The Fresher - 4. Chapter 4

I was standing in front of my mirror, desperately trying to figure out how I was supposed to magically transform my bed sheet into a toga, when there was a knock on my door, causing me to jump. Worried that my lack of toga-tying skills would end up giving whoever was on the other side a complete eyeful, I opened my door just a crack and peered around the edge. It was Matt, and he looked incredible. Rather annoyingly, he’d also managed to tie himself the perfect toga.

I gestured to his toga. “How the hell have you done that?”

“Have you heard of Google?” he replied, dripping sarcasm.

I opened the door just wide enough for him to squeeze past and pleaded pathetically. “Get in here and help me!”

Once he was in the room and could see my failed attempt at tying a toga, he burst out laughing. “You do realise the whole point is to look like a Roman, don’t you? At a pinch, you might just pass for an Egyptian. An Egyptian mummy, that is!” He was turning purple he was laughing so hard.

Despite my frustration, I couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “That’s why you need to help me!” I groaned.

Turning to my laptop, he brushed his finger back and forth across the touchpad to wake it up from the screensaver, opened up the browser and started tapping away on the keyboard. After a few more clicks on the touchpad, he pulled up a video on YouTube and walked back over towards me. Before I had a chance to say anything, he yanked at one of the folds of the bed sheet and it fell to the floor, leaving me completely naked and blushing furiously.

“Mate! You do realise you’re meant to wear underwear underneath, right?” He was laughing hard again.

I was exasperated. “Since when did I give you the impression I knew what I was doing?” I made a dash for the bathroom, trying my best to cover up as much as possible, and slammed the door behind me, completely mortified. Trying to explain, I shouted through the closed door. “I thought it was like a kilt! Can you grab me a pair of my boxers from the wardrobe?” I could hear him laughing away still, but a moment later, he knocked on the bathroom door and handed me a pair of my white boxer briefs through the gap. “I’m so frigging embarrassed,” I said.

He chuckled. “You shouldn’t be. It’s not like I haven’t seen one before, you know? And you certainly don’t have anything to be embarrassed about from what I did see,” he joked.

After putting on my boxers and stepping back out of the bathroom, I was unable to look him in the eye. He grabbed hold of my shoulders, forcing me to look at him, and gave me one of his warm, genuine smiles.

“You really need to learn to chill out, you know? Life’s too short to take everything so seriously, mate.”

When he’d eventually arrived back home the previous night, he must have seen that the light in my room was still on and he’d made a point of knocking on my door to check if I was okay after what had happened at the bar. It was a great feeling knowing that someone was looking out for me and had my back. Realising that, I managed to return his smile, and when he saw that I was no longer so worked up, he hit play on the video clip again and had me looking just as good as he did in no time at all.

As he made the finishing touches to my toga, I remembered how hung-over he’d been when I’d knocked on his door earlier that morning, so I had to ask the question. “How’s your head now? You really think another big night out is the best idea?”

He grinned. “In the words of the Roman philosopher Aurelius… ‘If you’re feeling sore, drink some more.’”

We both burst out laughing.

<><><>

Arriving at the large sports hall where the Toga Party was in full swing, our group made a beeline for the tables that had been set up along the back wall as a makeshift bar. As we got nearer, I noticed that more people were queuing up at the far end of the hall. I couldn’t understand why, because the most logical thing to do is to pick the place where the fewest number of people are waiting to get served. Doing just that, I looked along the row of servers to where the biggest crowd had formed whilst Matt ordered our drinks, trying to work out what the big deal was. I couldn’t help but chuckle when I realised why there were so many people – girls mostly – waiting to get served at a particular station. The main attraction was Jake, it seemed. Looking at him in his toga though, I could see why. The guy was a knockout, even discounting the toga. I couldn’t help but watch him. From the way he moved to the charm he so obviously oozed when he dealt with people, everything about him was mesmerising. I smiled as I watched several of the girls openly flirt with him, some of them unable to resist touching his muscular arms as he took their orders. I couldn’t blame them.

Once Matt had got our round in, we moved away from the serving tables and found an area with a bit more space where we could all stand together in our group. I tried to position myself so that I could keep an eye on Jake. He looked amazing. Matt must have seen me looking off into the distance and followed my line of vision to see what I was looking at. When he realised where my focus was, he nudged me in my side with his elbow and gave me some serious stick about it.

As Matt and I were drinking at a faster rate than the others in our group, I went up to the bar on my own to order us a couple of extra drinks to tide us over until the next round. Resisting the temptation to go and queue at Jake’s station, I looked for the quietest area and made my way over. I’d been waiting for a couple of minutes and was the next in line to be served when out of the corner of my eye I noticed someone else muscle their way in to stand next to me at the bar. I was instantly annoyed when the server turned to them and asked for their order before mine. I was about to mutter the obligatory line: ‘There’s a queue here, you know?’ but when I turned to face the queue-jumper, I realised that it was the guy with the grey eyes from the night before and the words stuck in my throat.

He looked at me sheepishly, then back at the server, before saying, “This guy was here before me. Serve him first.”

I thanked him before asking the server for my drinks, suddenly feeling very awkward and hoping that I would be served quickly so that I could get away from there as fast as possible. Fate had other plans though, it seemed.

“There’ll be a few minutes’ wait, I’m afraid,” the server said. “We’re just changing the barrel.”

Great. I’m not sure how long we stood there in awkward silence, but I heard the guy clear his throat before eventually speaking up. “I’m David by the way. And I want to apologise for yesterday. I was out of line and I’m sorry.” He dropped his eyes, before carrying on. “Your boyfriend sure put me in my place though. Talk about embarrassing. And my housemates have been giving me a really hard time about it all day.”

I suddenly felt bad for him. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, mate. I guess I should be flattered…”

Just as I was about to correct him on his assumption that Jake was my boyfriend, the server returned with my drinks. After handing over the money, I wished David a good night before heading back to join Matt and the others.

As I handed Matt his drink, he nodded his head back in David’s direction at the bar. “Everything okay there?”

“Yeah. He apologised, actually. And he seemed genuine enough, I think. I actually felt a bit sorry for him. He said his mates have been giving him a hard time about last night. Anyway, let’s forget about it now.” I raised my drink to Matt. “Cheers!”

<><><>

A couple of drinks later, I needed to answer a call of nature. I put my half-finished glass down on a nearby table and headed off in search of the toilets. As I walked along with my eyes cast downwards to avoid stepping on the discarded plastic pint glasses littering the floor, someone stepped in front of me and blocked my path. It took me far longer than it should have to make eye contact with the guy, because I couldn’t seem to tear my eyes away from his incredible body. His toga was draped quite loosely across his midriff, revealing a perfect, V-shaped torso. From the deep cuts of the guy’s abs to his chiselled chest, bulging arms and muscular shoulders, it looked like he was made out of granite. As my eyes raked over his body, I heard him clear his throat. I immediately realised that I was probably only a fraction of a second away from being knocked out for having stared at him so brazenly. Forming an excuse and apology in my head, I finally managed to tear my eyes away from his body to look up at his face. Blushing a deep shade of red, I was embarrassed and relieved in equal measure to see that it was Jake.

“Nice toga!” I eventually managed to say, grinning through my embarrassment.

He returned my grin. “You beat me to it! You’ve done a good job of yours, too.”

“Oh, I can’t take any credit for this, I’m afraid.” I looked down at my toga and gently pulled on the fold draped across my chest. “If it weren’t for Matt, I would have looked a right state tonight. My first attempt was more Egyptian mummy than Roman citizen, apparently.” Jake laughed. “I don’t look half as good as you though. If I’d known that studying Architecture had such great health benefits, I might have tried harder to stick with that A-Level Maths class after all,” I joked, trying to make light of the fact that I’d been so blatantly checking him out.

Looking down at his body, he seemed almost embarrassed by my comment. “I’m the fly-half on the university rugby union team. I’m half the size of some of the other guys.”

“Well, I’d kill to have a body like yours,” I said, without really thinking it through. Trying to change the subject, I quickly added, “Your serving station certainly seems popular tonight.”

He groaned. “Tell me about it. I don’t know why everyone’s queuing there when they’d get served quicker elsewhere if they just looked.”

Was he serious? I raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Oh, I think I could probably guess why.”

He knitted his brow and looked genuinely puzzled. “Why?”

How could he be so clueless? “I guess you must just have the knack for pouring the perfect pint,” I replied with a grin, trying to steer the conversation back towards safer territory. “So, are you working the bar all night, Jake?”

“I’m not sure. They’re running a couple of shifts tonight, and as I’m doing the early one, I was hoping I might actually get to spend some time with you and your mates when they swap us over. If you don’t mind, that is?”

I shook my head no in response, trying not to grin.

“We’ll have to see how things go though. Volunteers drop out all the time, so I guess they might end up needing me longer.” He paused. “Did I see that guy from last night talking to you earlier by the way?” Jake didn’t miss a thing, it seemed.

“Oh, um, yeah. He apologised and seemed pretty genuine. His name’s David by the way.”

“Cool.” He reached out and put his hand on my bare shoulder. The touch sent a jolt through the length of my body and my breathing quickened. “Just be careful though, yeah? That guy was far too handsy for his own good last night.”

“I will, don’t worry. Besides, Matt seems to be keeping an eye out for me as well, so between the two of you, I don’t think I’m in any imminent danger,” I joked, trying to lighten the mood. “Anyway, before I make a puddle, I really ought to go. I’ll catch up with you later though, yeah?”

“Can’t wait, buddy!”

Jake finally let go of my shoulder and stood aside to let me pass. After I’d taken a few steps, I turned back around to steal another glimpse of him, only to find that he was still watching me walk away. I grinned awkwardly back at him and felt my cheeks start to burn once more.

<><><>

When I’d finished going about my business, I returned to the table where I’d left my drink to find my glass now contained a small flag. Frowning, I picked up the glass and read the tiny message written on it: ‘This drink could have been spiked.’ That certainly got my attention. Looking around, I noticed that a couple of other unattended glasses nearby contained similar flags. Walking back to join Matt, I showed him mine.

“Mate, that’s mental!”

“I know.” Pointing at my glass, I added, “What a waste though, eh?”

Taking the glass from me, he held it up to what little light there was to examine it. He then held it under his nose and gave it a quick sniff before taking a small sip. Looking back at me, he shrugged his shoulders and offered the glass back towards me. I shook my head no, and before I could actually say or do anything else, he downed the rest of the drink, handing me his own in return. Shocked, I had wanted to say that I didn’t think that had been such a great idea. But I also didn’t want to come across as a complete square, so I kept my mouth shut and downed the rest of Matt’s drink.

Carrying on from our exploits the night before, we started busting out some classic dance moves, each of us trying to outdo the other. After another round of drinks and maybe about an hour or so of non-stop dancing, Matt seemed a little unsteady on his feet and kept bumping into me as we danced.

I chuckled. “Why don’t we take a break and find somewhere to sit for a while, guys? I think Matt here is struggling to keep up with the rest of us.”

When we reached the edge of the dance floor we found an empty table and snagged it before anyone else could. As we sat there chatting, Matt started to slur his words pretty badly and seemed far more drunk than he had the night before. I was a little surprised, because I knew for a fact that he had actually had far more to drink the previous night. I gave him some stick about being a lightweight, but his replies weren’t particularly lucid.

I turned to James on my other side. “I’m gonna grab us a couple of waters, then I think I’m gonna take Matt back to the dorm once he’s sobered up a bit.”

He grinned back at me. “Sure, no worries, fella. See you in a few.”

I decided to head to Jake’s station so that I could let him know we’d be leaving earlier than expected. He gave me one of his biggest smiles when he made eye contact with me in the queue, but being the consummate professional that he was, he made sure he kept serving everyone in the order they’d arrived. Finally, it was my turn.

He leant across the table and gave me one of his trademark smiles and winks. “What can I get for you, bud?”

“Just a couple of pints of tap water please, Jake.”

He raised his eyebrows in surprise and smirked. “You struggling already, Andrew?”

“No, they’re not for me.” Leaning over the table so that I didn’t have to shout so loud over the music, I spoke directly into his ear. “I’m sure I’m worrying about nothing, but you know when we bumped into each other earlier?” He nodded. “Well, when I got back from the toilet, I found one of those warning flags in my drink. I was going to get rid of it, but before I could, Matt downed the rest of it. I realise I only met him yesterday, but he seems to be acting differently tonight, and I’m sure he had more to drink then. He’s slurring his words pretty badly, which I didn’t notice yesterday. I’ve probably just been spooked by the flag and I’m reading too much into it. If I give him some water and take him home, I’m sure he’ll be fine once he’s sobered up a bit. I’m sorry we’ll be cutting the evening short though. It would have been cool hanging out with you later.”

Jake frowned and looked at me intently. I watched his prominent Adam’s apple make the trip up and down as he swallowed hard. “Listen, there’s no need to panic, but that sounds like it could be serious. And actually, you probably shouldn’t even give him water. There are some paramedics on site tonight and I think it’s worth us running this past them, just to be sure, okay? Where is he?”

I pointed back to where the others were.

“Don’t let him go anywhere. And don’t let him drink anything else – not even water – even if he complains about feeling thirsty, understand?”

With my heart pounding and my throat suddenly feeling dry, I rushed back to the others as fast as I could. I cut right across the middle of the dance floor, garnering some dirty looks as I did so. As I approached our table, James shifted out of my seat so that I could sit back down next to Matt. James gave me what I can only describe as a concerned look, so I quickly filled him in on what Jake had said.

I turned my attention to Matt and spoke into his ear. “How are you feeling, mate?”

He slurred his responses. “Headache… Bad… Thirsty… Feel sick.”

I held my hand to his forehead and it felt clammy. “I hear you, mate. Hang in there. Some guys are going to be here any second now to check you out, then I’ll take you back to your room so that you can sleep it off.”

I couldn’t say for sure how long it took for the paramedics to arrive in Jake’s wake, but it can only have been a matter of minutes. Everything seemed to happen in a blur after that. I told them all that I could, which was actually very little, and they decided to rush him down to the hospital, just to be on the safe side.

I couldn’t help but feel guilty and turned to Jake with tears threatening to well up in my eyes. “I need to know if he’s alright. How do I get to the hospital, Jake?”

Jake calmly took hold of my shoulders and gave them a squeeze to try and reassure me. “You’re not going on your own, Andrew. Look, I drove my car here this evening, so here’s what we’ll do. Come with me to my car now and we’ll drive back to Conygre. I’ve got a spare set of clothes with me, so we’ll get changed at yours before we head down there. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really fancy sitting in A&E in this toga all night.”

The man makes a good point. I gave him a small smile.

“Besides,” he continued, “it will also give the hospital staff enough time to do whatever they need to do before we turn up. I expect they’ll just want you to take him home and stay with him until whatever it is has fully left his system anyway.”

Perhaps it comes from playing such an important position on the rugby team, but I was in complete awe of his ability to stay so cool and calm. He told the others that we’d let them know as soon as we had any news, then he shepherded me out of the sports hall with his reassuring hand gently pressing on my lower back. As soon as we were outside and in a quieter area, the realisation of what had happened began to hit me.

I came to a stop and mumbled. “It could have been me. It was my drink that was spiked. Who would do something like that, Jake?”

Taking me by surprise, he wrapped me up in his huge arms and I instinctively burrowed my head into the hollow of his neck. I could feel his warm breath on the top of my head and realised how incredibly safe I felt in his arms. “I know it’s scary, Andrew, but thinking like that isn’t going to get us anywhere. Matt needs us now, so let’s focus on him and get moving, okay?”

<><><>

After getting changed in my room, we were soon back in Jake’s car and speeding towards the hospital. He dropped me right outside the entrance to the A&E Department when we arrived.

“You go in and find out what’s going on. I’ll get the car parked and be back as quick as I can.”

Not knowing Matt’s surname – and not being a family member – I expected the nurse at the admissions desk to tell me that there was nothing she could do, but after explaining the situation to her, she said, “We won’t be able to tell you any specifics, but once the doctors have finished examining him, we’ll at least let you know whether or not he’ll be discharged tonight, okay sweetie? Take a seat and try to relax. I’ll call you once we have any news.”

Thanking her, I found a couple of spare seats in the reception area and waited for Jake to return. When he appeared from around the corner and was scanning the room for me, I noticed that he had grabbed a couple of coffees and some snacks, obviously expecting us to have a bit of a wait. It did look as though the A&E Department was particularly busy that evening, and I instantly felt bad that Jake had got caught up in it all.

“I’m so sorry about all this,” I said, gesturing around at nothing in particular.

He looked perplexed. “What are you talking about? None of this is your fault, I hope you realise?”

“If I hadn’t shown him the drink…”

He cut me off. “This is not your fault, Andrew. He alone made the decision to finish that drink.”

“But…”

“But nothing, Andrew,” he said, trying to end the discussion.

“I’m so sorry for ruining your night though…”

“Andrew, you haven’t ruined anything. And there’s nowhere else I’d rather be right now.” Looking around, he laughed without any real humour. “Okay, that’s not strictly true. There are actually plenty of places I’d rather be, but trust me when I say that here with you is where I’m meant to be right now.”

At the time, I wasn’t really sure how to take that statement. But however he meant it, it showed what a warm and caring person he was. I knew how I wanted to take it, but it’s so easy to interpret things the way we want to, and we can easily read too much into things – our brains can trick us into seeing things that aren’t really there. I knew that all too well from past experience, having spent the previous two years pining for my straight best friend, who was never able to return the feelings I had for him. Sat there in the waiting room, I realised that agonising over Jake’s words wasn’t going to achieve anything, so I tried my best to push those questions to the back of my mind. Besides, like Jake had said earlier, Matt was the person I needed to focus on now, and I knew that I needed to pull myself together for his sake, as well as my own.

<><><>

Jake and I probably waited for the best part of three quarters of an hour before the nurse finally called my name.

“We’re going to be keeping your friend here overnight for observation,” she said. Then, seeing how distressed I was, she lowered her voice. “Listen sweetie, you didn’t hear this from me, but after being admitted, he started to hallucinate and was a little aggressive towards some of the staff here. For his own safety – and the safety of others – the doctor thinks it’s best to keep him in. He’s on a drip to help flush out his system and he should be back to normal tomorrow.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.” I took a chance and gave her my mobile number. “Look, if there’s any change, and there’s any way – any way at all – that you can give me a call, please do. I’ll come back first thing tomorrow morning to see how he’s doing.”

As another member of staff approached the desk, her tone changed. “Thank you Mr Thompson. I’ll be sure to call if there’s any change in your cousin’s condition.” The extra emphasis on the word ‘cousin’ was accompanied by the barest hint of a wink.

<><><>

On the drive back up to the university, Jake did his best to take my mind off things by keeping me talking. Given the topic of conversation, he’d obviously had a bit of a look around my room whilst I’d been getting changed in my en-suite bathroom earlier on.

“I really like what you’ve done with your room,” he said. “I’m seriously impressed how you’ve got it all done so quickly. It took me forever to unpack my things. And I don’t think the room was ever that tidy when I lived in it. I really like the artwork posters you’ve got hanging up. What made you choose the ones you did?”

“You really wanna know?”

He raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I wouldn’t have asked if I didn’t!”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t give you an out. Let’s start with the one above my bed with the people sitting inside a diner late at night. It’s called Nighthawks and was painted by Edward Hopper. I love how it captures the effects of manmade light at night. The diner's windows are causing all of this light to spill out onto the pavement, while the buildings on the far side of the street are shrouded almost entirely in darkness. I like the multiple shadows that are cast on the ground, and how some spots are brighter than others because they’re being lit from more than one angle. I love how welcoming and warm the light of the diner is compared to the darkness outside on the street.

“Some people think that Hopper was inspired by Café Terrace at Night – which was painted by Van Gogh – and that’s the poster hanging over my desk. By using contrasting colours and tones, the surface of the painting sort of pulses with an interior light, almost in defiance of the darkening sky. All the lines point to the centre of the painting. They draw your eye along the pavement, which makes it feel like you’re strolling along the cobblestone street yourself. Although it’s a night painting, only blue, violet and green colours are used – not a single bit of black.

“The similarity in the lighting and themes makes it possible that Hopper was inspired by Van Gogh, and Café Terrace at Night was actually exhibited in the company of Hopper's own works on a couple of occasions, but no one can say for certain. It seems pretty likely if you ask me, though.

“The last picture is The Singing Butler by Jack Vettriano. That’s the one with the image of a couple dancing on a storm-swept beach and the maid and butler holding up umbrellas against the weather. A lot of art critics dismiss Vettriano's work out of hand, probably because he was self-taught, but I love it. There’s something so special and intimate about the moment that’s captured in the painting. I guess I’m just a hopeless romantic…”

Jake listened intently as I got caught up in my own enthusiasm, talking at length about each of the paintings in turn. I suddenly felt embarrassed by my long monologue and went in to apology mode.

“Sorry! I got totally carried away there and I’m probably boring you to tears. I did warn you though!”

“You’re not boring me, Andrew,” he said in all seriousness, before breaking into a smile, momentarily taking his eyes off of the road to look at me. “It’s great hearing you talk about something you’re clearly so passionate about. It’s kind of infectious, actually.”

<><><>

When we pulled up in front of Conygre Terrace, I twisted in my seat to face Jake and gently tapped my fist on his forearm, which was resting on the centre armrest. “Thanks for taking me to the hospital tonight, Jake, and for everything you’ve done. If it weren’t for you, I don’t even want to think about how things might have turned out tonight.”

He placed his other hand on top of my closed fist. “You don’t have to thank me, Andrew. I wanted to help.”

“Well, just know that I’m really grateful. Would you let me buy you dinner tomorrow night or something to say thanks?”

He grinned. “You don’t need to do that either. But I won’t say no to food. Like, ever.”

I laughed. “Cool! I’ll text you tomorrow and we’ll sort something out then, yeah?”

“Looking forward to it, bud.”

“Me too. Night, Jake.”

I reluctantly let go of his arm and opened my door. After getting out of the car, I stood and watched until the lights disappeared from view. So much for not making the same mistakes, I berated myself.