One In A Billion (23 page)

Toby agreed to search for work as well, and would come to London as much as possible, despite Alice's parents not wanting Alice to have anything to do with who they saw as little other than a wayward teenager, and a bad influence. Although they hadn't told Alice, the deciding factor in whether they made the move or not was two-fold. James needed to be close to the university he was planning to attend, and Alice had to be prised away from Toby, lest she fall into a chasm they would never be able to pull her out of. Where James had excelled at school, Alice had done much worse than expected, and her parents placed the blame squarely on Toby's shoulders. They knew the two were now calling each other boyfriend and girlfriend, and they knew the boy was always in and out of trouble at school. He'd calmed down a little since his suspension, but he was regularly fighting, and they knew he liked to smoke. They thought that if they left Alice in his clutches for too long, he'd destroy their perfect little girl.

Agreeing to let her go to the prom at all was a way of attempting to show her that they cared, and that despite the move to London, they supported her choice of boyfriend. They would let her have this night, and this night only, and then they would take her away into a better life, and Toby could go on influencing people they didn't give two shits about. What they believed Alice needed was structure, discipline and good, solid, educated people around her. They saw Toby as little more than a thug, especially now he'd shaved his head, and looked the part.

Toby borrowed his dad's suit. It was the one his dad had got married in, and because of that it had special significance. Toby's dad had filled out over the years, but the suit fit Toby almost perfectly. His mum had to take up the legs a little bit, but the trousers fit perfectly around the waist and the jacket sat across his shoulders like it had always meant to be there. It was a kind of electric blue and high waisted, and it made Toby look like an extra in Grease. He loved it.

The plan was to meet Alice at the school. He wanted to smoke a few spliffs with friends of his first, and get tanked up outside the dance, before they went in. He'd see Alice there, and with the expectant crowd gathered, they'd take their rightful place as king and queen of the ball. Alice didn't see anything wrong with this idea. In fact, she preferred not to have to do the whole, 'walk down the stairs looking amazing, while your date has small talk with your parents' thing she'd seen a thousand times on TV, and she knew anyway, that her parents didn't want Toby anywhere near the house.

She'd get her parents to drop her off at the dance, meet Lisa and Clare and get a little bit drunk herself before going in. She liked the idea of seeing Toby for the first time across the dance floor, because there was something romantic about that scene that appealed to her.

She'd chosen an open backed, long, elegant, full-length black dress, and looked absolutely incredible in it. She'd spent hours getting ready, most of that time spent doing her hair and make-up, ready to perfect herself for what Lisa and Clare were joking would be her wedding to Toby. She couldn't believe that this was going to be the last time she'd see him, but knew it was best not to think about it in case she got overly upset. Toby wasn't the only one that she'd miss either. Lisa and Clare had become solid friends over the last three years, and she knew it was going to be difficult to tear herself away from them too. Tonight was not only the school prom, it was also a goodbye to Alice, from all of her friends.

Her parents couldn't believe how beautiful she looked, when she finally emerged from her room to present herself in front of them.

'Wow', Alice's mum said.

'You could have any guy you wanted looking like that', Alice's dad said. 'I don't know why you insist on picking a bad one.'

'Dad, will you just leave it please. Tonight is not the night. You got your way, let me just have one night with Toby, please, without you trying to convince me that there are a thousand and one people better than him.'

Alice was nervous on the way to the school. She'd made this trip hundreds of times before in the past, and there was something weird about doing it now, for what would be the very last time she'd have to make it.

Her dad dropped her off at the front of the school, and arranged a time to come back and pick her up. There were already some people inside the assembly hall, which had been crudely transformed into a disco, with DJ up on the stage, disco lights hung from the rafters and small bar and tuck shop in one of the corners selling non-alcoholic drinks and sweets. She took a look around, tried to imagine what it would feel like never coming here again, and then went back outside to wait for Lisa and Clare.

Toby was already onto his second beer, having guzzled the first one as though it were water. He seemed to be on a mission to get himself completely fucked up in as quick a time as possible and there was no-one around to stop him. His dad had dropped him off at Cal's house, with a four pack of cheap, weak, supermarket beer and they'd gone with Jack and a couple of other lads to a nearby spot they'd found at the end of last year, where they could get stoned and drunk, and generally fuck about, without people bothering them. Cal had been at his dad's drinks cabinet, and had managed to fill two small drinks bottles with a mix of various strong spirits taking such a small amount from each bottle his dad wouldn't be able to notice the difference, while Jack had come loaded with two big bottles of cider, he'd somehow managed to buy in the shop  in the next village, and one of the other lads had got his older brother to go to the shop for him, and came with a crate of twelve cans of Carling.

That would have been more than enough on its own to send the six of them over the top completely, but Toby also had an ace up his sleeve. He made sure he didn't go anywhere these days without a little bit of gear, and to that end, had purchased an eighth especially, just in case he didn't have enough booze to fuck himself up.

There was already one spliff going, and Toby was busy rolling another one up.

'What time do you want to go in?' Cal said.

'There's no rush is there?' Toby said. 'Lets get a bit more fucked first of all.'

Cal had already drunk half a small bottle of the mix he'd brought along and felt pretty fucked already. Toby could feel it too. He'd developed quite a good tolerance to weed over the last few years, but alcohol still had a way of making his head spin, no matter how little he drank of it. He didn't care how fucked up he got. Tonight was going to be the last time he'd see Alice, and he wanted to go out with a bang. Really he didn't want to think about it at all. The others in the group knew that, and had made a pact to keep quiet unless Toby opened his mouth and wanted to talk.

Toby finished skinning up, sparked up the joint, took a few deep puffs and handed it on to Jack. Jack breathed down a little and passed it on quickly. He didn't want to get as fucked up as Toby wanted him to, and knew all about pacing himself anyway, after a recent party where he'd spent most of it lying in a corner, covered in his own puke.

While Alice met Lisa and Clare, and the three of them snuck away together to a covered spot behind the bike sheds, to share a couple of bottles of lambrini that Clare's older sister had bought for them, and a few cigarettes, Toby and the rest of his friends got completely fucked up. Toby was drinking and smoking like a madman, and pretty soon the world was spinning all around him.

The two bottles of mixed spirits got drunk, one of them almost entirely by Toby, and the rest of the cans got guzzled down until all that was left were four cans of Carling and half a bottle of cider, which they decided to stash away in a bush to drink after the dance. It was 8:40pm already, even though Toby could barely see his watch without the hands moving, and he was going to be late. He'd arranged to meet Alice at the dance at 8.30pm and he knew she'd be there already, waiting for him.

Toby had achieved what he set out to do. He'd numbed himself perfectly against what was happening, so drunk now, the world was moving so fast it didn't mean a thing to him. One moment they were drinking and smoking in the corner of a covered part of a little used playground, and the next moment he was puking all over his shoes.

'Shit man', Cal said.

'Fuck man, look how yellow it is', Jack said.

Toby spat, puked again and nearly fell. He didn't know where the fuck they were, but suddenly there were people all around him. He looked and felt like shit. There was puke all over his shoes, and splatters of it up his trousers.

'Give him a cigarette', someone said. It could have been Cal, but Toby couldn't work it out. The voice came to him slowed down, like whoever spoke it was talking from the other side of space.

He was up against a tree on the village green, a cigarette in his mouth, burning away. From time to time it kept dropping out, before someone fetched it and put it back in. Suddenly, Toby got up.

'Alice', he said. 'I have to get to Alice', and stumbled off in the direction of the school, the back of his trousers muddy, and his shirt untucked.

Alice clutched her handbag and waited. The dance floor had filled up and the party was in full swing. Everyone was there apart from Toby, Jack and Cal. When she saw Jack and Cal arrive, her heart leaped, expecting Toby to be with them, but he wasn't.

'Where the fuck is he?' Alice said when the boys came over.

'Come with me', Cal said.

'What the fuck?' Lisa said.

'Come too if you want.'

They'd left Toby slumped in the corner of the bike sheds, promising to bring Alice to him, if he stayed put. He'd since leaned over, and there was another watery pile of puke next to him, which was slowly creeping towards his body.

'What the fuck?' Alice said, going to him quickly. 'Toby?'

Toby was struggling to do anything but retch.

'What the fuck have you done to him?' Alice said.

'He's kind of done it to himself', Cal said.

Lisa was laughing.

'Lisa', Alice remonstrated.

'Sorry, I can't help it', Lisa said.

'Help me get him up', Alice said.

'We got him here man, he's your responsibility now', Cal said. 'I'm going inside to dance. I paid ten quid for this thing.'

Lisa went with him, and soon enough Alice and Toby were alone. It wasn't the romantic meeting she'd expected, nor the memorable goodbye.

'Toby, what the fuck?' Alice said. 'Way to fucking go and ruin everything.'

'Sorry Alice', Toby managed to say finally. He retched again and then spat. 'Help me up, please', he said.

Alice put her hands under Toby's arms and lifted him up as best as she could. When he was upright, he tried to look at her, but his eyes were wandering all over the place. Alice put her hand over her mouth, partly because of the smell, and partly because she was now crying.

'Don't go Alice, please', Toby said. 'I love you, please don't go.'

Alice was shaking her head at the mess she saw in front of her. 'This is what you do because you don't want me to leave?' she said. 'All you care about is getting fucked up.'

Toby was leaning against the bike sheds, because he couldn't stand up properly.

'Please Alice', Toby said, and launched himself at her to try and hug her. He was much quicker than Alice's reactions, and held on to her for a while until she pushed him away. It was long enough for him to transfer a large amount of the sick he had on the front of his blazer and hands onto Alice's dress, and completely ruin it.

Toby bent over, put his hands on his knees and puked all over the floor. It splashed up onto the bottom of Alice's dress, before she could get out of the way.

Alice was horrified. She stumbled backwards away from him, and then ran back to the front of the school, into the dance and straight into the loos.

Clare and Lisa watched her go, but neither one of them went after her.

'Fuck it', Lisa said. 'She's going tomorrow anyway.'

Her dad came right away to pick her up, and despite Alice spending the whole car journey back home crying, he still gave her a lecture about why he was right all along about Toby. He almost went to find the boy himself, until Alice begged him to just leave it, and take her home.

At home, she tore the dress off, threw it into the washing machine and cried herself to sleep.

Mr Benfield was the one who found Toby, alerted by some of the other students. Had it been Mr Talbot, who was also patrolling that night, things might have been a little bit different. Mr Benfield gathered Toby up, took him to the art room, cleaned him up and plied him with coffee. By 10pm, it was as though Toby had undergone an incredible transformation. He was obviously still drunk, but had finished puking and could walk and talk as though he weren't. The sick smell had been craftily camouflaged by the deodorant that Mr Benfield kept in his office, and the sick itself had been washed out with some of the milder artistic cleaning fluids he kept in his cupboards. At about 10:15pm, Mr Benfield walked Toby to the entrance, and made sure he got in without any hassle. Mr Talbot was there and gave him the once over, but couldn't detect any issue.

'Good to see you made it Toby', he said, and Toby smiled before making his way into the assembly hall, keen to lose himself in the craziness of the dance floor. It wasn't the same without Alice, but he was determined to have a good time anyway. He danced like a maniac, fuelled by the huge amount of alcohol still in his blood, and angry at Alice for abandoning him. When the slow dances came on at the end of the night, he snuck outside for a cigarette, not wanting to be a spare part in everyone else's fun.