Lost - Part Two

The cold air hit’s me and startles me awake, the duvet has been whipped off me, yet again. I turn over to look at Greg and sigh, he may be a hunk but he doesn’t half hog the covers. We’ve been ‘seeing’ each other officially now for about three months, after our fourth date to the festival I was determined to make it work. Admittedly we nearly didn’t make it past our third date with the totally rubbish day out in the woods, it was worth it though to get my gorgeous puppy Monty out of it. He’s properly settled in now, my cat Smoky has just about got used to him. I yawn and stretch out lazily, I don’t want to get up but we’re going to a fairground today, it’s the last day and we don’t want to miss it.
“Greg, honey wake up we’ve got to get ready” I shake him awake, reluctantly he sit’s up grumbling. I leave him to adjust while I have a cold shower, does wonders first thing in the morning. As I rinse the shampoo from my hair I hear the shower door open and Greg steps in behind me, putting his arms around my waist and kissing my neck. I slip out of his grasp and step out of the shower, wrapping a big fluffy towel around myself.
“Not now Greg, we’ve got to go out, stop stalling” I laugh as he pouts like a ten year old and head back into the bedroom to dry and straighten my hair. My daily rituals, I refuse to leave the house unless my hair is perfectly straight, Greg doesn’t like it though and is trying to talk me into the natural look. I don’t like his chances very much. As usual the second I turn on the hair dryer Monty dives under the bed in terror, you would think that after three months of it he would be used to it by now, but no, it’s not like it could possibly hurt him either. He’s just my daft baby dog I think to myself with a smile, I love him to bits, although it was a bit weird of Greg to buy me an expensive pet on our third date. My best friend Carla couldn’t believe it when I told her, the best present she ever got off a bloke was an iron. She did need a new one, but that’s not the point, needless to say that guy didn’t last long. It’s a nice little iron though, it’s seen off five or six men since the one that bought it for her.
“Come on Lisa, I thought you were in a rush” says Greg as he walks out of the bathroom, he’ll be ready before I’ve even finished my hair and make-up. Another thing he moans about, me wearing make-up, he says I don’t need it. I did remind him that I was wearing my ‘war paint’ on all of our dates so he hadn’t actually seen me without any on. He has by now obviously, I wasn’t about to get up an hour before him every time he stayed the night so I could look pretty, I’d prefer the extra hour in bed sleeping. I tune out his moaning and delicately apply my make-up with precision, one mistake and I’d have to start all over again. Once my hair and make-up are finally done I go over to the chest of drawers and pick out some nice underwear, I put it on and go over to the wardrobe to pick out some clothes. It is December so it’s quite cold out now, I choose a tight red jumper and a pair of tight, dark blue jeans. I plan on wearing my black suede knee high boots over them with a black handbag to match. I love boots and handbags, my under the stairs cupboard is over flowing with them.

Half an hour later I am finally ready to leave the house, Greg is already waiting for me in the car. We set of for the fairground, it is always so much fun, I go there every year. In the car Greg seems strangely quiet, we’ve got to know each other really well over the last few months but there is still something about him, something I can’t quite put my finger on. He never tells me anything about his past, and I rarely go round his house, he says he prefers to come to mine, which is fine by me. I like staying at mine because it’s easier for the dog and cat. I look out of the window as we drive through town, I was excited about the fair, it makes me feel like a child all over again. By the time we get there it is in full swing, the music from the different rides and children’s laughter fills the air, along with the glorious smell of candyfloss and hot dogs with onions. My mouth waters at the thought of eating both today, I love fairground food. Grabbing Greg’s hand I drag him over to the first ride, a big wheel. As we get up to the top I look out at the whole fairground, I can see all the rides and people, I snap a picture with my digital camera. I will have a copy blown up and framed for my wall, a birds eye view of the fair, it looks quite good. When we get off the ride we head over to the hook-a-duck stall, Greg wins me a gorgeous teddy bear and I promise to sleep with it on the bed when he’s not there. We buy some candy floss and look around at the other games, we win a few different stuffed toys on different stalls, I managed to win a coconut on the coconut shy.
“I’ve never managed to win one before” I laugh tossing the coconut at Greg “You must be my lucky charm” I kiss him on the cheek and run to another game stall to see if I can win a goldfish. I end up winning two, plus the bowl and a little bit of food, Greg suggests we head back to the car and dump our winnings so we can go on the rides empty handed. After locking the car back up we head back to where we had gotten to, I stop to look at one of the kids rides that was filled with giggling five year olds. When I turn back around Greg is no where to be seen, one minute he was there and the next he was gone. I call out his name a few times but the noise of people and rides is too loud to hear much. Just then I spot him standing behind a burger van looking in the opposite direction, I follow his gaze and see a pretty blonde girl with a cute man who is in the process of winning her a huge teddy bear. I assume Greg knows one of them, but why he’s spying from behind a burger van I don’t know. I walk up behind him and tap him on the shoulder, he spins around with a look of rage on his face, it frightens me and I step back. He realises it’ me and his face softens immediately.
“Oh Lis, it’s only you, you made me jump there for a second” he smiles and kisses me on the lips.
“Who are those two you were looking at?” I ask outright.
“Oh, just some people I know” Greg replies taking my arm, I glance back at the couple and the blonde girl looks up at us, she see’s Greg and her face drains of colour, as if she’s seen a ghost. She points him out to the man with her and he looks at Greg with contempt, obviously whoever they are they don’t like him very much. I can’t imagine why though, he’s always been a perfect gentleman with me.
“I need the toilet” Greg announces and head off to find one, I wait by the same kids ride and watch the little cars go round and round. It makes me feel a bit broody, maybe one day. I feel a tug on my arm, I turn around thinking it’s Greg and come face to face with the pretty blonde. Up close she is beautiful, not just pretty, but she has a sad look in her eyes, as if she had been through so much bad things that she was still tormented by them. I believe you can tell a lot about someone by their eyes.
“Stay away from Greg” she says quietly, looking around her quickly.
“Excuse me, but who are you and why would you say that?” I ask feeling my temper rising, how dare she warn me off of him.
“My name’s Stacey, just trust me, get away from him.” she pleads with her eyes and I can’t bear to look into them anymore, we both look up at the same time and see Greg coming back, she turns and runs back to the man she’s with and they disappear into the crowd. Greg storms up to me looking angrier than I’ve ever seen him.
“What did she want?” he demanded.
“To warn me off you I think, is she some jealous ex or something?” I laugh and take his arm, the anger fades from his face and he kisses me on the cheek.
“Or something” he replies rolling his eyes, I laugh again and we head to another ride, this time it is the Waltzers, you sit in the seats and they spin you around really fast, at points it looks like you’re going to crash into another seat of people, I’m sure everyone’s been on them at least once so I don’t need to go into too much detail. As the ride starts we see the couple again on the seat that comes right in front of us several times so that we are face to face for a few seconds, Stacey hides her face on the mans shoulder and he and Greg just glare at each other. The ride seems to go on forever and the tension between them and us makes it unpleasant to say the least. When it is finished we get off and grab a hotdog, we’re both starving and it’s not long before we’ve finished our hotdogs and are queuing up for some candy floss, we walk around while we eat it, Greg keeps putting strands of it on my nose, it’s funny but slightly annoying because my nose is all sticky now. I get him back though and get a bit wad of it and splat it right on his face. He laughs and peels it off, now he’s got little pink flecks dotted around his face, I lick a bit off his cheek.
“Mmm you taste sweet” I whisper into his ear, he looks at me with a smile and kisses me properly.
“So do you” he replies, I laugh and toss the now empty candy floss stick into a near by rubbish bin, Greg follows suit and we queue up for the big spiral slide. We giggle as we climb up the stairs in the almost dark slide, the sacks we have to sit on to go back down smell disgusting. I sit on the sack and look down into the dark tunnel looming in front of me, I take a deep breath and use my hands to push myself forwards down the tunnel. I laugh and shout as I pick up speed, going round and round in almost complete blackness, all I can see if the tunnel walls all around me, like a freaky metal coffin. All of a sudden I see daylight and come shooting out of the tunnel. I get up and brush myself off, as I hand the sack to the guy running the ride Greg comes shooting out laughing his head off. We hold hands and walk over to the next ride, a big swinging ship, we queue for what seems like hours until it is our turn to go on it, as we swing up I get a good view of the fairground and spot Stacey again, she is standing by the spiral slide looking up at us, she is beginning to freak me out now. The ride ends and we get off.
“I think we’ve been on all the adults rides now” I say looking around, it’s only a small fair so there’s not millions of rides. Greg nods and takes my hand, leading me back to the car. When we get there he looks around and says he needs to do something quickly, before I have a change to ask what it is he’s gone and I’m left standing by the car on my own. I wait for ten minutes and there is still no sign of him, so I have a go on a near by grabber machine, but as usual I don’t win anything on it. I look around and can’t see him anywhere, I decide to go and look for him, maybe he’s got lost on his way back.

Fifteen minutes later I am still walking around the fairground, there is no sign of him so far. The last place to look is the toilets they put up for the duration of the fair, I head over to them and spot the man who was with Stacey standing by a burger van looking around, perhaps he has lost Stacey too, this makes me wonder and I carry on towards the toilets. They are all empty and as I am about to turn away and head back to the car I hear someone whimpering, there’s no one around these toilets as they are set back quite a bit from the attractions because of the smell. I follow the whimpering round to the back of the toilets, I move quietly so whoever it is doesn’t hear me creeping up on them.
“Please, let go of me, I’m sorry I won’t say anything to her again I promise.” I heard a woman whimper, she sounds vaguely familiar, then I hear a voice I do know.
“Make sure you don’t” a the man spat “If I see you again you will regret it”, I would recognise that voice anywhere, I peer around the corner to make sure.
“Greg” I gasp quietly, he has a look of pure evil on his face as if he could kill her. I’m not quiet enough and he hears me. He spins around and see’s me standing there, his face takes on a look of panic now as he tries to stutter out an explanation. I’m too shocked to listen right now, I turn and run away from him. The man with Stacey see’s me and I shout to him that she’s by the toilets, he tears off towards the toilets and I carry on running. I don’t look where I’m going and before long I’m back by the car, this is where my plan runs out. We’re nine miles away from my house and I don’t have enough money left to get the bus. While I stand here pondering how exactly I’m going to get home I feel a hand on my arm, I jump and spin around to come face to face with Greg.
“Baby, let me explain, please” Greg says panting from running after me, I try to pull away but he pulls me close and holds me.
“Greg, what was going on back there?” I ask him, dreading the reply.
“She’s just an ex, she’s psycho, she tells anyone I’m seeing a load of lies about me and it causes them to leave me” he tried to explain as fast as possible.
“I thought you were going to kill her Greg”.
“As if I would, you know me babes. I was just so mad because I was worried I was going to lose you.” Greg wipes some hair back from my face “I love you baby” he says as he kisses me softly. Those are the magic words, how could I ever have thought he’d be capable of hurting anyone?
“Oh Greg, I love you too, lets just go home and forget about that psycho cow” I kiss him back and smile as we get in the car. All the way back to my house we hold hands and chat about nothing in particular. I trust him and believe him, but, I just can’t get that look he had in his eyes out of my head. I glance over at him and wonder if I made the right decision in believing him. I’m sure I have, I’m just being paranoid because he seemed too perfect. I’ll just have to learn to ignore that little voice inside my head.