wasn’t doing drugs, I promise. I … fell asleep on the loo.’
He hid a smile and I realised he was kind of attractive. Even though he was only about an inch taller than me, he had an impressively symmetrical face, three-day stubble and short blond dreadlocks.
‘Was that after you were cleaning blood off your face?’ he asked.
I briefly closed my eyes. Did he really have to remind me of the humiliation?
‘Anyway,’ he said. ‘You know your boyfriend’s been waiting for you this entire time out there?’
‘Oh fuck, is he still there?’ I cried out. ‘I thought he’d have gone by now.’
He raised an eyebrow at me. ‘You’re hiding from your boyfriend?’
‘Oh, you know he’s not my boyfriend,’ I snapped at him. ‘He’s my first ever online date, and after he nose-bled on me, I didn’t fancy seeing him again.’
‘Oh, obviously,’ he said. ‘That’s how all my dates go too.’
I was about to snap at him again when I noticed he was grinning at me. ‘Yeah, this hasn’t been one of my best.’
‘Hey, how about I help you sneak out of here without seeing your guy?’ he offered.
‘Ohmigod, would you really? I would literally love you for life.’
‘OK, calm down,’ he said. ‘Just … follow me.’
I followed him out of the toilets and through a door marked ‘Private’. We walked up the stairs and then found ourselves outside. I breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Thanks so much.’
‘Hey, don’t mention it.’ He shrugged. ‘You’ve drastically improved my night on the comedy scales anyway.’
‘Hopefully I’ll find it as funny tomorrow. So what’s your name?’
‘Pete.’ He grinned. ‘And the damsel in distress?’
I looked at him blankly. ‘Ohhh, right. Ellie. I’m Ellie.’
‘Nice to meet you, Ellie,’ he said. ‘Well, get home safe, and feel free to bring any more of your online dates here. I’ll help you out with an escape route whenever you need one.’
‘Wait, really? Because that would be kind of incredible.’
He laughed. ‘Let’s do it. This can be your regular bar for dates and I’ll help you out when they bleed on you.’
‘OK, deal.’ I grinned. ‘Anyway, I’m sobering up and I reckon I’d better get the bus home, so … I’ll see you around.’
‘See you.’
‘Ohmigod, ew, what the fuck is on her face?’
‘It looks like … dried blood.’
I pulled the duvet over my head. ‘What’s happening?’ I groaned.
A bright light seared through my eyes as my duvet flew off me.
‘And she’s naked,’ a male voice said.
I clutched my boobs and looked around me wildly as my pupils slowly dilated and my room came into focus. Emma was sitting on my bed scratching her nails, Will was dramatically shielding his eyes with my duvet, and Ollie was politely looking at his battered Nike high-tops at the far end of my room.
‘What are you all doing?’ I asked with as much dignity as I could muster with my hands over my nipples.
‘Babe, do you wanna put some clothes on?’ asked Emma. ‘We thought we’d all wake you up and hear the goss about your first online date, but then we saw this … blood on your face.’ She held up her sparkling green nails at me, and I saw flakes of JT’s dried nose-blood on the tips of her talons.
I sighed loudly. ‘Right, OK,’ I said. ‘Why doesn’t everyone turn around and I’ll put my dressing gown on?’ Obligingly, my housemates turned their backs to me and I grabbed my fluffy dressing gown from the floor and wrapped it around me. ‘OK, we’re good,’ I said.
‘Thank God,’ cried Will, as he lowered my duvet from his face. ‘I was starting to pass out in this thing. When did you last do a whites wash?’ He saw my face and switched topics. ‘Anyway, never mind about your washing. How was JT?’
‘And … the blood?’ asked Emma.
I looked at Ollie’s face and sighed. He was never going to see me the same way again. Not that it really mattered. I took a deep breath and began.
‘So, I got to Angel and looked for the man in the red scarf, but he was forty and wrinkly with a beer belly.’ There were shocked gasps and I smiled proudly, knowing my date horror story was worse than any of theirs. ‘So, naturally, I ran away. But whilst I was trying to get away, I tripped on the pavement.’
‘Oh my God,’ screeched Will.
‘So I was lying on the pavement, terrified, when someone came up to me. It was JT—only, the real one. He was normal aged with a slightly different red scarf, and the first JT was just a massive mistake.’
‘Oh,’ said Will. ‘I thought you were going to say the blood was from some kind of perverted sexual assault.’
‘Um, no,’ I said slowly. ‘If that had happened, I would have called the police and would not be telling you this so casually.’ He shrugged and I carried on, ignoring my pounding hangover. ‘Anyway, JT was gorgeous and normal and I even ate a second dinner for him. Then we went for drinks and he paid for everything and we snogged loads. Only, then he went to the loo and the barman told me I had stuff on my face and … it was blood. Because he nose-bled on me.’
All three of my flatmates stared at me in revulsion.
‘Fuck me, that’s disgusting,’ cried Will.
‘Oh yeah? Coming from the guy who uses conditioner as lube?’
Ollie grinned. ‘Shit, Ellie, that is one hell of a date story.’
‘Thanks, I guess.’
‘It’s hysterical,’ he said. ‘But … did you go home with him after?’
I paused as I tried to remember what happened next. The rest of the night was a warm fuzzy blur of—
‘Oh God,’ I cried. ‘I went to the loo to wash it off, then I hid in there from him and fell asleep. Until the hot manager came and took me out the secret fire escape.’
Emma and Will started howling with laughter, but Ollie stared at me. He looked kind of impressed. ‘A hot manager?’ he asked. ‘Shit, your night sounds pretty wild.’
I shrugged, hiding a grin. My night did sound dramatic. So much for ‘single Ellie with her single bed’—I so almost had a one-night stand. ‘Yeah, I guess it was. Does it make you miss your single days?’
He stared straight into my eyes and I felt my knees go tingly. ‘Sometimes,’ he said softly.
‘That’s fucking ridiculous,’ gasped Emma. She was rolling on my bed with Will, still snorting with laughter. ‘It reminds me of the time you got with the only emo in Mahiki.’
‘Emma, you weren’t even there that night,’ I snapped.
‘And then you slipped on your friend’s come in your bath,’ she gasped.
Will sat up straight. ‘Come … or conditioner?’ he asked and then collapsed with laughter again.
I rolled my eyes at them. ‘Guys, get over it. We’ve all had bad dates.’
‘Uh,