Noel glanced at Peter. Peter glanced back. “That and the fact that Carol’ll chop his balls off if he does.” Noel said as he burst out laughing.

“What?!” Mark exclaimed. Noel explained to him that Carol fancies Peter and Peter’s gonna hang out with Carol whilst they’re at the cinema and blah blah blah. “Blimey.” Mark said. He cast an envious glance to Peter before picking up a controller. “Right… Light sabres, Endor.” he suggested as he scrolled through the on-screen menus and selected that game mode. “Have we got time?” he asked.

Noel checked the time and they did, plenty, in fact. They drank juice, ate crisps, played games, laughed, joked and talked until around a quarter-to-three when Noel and Mark prepared to catch a bus into town. After a round of ‘good to see you’, Noel asked if Peter would still be here when they get back. “Er… I dunno… my Dad’s picking me up about sixish.” Peter replied.

“Ah maybe not then.” Noel frowned. “Good to see you mate.” he said before asking when he’d be down next.

“Er… I dunno. We’re only down this time ‘coz Dad’s got to do some stuff at the old depot.” Peter replied.

“Well maybe we could come and see you… in the summer?” he optimistically suggested. “You’ve got four bedrooms?” he said, glancing at Mark and imagining an idyllic summer in the country.

“That’d be ace.” he added, before reminding them of the road bike he received at Christmas. “You could bring your bikes up on the train. It’s only an hour or two.” he enthused.

Mark has a really cool mountain bike and Noel has a more versatile yet slightly boring tourer, but it’s a Dawes so that makes it OK, just.