***
After a seemingly endless wait, Friday evening arrived. Harriet squeezed herself into the corset and leather trousers. The outfit compressed her waist and she hoped it would be worth the discomfort. She added lots of eyeliner and mascara and carefully drew little whiskers on her cheek. She straightened her hair until it gleamed like the fur of a particularly well groomed cat.
Her group of friends had arranged to meet in Josh’s room. Harriet arrived first and looked Josh up and down. He had half-heartedly dressed as a bee, in black trousers with a stripy black and yellow T-shirt.
Soon after, Ben and Caroline turned up, both wearing identical ‘bunny girl’ outfits, the basque, stockings and fluffy tail looking hot on Caroline’s curvaceous body and hilarious on Ben’s muscular one.
“What?” Ben said, grinning at Harriet’s open-mouthed expression. “Pretty much all the guys from the boat club are going in girls’ outfits. God knows why, but it’s fun. Don’t you think my little ears are sexy?”
“You look fab,” Caroline whispered to her. “You know who’s not going to know what hit him.”
Ola reached the room last, wearing a delicate pale blue dress covered in a butterfly pattern. “Sorry I’m late. I did some last minute reading and lost track of time.”
“Oh, butterflies. I’ve got some sparkly wings in my room that you can borrow,” Caroline said excitedly.
“Brilliant. I wasn’t sure what to wear, and I’m feeling underdressed next to you guys. Well apart from Josh who just seems to be wearing normal clothes.”
“I’m a bee,” Josh replied, pretending to sulk.
Ben had bought a pack of lager. Harriet, Josh and Ben took a can each. Caroline refused, on the grounds that lager was bloating, and Ola didn’t want to drink at all. Josh put on some music. Harriet could hardly believe how relaxed everyone seemed with each other after only a few days. So much had happened that she felt she’d been friends with the group for months.
At about ten o’clock, everyone agreed that they should head over to the bop. Harriet barely recognised the bar. The Entertainment Reps had taken the tables away and replaced them with disco lights, and the area by the door had gained a large sound system.
Harriet smiled at the bizarre selection of clothing. Some people had clearly spent a small fortune hiring an entire fancy dress shop outfit. Others had made hardly any effort at all. Most of the women modelled sexy and revealing outfits, and as Ben had claimed, several of the more sporty men wore animal-themed drag.
She saw Katie sitting with a group of her equally glamorous friends. She couldn’t help but be impressed by her outfit, which included a full body leopard-print catsuit and a weirdly realistic mask.
“It was her costume for some dance show she performed in over the summer, apparently,” said Josh. He’d obviously noticed her staring. “She told me about it earlier. Borrowed it from the theatre for the night. It’s a bit over the top if you ask me.”
Harriet nodded glumly. She’d been proud of her outfit, but it now seemed makeshift and dull. She had to get to Tom first, but he didn’t seem to have arrived.
At that moment, he walked in by himself. He wore all black, trousers merging into a tight T-shirt. He’d gelled back his usually floppy, loosely curling hair and accessorised with pointed ears, and huge, ragged wings. She studied his outfit from a distance, partly trying to work out what he had come as, partly just admiring him.
He glanced in her direction immediately, but didn’t come over. Several people stared at him. It was extremely difficult to stand out at a party of this kind, but somehow he’d managed it. Harriet saw Katie jump to her feet and decided to move first. She dashed over to Tom.
“I love the outfit. What exactly are you meant to be though?”
“A bat. The idea amused me,” he replied, in a friendlier tone than he’d managed at the club. Before Harriet could continue the conversation, he gave her a brief smile and walked away. She slumped down as though he’d kicked her.
Immediately, Caroline appeared next to her. “Don’t give up. One more try. Ask him to dance.”
Something by The Killers started, and people who had been dancing half-heartedly by themselves grabbed hold of their friends’ hands and spun them around. Despite a definite sense that she should just take the hint, she agreed to try again.
Tom had just bought a drink when Harriet reached the bar. She took a deep breath and asked him to dance.
“I love this song, and I’m sure I heard it when I walked past your room, so I’m guessing you do too.”
Tom’s hesitation and tense posture seemed more appropriate for someone contemplating issues of international importance rather than deciding whether to dance, but eventually, he shrugged and downed his drink.
“Very well. We can dance if that’s what you’d like to do.”
Harriet had braced herself for failure and could barely believe he’d agreed. She took his hands and jumped at their icy coldness.
“Sorry. I have terrible circulation,” he said.
Then they were dancing. Tom spun her round and round, and on each spin she seemed to end up closer to him. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Katie staring at them with hatred in her face and whispering something to her friend Lizzie. She saw Caroline and Olamide glancing over at them and grinning at each other as they danced nearby. But she couldn’t really focus on anything but Tom.
When the song ended, she found herself almost pressed against him. She looked up at him, and he stared back at her. The combination of excitement and vigorous dancing had left her heart beating fast and her breathing ragged. Tom seemed unaffected, standing very still, barely seeming to breathe at all. Nonetheless, she saw pure lust in his deep blue eyes. She put one hand on his arm. For a second, he continued to look at her, while all around them people resumed their dancing for the next song.
Suddenly he pulled away. “I’m sorry, this is a bad idea. I can’t take this sort of risk.” He walked off the dance floor and into the backroom of the bar without looking back.
Harriet stood frozen to the spot.
“What a bastard,” said Josh, appearing beside her and putting one hand on her shoulder. “Come and dance with us.”