How To Stop Smoking

Why so serious?

Chapter Twenty

Olympia

 At the weekend I decided that a girls' sleepover with Kat was well overdue, I called her to organise and we agreed that I'd go over to hers that evening. She also suggested that we invite Mel, who Kat had gotten on well with after that night at the club.

When it was almost time to set off, I packed my stuff into a bag and walked to Kat's, she lived about an equal distance as Rob did but in the opposite direction, so it wasn't a long walk. As I got onto her street I texted to say I was there and she told me to come straight in.

The semi-detached had a beautiful front garden, always bustling with pretty flowers — even in the grey British weather. The path was lined with daffodils as I headed to the door and opened it, although there were less flowers inside, the air was just as fragrant.  Kat's mum had a slight obsession with automatic air fresheners that sprayed the scent of lavender into each room at half hour intervals, it was not unusual to be walking past one of these contraptions and have the scent fired at you.

I heard laughing from upstairs figured that Mel and Kat must be up there, so I headed up the stairs to find them. Sitting on Kat's bed, she and Mel were surrounded by DVD cases and magazines. Kat saw me in the doorway and launched herself at me, the vice like grip she had of me said that she had definitely missed — especially considering we weren't usually the hugging types.

It wasn't that we hadn't seen or talked to each other, it had just been a while since we'd done anything as just the two of us, though I guess it wasn't just the two of us today, but it was better than nothing.

When Kat finally released me, I took a big breath to get some air back into my body. Mel smiled at me shyly from her position on the bed as Kat took my bag and threw it into the corner of the room along with another bag I assumed must be Mel's.

I perched on the edge of the double bed and looked up at Kat, who stood hands on hips in front of us.

"So guys, what are we doing tonight?" she demanded.

I shrugged, and looked to Mel who seemed equally clueless. "We could watch films?" she suggested.

I nodded in agreement, but Kat shook her head. "We can do that later, there's plenty of chick-flicks here to occupy us well into tomorrow morning. But for now, I think we should talk love lives. Mel, you can go first."

Kat was typically this forward, Mel was a little taken aback and blushed slightly at our curious expressions, urging her on. She took a deep breath, "Well I really like Joey."

Kat raised an eyebrow, "But?"

Mel sighed, "But, I never really know where his head is at, like we don't do talking about feelings and shit, which is usually fine by me, but I just want to know what we are, you know?"

Kat and I both nodded, Joey seemed like the silent type to me, I mean he silently brooded over his disapproval of me and Rob for a good few weeks until Rob confronted him. I decided to keep my knowledge of Mel's embarrassing and rushed departure that day to myself.

Kat sighed, "Dan's the same, I think he likes me but it's as if he wants to play it cool all the time, it's exhausting." Kat looked at me expectantly, "So then Ol, you and Rob together yet or you still playing out that whole smoking charade?"

Mel furrowed her brow, "I thought you had and Rob had been together for months?"

I shook my head at Mel, figuring I might as well tell her the truth about Rob and I. "We're not really a couple, it's just a cover for-"