Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series

walked around with some handouts.
“Pass these round!”
“Is that ‘the’ Leonora?” We heard Tyler’s voice from behind us and exchanged a wary glance.
“My ex?” Benji said with obvious anger practically dripping from his voice. “Oh yes.”
“Who’s the platinum?”
“Don’t know her name.”
Now that was depressing. Another thing to add to my long list of why this particular Thursday in January was a wash out. Maybe it would start raining outside so the weather could match my mood? Maybe throw in a little hail too? Come on gods of the clouds!
Leonora turned her eyes on me, alive with flames of ire and her jaw dropped.
Not only had Benji dated one of my closest friends and hung out with me, but we had been in the same lectures and seminars all year. Could he really have no clue as to my name by now? Well, maybe that’s what living in Leonora’s and Ellie’s shadows can sometimes do. I usually didn’t mind – especially because they’re great friends, but this stung.
“Hey dick head, do you know we can hear you too?” Leonora span round, perfectly ready for the offensive. Exhibit A to my point – Leonora was a great friend, always sticking up for any one of us in our group.
“Sorry!” Benji’s voice sounded half apologetic, half laughing.
“How can you not know her name? You hung out with her when you were with me?” Leonora appeared even more pissed than me by that point. I sought to calm her down. Should the gods of weather listen to me and produce hail, we didn’t need them to listen to Leonora’s anger as well. We would have one hell of a storm if so.
“Leonora,” I spoke softly, pulling on her arm to turn her back to the front. “It doesn’t matter.”
“You don’t care he’s just proved himself to be a rude pig?”
“No. It is no big deal. Besides,” I shrugged with a little smile that only she could see. “I can’t remember his name either.” I lied, turning back to him. “Billy? Bobbie is it?”
I received a one-finger reply much to Leonora’s amusement. I shifted my gaze briefly to Tyler who seemed to be hiding his own smirk, then Mr Hannigan recalled all of our attention.
That was the first time I saw him. As it was, completely uneventful and no conversation passed between us. So it did little to explain why I kept noticing him around campus. It also didn’t explain why I kept comparing him to other guys for how good looking he was. I mean, I’m sure I had seen better looking guys at some point, I was certain of it. Yet I couldn’t seem to recall any to memory.
“You’re losing your marbles,” I muttered to myself as I finished curling my hair. Contrary to the ‘platinum’ label Tyler had given me that day in the lecture theatre, I never thought of myself as a platinum blonde. My hair was really pale, almost white – so much so that at school I had been ridiculed in the playground for having ‘old lay hair.’ A label that haunted me throughout my school years. The best way to treat my hair was to curl it and let the waves pick up light and shade, so that it didn’t look so white. I had considered dye before, but the one experiment I had entertained resulted in green hair. Actual green. Not tinged yellow with a hint of green, but oompa loompa green from the chocolate factory. The hairdresser had been torn between embarrassment and laughing her butt off, the latter eventually winning out.
Once the hair was curled, I stepped back to look at my full reflection. Strange pale hair, dark grey eyes and quite tall. There was also a fresh smattering of ladybugs on my hand. I pulled the sleeve of my off-the-shoulder blue jumper over my hand to hide the doodles before heading out of the door to the bar.
When we arrived at Mandy’s, Leonora snatched up my hand instantly, leaning on the bar with a look of curiosity.
“You need to stop drawing on yourself.”
“It is just my hand,” I shrugged, waiting as we spotted Ellie and Cara squeezing through the crowds towards us. Leonora sent me a hard glare – she knew something was up and that the ladybugs were more than just doodling, but I attempted to look innocent.
“Right, I’m on a mission tonight,” Ellie cracked her knuckles as if she were warming up for a boxing match.
“How many?” I asked, leaning on the bar and signalling to the bartender for our signature toffee apple ciders. I was relieved Ellie and Cara had arrived when they did, I didn’t fancy facing Leonora’s scrutiny for much longer.
“Four.”
“Four?” Cara asked with amazement as she jumped up onto the stool next to me. At under five feet, you could keep her in your pocket she was so adorable. “Is that not just a bit slutty?” Cara was ever the realist, trying and regularly failing to point out to the other two how tarty their behaviour could be.
“Four phone numbers,” Ellie stressed. “Not four one-night stands. My morals may be lax, but-”
“But you don’t work in a brothel,” Cara smiled innocently. She had dark red hair fashioned always into the sleekest of straight bobs that finished just above her shoulders. She usually partnered these with her traditional red stiletto heels – killer combination.
“Besides, to get them all done in one night. It would have to be four twenty-five-minute stands,” I laughed at her as I handed out the ciders.
“I’m in,” Leonora swigged heartily from her bottle, goaded on by Ellie.
“What do you say, girls? Join us?” Ellie threw her arms around Cara’s and my shoulders. We exchanged the same look we had always used before.
“Next time,” we said in unison, fully having no intention of following through.
“Should