"Winter Wonderland?"

Christmas. "Jesus is the reason for this season," Ella told me. But Christmas for me, not being Christian, was just a time to over-indulge in all things nice and unhealthy, so that was chocolate and alcohol, and spend time with my family, something that seldom happened during the year. I also consciously decided that this year I'd spend some of it with Ella too, choosing to go to a house party of a friend of hers to celebrate the incoming of 2007.

“What are you doing for New Year’s Eve Noah?” She asked me on a bus trip into the city.

“Um, I'm not exactly sure yet. I might be going to Scotland with my Nana though.” I replied.

“Ohh…OK.”

“Why?”

“Just Rachel’s having a party and I want you to come.”

“Oh. Well. I’ll see I guess.”

She smiled. I’ve come to learn that woman always seem to have the upper hand when it comes to relationships, but that’s another story for another time.

Plans were made and broken up until New Year’s Eve, and Christmas seemed like a blur of wrapping paper, turkey, alcohol and chocolate. I eventually decided against having my own party, for fear of it being crap, and going out into town for the celebrations, so I only had one choice left: going to Rachel’s.

Kiri, Samantha and I arrived with the fashionista twins of our circle, who we were quite close to: Hayley and Brooke Carmientti. They were miniature Paris and Nicky Hiltons and loved all things fashionable. Kiri and Samantha had also arrived with a bottle of vodka each, to mark the occasion.

“I’ve been trying to find any excuse to not come, but I just couldn’t. It’s all because I'm not the ‘meet the parents’ type of guy. They make me uncomfortable!” I told Danny through instant messenger.

“Don’t be stupid. Rather soon than later right? Plus, they’ll be drunk. It’s a celebration. They’ll want to celebrate.”

“True.”

I had a thought: could it be that they were just as nervous to meet me? Do they want the approval that their daughter is with the ‘right guy’? Could I be ‘Mr Right’?

“Noah, have you ever thought you over-analyse?” Danny later IM-ed me.

“Just a bit…”

The party was full when we’d arrived and Ella seemed to already be drunk, giggling and laughing with her brother’s girlfriend Gauri Spoota. Gauri was one of the top six women tennis players in Britain, and placed at around 200 in the World. And her boyfriend, Ivan, who was in turn Ella’s brother, was in the top one hundred male tennis players in Britain.

The night wore and everyone else had seemed to get drunker and drunker apart from me, although I was still having a good time…just.

Ella was gone. I couldn’t stand her like that. It got to 3.30am and I really needed to go with the Carmientti twins and Samantha and Kiri to catch a taxi home to see my family, but she just wouldn’t let me go.

“Stay with me Noah.”
“Look after me Noah.”
“My parents think you’re staying at mine. Stay Noah.”
“Noah, look after me.”
“Sort me out, Noah!”

I was bored. I just wanted to leave. And she wasn’t making it any easier. She’d told me previously that she couldn’t spend her New Years Eve away from her family, yet that was what I was doing for her, and she couldn’t allow me to go and see my family after being with her all night celebrating! Something snapped within me.

“Look Ella. I'm away from my family and I want to see them for the New Years celebrations. Is that so much to ask? I came here for you, to spend time with you. I meet your parents, I dance in front of your parents, and I’ve been looking after you and feeding you water. I just want to go and see my family. Hayley and Brooke are waiting outside in the cold for me and you’re delaying me and now they’re getting angry.”

She looked at me with puppy dog eyes. But it didn’t bother me.

“That’s a lie,” I later told Danny.

It did bother me; but not enough to make me stay. She had pushed me over the line. Had I been too harsh? After all, she was drunk. Could I have handled it differently? Who knows.

That morning Kiri, Samantha and I slept in the Carmientti’s house. We hadn’t managed to find a taxi and their parents offered us their guestrooms, we couldn’t refuse.

Ella had been bombarding me with phone calls and text messages, in which I lied.

“I'm in the taxi, on my way home. I’ll text you in the morning. Xxxx”

Why had I lied? “I guess it’s just easier this way, no one gets hurt, especially in her drunken state,” I told Hayley over a cup of home made tea the next morning.

“But…”

“But no! She really got to me last night; it was like I was on a leash. I felt like she was my responsibility even though her parents were in another room. After we left, she rang me countless times, hung up on me and then texted me even more. It was like she was Big Brother and she needed to know my every move.”

“Yeah, that’s true.”

“Of course it’s true.”
I got home and slept the rest of the day, ignoring texts from everyone. I couldn’t face it, and needed time to cool off from Ella. I thought to myself in between periods of sleeping: could this really be the beginning of the end? Or was it just parts of the process?