Chris knelt in front of Hayley as she sat on the bed. He looked up at her, his expression peppered with hope and desperation.
‘Will you?’ he said, running a hand first through his thick black hair and then across his face.
‘Get married?’ Hayley asked. ‘Are you serious?’ A broad grin spread across her face.
‘I’ve never been so serious in my life.’
Hayley thought he looked like a puppy begging for a treat, his eyes wide and twinkling, and his mouth in an expectant smile.
‘I love you,’ he said. ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I’ve finished my apprenticeship and I’m earning. If you leave university and get a job, we can afford a place of our own and have kids. I’ll get you a ring and you can be my girl. Forever.’
Hayley pictured herself at their wedding and bit her lip. They made a lovely couple, everyone said so, and she loved him so much. For the most part they were happy and the sex had become much hotter since she’d started reading Cosmo articles, given him some subtle hints and direct guidance. But leave university? And kids?
Maybe I can continue my course. Surely he’ll let me? Surely … wait a second; let me?
Ellen’s voice popped into her head: ‘God, he’s so controlling.’
‘Well?’ Chris said. He winked at her and she noticed he was flexing his muscles. He knew she’d always had a weak spot for his biceps.
She swallowed. She loved him, but … ‘Well … I don’t want to leave university,’ she said, shaking her head. ‘I … I don’t know if I want to have kids. I’m only nineteen.’
Chris got up. ‘Of course we’ll have kids! And leaving uni will mean more money right away.’ He smiled at her.
‘But –’
‘You could always go back to school later. Night school, even, once we’re settled, or learn something else if you have to.’ He grinned. ‘Yeah, it’ll be great.’
‘Hang on a sec.’ Hayley’s voice became stronger. ‘I love you but I want to be a solicitor. I want to travel the world and work in New York or Paris. Mr. Simpson said –’
‘Mr. Simpson, Mr. Simpson,’ he mimicked, throwing his arms in the air. ‘He’s all you talk about.’ He stared at her, eyes narrowed and steely. ‘Are you sleeping with him?’
‘What? No!’
‘He thinks you have a real knack for law – my arse. He wants to get in your knickers. I should have known.’
‘Stop it! He’s a great teacher, that’s all. The whole class thinks so. When we debated the merits –’
‘Debated the merits?’ He snorted. ‘Mum’s right, you’re already a snob. I bet this is the crap your uni friends and that bitch Ellen are putting in your head and –’
‘Piss off, Chris,’ Hayley shouted as she jumped up from the bed and pointed a finger at him. She felt the heat rising to her face and the muscles in her jaw stiffen. ‘I don’t think I’m better than you. You’re the one with the problem and –’
Chris towered over her. ‘Don’t talk to me like that. You’re my girl and you’ll do as you’re told.’ He grabbed her dress from the floor and ripped it down the seam.
Hayley started to cry. ‘You bastard. How dare you.’
‘How dare you? How dare you?’ Chris mimicked her again then he kicked Hayley’s bedroom door, putting a boot-clad foot straight through it. Hayley draw a sharp breath at the sound of splintering wood and before she could shout at him to get out, the broken door flew open and her parents and sister burst into the room.
Despite being half a head shorter than Chris and a good deal lighter, Stan Adams grabbed him by the back of the neck and hauled him out of the bedroom. ‘Come on, sunshine,’ he said in a voice Hayley had never heard him use before – it came out more of a growl than actual words.
Jackie bent down and picked up Chris’ jacket, her recently dyed red hair a fiery mass of curls. ‘You little shit,’ she shouted as she charged back out of the room and down the stairs, ‘That’s my sister up there.’
Karen hurried forward and gently helped Hayley sit down on the bed.
‘Get out of my house and never come back,’ Stan shouted and the front door slammed. Footsteps came back up the stairs and Stan and Jackie piled into the bedroom, both of them out of breath and shaking.
‘Come on, Jackie,’ Stan said, ‘let’s give Mum and your sister some space.’ The door – or what was left of it – closed behind them.
Hayley collapsed on her bed and buried her head in the pillow, soaking it with tears. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s okay, it’s okay. I’m here now.’
‘What have I done? I love him.’ She sat up. ‘I have to go after him.’
‘No.’ Karen grabbed her arm. ‘Let him go.’
Hayley burst into tears again and put her arms around her mum, breathing in the familiar and comforting scent of lavender perfume. ‘He … he didn’t want me to … to go out wi-without him but it just means he … he loves me. He does.’
‘Maybe.’ Karen sighed as she patted Hayley’s back.
‘And I love him.’
‘You can’t live with a person who wants to dictate your life.’
Hayley crossed her arms and pulled away. ‘You said the other week you didn’t like him anymore.’ She watched as a frown crossed her mum’s face, then it disappeared.
‘That’s not what I said, Hayley.’ Karen smoothed her hands over her tartan skirt. ‘I said I didn’t agree with him telling you who you can and can’t see, and we ended up in a fight.’
Hayley looked down and kept her arms crossed. ‘Maybe if you’d been clearer I would have listened.’
‘You’re angry, I understand.’ Karen put a hand on Hayley’s shoulder and when Hayley looked up, Karen smiled and shook her head. ‘But if I’d said more it would have driven a wedge between us, like it did with you and Ellen. We’ve been asking if everything is okay but you wouldn’t say. Today was different. We thought you might get hurt.’
‘He wouldn’t have touched me, honestly, I know he wouldn’t.’ She paused to catch her breath. ‘He asked me to marry him.’
‘Marry him?’
Hayley nodded and as her eyes filled with tears again, Karen pulled a handkerchief out of her cardigan pocket and wiped them away. ‘He wants me to leave university so we can settle down. I said no and he got angry. I’ll pay for a new door, I’ll –’
‘Never mind that. Listen to me, young lady. You will get that law degree. Don’t you ever let a boy get in the way of your future. It’s your career, your life. Do you understand?’
‘Yes Mum, I promise,’ Hayley whispered.
She hardly slept that night, tossing and turning in her bed – kicking off the blankets as she was sweating only to pull them around herself again a few minutes later because she was shivering once more – all the while trying to figure out what to do about Chris.
More tears came, then so did the anger, which finally gave way to the desperate agony she felt in her heart when she decided it had to be over.
Chris didn’t give up that easily. He left messages, sent ‘I’m sorry’ cards with sad-looking teddy bears, and had bunches of daisies – her favourite flowers – delivered to the house. But Hayley had made up her mind. She dumped the whole lot in the bin.