| Last night, Paul went out with his friends into the city. Paul drives a little car, so he drove to the city & gave his three friends a lift in. They were very grateful & each gave him �3 for petrol. Paul loves a good time, so he was happy to have a few drinks, but not too many because he had to drive back to the village at the end of the night. His friends, however, had no such binds. They were happy to drink plenty of the local alcohol, until they were well & truely loco. So Paul felt very lonely, eventhough he was with his three best friends. The boys all ended up in a club, where the others all went off dancing like crazy idiots. Paul stayed sat in the corner of the club, thinking. It was a very beautiful place, thought Paul. Even if the mood was a bit too loud & energetic for him. Paul sat on the red sofa with his lemonade, & thought about the future. He wondered what he would end up doing as a job. His dad was an architect, which Paul thought was a nice job. One day, he hoped he would build his own home. He thought about it. When he was younger, he had imagined a huge house on the outskirts of the city, with twelve bedrooms, a grand dining hall, a swimmingpool, a tenniscourt & some servants to respond to his every wish. Now he thought he would just like a little place to call his home. Years ago, people would be born in a house & would die in that house. Nowadays, there were too many houses & not enough homes. He hoped that his house would be designed by him, & that he would live in it for as long as he lived. Then, Paul's friend Barry came stumbling over to the table. "Paully!" slurred Barry, "Come & have a dance mate! It's crazy over there!" "No thankyou," laughed Paul. "I'm having a nice time just watching all the fun going on around me." Barry didn't seem to listen past "No thankyou" & paid no attention to Paul's lie. He just staggered over to the bar, drawled something at the barmaid, & then went back to the dancefloor. Paul chuckled to himself, & went back to thinking about his dream home. "Are you having a nice night?" Paul looked up to see a girl about his age with big, beautiful eyes looking at him with a smile. "Yes, it's not bad thankyou." The girl then looked concerned. "You look glum! What's wrong? I shall call you Glumboy. Would it cheer you up for me to buy you a drink, Glumboy?" "Oh, that's very kind of you, but I'm not really thirsty." Paul thought how it really would cheer him up for the pretty girl to buy him a drink. Now he wished he had accepted her generous offer. "Oh. Well, I'll buy one, bring it back here, & if you still don't want it, I'll give it to that drunk boy you were talking to a minute ago." Paul laughed. But the pretty girl would not give up. "Come on, what is your favourite drink?" "Well, maybe just half a beer then." he chuckled "German, if possible." "Mm, my favourite too," said the pretty girl. "I'll see what they have." So they got chatting over their glasses of German beer, & the pretty girl introduced herself as Melissa. Melissa talked about how she lived in the city, not far from the club, & had come out tonight with her friends, but they'd all gone home. Melissa explained that she liked to meet new people, & so had stayed out on her own. The more they talked, the more they found they had in common, & soon they were talking about places they'd been, music they liked, & things they wanted to be in the future. Melissa asked Paul if he'd like to stay at her house that night. Her parents were away & she got lonely, so she said. Paul was worried about his friends; how would they get home? Fortunately, the boys decided they'd go & stay with another friend, Dutch Brian, who also lived in the city. Paul still felt a bit strange about sleeping at a girl's house on the first night he'd met her, but he felt a bit better because it was obvious that Melissa was so nice. The two went to Melissa's house, which Paul liked. It was quite small, but was very beautiful & quite grand. There were only three bedrooms, a lounge, a kitchen & a summerroom, but it was so beautiful, Paul felt like he was inside a miniature palace. Melissa showed Paul her room. It was quite spacious, but not because it was big, but because there were so few things in there. There was a large, comfy-looking bed, a table, a chair, a wardrobe & a cupboard. The room was painted green, which was her favourite colour. She then showed him where he could sleep, in the guestroom. It was similar, but was yellow. Paul said it was lovely, but he would like to stay in Melissa's bed if that was alright, which she said it was. They stayed up most of the night playing Monopoly, watching some of Melissa's favourite films & talking. In the middle of the night, it got very cold, so they hugged. As it was beginning to get light, Paul said that they should go to sleep now, so they did. He didn't realise how tired he was until he felt the coldness of the pillow against his face. As she was sleeping, Paul watched her. He thought she was very pretty, & thought about touching her face, but he didn't want to wake her up, so he didn't. He listened to her quietly snoring & laughed a bit to himself before he fell asleep. As he was sleeping, Melissa watched him & thought he was very handsome. She giggled to herself when he dribbled in his sleep, & then she got up to go & make some breakfast. When Paul woke up, it was Saturday morning & quite late. His watch told him it was half past ten, which meant it could be anything between ten & half eleven because Paul's watch wasn't very reliable. He could hear that Melissa was downstairs in the kitchen, she was a very noisey cook, he decided. He rolled over to where she had been sleeping & fell asleep again. It had been a nice night last night, & Paul hoped today would be just as good. It was, & he was very happy that he had met Melissa. Index 3. |