Unhappily Ever After

Chapter 44 - Head Over Heels

This is dedicated to @natulez because sure why not, you can have one on this book, too. I'm pretty sure you take the time to leave a comment on every single chapter, you absolute bae <3

In other news it was results day on thursday and I. Got. Into. Uni. if you can believe that! I now have to pack and explain to my dog that I'm leaving her behind :(

My attention snapped to the other side of the room, where there were a series of screeching noises as some pack fighters wheeled out huge tables and stack of chairs to go with them. In unison, a small army of kitchen helpers with dishes stacked halfway to heaven in their arms. It must have been dinnertime — I did remember mention of a 'feast.'

"Are we going to sit down?" I asked, thinking I already knew the answer because Jess seemed to adore all kinds of food.

"No, I've got a better idea."

She ducked through the crowd, leaving me standing there like an idiot, only to reappear half a minute later with three dishes balanced precariously in her hands.

"Step on it," Jess laughed at me. "Mam saw me take them."

And so, for the third time that evening, we ran away from Maggie Thompson. Not that she was chasing us, of course — she was far too busy for that. We scarpered down five or six corridors until we were hopelessly lost, and then sat with our backs against the wall, facing each other across the corridor. Jess arranged the plates between us.

"What did you grab?"

"No idea," she sniggered.

Oh, Goddess. They were all covered with the upside-down metal bowls that kept food warm, so we could have had three plates of boiled cabbage for all we knew. Still, I tried not to look too sceptical as I lifted the lid of the plate closest to me. I smelt it before I saw it — chocolate pudding of the gooey, molten variety.

"Um ... what a good staple meal," I murmured.

"Silence, doubter," Jess replied, and she unveiled the second dish. It was a fruit platter with everything from banana to passionfruit.

"Did you by chance steal these from the pudding section?" I asked dryly.

She wrinkled up her nose. "It wasn't like they were labelled or anything."

We both reached for the last plate at the same time, our hands colliding in the middle, so it was a team effort to discard the lid. It was lamb on skewers — heavily seasoned, if the smell was anything to go by. We had gotten lucky. Meat, fruit and carbohydrate. Kinda.

We smiled at each other and, even though there was a weariness to it, the smiles were as genuine as they came. And then we began to eat, slowly, over the course of an hour, until every last crumb of food was gone. Jess hadn't thought to steal spoons, so the chocolate pudding was scooped up with apple slices.

And while we ate, we talked. There was never a definite topic: the conversation meandered from place to place without ever staying on one path long enough to reach a destination. At some points, we flitted between small talk to deep and meaningful without a moment's warning. Talking to Jess was just easy. It was easy the way talking to my family and Lee and Quin and Lydia had always been. And in some ways, it was even easier; my soulmate was the only person in the whole world I would never have to compete with.

It was only in the early hours of Monday morning that we picked ourselves up, washed our dirty dishes in the kitchen, and slunk back to Jessie's room. I changed back into my clothes in the bathroom, since she had offered to let me stay with her rather than crash with the lovebirds.