Sneaking Out

The whole thing was highly suspect. Something was definitely wrong with Vyv. Well, they usually didn't see him during daylight hours anyway, but that was usually because he was in bed, sleeping off a hangover. Now, he was just… out all the time. And whenever he was at the house, he was almost civil.

Mike seemed to think it was some strange phase, Neil thought Vyv had been kidnapped and replaced by aliens or something, and Rick was terrified that something terrible was going to happen. Only Tay knew the truth, but she was sworn to secrecy. Tugging at the ginger tips of her blonde hair, she said, "You know, maybe we should just leave him to it…"

The others had decided to tail Vyvyan. Oh God, if they found out…

No. Don't think about it. Just try and stop them.

"Come on Wick," she said, pulling on his sleeve. "We should go."

"No," Rick said. Tay way shocked; it was the first time he'd ever denied her anything.

"Yeah Tay," said Mike, the Cool Person. "Don't you want to find out what's up with Vyvyan?"

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing special."

Lies, of course. All LIES.

Tay knew exactly what was going on. A couple of weeks ago, she and her housemate had gone out to the bar and met Vyv. He and Tay's housemate had liked each other immediately. She wouldn't exactly call it love at first sight, but it was probably whatever their equivalent of it would be. A couple of days later, Vyv had turned up at their house to ask Tay's housemate to go for a drink with him, and after that they'd started going out in secret. Only Tay was allowed to know.

Holy crap, what if they got caught? They'd be so pissed!

"Look!" Neil exclaimed quietly. "I think he's meeting a girl!"

"A girl?" Tay asked nervously. She knew exactly who it would be.

Sharifa Evans was about nineteen, with grey eyes and rectangular green glasses. She had a generous bosom, tanned skin, wore homemade clothes, and dyed her sand-coloured hair electric blue. She spiked it up all over the place with hair gel.

Tay had to admit, Vyv was dressed up pretty nice… for him. Same old ginger trihawk (albeit slicked back slightly) and star-studded (literally) forehead, same jeans and boots, but the denim waistcoat had been exchanged for a denim jacket and he'd taken out the nose-ring. It wasn't much, but it wasn't bad.

Reef didn't look too bad, either. She hadn't spiked her hair up so it hung on her shoulders, and she was wearing store-bought jeans instead of the cut-off shorts covered in mud and grass stains. The usual red-brown (Tay sometimes suspected it was that colour so no-one could tell if blood got on it) t-shirt and stripy thin red-and-black jacket had been exchanged for a black jumper with a blue tank-top over the top. The army boots remained.

Vyv gave Reef a kiss on the cheek and took her hand, and they walked off.

"I don't believe it," Rick said. "He's on a date!"

"No he's not," Tay said, a little too quickly.

"I agree with Tay," Mike said. "The writers must've got a bit mixed up. I'm the one who gets the girls."

"Not anymore, Mike," Neil said. "I think Vyv's in love. Ooh, this is way worse than aliens!"

"And why wouldn't he be? That girl's gorgeous!"

"Mike, you say that about everything with breasts!" Tay had a decent-sized chest herself, so she would know. She moved a bit closer to Rick.

"Let's keep following them!" Rick said.

"No!"

"Yeah!"

"Oh, come on you guys," Neil said, "let's just leave them alone. We can ask Vyv about it later…"

"Exactly," Tay agreed. "Now let's go!"

"But –"

"Now, Wick," she snapped. This in itself surprised Rick, who she'd never actually snapped at. They left in a hurry, leaving Mike without his own decision because they had Neil pick him up and carry him.

xxx

Later that night, when it was dark, the front door opened and they heard Vyvyan call out, "Hello, lads! I'm back!"

Rick stood at the foot of the stairs, tapping his foot and looking thoroughly like an overprotective father who had caught his daughter sneaking back in. "What time do you call this, young man?" he demanded.

Vyv shrugged and answered, "About half-ten."

"Where've you been, Vyv?" Mike asked offering a sly grin.

"Pub."

"No you haven't," Neil said. "You were on a date! We saw you!"

Vyvyan paused. "You lot were spying on me?" When the others nodded, he calmly (too calmly) picked up a plate and smashed it on Neil's head, resulting in several bits of broken plate and the drool of an unconscious hippie making their way onto his boots.

"Who is she?" Rick demanded.

"Where did you meet her?" Mike wanted to know.

Neil made some kind of groaning sound.

"She's called Reef," Vyv said. "Tay introduced us. And I'm not in love with her, Neil, you big disgusting GIRL!"