Monday back at school was faintly surreal.
Somehow everyone knew that I had gone out with Fiona. And Jamie was so pissed with me.
"What the fuck man? You have a date and you don't even tell me? Let me rephrase that. You have a date with an older hottie that half of our year had a crush on when she was still here and you didn't tell your best friend who had to hear it second hand from Duncan freakin' Drake!"
"Oh shit Jamie, I'm really sorry. It just happened really quickly. We finally figured out that we were both interested in each other at work and we went out that night. I didn't tell anyone else. I suppose someone must have seen us."
"In town? On a Saturday night? Ya think?"
"And when I was coming home I was in that stupid accident and..."
"Wait. What stupid accident? You mean the bus crash with the fatality and the-loads-of-blood-everywhere accident? That accident?"
I looked sheepishly at him and nodded.
"Man!" He exploded with indignation.
"Err...and I got my car yesterday too."
"Jesus H Christ and the donkey he rode in on! All it takes is a quick phone call! This much news needs an entire weekend, not five minutes in the hall."
And then Jamie demonstrated why he was my true friend.
"Well, congratulations I suppose."
"Thanks Jamie. Look, I'm really sorry - I'll fill you in on the details later OK?"
"You'd better or I'll remove your testicles with a blunt instrument resembling some kind of gardening tool and roast them...."
"..over a large fire. Yes, I know."
I grinned at him as we fell back into insulting one another with quotes from Blackadder. I waved and we headed off to one of our few separate classes. I rounded the corner and Chris Waite and his gaggle of cronies were hanging around. My breath caught in my mouth and I must have gone white but the ape just nodded at me as I went past.
The surrounding gang looked at him like he'd grown two heads and I walked past dimly aware of the gossamer thin blue thread that still linked him to me.
I found my usual desk at the side of the science lab and was stunned when Jennifer Sawyer put her books down next to me.
"Hi Jake," she smiled at me.
"I...err..."
"Hi..?" she suggested.
Blushing crimson I nodded and she just grinned as the teacher called everyone to order. Biology was always interesting but with Jennifer beside me I couldn't concentrate. Memories of her perfume, the proximity of her body, her lips...
"Jake!"
"Sorry, sir."
"Well..? Oh, never mind. Martin, perhaps you can enlighten us while Jake goes back to whatever dream he was having."
I snapped back into the room and tried to maintain some sort of equilibrium. It was not easy.
When the lesson finished, Jennifer started to gather her books together and turned to me.
"So I heard that you signed up for gymnastics?"
"Wow, news travels fast!"
"I'm the club secretary, so the application comes to me."
"Oh. Right."
"It'll be great to see you there. Are you coming tonight?"
Images of me coming all over Jennifer at that moment were hard to put out of my mind but I nodded and tried not to draw attention to my stiffening cock.
"Yeah, sure. I'm looking forward to it."
"Me too."
And with that she flicked her hair over her shoulder and headed off to her next class.
By the end of the day I had been stopped numerous times by people I didn't really know to ask me about the accident and my date with Fiona. I had no idea what the hell had happened but the giant turd magnet appeared to have been removed from my head. Is this what school was like for normal people?
Jamie was less than impressed to be heading home alone but he still wished me well as I headed to the gym.
I'd wanted to do gymnastics for a long time but between money troubles at home and a lack of self-confidence I just hadn't got up the nerve to try. I kept myself reasonably trim with a range of exercises but had never really had the money to get full access to a proper facility to find out more about what I could do and what I couldn't.
I quickly got into my gear in the changing room and walked into the main gymnasium in time to see the warm ups about to begin.
The person running the club was an older guy called Rob Eriksen. He was half Norwegian and looked like a Viking. He was at least six foot four and while he was running to fat now his eyes missed nothing as he organised us all into groups.
I happily settled into the routines and slowly started to fit in with the other people there, most of whom had been doing gymnastics since they were young. I got so lost in the sheer physicality of it all that it was a shock when Rob called a halt and brought us back to the floor mats for stretching exercises.
There was some good natured banter going on and I felt truly relaxed. My muscles were going to be sore as hell tomorrow though.
Rob walked up to my group and then crouched down beside me.
"Good to have you with us Jake."
"Thanks Rob, this was a lot of fun."
He laughed, "I hope that you still think that as we ramp things up. Hey, today wasn't bad for a first timer. Just take it easy, OK? Rome wasn't built in a day. Same time on Wednesday?"
"I'll be here."