You'll Never Stand Alone
Chapter 3
“I’m just gonna go to the loo, okay. I’ll be right back. And when I
get back you and I are gonna find you a potential boyfriend.”,
Rachel said with a smile. Becky had felt safe the entire evening
and even though some of the men there looked her way now and
again, she wasn’t afraid cos Rachel was there as well. But when
Rach said those words the feeling of being vulnerable slowly came
back. ‘Oh stop it Becky!’, she thought, ‘Not all men are like James
you know. You can’t live the rest of your life alone, feeling sorry for
yourself!’ But she wasn’t really able to convince herself.
“Yeah… sure, I’ll just get us two more shandies in the mean time.”
Becky said as Rach went to the toilet. She got the drinks and sat
down by their table, trying to look busy as she waited for her friend
to return. But, honestly, how busy does one look when they’re
trying to spell out their name on the table using tooth-picks?
“Having fun, eh, gorgeous?” someone asked her just as she was
done with her first name. Becky looked up and felt how her whole
body froze. ‘Don’t sit down, please just don’t sit down…’ she
thought to herself. But of course he did.
“How’ve you been, babe?” Becky didn’t answer. She was in total
shock, she never thought she’d see him again, but there he was
looking as gorgeous as ever. But she knew perfectly well that
appearances are deceptive. “Awww, don’t look so scared. I won’t
bite ya, I just wanna talk some…”
“That’s what you said last time as well…”, Becky whispered.
“Wha’ was that?”, he leaned closer and Becky could smell that
he’d been drinking and she knew perfectly well that he’d heard
what she said. He was now even closer and had put his arm
around her shoulders. Desperatly she tried to shrug it off, but he
was a lot stronger.
“Don’t try to resist the inevitable, babe…”, his icy voice as he said
that, sent shivers down her spine.
“Is this man bothering you?”, Becky looked up and saw an
unfamiliar, but oh so beautiful, man standing by their table.
“No, I am NOT bothering her! We’re just talking, aren’t we
sweetie?” James gave Becky the same threatening look he’d given
her that night, two years ago. And knowing what he’s capable of,
she knew she really shouldn’t disagree. But somehow, she got the
strength to say:
“No, actually, James was just leaving!” The confidence in her voice
surprised her and apparently it surprised James as well, cos for
once he seemed to have lost the ability to speak. He just
whispered something unhearable.
“Then I suggest he do just that.” The guy by the table said and
looked straight at James. Even though the other guy wasn’t very
big, James seemed to get scared cos he got up and left ‘The
Swan’ without another word. Becky let out a sigh of relief as she
saw him leave, then she slowly turned to the stranger.
“Thanks…”, she whispered and then she looked back down at her tooth picks.
“For what? You’re the one who made him leave… By the way, I’m
Nicky.” He put out his hand to her, but she didn’t see it as she
kept looking down. ‘What happened to this girl to make her this
insecure?’ Nicky thought to himself as he moved his hand towards
her face so she would see it.
“I’m Nicky…”, he said again and this time she looked up and the
look in her eyes told him she had been through a lot in her life. “Are
you okae?”, he softly put a hand on her shoulder, but from her
reaction you could’ve thought that he violentely grabbed her.
“Get away from me! Don’t touch me!” Just in that moment Rachel
returned from the loo and when she heard her friend’s frightened
voice she rushed right over to their table.
“What’s going on?”, she asked, looking at Becky and then at Nicky
and then back at her friend again. “Are you okae?”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m fine… Can we just leave? I don’t feel to good…”,
she didn’t look at Rachel, instead she kept fidgeting with a toothpick.
“Of course we can…” and the both of them left the pub before Nicky
had a chance to say something. All he could do was to stand there
and wonder what he’d done wrong. His gaze followed them ‘til they
were out of sight and he prayed that he would soon meet this
beautiful girl again. He was determined to find out her history and
show her that there was love and trust in this world. There was just
one little problem though; How was he going to find her in a city
with 10 million people? That’s like looking for a needle in a haystack…