yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!
i have finished my exams!! my first year of uni is officially over!!! life is good.
here's an update...enjoy!
***
Abby walked into the English office and smiled sadly at Tim and Jenny. Tim’s eyes were red with tears and Jenny was hovering by him, handing him much needed chocolate biscuits. She grinned up at Abby and turned to Tim, “ok, I really have to go now, but Abby’s here, she’ll give you all the biscuits you need, ok?” Tim nodded and looked up at Abby, he sniffed and forced a smile, “you ready to be my biscuit bitch?”
Abby laughed and walked over to sit next to Tim, “I was born ready.”
All three laughed and Jenny picked up her folders and rushed out to teach her first class.
“you ok?”
Tim nodded, “Jen told me what you said to Sue...thanks Abby.”
She smiled kindly and stroked Tim’s arm, “that’s ok. Somebody had to say something.”
“well I’m glad it was you... if there’s one thing Sue dislikes more than a screaming queen it’s a brassy American broad.”
Abby laughed, “I guess we’re in it together.”
Tim nodded and sighed sadly, holding out his hand for a biscuit. Abby gave him one and he took a big bite out of it, swallowing hard before starting to speak, “you know why I became a teacher? Because I had such a shit time at school, being bullied and picked on. Called f*g and queer... but there was this teacher, Mr. Reynolds, the drama guy. Gay as anything...I used to look up to him and think no matter what people say behind his back he’s proud of who he is. I bet nothing ever gets to him. I wanted to be him, I wanted to inspire other kids like me...and then some bloody arse hole like Jim Cohen turns me into a sniveling baby all over again...”
Abby shook her head, “no Tim, you’re a wonderful guy. You are strong and you are proud. And no you’re not indestructible, but you’re only human. I bet even Mr. Reynolds would be upset at the things Jim said to you this morning. And I bet he wouldn’t have had the strength to kick him in the balls like you did.”
Tim laughed and nodded, eating the rest of his biscuit. “Jenny told me that Jim Cohen has been sent home and ordered to keep his testicles on ice.”
Abby laughed and hugged her friend, “may they get frostbite and fall off in the night.”
“Amen to that.”
They smiled at each other before Tim let out another sorry sigh. It was obviously going to take a lot to get him back to his normal cheery self. Abby let a smile spread across her face and took a deep breath, “ok. I have something that might just cheer you up.”
Tim smiled glumly, “is it a pony?”
Abby shook her head, “better.”
“Brad Pitt?”
“No. I have gossip...”
Tim sat upright in his chair, the twinkle back in his eyes, “sexual gossip?”
Abby smiled, “sort of...kissing gossip.”
Tim took a sharp intake of Breath and beamed happily, practically bouncing on his seat. Abby shook her head, unable to stop smiling, “you have to promise not to tell a soul.”
“Oh Abby, when have I ever told a soul anything?”
“Tim! Promise you won’t tell.”
Tim sighed impatiently and held up a hand, “ok I swear on Kylie’s sacred undergarments I will not tell a soul about the juicy snogging gossip. Now tell me before I’m forced to beat it out of you with a shoe!”
Abby nodded, “ok...well, after I’d had a go at Sue I was sitting outside, having a smoke...”
“I thought you quit?”
“I did, but you know...”
“ok, go on.”
“then Luka came to tell me that he thought it was very brave what I did in there...”
“oh it was. You are as brave as a lion.”
“...and something about how close he was sitting, and how crap I was feeling and the fact that he was being so nice...”
“go on...”
“I kissed him.”
“oh my God!”
“I know, and it was so inappropriate, coz he was just talking to me, so I stood up and told him I was sorry...”
“oh no...”
“but then he stood up and he walked over to me...then he kissed me and asked me to have dinner with him tonight.”
Tim stared at her with a shocked grin of pure glee on his face. She stared back and raised her eyebrows, waiting for him to say something. Tim bounced happily on his chair and practically dived on top of Abby, smothering her in a tight hug. Jenny walked in at that moment, having left a few papers in the office, she stared at the sight before her and smiled quizzically, “ooh, has something nice happened?”
Tim leapt to his feet leaving Abby struggling not to topple off her chair, “Abby and Luka snogged and they’re having dinner tonight!”
Jenny squealed with glee along with Tim and they embraced happily. Abby frowned in annoyance and rushed to the English office door, slamming it shut, hissing angrily at Tim, “Tim you promised not to tell anyone!”
“Oh it’s only Jenny, she’s not a soul.”
Jenny giggled, “It’s true. I’m really not.”
Still hugging Tim and Jenny began to dance together, pulling Abby into the odd swaying hug as Tim started to sing, “my name is Luka, I live on the language floor, I live upstairs from yoooooou, yes I think I’ve snogged you before, if you hear something late at night, some kind of...ooohh, aahhh, mmm yessss...”
Abby closed her eyes in desperate embarrassment as Tim made outrageous sex noises at the top of his voice. She put a hand over his mouth in an attempt to shut him up. It had definitely worked; the juicy gossip had got Tim right back to his vulgar, singing and dancing self and as pleased as Abby was that her friend was back to normal, having told her story made it seem just a little too real. It dawned on her with horrifying reality that she had kissed a man she barely knew and now she was going to have dinner with him. She was afraid, very afraid.
***
She stood at the vending machine, glancing up at the clock on the wall. It was five past six. He was late. Tim and Jenny had begged her to let them wait with her, but after ten minutes of arguing, resulting in Abby’s reluctant promise to tell them all the gossip tomorrow if they promised to leave her alone tonight. She tapped her foot impatiently and was just about to leave when Luka showed up,
“hey, going so soon?”
She smiled at him and shook her head, “so...where are we going to eat?”
Luka grinned as they started walking out of the college. “There’s a little Italian place near my house, it’s cozy and tasty and not too expensive.”
Abby laughed, “Sounds perfect. How do we get there?”
“It’s about a thirty minute car drive...”
They’d reached the car park and Luka held the door of his car open for Abby to get in. she looked at him with uncertainty and he smiled, “it’s ok, I won’t bite.”
Abby smiled and looked down, “are you sure we should be doing this? I mean, what if a student sees us?”
Luka laughed, “Abby, we’re not doing anything wrong. Plus I really doubt there will be any students in a tiny Italian restaurant on the other side of town.”
Abby took a deep breath and nodded, “ok...” she got in the car and Luka got in with her, turning on the engine and turning up the radio, nodding his head to the cheesy 80’s music that poured out of his stereo. Abby gave him a sarcastic glare and he laughed sheepishly, changing the radio station to something a little less silly.
***
The restaurant was tiny and underground, an iron spiral staircase led down to the basement; a small room lit with a ceiling full of fairy lights and walls covered in tiny mirrors. Abby turned to Luka with an impressed smile, “it’s beautiful.”
He grinned in agreement as they were led to their table. Abby sat down and smiled at the waiter as he handed her her menu. She looked through the dishes and smiled up at Luka, realizing that he’s been staring at her the whole time. She looked down, but could feel his eyes burning into her the memory of that kiss making it impossible to concentrate on the menu. She looked up again and flashed a wry smile, “do I have something on my face?”
Luka laughed, “sorry... you’re just very pretty...you know, with the lights and everything.”
“oh... the lights...”
Luka smiled and took one last glance at Abby before forcing himself to look at the menu.
The meals were delicious and as it came to desert Abby couldn’t resist Luka’s insistence that she try the chocolate cake.
“trust me it’s the best cake ever. Better than sex.”
She looked up at him, eyebrows raised sarcastically and he grinned cheekily, “ok well, maybe not better than sex, but pretty close.”
With the desert finished Abby sat back grinning with satisfaction. “that was a damn fine cake.”
Luka laughed. “Told you so...ok, well I’m just gunna 'pop to the loo' as they say, then we can try the coffee which is even better than the chocolate cake.”
Abby shook her head, “now I know you’re lying.”
Luka laughed and walked away leaving Abby to smile to herself; all the anxieties she’d had earlier that day had gone and she felt truly comfortable sitting in the little restaurant with Luka in spite of the short time they’d known each other. Her thoughts were interrupted by her phone ringing and she frowned in annoyance, ready to shout at Tim who was no doubt calling to ask whether Luka had touched her boob yet. She picked up without paying much attention to the caller I.D. “hello?”
“Abby it’s me.”
The colour drained from her face as she recognized the voice of her ex husband. She screwed her face up in agony and whispered angrily into the phone “Richard what do you want?”
“Abby I’m sorry. I’m here now and it’s ok.”
Abby shut her eyes “no Richard it’s not ok, look I don’t know what’s going on with you and frankly I don’t care. I got over you Richard, a long time ago. You need to leave me alone.”
“No Abby you don’t understand, I’ve been thinking clearly lately and I realized what went wrong with my life. I should never have left you Abby. I love you and I need you back.”
Abby shook her head angrily, “no Richard we are not doing this now! You’re not well; I want you to call your doctor right now.”
“doctors were the problem Abby, but I’m better now.”
“no! you’re not better! You’ll never be better!”
“Please?”
Abby looked round, noticing that some of the waiters were staring at her she lowered her voice back to a whisper, “I’m sorry Richard.” She ended the call and shoved her phone onto her bag angrily, before pulling on her coat storming out of her seat towards the spiral staircase. As she climbed up the steps she bumped into Luka, he smiled in surprise, “Hey, what’s going on?”
“I’m sorry Luka I have to go...” she delved into her bag and pulled out a twenty pound note, “here this should cover my half.”
Luka’s smile faded and he frowned in confusion as Abby shoved the money into his hands, “I thought we were getting coffee...”
Abby shook her head, avoiding his gaze. She felt bad for leaving but she just needed to get away. “I’m sorry, look it’s not you...I can’t explain right now I just... I have to go. I’ll see you at work.”
She walked past him and continued to climb the staircase. He watched her go, his face wrought with worry and disappointment. It’d been going so well and he had no idea why she was leaving. Once she’d left the restaurant he looked down at the money in his hands and let out a sad sigh, walking back down the stairs to pay the bill.
***
(ok, though it will all be explained later in the fic i thought i'd give you a bit of backstroy in case there's any confusion. basically, i've not only thrown luby into a different universe, i've given Abby a slightly different story. this is mainly coz i want her to have some issues she can deal with within my story and i don't really feel up to the challenge of writing about her and luka for seven years! so in this world abby's mother died fairly recently, but she wasn't mentally ill. Abby's husband Richard was the one with bi-polar...i think her childhood was still fairly crappy and she never got on that well with her mum, plus her dad left when she was very young, but most of her insecurities in this fic stem from the marriage issues which will all come out eventually... Luka's story though is pretty much the same, except he meets abby a little later in life, so he's already gone through his destructive phase before they meet. i hope you all see this as i intend it, as a story inspired by the wonders of these beautiful characters, rather than a massacre of the e.r and all its carefully thought out backstories.
)