As ever, this work may be stand-alone, but it's best read with the rest for the full picture. Please feel free to vote and give me feedback, all of which is welcome.
"Hey, Kate. How about coming back home with me next weekend, see my town, meet my folks?"
We were in the main college cafeteria, grabbing a coffee and sandwich between lectures. I'd been sort of dating Simon at college in London for a while, and here he was asking if I'd like to go see Weston-Super-Mare with him and meet his parents.
"See your olds, Simon? Are you trying to tell them you're respectable?" I replied.
"Well, no." He responded, that now-familiar twinkle in his emerald eyes. "If I wanted to look respectable I'd take someone else!"
I threw my plastic drink stirrer at him, watching him duck to miss it and almost ending up wearing his coffee. I weighed up the pros and cons. A weekend out of London would be nice. It meant I wouldn't have to go home to any painful memories and I'd never been to Weston-Super-Mare, although what I knew about the place didn't inspire me. The bonus was that it was Guy Fawkes' weekend so we could take in a good fireworks display, always a plus to people like me, young, fond of bright colours, loud noises and a good night out.
"Simon, I think I'd really enjoy seeing your town and meeting your family. My only pre-requisite is that you come up and see mine some time."
"Done."
Just like that my fate was sealed. I realised then that although I'd been fucking Simon for a few weeks, I'd never asked him about his family, his siblings, or anything to do with his life before college. I'd only opened up once, when he'd surprised me with a penetrating question that I couldn't deflect. I promised myself that I'd ask more questions in future before agreeing to insane weekends away.
I let Simon book the coach tickets back to his place. Unlike most English towns, Weston (as the locals called it for short) had the advantage of an alternative to the overcrowded and unreliable National Express coach service, and Simon got us two seats on the Bakers express. No stops, under three hours, hostess service and clean, comfy seats, he said.
We ducked out of classes early that Friday and went back to our places to pack. I put my glad rags and some cold clothes (English Autumns are not warm) in a bag, and dressed in a jacket, shirt, long skirt and stockings. Simon, all jeans and woollen jumper, met me at my flat and we took the tube together to Gloucester Road, where the coach park was. I was surprised at his being laid back about our timing, but he explained on the way.
"Bakers always overbook, and more people turn up than they normally want. As they're expanding, they've always got two coaches on this run, and the first one leaves a little early, when it fills up, and the overflow get the second coach."
He was right. At the coach park we were two of only five people left waiting, and in front of us was an almost-new double-decker coach. Our driver took our bags and the stewardess, a sweet young strawberry-blonde girl who looked barely old enough to drive herself, checked tickets and told us, rather obviously, that we could sit anywhere we liked.
Our travelling partners, an older couple and a middle-aged man, all chose to sit downstairs, and we had the luxury of the top deck of a 70-seater coach to ourselves. As we reached the top of the stairs, I grabbed Simon's shirt, holding him back as I squeezed past him in the narrow aisle. "Back seat. Last one there's a loser!"
Shrieking with laughter I ran ahead and sat in the middle of the back row. Simon tried his hardest to stop me but his hand slipped as he grabbed my jacket, and for the next five minutes as we waited for any stragglers he had the torment of me whispering "loser, loser" in his ear as he sat, defenceless, next to me!
When it was clear we were the only people travelling our coach set out along the A4, heading west into the sunset. Simon and I were still the only people upstairs, and I think the idea had just crawled into his mind that this rather an advantageous position to be in, me in the middle of the back seat and he next to me. I stood to take my jacket off making a good show of stretching my tits against my shirt as I stowed it in the overhead shelving,