Page 33 of Almost Ours

Bernardo has stopped charging, but he’s still following. Not flying, not even rushing now, just marching after us with this weird, deliberate purpose, keeping the same distance whenever we move and closing it the second we slow down. It looks less like he’s chasing us and more like he’s decided we need removing from the area personally.

I glance back and the bastard is staring straight at me. “He’s still coming.”

“I told you,” Jess snaps.

We pick up the pace and so does he, which is when I decide I’ve had more than enough of being intimidated by a fucking swan.

“He’s herding us,” Ruby informs me, apparently having some fucking knowledge about swans.

“He’s what?”

“Look!”

I don’t particularly want to, but she’s right. The second we step off the bridge and onto the main footpath, Bernardo slows to a stop. He stays there with his neck stretched high, watching us put another twenty yards between ourselves and him before giving one last hiss in our direction.

Jess exhales beside me. “Told you.”

I look at Ruby and she looks back at me, and that’s it. We both lose it.

She bends over laughing, hands on her knees, and I’m trying not to drop Jess while laughing hard enough that my ribs hurt. The whole thing is so fucking ridiculous that I can’t believe this is how my night has ended up.

Jess looks between us, truly unimpressed with the pair of us. “I did warn you.”

“Yeah,” I manage through laughter. “You did.”

Chapter Eight

Friday

October 9th 2015

Ruby:

The whole evening is starting to feel utterly surreal.

By the time we get Jess back to my accommodation, she is sober enough to remember which halls she actually lives in, which feels like a miracle at this point. Thankfully, she’s only next door to me, and after apologising another twenty times and swearing blind she’ll never drink tequila from a shoe again, she finally disappears inside.

Josh and I are left standing outside in the quiet, neither of us moving straight away.

I glance at him and nearly laugh again. His trainers are absolutely wrecked, one splattered from Jess being sick and the other covered in whatever shit Bernardo dragged us through by the lake. “Your shoes have had a rough night.”

He lets out a long breath. "Yeah."

"I'm sorry."

He looks up at me. "What for? You didn't throw up on them."

"No..."

He gives a small smile. "You did laugh, though."

I pinch my fingers together. "A little bit."

"In fact, you were keeled over with laughter.”

"In my defence, you hissed at a swan."

“In my defence, it did hiss first.”