Page 129 of Oar Than Friends

I closed my eyes, trying to will away the headache knocking on my skull. ‘I don’t know what to do.’

‘About what?’

‘About Kate, about everything,’ I sighed, ‘about my fucking messy life. I need to sort it out if I want to be with her.’

Brooks perched back on the edge of the rocking chair, ‘Oz, your life isn’t messy. Not all of it, anyway. Rowing, school, this house … that’s all clear. The only thing you won’t do anything about …’

‘I know,’ I interrupted him, ‘my father.’

‘I was going to say graduating, but I guess it’s all the same thing.’

‘Yeah. All roads lead to my father.’ I shook my head in defeat, because I’d finally reached the point of no return. ‘Fuck.’

Charlie stood up, put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed. ‘Don’t worry, mate, it’ll all be fine. It can’t get any worse than it has been. Speaking from experience.’

‘I guess,’ I nodded, just as his words registered and it occurred to me that in my fog of Kate I hadn’t checked in on Charlie for the past month, nor had I heard an update on his Evie situation since Brooks had given him Violet’s number. And now I came to think about it, he’d been unusually quiet since the start of term. ‘Hey, hang on. How are things with you? Did your fake girlfriend plan work?’

Even Brooks stopped mid-stride and turned to Charlie, waiting for his response.

Charlie looked like he was about to say something, but then thought better of it. Instead, he offered up a shrug and a ‘Yeah’, then walked out offering nothing more.

Brooks raised a single brow at me indicating he knew as much as I did, which is to say nothing, and followed Charlie out, leaving me sitting on the floor.

I rested my head back on the wall. They were right, it couldn’t get any worse.

If the last month of being without Kate had taught me anything, it’s that I didn’t want to be without her any longer. When I told her I would see her at the finish line, I’d set myself that deadline to figure out how to get her back. If I wanted to be with Kate, I needed to address the issue of my future, and for that to happen I needed to do the one thing I usually avoided at all costs.

May as well get it over with.

I picked up my phone and hit dial. He picked up almost immediately.

‘Dad, we need to have a chat.’

26.

(One Day. One Race. One Winner. There’s no second place)

Kate

‘Oh my god,’ I whispered, as the bus pulled into Crabtree Boathouse. ‘I think I’m going to be sick.’

‘If you need to be sick at least wait until you’re out of the bus,’ said Will, stuffing a cereal bar into his mouth as everyone else stood up and began collecting their things to get out.

I knew he was trying to be helpful, but I didn’t find it helpful, and if I was honest, I didn’t think I wanted to get out of the bus. Not if it meant I’d be out inthat.

Thatnoise.

I’d become aware of a low rumbling approximately thirty minutes ago. Twenty-five minutes ago, I’d realized it had gotten louder and had glanced out of the window to see three large black helicopters circling overhead. I’d shrugged and was about to ask Will what he reckoned they were doing there, when the bus had turned the corner I always used as a marker point on our training mornings. It was the first time the river came into view, and it always brought a smile to my face.

Except today, there appeared to be an event of some kind drawing the crowds, because there were hundreds ofpeople. As the bus continued, the three helicopters became six, and the hundreds of people turned into thousands of people, then tens of thousands of people all spread out along both sides of the riverbank, pushing and shoving to get a spot on the edge.

Then it dawned on me that the event they’d come to watch wasmyevent. My stomach immediately bottomed out, and my ears hadn’t stopped ringing since.

I peered out at the boathouse I’d spent hours training from every week, except it didn’t look like the boathouse I knew any more. Its cute, slightly run down, black and white painted front was now covered in light- and dark-blue flags, hanging from the railings and plastered to the awnings outside. In fact, all I could see was a sea of Cambridge and Oxford flags billowing in the wind.

Up and down the river, the colours alternated like a patchwork quilt of blue. People were waving them, dressed in them; hundreds of thousands of people lining the banks of the Thames, and the millions more watching at home – my parents and their neighbourhood included – to watch this one race I’d been training for for the past eight months.

The Oxford and Cambridge University Boat Race.

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