Luke at University Pt. 01

"That's what Luke tells me. I fancied him from the first day we met, but it took alcohol and an incident in a pub to make me reveal how I felt towards him. I wouldn't be telling you this now, if he hadn't boosted my confidence by the way that he talks to me, and the sweet way that he encourages me. He's even got me to join the college Chapel Choir! You are the only person whom I have told about him, I haven't even told my sister yet.

"I shall try and get a job in the summer, I can't possibly stay here for three months. Luke's family has a lot of contacts and I'm sure that I will be OK in the summer. Liz and I are going to clear all my things out from Dad's house this weekend. And then the only reason I will have to come back here is to see you and Liz."

Liz Appleton telephoned her father, and told him that they were coming to collect Tom's things on the Sunday afternoon. When she and Tom drove up to their father's house, there was an empty skip on the pavement outside. They knocked at the door and surly-looking woman opened it. "We've come to collect Tom's things" said Liz.

"You're just in time!" was the reply, "they were all going into the skip tomorrow morning. We can't harbour his junk, we need the space." Tom and Liz removed all Tom's books, CDs, clothes, hi-fi, and all his other possessions and loaded them into the van. They also took towels and bedlinen from the storage drawers in his room.

"I want to see Dad," said Tom and he was allowed to enter the sitting room where his father was watching Sky Sport. "Hello, lad," he said "I'm sorry you're going so soon. When will you come and see us again?"

"Never until that bitch is out of the house!" said Tom. "She was going to throw all my things into the skip! You've got my mobile number in case you need to contact me, but I'm never coming back here!"

They drove off to Liz's house and unloaded Tom's possessions and put them in Liz's spare room. Tom got out his laptop and wrote an E-mail to Luke asking if he could come back to Ixton on the Thursday after Easter. The next few days went by very slowly. Liz was out at work most of the time, so Tom could get on with his revision without disturbance.

TO BE CONTINUED