Page 21 of The Reboot
As dawn broke, Ella found herself slumped on a sofa in front of a big window overlooking the glittering water of Grand Canal Dock. On the floor at her feet, a couple lay passed out on top of each other, while beside her, a guy was asleep on his back, snoring loudly. A girl she vaguely recognised was slumped in an armchair, drooling onto her lilac silk dress as she dozed. The room was littered with empty bottles and half-drained glasses. She’d nodded off, and most people seemed to have left while she’d been asleep.
She felt drunk and woozy, too tired to move. She just wanted to curl up on the sofa and sleep, but she knew she’d regret it later, so she heaved herself up with a groan, her head spinning as she stood. She wasn’t so out of it that she didn’t worry about the guy sleeping on his back beside her, and with an enormous effort, she managed to manoeuvre him onto his side. She checked the other sleeping bodies, but none of them seemed in danger of choking on their vomit. She grabbed her bag from beside the sofa and pulled out her phone to call a taxi. Her heart sank as she saw it was out of charge.
Damn! If only she hadn’t spent half the night posting crap about the Debs on social media, wasting battery life on all those photos that she already knew would only be fit to delete. Still, she could always walk home. It might do her good, help stave off the hangover she could already feel building behind her eyes. But even as she thought it, she moved around the room searching for a socket to plug in her phone.
‘We’re the last men standing.’ She was crouched down, plugging her mobile into a socket behind a side-table when she heard the voice behind her.
She straightened up and turned around. Roly Punch stood there, looking sleepy, dishevelled and very much the worse for wear, but still magazine-ad gorgeous. In his beautifully tailored tux, bow tie hanging loose around his neck, his snowy white shirt crumpled and his messy hair artfully tousled, he could have been the poster boy for a designer men’s cologne. Debauchery by Calvin Klein.
‘Where’s Sarah?’
He shrugged, his beautiful mouth twitching in a crooked smile. ‘I lost track of her somewhere along the way. Last I saw she was shifting Mr Hogan.’
‘The maths teacher?’ Ella gasped.
‘Yeah, that Mr Hogan.’
‘Wow!’
‘She’s been after him all year and this was her last chance to get with him, so fair play to her. Though I’m surprised she still went for it after witnessing his dad-dancing tonight.’
‘You don’t seem very cut up about it.’
‘We weren’t really serious. And it’s all coming to an end anyway, isn’t it? She just got in first. I don’t mind. Makes it easier for her.’
‘Easier for you too.’
He smiled. ‘Yeah. Where’s your … friend?’ He gave a little smirk.
Ella and Julie had pulled the classic nerdy-girl move of going to the Debs together, without dates.
‘She left earlier.’ Ella wasn’t sure why she hadn’t gone with her, what had made her stay on. Had she been hoping to establish some lasting connection at the eleventh hour? Or was she just clinging on to this world for as long as she could, reluctant to let go of the last thing separating her from fully-fledged adulthood?
‘So…’ Roly ran a hand through his hair. ‘Are you getting a taxi?’
‘Yeah. I just have to wait for some charge on my phone.’ She pointed to it.
‘We could get one together?’ He pulled his mobile from his pocket and looked at her questioningly.
‘Thanks, that’d be great.’ She bent to unplug her phone.
‘Want to go and get some breakfast?’ he asked her when she stood back up.
‘I doubt there’s anywhere open yet.’ She looked to the window where grey clouds hung low over the water, the sky shot through with rays of pale light.
‘I know a place near here.’
‘In that case, yes. I’m starving.’
She grabbed her coat and they let themselves out of the apartment.
‘You’ve got something on the back of your dress,’ Roly said as she walked down the stairs ahead of him.
She twisted around to look. There was a dirty black stain right on her bum. ‘Ah, a casualty of “Rock the Boat”,’ she said, smiling ruefully as she brushed at it. Julie had wanted to stand apart from it all, literally looking down on their fellow classmates as they got down and dirty on the dance floor. But Ella had thought,Fuck that!Once she’d decided to go to the Debs, she’d committed one hundred per cent to the experience, and she wanted to do it all.
‘Come on,’ she’d said to Julie, ‘We’ve come to the Debs, so let’sbe at the fucking Debs!’ So she’d joined the squealing throng rushing to drop to the floor as the iconic song began, throwing herself into the corny dance routine wholeheartedly, while Julie remained resolutely on the sidelines, a sardonic twist to her lips as she watched.
Commuters were starting to make their way to work, and Ella and Roly got curious looks and indulgent smiles from passers-by as they walked along by the canal. Ella thought what a romantic figure they must cut in their crumpled morning-after finery. Everyone would assume they were a couple who’d partied the night away together. The idea pleased her more than it should.
