Chapter
Fifty
Familiar
Faces
Above the din of the crowd, Paige saw the
top of a blonde head and heard a familiar voice.
“Yeah, I miss the sun too,” the boy said.
It was unmistakably Darcy: taller, more
handsome, sun drenched and certainly louder than he’d ever been. He’d been
working on his grandfather’s cattle ranch during his vacation, which is how he
got sun drenched. Yes, it was definitely Darcy Donovan. Darcy had his back to Paige in the crowded
room and she wasn’t sure what to do. If she ignored him, he’d likely not see
her.
Darcy got his drinks from the bar without
looking over, then took his seat behind Paige with two friends, one of whom was
Ryan Bingley.
She waited for her change hugging her coat
around her pensively when the familiar voice said.
“Paige Bennet?”
There
was no avoiding him. Paige swung around.
“Darcy Donovan?”
“Where’s…”
“Shiloh is in LA.”
“Oh,”
Ryan, who smiled at Paige, looked
completely deflated. Darcy knew Ryan had emailed Shiloh, but Shiloh never
responded.
Darcy hesitatied, then attempted small
talk.
“My college is competing in the debate
finals.”
“Mine too.”
“What a surprise.”
“Not really.
Darcy
paused.
“Can’t
we just be friends? Forget high school. Start new? We were just kids then. Now
we’re two foreigners in a strange country… legally adults.”
“Mmm,” Paige said, “I guess we’ll be seeing
each other.”
Darcy
toasted Paige’s cider, “Here’s to being friends then…”
“And rivals,” Paige said under her breath.
“That too,” Darcy said unexpectedly.
Everyone re-introduced themselves and behaved
almost like adults. Even Darcy made a huge effort to introduce everyone and
told people about his great-aunts ‘old’ house in in Oxfordshire situated in
exquisite countryside not far from where they were.
“Really?” Paige remembered.
“We call it the Donovan mansion,” Ryan
joked.
Paige suddenly felt uncomfortable.
Paige vaguely remembered people saying
Darcy’s extended family lived in some great mansion in England. Nevertheless, the group ordered lunch and
Darcy insisted on including Paige and Coco and paying for everyone. By then,
Darcy had joined the tables and seated himself next to Paige.
“So, I had no idea you would be here for…
the debate championships?”
Paige
shrugged, speechless for the first time.
“Sunrise must have won the Nationals.”
“Yes.” Paige said proudly.
“My school did too, but then Australia has a
far smaller population – just over twenty million as opposed to three hundred
million where you’re from, so yours is the bigger win.”
“Right,” Paige said, she wasn’t used to this
far humbler Darcy.
“So, you’ll get into somewhere amazing like
Harvard Law School.”
“Maybe. I’m studying at UCLA, it’s pretty
amazing.”
“I know. After Oxford… I really want to go
to film school there.”
“Wow… I mean, you should do what you want
but… this place takes my breath away. How could you ever leave?”
“I know. It’s a pretty amazing
university.”
Paige looked around her and the spiral
architecture of the pub. Again, the entire place was like an enchanted medieval
town.
“Mmm… It is pretty remarkable.” Darcy leant
in closer, “I gotta say though, I’m one of only six Aussies at the college
we’re staying in. The other students, most from England, some of them are serious
snobs about ‘colonials’ if you know what I mean. They rub it in any chance they
get that they’re beating us in cricket, for example.”
“Cricket?” Paige thought this was funny; Darcy
getting a taste of his own medicine. She had no idea that cricket was a
national sport played in England and Australia (and most other commonwealth
countries), but she googled it under the table after they’d finished speaking.
“Well, I think English people are very
polite and the place is… out of this world.”
“Before debate finals, we should go out… for
a picnic. You should see the meadows around here. I’ll arrange it.”
Paige hesitated. She couldn’t believe this
new Darcy was real. He’d matured so much and was acting like less of a jerk and
more of a man.
“Okay,” Paige said. Perhaps she had been
wrong about Darcy so long ago. It was certainly time to give him another chance.
When she texted Shiloh about it after,
Shiloh replied. ”I wish I’d stayed in touch with Ryan. I’ve never met any boy I
liked even half as much.”
