Free Waiting for Callback by Perdita Cargill Page B

non-compete policy.
    ‘It’s Moss, right? How are you?’ He came towards us.
    ‘I’m good. What are you doing here?’ Moss giggled, more (I hope) for the benefit of the staring girls than for Torr.
    ‘I’ve just started at St John’s . . . Strangely enough, I didn’t choose to crash this thing.’
    ‘Yeah, I know, so
lame
, right?’ said Moss.
    ‘I’m coming round to the neon fishnet look actually,’ I said.
    Moss dug her nails into my arm. ‘Ha, funny.’ I hadn’t been joking. ‘Torr, this is Elektra.’
    ‘Good to meet you, Elektra.’ Torr cracked out his arty-boy speciality grin.
    ‘We came ironically, but this is killing me,’ said Moss. She was clearly trying to reassemble (assemble?) the aloof and mysterious arty persona that had been destroyed by the Party
Rings and cheesy dancing.
    ‘Yeah, I feel you. This is not really my kind of scene.’ (He was doing the whole Darcy ‘above the company’ thing.)
    ‘What is your scene?’
    ‘I’m more into gigs and stuff.’
    ‘Oh, yeah, us too.’ Moss nodded.
    That was a lie. We’d never been to a gig in our lives.
    ‘I’m gonna go and get a drink. Would you girls like anything?’
    ‘Yeah, I’d love one. I’ll have whatever you’re having.’ I’m not going to lie: Moss
simpered
.
    ‘There’s literally only squash.’
    ‘Oh, right.’ She giggled awkwardly. ‘Squash is good.’
    ‘What about you, Elektra?’
    ‘Don’t worry, I’m fine, thanks.’
    He sauntered to the refreshments table where PTA man was still desperately trying to ignore Flissy and James’s PDA.
    ‘Elektra, I was legitimately so awkward,’ Moss wailed.
    That was a little bit true; also she’d been speaking in a strange American accent and saying odd things, but now was not the time to point any of that out.
    ‘Come on, Mossy, he was flirting so much. You definitely were too.’
    ‘No I wasn’t.’
    ‘Yes you were, you harlot.’
    ‘OK, yes, I was attempting to and failing miserably. That’s even worse. What if he asks me which gigs we’ve been to?’
    ‘Chill, that’s what Google’s for; we’re experts at last-minute revision.’
    ‘I can’t believe I actually said, “I’ll have what you’re having.”’
    ‘He loved it.’
    ‘He looked at me like I was insane.’
    That was kind of true actually. ‘Insane in a good way. He practically offered to buy you a drink. That’s how all romcoms start.’
    ‘Free squash does not count.’
    Maybe she had a point. ‘So, what’s the plan of attack?’
    ‘I don’t know. Of course I don’t know.
How
would I know?’ There was a distinct note of panic creeping into her voice.
    ‘I’m going to disappear so this thing can intensify.’
    ‘No, Elektra, you can’t abandon me. I’m too awkward for this.’
    ‘No you’re not. Your flirt game was strong. Just carry on doing what you’re doing. You’ll be like Flissy by the end of the night.’
    ‘Ewww, can you not?’
    ‘I’m going to go and find Jenny and leave you two alone. Text me regular updates?’
    She just nodded; she was still panicking.
    ‘Come find us later and you can tell me everything.’
    She nodded again. He was on his way back over.
    ‘Love you. Good luck.’

‘When I was little, I didn’t understand that other kids thought I actually was Hermione, really geeky. It was devastating. I thought no one would ever
     fancy me.’
    Emma Watson
    The next morning, Moss arrived at my doorstep ready to spill her news from last night, and I paid her in kind by getting my mum to make blueberry pancakes.
    ‘Tell me everything,’ I said once I’d managed to get Mum out of the room and out of earshot.
    ‘Nothing happened.’ Moss sighed and stabbed a pancake.
    ‘What? Why not? Torr was definitely into it.’
    ‘Maybe, but, like, I don’t really know him yet and stuff. And then he had to leave early.’
    ‘Ah, that’s so annoying.’
    ‘I know,’ she said as though it were an infringement of her human rights. ‘He had to go to some