Page 36 of Oar Than Friends

‘All quiet on the western front,’ Charlie shook his head, serving up a mischievous smile as he did, ‘for now at least, but it’ll be soon. I can feel it.’

‘I agree.’

I slowly drummed my fingers against my pint glass as I pondered. It had been three weeks since we stole Cambridge’s oars, and the Oxford crew all knew that we were living on borrowed time.

Two weeks ago, we’d all sat down with a calendar Charlie had plotted out detailing the potential heist windows Cambridge could use to steal them back, along with our crown. He’d somehow managed to obtain the course schedules, expected coursework dates and training times, along with the personal diaries for each member of the Blue Boat crew, then mapped it all out.

I didn’t ask how he’d discovered all this information, because knowing Charlie it wasn’t legal and I’d need full deniability.

There was a finite number of dates. Last Thursday was one of them, but it came and went with no movement. Tonight was the next potential date on the calendar, and Charlie was convinced it would be now. I was inclined to agree with him based on the simple fact that Charlie was never wrong. Annoyingly.

Like our east of England rivals, Oxford University had two official boathouse/training facilities: a larger one based on a clear stretch of river, the other near to the university and used for land training, and in Oxford’s case it was where our rowing tank was located. Since we’d taken possession of the Golden Oars, they’d been stored safely at the Tank which also happened to be where the Crown was currently under lock and key.

As both mascots were at the Tank, we’d set up our patrols there; because as stated in rule number one, the heist must be undertaken without anyone knowing andwe were determined to catch them in the act. Charlie and I had our sleeping bags at the ready. We were heading down tonight after last orders at the pub, to switch out with Brooks and Frank at midnight. Our bed for the night would be the couch in the break rooms.

I just stopped myself from checking my phone to see if Kate had decided to reply to me when I realized Charlie was still talking.

‘… so now she’s going to be in my study group. Can you fucking believe it?!’

My eyes widened, which I knew was the reaction he was going for seeing as one could mistake him for a fire-breathing dragon for how irate he was. Any second I expected his nostrils to start smoking.

‘Shit!’

‘I know.’ He gulped down half of his pint in one go, almost slamming it back on the table. ‘Do you think if I lodge a complaint to the physics department I’ll be able to get her removed?’

‘Um … probably not. Why don’t you want her again?’

He rolled his eyes so deeply I was surprised they didn’t get stuck. ‘Did you listen to anything I said?’

‘Of course I did!’ I protested as convincingly as possible, though my acting skills left a lot to be desired. ‘I heard that you have a new lab partner …’

He sat back, crossing his arms over his chest. ‘It’s Evie.’

This time my mouth dropped open in genuine horror, or shock … empathy maybe. Disbelief.

‘No!’

‘Finally, I have your attention,’ he drolled.

‘Oh mate, what the fuck? How’d that happen?’

Charlie shrugged. The annoyance and anger he’d shown five minutes ago had been replaced with frustration, and the hurt he’d worked so hard on letting go flashed in his eyes and laced the heavy sigh he released.

To everyone apart from Charlie, the fact Evie Waters was no longer in his life was good riddance. To Charles Masterson, however, she was The One. The one he’d loved first, the one who broke his heart and the one he did everything he now could to avoid.

Charlie and Evie werethecouple of sixth form. For two people who attended different schools, they were joined at the hip. She’d been his first love, and while everyone around him – friends, family, anyone who met her – found Evie a giant pain in the arse, they put up with it because they loved Charlie. That was until the night he’d snuck out of Eton and driven over to surprise Evie at school, only to find her otherwise preoccupied with Hector Bygraves, a recent graduate from Harrow who’d just returned from his gap year helping to build schools in Chile.

It was never entirely clear why Evie cheated, and to my knowledge it wasn’t something he bothered to ask. He blocked her from his life then and there, and announced he was moving on. That summer he qualified for the British rowing team, and anger rowed his way to gold in the Under-23s World Championships.

Unfortunately, plans they’d had to both attend Oxford had been set in motion long before they broke up, and come August when exam results were in, they were both accepted. Charlie, like me, was expected to attend. Evie also decided to move forward with Oxford and was set tobelong to Trinity College, like Charlie, until Charlie and I hacked the Oxford servers and moved her to Pembroke – the furthest college away from us. Predictably, because Evie is Evie, the second we arrived at Oxford she convinced Charlie to give it another go, but that had lasted the length of half a term when she hooked up with Dave Chamberlain, a second year on the Oriel college rugby team.

Shortly after that disaster, we moved to our house off campus, and he never ran into her again.

But now it appeared that was all about to change.

‘She’s added philosophy to her course, and I have physics and philosophy so for some reason she’s in our module group.’ He leaned back and banged his head a few times in quick succession on the wall. ‘I don’t know why she would do that!’

I had an idea; I’d heard a few weeks ago that Evie had broken up with David Chamberlain, and I wondered if she’d come sniffing back round to fuck with one or both of them, but if she thought she’d get anywhere near Charlie’s heart, she could think the fuck again.

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