Free Unlikely Places by Charlotte Mills

up with them
later.......fancy your chances at pool?”
    My gaze fell to her lips a she spoke, I quickly lifted my
eyes to hers as I registered what she had said. I raised my eyebrows. “Is this
the decider as its currently one all?”
    “That first game was just a lucky shot....and you know it?”
She replied grinning. “If I win....you have to tell me what you did to get
community service”.
    I don’t think so, but I’ll go with it. “What do I get if I
win?” I asked trying not to look at her lips again.
    “What do you want?”
    I frowned. “I’m not sure Mike would approve of your
tactics”.
    “Mike’s not here”.
    “Quid pro quo – it’s a bit like ‘Silence of the Lambs’ –
you’d be a good Hannibal Lector”. I giggled.
    “You would”. She tried to look offended.
    “So you have to tell me something in return if I win?” I
said.
    “That sounds fair as I’m not going to lose”.
    Her confidence made me grin. “Indeed......rack em up then”.
    The high steaks of the game brought me into sharp focus,
quickly taking control of the game potting four balls off of Sam’s break,
failing on the fifth. The lack of small talk told me Sam was just as focused
taking risky shots which to my advantage failed to pay off this time as I
cleared the table and sank the black.
    I couldn’t help chucking at Sam’s dumbfounded expression.
“Well?.....It seems I have won again”.
    “I swear you’re a ringer....pretending to be a bad player
then pulling it out the fire at the last minute”.
    “I’m not sure what you mean......I believe you have
something to tell me”. I said quietly as I leaned towards her.
    “Okay okay...fairs fair.....so what do you want to know?”
    “Umm what about how you ended up here?” I asked voicing the
first thought that came into my head.
    Her face changed instantly sucking in all the air in the room,
I rapidly regretted my request. “I’m Sorry I’ve changed my mind I...” She cut
me off raising her hand before I can backtrack anymore.
    She nervously bit her lip before beginning. “No its fine
I’ll tell you it’s no big secret.....when I was at Uni...My best friend was
also studying there but on a different course she was doing physics, she
started acting weird started losing it.....struggling with her course....I
tried to help but she wouldn’t let me..Sh...She killed herself....I found her
hanging in her room”.
    I looked her in the eye seeing the immense sadness.
“Sam...I’m sorry I should never have asked that.....I’m a total fucking idiot”.
    She blanked me focusing on the floor as she continued. “I
stopped going to Uni eventually got kicked out of my flat as I couldn’t pay the
rent....ended up...here eventually”.
    “Shit....I’m so sorry Sam”.
    I felt terrible what right did I have to pry into her life,
she would have told me already if she’d wanted me to know I felt so stupid. I
had to spill now in an effort to balance out the knowledge we knew about each
other. Aware of my swearing I turned to see that we were alone now, thank god.
I put the cue down moved towards her placing both hands on the sides of her
arms gently rubbing them I could see her eyes had become glassy with tears.
    I leant against the pool table my back to the door. “Okay
it’s my turn to spill, I’m on community service because I smashed up two cars
with a baseball bat”.
    Sam quickly wiped her eyes and began laughing. “No
shit...why would you do that?...Whose cars were they?”
    “Well....they belonged to two different people....are you
sure you really want to hear this it’s quite a long story”.
    “You can’t stop now...come on whose cars were they?”
    I took a deep breath feeling I was back in therapy again.
“One belonged to an ex-girlfriend the other one was her neighbours, I was a bit
drunk and both cars looked the same in the dark, I trashed his first then
realised I was in the wrong driveway....I went next door and did it all over
again”.
    Sam