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

have guessed,” Ellie smiled, patting our backs and turning away. “Right, Leonora, it is a two-horse race. First one to get four numbers. You on?” It was the chase Ellie loved. Unlike Leonora, Ellie did not follow through with most of the guys she picked up.
“Yep, what do we win?” Leonora placed an empty bottle back down on the bar. Whoa – that was quick.
“Tart of January award?” Cara teased. “I’ll make you a little trophy and everything.”
“Change it to Player of January award and I want a little certificate too.”
“You’re on!” Cara passed her still nearly full cider to Leonora. “You’ll need this.”
“On your marks, get set, go!” I called as our two friends disappeared into the crowd. Having met in freshers’ week at the running society, the four of us had instantly clicked. Even if Cara and I did not share the other two’s seductress habits, we always had a great time together. If Cara and I were honest too, we would admit that we found a lot of amusement in hearing of Ellie’s and Leonora’s exploits. It was entertainment.
“Who’s your money on?” I asked Cara, signalling to the bartender for more ciders.
“Ellie – have you seen that dress?”
“I know. She’s nearly wearing it.”
“Almost,” Cara laughed. “Who’s your money on?”
“I’ll say Leonora, just to be interesting.”
After my second cider, I finally felt some of the tension leave my body. I relaxed into the stool next to Cara, leaning on the bar with a slight buzz. My mum had been on the phone with me for three hours that afternoon and yelled about my dad. Well, not just my dad. About solicitors and how expensive divorces were too.
Once I started my third cider, I was beginning to forget everything she had said. The frantic and angry words she had spluttered blurred together in memory until I could just imagine my mum was a small yapping Pomeranian, with me unable to understand her language, standing there looking at her blankly.
“Ooh, Ellie has three,” Cara pointed out Ellie as she walked past us, holding out three fingers.
“That did not take long.” I laughed, shaking my head in disbelief.
“It would be nice to get just one number,” Cara turned back to her own bottle, balancing her chin on the top with sadness.
“Ah, but you only want one particular guy’s number,” I elbowed her knowingly. Cara had developed a quick crush on Benji when they had met in autumn term. She had only told me, not Leonora. So, as luck would have it, Leonora made him one of her conquests, to use the unpleasant phrase.
“Do you ever get annoyed?” She asked quietly, whispering just above the music as she lifted her head from the bottle.
“Being in their shadows?” I nodded, feeling how much in the corner of the bar the two of us were. My back was practically pressed against a wall. Neither of us put ourselves out there that much, that was the thing to blame at the heart of it all. Yet it was quite hard when you had two such stunning people for friends. “Yet, I love them too.”
“Me too,” she smiled sadly. “It’s a shame they’re such good friends to me. Just wish I had some of their magic sparkle,” she illustrated her point with jazz hands.
“You could ask him out?” I prompted, watching as she squirmed uncomfortably in her seat.
“I don’t think I’m his taste in all honesty. He’s here tonight.”
“Really? Where?”
Cara pointed across the semi-circular bar to where a small group was getting drinks. Benji was easy to spot, his brown hair wild across his face. Then he moved to the side and the tall figure of Tyler Aritza took his place. He wore none of the tension I had seen him wearing around campus or in our lectures. Here, surrounded by friends, he was relaxed and smiling. When he laughed at someone’s joke, I found myself wanting to know what the joke was. It would be kind of nice to be the person who could make him laugh like that.
Yeah like that was possible. The only chance I could have to make a guy like that notice me is by making a fool of myself. You know the kind, big cream pie smashed in the face style. That might get me a laugh.
He looked across the bar, as if searching for someone and his eyes found mine.
I suddenly wished Mandy’s were a darker place with moodier lighting, then I wouldn’t have been caught staring at him. I tore my eyes away, feeling like I had just had my eyes burned.
“Perhaps wait to ask Benji out when he is not with his friends.” I tapped Cara’s cider bottle with my own, trying to look like I was busy though I could feel Tyler watching me. Cara nodded, but she wasn’t really listening, her mind was elsewhere.
“You are joking. Please tell me you’re pulling my leg or something,” I could feel my anger bubbling as I gripped the phone harder, leaning against the outside wall of the bar and interrogating Leonora on where on earth she had vanished off to.
It turns out, lucky number four that night was ‘something special’ – in my opinion, she found too many something specials. They never lasted long. Yet she was currently on her way to number four’s house.
“I am really sorry.”
“Leanora, you were my ride home. Does that mean nothing to you?”
“I forgot is all. I have drank too much anyway to get behind a wheel at the moment. You can get a taxi though, right?” Her voice was pleading on the other side of the phone. If I didn’t know the reason behind Leonora’s tarty behaviour, I would have been furious. As I did know and the mere thought of it was crushing, my anger was a little