Read Online The Way It Never Was by Lucy Austin - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Lucy Austin
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rather addictive about being able to tell the same story over and over again to a different crowd. For the first time in a long time, I phoned Stan for no other reason than I just wanted to hear his voice, to have that familiarity that I didn’t have with these new friends.
To my surprise, Stan was a little curt down the phone. ‘You’ve not replied to any of my emails. I even phoned your hostel a few times.’ Currently single, it turns out that he was in need of some TLC too his pride wounded, having found his girlfriend, Diana, in bed with the same mechanic who’d serviced her car. Having told me the sorry tale from start to finish, punctuated by me intermittently making noises of sympathy and avoiding the obvious double entendre, we were both then quiet. I didn’t really know what to say to make him feel better as I was feeling pretty crap myself.
‘You will come home, won’t you?’ he asked, a question so strangely out of step with his usual patter, it then occurred to me that Stan must seriously have the blues as he sounded like he was missing me. Hanging up, I made a mental note to send him a few more postcards.
For three long weeks, I travelled around on buses with no air con, keeping the company of strangers whose contact details I wouldn’t be asking for – in stark contrast to the previous trip where I’d get someone’s email if they so much as asked me for directions. Like I had been in Sydney, I was apathetic to a tee, rushing through all the Australian landmarks as though I was at some enormous shopping centre ticking things off a list. Climbing Ayers Rock, carving out yet another didgeridoo, crocodile watching in Darwin, sailing on the Great Barrier Reef, snorkelling on the Whitsundays – all these just became things I had to do before I could get back to Sydney. I don’t know what exactly happened or over what period of time, but it wasn’t long before I had this horrible realisation that it wasn’t about my travels anymore. It was about Joe.
‘I didn’t expect you back so soon Katie Kate. You’re infatuated with him aren’t you?’ Liv asked me as we were dangling our feet in the bathing pool with the sun frying our epidermal layer.
I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that there is absolutely no point in travelling if you are distracted, as you really don’t see anything at all. Having returned to CoogeeView to find my bed in the all girl dorm given away to some girl with super hairy legs, I was now living at another backpackers down the road as I decided against staying in a sixteen-person mixed dorm. Clearly, I was tiring of communal living by now and was starting to crave an en-suite bathroom.
Cleaning her sunglasses, Liv spat and polished. ‘I notice you always put Joe on a pedestal. You really shouldn’t. Seriously. He’s a cocky son of a bitch. I’m just saying. And while I took on board Liv’s concerns about his regular habit of counting out how many friends he had on Facebook, or his blatant befriending of the hostel newbie to get a free drink at the pub, I still couldn’t see the wood for the trees. To me, he just seemed so dynamic, so charming and so ridiculously funny, I felt like I could listen to him until the cows came home.
That afternoon, Anna was lying in an unnatural pose, wearing a decorative bikini that barely covered her bits, complete with belly chain. Being her usual aloof self, she wasn’t attempting to join in on the conversation with the girls. She was more interested in squealing flirtatiously at the boys every time she got so much as a drop of water on her. It was really quite irritating.
‘Thing is Liv,’ I said hesitatingly, shutting my eyes in the sun. ‘I would be happy to just try and stay out here as he’s got a new contract starting and has already said he doesn’t do long distance relationships.’ Compared to Joe’s absolute resolve about his career, working out my own ambitions started to seem so inconsequential now.
I
To my surprise, Stan was a little curt down the phone. ‘You’ve not replied to any of my emails. I even phoned your hostel a few times.’ Currently single, it turns out that he was in need of some TLC too his pride wounded, having found his girlfriend, Diana, in bed with the same mechanic who’d serviced her car. Having told me the sorry tale from start to finish, punctuated by me intermittently making noises of sympathy and avoiding the obvious double entendre, we were both then quiet. I didn’t really know what to say to make him feel better as I was feeling pretty crap myself.
‘You will come home, won’t you?’ he asked, a question so strangely out of step with his usual patter, it then occurred to me that Stan must seriously have the blues as he sounded like he was missing me. Hanging up, I made a mental note to send him a few more postcards.
For three long weeks, I travelled around on buses with no air con, keeping the company of strangers whose contact details I wouldn’t be asking for – in stark contrast to the previous trip where I’d get someone’s email if they so much as asked me for directions. Like I had been in Sydney, I was apathetic to a tee, rushing through all the Australian landmarks as though I was at some enormous shopping centre ticking things off a list. Climbing Ayers Rock, carving out yet another didgeridoo, crocodile watching in Darwin, sailing on the Great Barrier Reef, snorkelling on the Whitsundays – all these just became things I had to do before I could get back to Sydney. I don’t know what exactly happened or over what period of time, but it wasn’t long before I had this horrible realisation that it wasn’t about my travels anymore. It was about Joe.
‘I didn’t expect you back so soon Katie Kate. You’re infatuated with him aren’t you?’ Liv asked me as we were dangling our feet in the bathing pool with the sun frying our epidermal layer.
I just didn’t have the heart to tell her that there is absolutely no point in travelling if you are distracted, as you really don’t see anything at all. Having returned to CoogeeView to find my bed in the all girl dorm given away to some girl with super hairy legs, I was now living at another backpackers down the road as I decided against staying in a sixteen-person mixed dorm. Clearly, I was tiring of communal living by now and was starting to crave an en-suite bathroom.
Cleaning her sunglasses, Liv spat and polished. ‘I notice you always put Joe on a pedestal. You really shouldn’t. Seriously. He’s a cocky son of a bitch. I’m just saying. And while I took on board Liv’s concerns about his regular habit of counting out how many friends he had on Facebook, or his blatant befriending of the hostel newbie to get a free drink at the pub, I still couldn’t see the wood for the trees. To me, he just seemed so dynamic, so charming and so ridiculously funny, I felt like I could listen to him until the cows came home.
That afternoon, Anna was lying in an unnatural pose, wearing a decorative bikini that barely covered her bits, complete with belly chain. Being her usual aloof self, she wasn’t attempting to join in on the conversation with the girls. She was more interested in squealing flirtatiously at the boys every time she got so much as a drop of water on her. It was really quite irritating.
‘Thing is Liv,’ I said hesitatingly, shutting my eyes in the sun. ‘I would be happy to just try and stay out here as he’s got a new contract starting and has already said he doesn’t do long distance relationships.’ Compared to Joe’s absolute resolve about his career, working out my own ambitions started to seem so inconsequential now.
I
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