Chapter 17 - Punky's Dilema

"Hey Janet, can I sit here?"
Janet looked up to see the stranger from Holly's bed indicating towards her lap.
Her reply was negative, so he sat beside her on the sofa instead.
"I hear your boyfriend cheated on you," he said. Janet just nodded sadly. As if she needed reminding. "And now he's been taken away." She nodded again. "So, you're avaliable." She looked at him and shrugged. "You could be my girlfriend if you like."
Janet just shook her head.
"Well, if not my girlfriend than I'd like you to become my concubine."
"This," said Simon, slapping the stranger around the head, "is Ollie."
"Oh yeah, we thought someone was missing," chirped Kate, turning her head away from the television screen. "What happened, Ollie?"
"Oh that, yeah, I was trying to encourage Holly to be my muse, but she was having none of it. She loved it though, right?"
"I don't think so," Kate replied.
"So what's happened to Matt?" Janet asked Simon.
"The CU's got him," he answered. "And if I know them, they'll use the worst punishment they know. I'm sorry, Janet, but Matt's never going to be the same again."
Henry entered the room, letting go of James' hair, which he had been using to drag him along, so that his head fell onto the floor.
"Hey guys, what happened? I saw the door downstairs, it looks kinda smashed."
"Long story, Henry," came Simon's answer.

***

Janet decided to remain in St. Andrews until Matt reappeared. She didn't know when it would be, but knew her school in Spain would be agreeable to the idea; she probably wouldn't work any fewer hours than she normally did.
She spent most of that time speaking to Kate. Kate, it was generally thought, would make a brilliant mother; formidable, petrifying, but also very wise. It was for this reason that Janet talked through her problems with the American.
"I don't know what to do, Kate. Should I forgive Matt and take him back, or should I wait for the one with the shoe?"
"What does your heart tell you to do?" asked Kate. She hadn't really known how to reply, but had seen a lot of crappy American films, and that seemed like the sort of line she should use in such a situation.
"I'm crazy about Matt, but at the same time I want to kill him for doing this."
"Who's this other guy, then?"
"Kate, I don't really know. A few years ago I felt old, thought I'd never find anyone, left on the shelf. So I put a stamp on one of my shoes and wrote TO THE MAN OF MY DREAMS on the sole and left my name and address under the tongue. I decided it would be a Cinderella type story; whoever sent it back would be the man I´d marry. I tell people that I lost it at the ball in first year just like she did. I even have a picture of him in my head, Kate. Should I wait for him?"
"Does this mystery man make you feel like a princess?" asked Kate, "Because that's what all women want, to feel like a princess."
"Erm, I've never met him, Kate."
"But in your head, does he?"
"Yes, he does."
"Than you know what to do."
Janet nodded her head, and, thanking her friend and confident, she left.
Kate sighed with relief and thanked God that she wasted so much time watching rubbish TV.