Read Online The Way It Never Was by Lucy Austin - Free Book Online

with sleeping upright in a chair watching Mr Bean episodes on a loop, this so-called ‘journey of self discovery’ had become mind numbingly dull. I was also slowly coming round to the crushing realisation that I needed to do a little bit more on the backpacker circuit than see the sights. I needed to make some money, fast.
    On some random stranger’s recommendation at Central Station, the bus dropped me off at Coogee beach, right outside the ‘Sun of a Beach Bar’ café, where I got myself a coffee while I worked out my bearings. Having then staggered up the hill for as long as I could with a stupidly heavy backpack that I never usually wore, I happened across a large three-storey hostel called ‘CoogeeView’.
    I was put into room number seven, the all girl dormitory at the front of the hostel, a really narrow room lit by strip lighting, with a large balcony at the end with (very partial) sea views. In addition to the usual assortment of backpackers passing through, the long-term regulars were Anna, who was the only one who’d managed to secure herself a single bed (courtesy of a broken bunk), a solemn girl called Hillary who just read self-help books all the time, a jolly Irish girl Tracy who responded with ‘grand’ to everything and Liv who said the ‘c’ word. A lot. After a while, there was no place else I wanted to be.
    Being the only room in the hostel with its own telly, not surprisingly we started to find random boys hanging out there to flick through the channels for European football and smoke cigarettes on our balcony. There was Stuart who had a tongue piercing and a crush on Hillary who was too busy reading Men Are From Mars to notice. There was another guy called Gazza who coincidentally I had been on a tour in Perth with but had barely said two words to. There was a man who went by the name of his favourite football team, ‘Man-U’, who looked like someone straight out of South Park . And then there was Joe, my first impressions of him being that he was cute but quite short, with eyes that were a little too close together. I also remember thinking he would be better looking without his long hair, that judging from its impeccable condition was clearly his pride and joy in a ‘Samson’ kind of way.
    However, what Joe lacked in height, he made up for in confidence – buckets of it – so much so that I, along with the rest of the hostel, was completely bowled over by his charisma. It wasn’t before I found myself joining everyone else sitting on the balcony, hanging onto his every word as though he was Justin Bieber and we were his ‘Beliebers’.
    ‘It was a Monday, no wait, maybe it was Tuesday, no I’m right first time, Monday,’ he would ponder, as though we had all the time in the world to listen – as the idle buggers we were, we err, did.
    Initially, I assumed Joe liked Anna. She was the one girl who I’d yet to get to know properly, as she seemed more interested in talking to the boys than making friends with the likes of us girls. I’d often come across her and Joe whispering conspiratorially on the benches outside, or she’d be flirtatiously putting her arms around his waist while he stirred his pot noodle in the communal kitchen. With looks to kill, Anna had already bagged herself a fair few men in the hostel – and courtesy of one fling, a lovely Rolex watch that, having pawned, was now tiding her over for the rest of her travels.
    Then one day, Joe and I were the only people in room seven. I had just got back from my first day waitressing at the Sun of a Beach Bar, still in shock at having a job that required me to do some actual work. Despite being tired, I agreed to sit with him on the balcony and found myself enjoying this effortless banter that went back and forth. I can only liken it to how it always was with Stan at home. Then, before I knew it, a whole hour had gone and with my roommates due back any minute, he leant forward and kissed me – not particularly well I