Chapter five

Sophie spent the next week trying her hardest to avoid Dylan, which was made a lot easier by the fact that work had phoned her and asked her to do over time all week. She readily agreed looking forward to the extra money and the excuse to get out of the house and away from Dylan. Who still hadn't gone home.

She was just getting ready to leave the house on Tuesday morning when her phone started ringing and she cursed, rooting through her bag to try and find it, "Hello?" She barked into the phone,

"Sorry, bad time?" Nathan asked.

"I'm just leaving for work and I couldn't find my stupid phone; hang on a second." She grabbed her keys and quickly left the house, "Sorry. What did you want?"

"Do you reckon you could get the early shift at work on Thursday, and the day off on Friday?"

"Erm, I can ask one of the girls to cover for me; why?"

"We're all going out up here on Thursday night 'cause it's our last day before we all go home. I thought you might want to come."

"Yeah, that sounds great. I'll check when I get into work. Amanda owes me a favour anyway so she might do it for me if Derek says no."

"Brilliant. I can't pick you up though – my last class goes on till 6pm. Let me know as soon as possible, yeah?"

"No worries, I'll talk to you later."

She quickly shoved her phone back in her bag after saying good bye and hurried down the street. Her work was only 15 minutes away, but she was running late and if she wanted a favour she needed to keep her boss in her good books. She got to work with seconds to spare, and headed straight for the office where she knew her boss, Derek, would be. He looked up at her and smiled as she walked through the door.

"How is my favourite employee today?"

Sophie rolled her eyes, "I don't know." She turned to one of the supervisors in the room, who also happened to be Derek's long term girlfriend, "Alice, how are you?"

"I am under no illusions about the fact that you are his favourite." Alice said, smiling at Sophie.

Derek laughed, spinning round in his chair so he was fully facing her. "So. What can I do for you?"

"I need a huge favour, you know, as your favourite employee."

"I'm going to regret that aren't I?" He asked, smiling at her.

"Maybe." Sophie sang, "Could I have the early shift on Thursday?"

"Sure, is that it?" He asked, looking a little confused.

"No. Is there any chance I can have Friday off as well?" She winced slightly, waiting for his response."

"What's the rota like for Friday?" He asked Alice, who had already pulled the relevant file up on the computer.

"I've no problem with it." She said.

"Okay, you owe me big time for this though."

"I know." She sighed exaggeratedly. "Well, I'd better be off to work then. Oh, Alice, where do you want me?"

"Shop floor, please."

"Got it." She skipped out of the office and went to put her bag in her locker. She had the early shift Thursday, was off on Friday, and she wasn't stuck in the warehouse all day! Life was good.

At least until she got home that night.

As soon as she walked through the door she knew the rest of her night was going to be crap. Dylan was stood in the hallway.

"Seriously; when are you going to go home?" She grumbled at him.

"Why would I want to go home when I get to have the pleasure of your company when you're here?" He grinned at her. She pulled a face at him and stomped up the stairs. Stopping outside Andrew's door she gave a quick knock and opened the door when he called out.

"Hello my favouritist brother in the whole entire world!" She grinned at him as she flopped down on his bed next to him.

"What do you want?" He asked without looking up from the book he was reading.

"I am hurt and offended that you would think I wanted something. What if I just wanted to come and spend some time with the bestest brother in the universe?" He shot her a look. "Fine," She pouted, "I need a lift on Thursday please."

"Sorry, no can do. I have a date."

"On a Thursday?"

"On a Thursday, yes."

"A Thursday." She checked again. "Who the hell goes on a date on a Thursday?" She asked when he nodded his head.

"People who want to go on a date with a woman who is busy for the rest of the weekend. Go ask Dylan or something." She snorted. "Fine, ask dad then. But I can't do it. Sorry."

"Fine. I'll go ask dad." She grumbled getting up of his bed. "Is he still at Julia's, or has he come home?"

"Julia's I think."

She nodded and went to her room, fishing her phone out of her bag as she walked down the hall. Just as she was about to ring him, his name flashed up on her screen and his ring tone started to ring.

"Daddy! I was just about to ring you!"

"What do you want?" He immediately asked. She frowned and stared at the phone before putting it back to her ear, "How do you know I want something?"

"I'm your father – I know everything."

"No kidding," She mumbled, "I just wanted to see if you could give me a lift up to uni on Thursday. Nate's asked me to go out with him, but I need a lift up there."

"Sorry kiddo, that's what I was ringing to tell you. I have to go away over the weekend for work. I'd ask Julia, but she's going up to see her mum while I'm away. Why don't you ask Dylan, or your brother?"

"The world is against me." She groaned, flopping down onto her bed. "Andrew has a date, and I don't want to ask Dylan." She whined.

"Tough." Her dad said. "I'm going to nip home for a few things tonight so I'll see you in a few minutes, but then I have to head straight off out."

"Okay, see you in a few." She hung up and sighed. She was obviously going to have to swallow her pride and ask Dylan to take her. And then she was going to have to cope with being in a confined space with him for 30 minutes. That was if he agreed to take her. The way her night was going so far she was going to have to take the bus! Forcing herself to get up off the bed she made her way out of her room and down the hall to Dylan's room. She stood outside for a couple of minutes, working up the courage to knock on the door.

"Are you actually going to knock, or just stand there all night?" Dylan said from behind her, making her scream and spin round. She clutched her hand to her chest,

"Don't do that!" She gasped. He just grinned at her and raised an eyebrow – obviously questioning why she was attempting to knock on his bedroom door."

"I need a favour." She said. Quick and painless – that was the way to do it.

"Okay." He said, looking at her for a few moments. "I'm going to need more than that." He smirked when she didn't say anything else. She blushed and cleared her throat.

"Nathan's invited me to go out on Thursday night, but he can't pick me up and Andrew and dad can't take me." She looked at him pointedly. He stared back. "Can you give me a lift up?" She ground out.

"A lift up where?" He asked, a smile starting to form at his mouth.

"You are so frustrating." She growled. "To Nathan's, at uni halls." He didn't say anything for a moment or two, just stood and stared at her. "Listen; if you can't take me just tell…"

"Yeah, okay. I'll take you." He interrupted her. She froze her mouth still open. She shut it and cleared her throat again.

"Thank you." She nodded at him, turned round, and walked back to her room.

– oOo –

Thursday came by quicker than she'd expected, and before she knew it she was saying bye and good luck to Andrew, and climbing into Dylan's 97 bluebird.

"How is this still running?" She asked.

"I take good care of her." Dylan said, patting the steering wheel with more affection than she had ever seen him show another human being.

"You do know that she is an inanimate object; right?"

He shot her a glare – which just made her giggle – and started the engine. The first 10 minutes of the journey were made in the most uncomfortable silence she had ever experienced. The radio was on in the background, but neither of them made any noise which must have been a first for both of them. Singing along to the radio was something they had both always loved to do. When they were younger (and still talking) Sophie, Dylan and Andrew had all had competitions in the back of the car to see who could sing the loudest and the worst. It had driven Sophie's dad absolutely mental.

She let out a sigh, and rested her head on her hand. Dylan glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, inwardly sighing himself. He opened his mouth to say something – anything to ease the tension in the car – when a familiar song came on the radio. He smiled slightly, glancing at Sophie again, wondering if she remembered the little game they all used to play when they were younger. His fingers started to tap along to the music and Sophie turned slightly to look at him. He grinned at her before singing off tune.

"I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy!"

Her lips curled slightly at the ends as she tried to hold the smile in. He carried on, singing as out of tune as he possibly could, before she finally joined in.

"Too late, my time has come."

He broke out into a full grin as they both sang along to the song, Sophie playing air guitar and piano, and going into a bad falsetto. They both glanced at each other for a second, grinning at each other, before starting to head bang.

"So you think you can stop me and spit in my eye? So you think you can love me and leave me to diiiieeee!" They wailed "Oooooh baaaaby! Can't do this to me baaaaby!"

Dylan held his hand out towards Sophie, indicating that she should take then end. She took a deep breath, before giving it all she had. It sounded like cats screeching in a back alley way; Dylan loved it.

They both burst out laughing when it was over. "I haven't done that in years!" Sophie grinned.

"Me neither," Dylan laughed, "It felt so good!"

"I know! It's a shame Andrew wasn't here, I used to love doing that one with him. He was so good at the high bits."

Dylan snorted, "He was too good at the high bits."

Sophie laughed and nodded. They fell into silence again, this time a comfortable one, until Dylan broke it.

"Listen, Soph." He let out a sigh as she looked at him, "Can we please put everything behind us? Can we at least try to be civil to each other?"

Sophie was quiet for what seemed to be a long time, and just as Dylan was about to give up she turned to face him. "Answer me one question." He nodded at her and she took a deep breath, "At the risk of sounding about 13, what made you stop being my friend? I mean, one minute we were all such good friends and we did everything together, and the next you wanted nothing to do with me!"

"Dylan nodded and frowned slightly as he tried to word his answer properly. "Peer pressure." He finally came up with.

"Peer pressure?" She asked incredulously.

He nodded again, "There was this day – well, this afternoon really – Andrew and I had gone out to hang out with some of the guys and I'd left my hoodie at your house. I went back for it and you were sat on the front step waiting for one of us to come back. You wanted to go round to Nate's, but your dad wouldn't let you go on your own and was too busy to take you round himself. Obviously I agreed to take you round, but on the way we passed the lads. Andrew wasn't with them – I don't know where he'd gone, to go have a piss or something – and they all started taking the piss out of the fact that I was walking you round to your friends."

Sophie nodded, "I remember. They were calling me your girlfriend. I was so embarrassed."

"Yeah, well so was I. And I was also a stupid teenage boy who wanted to fit in with the crowd, so I dropped you off and went back and they carried on teasing me and I was getting more and more pissed off. Andrew kept asking what the problem was, that he walked you places all the time, and they said that he was your brother so that was okay, but I wasn't so I was obviously in love with you. So I stopped hanging around with you. I told Andrew it was just until they cooled off and stopped bringing it up, but every time I went near you they'd start up again. So I started picking on you, so they would leave me alone. And then I couldn't stop. Every time I saw you I swore to myself that I'd be nice to you this time – that we could go back to normal – but you'd got to the point where you pretty much hated me so you'd make some snide comment to me and I'd make one back and we'd just continue like that." He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, "I did miss you, you know. There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret not just telling the lads to piss off and ignoring them." He shrugged, "There's nothing I can do to change the past, but I came back from London thinking that maybe I could do something about the future. That maybe I could make amends."

Sophie was quiet for the couple of seconds it took to pull into the student car park attached to Nate's building. Once they had stopped she turned to look at him, "I think I get why you did it. It doesn't mean I forgive you for making my teenage life miserable, but I can see why you were so mean to me."

"Does that mean you forgive me?"

She gave him a small smile, "We'll see. Giving me this lift was a step in the right direction, anyway." He smiled and nodded at her. She opened the door and got out of the car, leaning into the back to grab her overnight bag. "Oh," she paused and looked back at Dylan, "Another step in the right direction would be to come and pick me up tomorrow afternoon. Ta ta!" And with that she shut the door and skipped off towards the front door leaving Dylan laughing in the car.

A/N – I'm afraid I have no good excuse for why this has taken me so long to update… I've had 90% of it written for weeks. I was just too lazy to write the remaining 10% *sheepish look* I'm very sorry!

I don't own anything you might recognise, and for those of you who recognised the Friends quote in the last chapter – I don't own that either. Also, sorry for the mistakes in the last chapter – I was that obsessed with posting it for you guys that I didn't proof read it very well. I may go back and update it at some point….