Eighteen

'I like to imagine things,' said Nina casting her eyes up the shoreline.

'Yeah? Like what?' She didn't seem to be looking at anything in particular. There was a bunch of seagulls ahead, squawking around a shallow tidal pool.

'I don't know. How things might be, or might have been. I'm going to study Arts next year, maybe philosophy.'

I nodded. 'Deep. I like to imagine things.' I tried to imagine what was beneath her big green dress-sack. 'Like the slob-a-matic.'

She raised an eyebrow and blushed - I'm not sure why. 'The what?'

'The slob-a-matic. To run slob's lives so they remember to flush, and to pick up their dirty jocks and put dirty dishes in the sink - even if they don't wash them straight away.'

'Oh.' She laughed. 'That sort of stuff bugs you?'

'I guess.' I'd never really thought of myself as anal before. It wasn't really the image I was looking to project.

'You couldn't live with Lisa then.'

How smooth was that? 'Let me guess. She makes Hagrid look tidy?'

'Something like that.'

Woah, fifteen words in thirty seconds. I was impressed.

'I'm a bit worried about her,' said Nina quietly.

'Lisa?' I can be quick sometimes. I managed to stop myself from slapping my own forehead. Of course Lisa.

'She hasn't seemed herself lately. And last night, I don't know, she seemed kind of different. She sounded... '

I smiled to myself. She was on the Des cloud of love.

'...depressed.'

'No way! I mean... I've never seen Lisa down.' I picked up a shell and hocked it at the seagulls, now only a few metres in front of us.

'I know. Me neither - besides the usual boyfriend ups and downs.'

Be proud of me, I resisted the obvious line.

Nineteen