Page 25 of The Fall I Fell

I could feel Freya bubbling under the table. Her legs rattled the whole thing until it felt like we were on the set of Jurrasic Park and I quickly thrust my hand over her mouth before she could let out an animal-like squeal.

‘I would love that. Thank you,’ I replied calmly, while still side-eyeing my best friend to try and get her to control herself.

The next few weeks passed quickly, with almost all of my free time spent in the art room with Oscar. Sometimes, we could just sit together in silence, him drawing, me sewing or designing, but it was nice to have the company. When we weren’t working together, we were out and about with the whole of friend group, him with the guys, me with the girls. We never had much to say to one another outside of the art room, but he often stole a glance at me across the pavement when we all walked together.

‘Ava.’ Oscar turned to me one afternoon as we fell a little behind the group. I looked up at him, urging him to continue. ‘I was just wondering …’ he trailed off, his cheeks reddening.

His silence ran slightly past comfortable.

‘Yes … ?’ I encouraged, very aware that we were losing sight of the group up ahead.

‘Well, I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with you these past few weeks. I don’t think I could have got through this whole art show project without you.’ He coughed, but it was clear he had nothing in his throat to clear, except his nerves.

‘Me too!’ I smiled and he started to breathe again. ‘We make a good team.’

‘Well, I was just thinking if you’d like to keep hanging out, you know, like after the show is done?’ A bead of sweat emerged from his hairline and he swept it away quickly.

‘Of course.’ He sighed in relief, and I continued, ‘You’re my friend, of course I’m not just going to ditch you just because I’m using your skills to get me an A+.’

Oscar’s face twisted painfully. ‘No, Ava, I mean—’

The sound of my phone pinging in my pocket startled us both, and without thinking, I hurried to get it out of my pocket to check if he had replied.

JacobThorogood7:

How long is it until you’re home next?

The photo was of Hope attached, snuggled up in the passenger seat of his tractor, in my seat. I melted, there and then. Hope, home, Jacob – my heart couldn’t take it all and for several seconds I stood there, staring at the message, wondering if this was his way of saying he missed me. I tingled at the fact he had messaged me first, the fact that he had thought of me, hundreds of miles away.

‘Ava?’ Oscar reminded me of his presence with a nudge.

I whipped my phone around to show him the picture, but his smile wasn’t genuine. ‘Jacob, my friend from home – from Granny and Grandad’s, I mean – just sent this,’ I rushed to explain. ‘It’s our cat, Hope.’

‘Oh, that’s nice.’ His tone was deflated, and looking back now, after Freya had told me he had been planning to ask me out, this interaction keeps me up at night.

‘Maybe I could invite him to come and see the art show? It’s still a while until I get to go back again …’ I started thinking out loud before hurrying to catch up with Freya to tell her of my plans.

I was so blinded, so wrapped up in Jacob, that I really had no idea.

Chapter 15

Now

‘Miss Matthews?’ The photography teacher catches me as I head out of class. Jacob lingers in the doorway for a second as I walk to her desk. ‘I hear you have a conditional offer to study fashion, in Milan of all places.’ I cast a long glance at Jacob, who all of a sudden takes a great interest in changing the settings on his camera.

‘Yes, miss,’ I reply, warmed that Jacob has been talking about me, even if it is to our photography teacher – who we’ve often found napping in the dark room.

‘Congratulations.’ She’s sincere, but she digs around in the array of papers in her desk noisily, not looking at me as she speaks. ‘Where is it …’ she mutters to herself, collecting the huge pile of essays that are clearly in her way and dropping them onto the floor. ‘Ah ha!’

She draws out a crumpled leaflet from the stack and places it on the edge of her desk for me to read.

Young Creatives Exhibition

A place for young people to display their talents to the community and industry professionals

‘Now, as you’re well aware, we don’t have a fashion and textiles department at this college, so the exhibit is usually quite art and photography heavy. Don’t get me wrong, there’s some great stuff, but I thought you could mix it up a bit. Since you’re late to my cohort, if you chose to do it, I could count some of your exhibit towards your final grade, and I’m sure it would go a long way with your university prep too.

‘I also hear you’re independently studying your fashion A-level? If you give me the contact of your tutor back in London, I’m sure we can come to some arrangement about this counting towards your coursework.’