to tell her how much longer they had to go.

"Yeah. Why?" Kevin tried to play it cool, not looking at her.

"Coz you're never this quiet unless something's bugging you," she answered, watching him trying to organise his thoughts.

"I'm fine," he maintained. He glanced over at her to see the sceptical look on her face. "Really. Don't worry, it's nothing, just a text from Stephanie that got to me," Kevin lied now, although it wasn't that far from the truth; she'd texted him asking how training was and if SHE had come back, and it had bugged him that she'd felt the need to ask and check in on him. But for the most part, he just wanted the attention away from him.

"Oh… Okay… hope it sorts itself out then," Heather gave in now. She could tell he was lying but also that he wasn't going to tell her.

"Thanks," he said and gave her a smile.

She smiled back. "Sure thing," she nodded.

The rest of the way Kevin made sure to try to keep a conversation going, in the hope she'd believe he was fine. Heather knew exactly what he was doing but played along until they got home.

"Sure you're okay?" she asked as she got out.

"Yeah I'm fine. Thanks though," he nodded.

"Okay. See you Friday then at Bianca's," she smiled.

"Definitely, looking forward to it," he said as he smiled back.

"Me too, bye," she waved and shut the door.

Kevin watched her walk into her house and sighed as he took his face in his hands. He could scarcely believe how much Brenda's comment had affected him or that Heather'd been able to pick up on it so easily. Even after three years apart, they still knew each other inside out. Kevin shook his head to clear it and drove the three streets home. 'Get a grip on yourself,' he told himself as he made his way into the house.

"How was training honey?" his mother asked when she heard the front door.

"Fine," Kevin tried not to sigh. "I'm just going to take a shower," he called back, ran upstairs to get his towel and came back down to head into the bathroom. He was hoping the shower might help him calm down a bit.