as a moped whizzed past, almost knocking her off her feet.
Gathering her wits and checking left and right she finally reached his table, mind whirling as she tried to comprehend what had just happened.
She’d always hated confrontation and miraculously had managed to avoid too many bust-ups with her fairly conservative parents up until this point, which was partly why she was so livid with them now. How dare her mother have talked to her like that? Like she was some stupid, dozy tart who was so needy of male attention she’d do anything to get it. She’d never given them any cause for worry or upset in the past and yet now she was deviating off the path just a little bit, they didn’t have the patience to at least try and understand her reasons. Yes, Aidan had been a massive part of the decision not to go home, but that was life. You met people and things happened and given that they hadn’t even met him it seemed ridiculous for them to have formed an opinion of him already. It was so unfair. They gave her no credit whatsoever.
‘So what’s the score then?’
‘I said I’d call back in ten minutes so we could all cool off,’ she’d replied, avoiding both the question and his stare.
‘And?’
‘Oh I don’t know,’ she’d replied truthfully, feeling unbelievably torn ‘They’re really mad at me, Aidan, and it was awful hearing them so pissed off. Plus, Mum’s desperately worried that if I defer I might lose my place altogether.’
‘Well she would say that wouldn’t she,’ suggested Aidan.
Jennifer shrugged, doubtful her mum was that manipulative. ‘I’m so thirsty I almost feel faint, have you got enough money for me to get a beer?’
‘Yeah, go for it,’ said Aidan pulling some ancient Drachma notes out of his pocket and signalling to the waiter.
A few minutes later, once Jennifer had had the chance to glug back some of her cold lager, he enquired again. ‘So what’s it to be then, babe? Sunshine, the land of opportunity and some hot romance with me? Or back to mummy and daddy and the rain?’
‘I don’t know,’ Jennifer had replied honestly. She felt really conflicted and a bit stupid. She’d probably been deeply deluded thinking her parents would just accept her reasoning for ducking out. Plus, deep down she really didn’t want to throw away her chance to go to university, even if it meant admitting she’d been rash. Their fury had knocked her though and treating her like a child made it harder for her to decide what to do. She was so cross with them.
Realising she needed time to think Aidan dropped the subject so they sat in slightly tense silence, watching the world go by, until Jennifer got up. ‘Right, there’s no point sitting here putting it off. I’d better go and ring them back.’
As she marched back across the busy road to the centre of the square where the phone booth was, her head was spinning. What should she do? She still had no idea, so decided it would probably be best just to see how the conversation panned out.
Her dad had picked up the phone. ‘Right, now I hope you’re phoning to tell us you’ve seen sense.’
This wasn’t a good start in terms of making her feel like returning to the bosom of her family.
‘I’ve phoned to discuss things like an adult,’ she shot back.
‘Well, that’s a start,’ he said. ‘So in that case, surely you can see that running off with some good for nothing beach bum, while ruining your life in the process, is entirely the wrong thing to do?’
It was a shame he’d taken that approach. It was a shame he hadn’t simply asked her how she was and how she was feeling because he might have got a very different response to the one he received and the conversation may have played out another way.
As it was, three days later Jennifer and Aidan boarded a plane to Australia and, although she was experiencing an underlying sense of panic as to whether or not it was definitely what she really wanted, the fact she was proving a point to her parents had become enough to prevent her from changing her mind.
If relations had been bad at that point they’d taken an even worse turn once she’d phoned them again from Sydney, where they’d stayed for the first few weeks before heading to Queensland, at which point her furious dad had demanded to speak to her boyfriend. At first Aidan had refused, which had made Jennifer feel very uneasy. Eventually however, sensing that if he didn’t Jennifer was going to freak out, he’d eventually acquiesced, albeit reluctantly, at which point her dad had given him very short shrift, venting all his frustrations and feelings of helplessness at the person he held responsible for his daughter’s unfamiliar behaviour.
Aidan hadn’t appreciated being shouted at though. Rather than taking the reprimanding on the chin, he’d retaliated with a few barbed insults of his own which hadn’t helped matters in any way. Now, a few months on, things had calmed down a bit but no matter how much Jennifer tried to explain that Aidan had only been sticking up for her, her parents wouldn’t budge on their opinion of him. Meanwhile, Aidan refused to understand that perhaps they were only feeling protective and worried about their daughter.
So here she was having yet another awkward conversation with them while Aidan glowered and sulked next to her.
‘So why didn’t you go to Surfers Paradise then?’ her mum asked now, in a way that sounded to Jennifer somehow accusatory.
‘Because we decided to go another time,’ she lied. In reality they couldn’t afford to hire a car or go at all but she certainly wasn’t going to tell them that.
‘Hmm, well it seems a shame since you are there not to be doing anything, or seeing anything other than Brisbane,’ remarked her mother pointedly.
Jennifer swallowed, determined not to have another row.
‘How’s dad?’
‘He’s right here, do you want a word?’
‘Please.’
‘Hello, love,’ said her dad and Jennifer blinked back a tear. She didn’t half miss them.
‘You’ll never guess what happened to Martin at work the other day.’
It was true, she never would, so Jennifer let her dad witter away, filling her in on the day-to-day minutiae of his life in a way that made her feel closer to home.
Afterwards her mother came back on the phone. ‘I saw Karen’s mum the other day.’
‘Oh yeah,’ said Jennifer, rolling her eyes and wishing Aidan would stop staring and listening, while simultaneously preparing herself for the next dig.
‘Yes. Karen’s loving university apparently. She’s got loads of new friends and is really enjoying the course.’
‘Good for Karen,’ huffed Jennifer.
‘Oh don’t be like that Jen, I’m just saying. There’s no need to be so defensive.’
‘You’re not just saying though are you? You’re having another go at me for coming here, only I don’t know how many times I have to tell you that I can go next year.’
‘If they agree to you deferring your place. We’ve
