Chapter 1
5th February 2011
Declan sat up in bed, illuminated only by the flicking lights of his laptop. It was a quiet night. His housemates, Neville, Helena and Trish, had gone out for drinks at the local bar. Declan decided to have a lazy evening in bed. He'd spent all that Saturday morning basketball training, and ached all over. He'd taken advantage of the empty house that night to have a long bath to soak himself, got a takeaway as a reward to himself and was sat in bed, huddled away from the biting cold that filled the house, watching Doctor Who.
He has a brief moment of loneliness as he reached for his tobacco. He had been invited out to join the others but wasn't really in the mood for their company. There had been a house-wide argument in the afternoon about the use of the washing machine; the usual petty, student-life stuff that really shouldn't have been an issue. Trish had objected to Declan putting his sweat-dripped basketball clothes through the washing machine.
'Well, where the fuck am I supposed to clean these things? I could just dump them in the hallway and let them stink the entire house out.' He tried remaining calm but he was clearly alone in thinking Trish was being ridiculous.
'Take them to the launderette.' Helena joined in the argument. 'Why should we be paying bills for you to add all these extra clothes to the wash?'
It was true, in the last 6 months, since they all moved in to the house together, Declan had been working out a lot more. Four times a week basketball sessions, and the other three days in the gym. After his first year at uni, Declan's weight had ballooned from 13 stone to 30 stone, largely due to four messy nights out a week ending with a friend chicken takeaway at 3am. It was a weight he'd maintained all the way through his second year. Slowly, in that year of 2010, he'd become more isolated, through encroaching anxiety, depression and body dysmorphia, and it was a rut he fell into in a deep, seemingly inescapable way.
The summer of 2010, he returned home to stay with his mother. While home, he reconnected with an old friend, Louise. She helped him get connected with a basketball team close to the university. When he returned in September, he attended his first session, fell back in love with the sport he hadn't played for 4 years, and it clicked in his mind that if he wanted to play seriously and join the team as an official member, he needed to get fit. He joined the uni's gym, and started to do just that. The weight swiftly dropped off, and while he was never going to be ripped, his muscles developed, fitness increased. His body dysmorphia remained, and it was probably true he didn't congratulate himself enough on the work he'd put in to get back down to 13 and a half stone. He had developed what could be described as a 'dad bod', which didn't seem to be the socially accepted norm, especially with the rapidly growing presence of social media and the ripped and toned folks that filled every post he saw. Also, the dark hair, beard, glasses didn't seem to fit what was wanted. He felt a lot more in proportion to his 6"1 height now than he did at 30 stone, but his body issues still remained.
So Declan hid himself away for the rest of the day. Neville had shot him a message in the early evening to see if he wanted to join them for drinks, but he declined. He settled in to his warm cocoon around 7pm, with his chicken makhonwalla from the Indian takeaway across town, and decided on a Doctor Who binge, now into its 5th hour. He finished rolling his cigarette, downed the dregs of his cup of tea, long cold and hit play on the next episode, Vincent and the Doctor, when a knock at the window startled him into dropping his cig.
He turned in his bed, the headboard of which was in the nook created by the bay window of his ground floor room, and pulled the curtains to see Henrietta, he friend that lived in 'The Girls' House across the road. She stood at his window, shivering in pink short shorts and a vest top, smiling and gesturing for him to open the window, which he duly did.
'You going to let me in or let me freeze to death out here?' she laughed through chattering teeth. Declan jumped up and unlocked the window, opening it wide and helping her climb through. He had had a crush on her since the first time they met in first year. Declan was a diligent student in the first weeks on uni, before the call of the pub became too much. He had been on his way to a 9am lecture and had passed the house in which Henrietta lived. She was sat on the door step, clearly still up from the night before, with a crate of Stella Artois, offering a bottle to everyone who passed. Declan smiled and took one from her.
'You know' she said in a deep Essex accent 'You're the only person that's taken one. What's your name? I think we're going to become good friends!'
He introduced himself to her, they chatted briefly and he went away to his lecture. True to her word, they became friends, spending countless nights watching TV and having brews together. During the 30 stone days, Declan had resigned himself to nothing ever happening between them, but he appreciated her friendship and always admired how she looked.
He was admiring her as she climbed through the window. In fairness, with her vest top cut as low as possible and remaining decent. It was hard not to. She had 34 DD breasts on a 5"3 frame that just seemed to defy all known physical laws, and it was clear she wasn't wearing a bra. She had long mousy brown hair, partly worn up in a loose scruffy bun, a fringe that framed anime-style blue eyes, and lips that seemed to always be in a slight, and hugely alluring pout. Her skin always seemed flawless, slightly tanned. From their many hugs, he knew how soft she felt under his touch.
Henrietta climbed through and he closed the window behind her. As was the closeness of their friendship, her first move was to hop under the covers and help herself to his tobacco. He smiled. This wasn't out of the ordinary. He knew what a late night window knock meant.
'Oh yeah, help yourself!' He said with fake umbridge.
'Don't mind if I do. What are we watching?' Henrietta flaked tobacco into a paper and lifted it to her lips, licking the gum slowly.
'You know what I'm watching, what I'm always watching.' Declan moved to get back under the covers.
'Oooh Doctor Who!' Henri smiled and reached to hit play before stopping him getting into bed. 'A brew would be lovely. Oh, and some trousers.' She gave a cheeky look as her eyes motioned down to the fact that Declan, while huddled up warm on his top half, with a t-shirt and hoodie, was just wearing boxers on his lower half.