A heartwarming short story
Ollie always got the girls. So could Stephen outsmart his best friend this time?
Stephen was clever. He wasn’t being big-headed saying this about himself. He was just agreeing with everyone else. Always top at school, he was looking forward eventually to knocking ’em dead at uni, too.
Looking up from his laptop, on which he’d been reading an article about quantum physics, he frowned.
There was one field in which he didn’t dazzle.
Girls. they all went for his best mate, Ollie.
The latest was Tina. Stephen got on the same bus to school and he’d thought they were getting on well. He had been on the point of asking her out.
But then Ollie had stayed overnight with Stephen’s family one time, meaning he’d got the bus as well.
From then on, whenever she and Stephen spoke, it was all Tina fishing for information about Ollie. Did Ollie have a girlfriend? Where did he hang out?
Stephen had feigned ignorance, which she’d seemed to accept.
He was vaguely reflecting on all this when his mum called up to his room. “Stephen, can you come down?” “What for?”
“Melanie’s mum’s here and she said Melanie’s computer’s giving her trouble. I said you’d have a look at it for her.” “Give me a minute.”
He needed a few moments to digest this. Melanie’s family had just recently moved into the neighbourhood. they lived in the house whose garden backed on to theirs, which is how their mothers had become friendly.
And Melanie was gorgeous. Even more so than Tina.
The trouble was, Ollie was of the same opinion about Melanie. Stephen knew that Ollie was just waiting for an opportunity to ask her out.
For once it looked as though he might get ahead. Ollie was away for a week over half-term, whilst he had been asked to go and look at Melanie’s computer.
On the way round to the house later, he had a moment’s panic.
Yes, it was a chance to impress her, but what if he blew it? What if he couldn’t fix the machine.
But his anxiety lasted just a moment. Of course he’d be able to sort it. He had brains – everyone said so.
And it was a doddle. Just a glitch in connecting a new printer she’d bought.
He could have done it in a couple of minutes, but he stretched it out a bit in order to get to know her better.
While he was puzzling over it – or pretending to – she offered to get coffee for them both, explaining that they’d just got a posh new machine with which they were all very pleased.
“Come and have a look.”
She took him into the kitchen and, though he’d never seen the like before, he nodded knowledgeably and made suggestions about its care and maintenance, particularly in light of a design flaw that he had spotted.
“You know about everything,” Melanie said, making him feel like a knight in shining armour as they returned to the room where she had her computer.
Then he glowed with pride all over again as he imagined a future conversation with Ollie. Have I seen Melanie while you were away? Oh, yes. I was round at her house.
He pondered sending Ollie a text to tell him, but decided against it. He wanted to see Ollie’s face when he told him.
Not that it was all about rivalry with Ollie. Not at all.
Sure, it had started just as an attraction thing, with her big eyes and shiny hair. But over this short time he’d been with her, it had become more than that. He liked her as a person.
It wasn’t big, the computer room.the house was essentially the same as his family’s and they just used the space for storage.
But Melanie had set it up as a little study. He looked round for clues as to her interests and tastes.
Suddenly he had a horrible taste in his mouth which was nothing to do with the coffee.
On one of the walls was a poster of a popular band. The lead singer looked like Ollie.
Her mother came back then and Melanie went out to tell her the computer was sorted.
“Stephen was brilliant,” he heard her say and took heart.
It didn’t matter that Ollie resembled what was her favourite pop star. Clearly she admired him, too . . .
Next day, he was in his room pondering ways to bump into Melanie when his mum shouted up to him again.
“Stephen, do you have a minute?” “I’m busy.”
“Melanie’s computer’s playing up again.” “Be right with you.”
He nearly fell down the stairs, tripping on the laces of his trainers. Melanie was there.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” she
explained as he accompanied her to her house. “it won’t let me open one of the files I need for a school project.” He watched her starting up the machine. To his horror, her password included part of the name of the pop star on her wall.
He really would have to fix this present problem she was having, he decided, to keep her admiration.
And he did.
He succeeded in opening the file she needed with no problem.
“Thank you so much,” she gushed. “i’m sorry to have bothered you again.” “It’s no bother,” he said.
“So what was it that was wrong?” she asked.
He hadn’t a clue, so he turned back to the computer, playing for time.
“Just let me run a couple of checks . . .” While the machine whirred and beeped in response to the various scans he requested, they chatted.
“It should be OK now,” he said when the last one was finished, and got up to go.
He didn’t want to. But he didn’t want her asking again what it was that had been wrong with the machine.
Because he still didn’t know. “Let’s take it back to the shop,” Melanie’s mum said.
It was the next day and again Stephen had been summoned to the computer.
Same problem. Files that were there but which she hadn’t been able to get into. Again, he managed to open them with no problem.
But her mum wasn’t happy with the machine’s unpredictability.
She said as much, shot Melanie a look, and the pair disappeared into the kitchen. From his position at the computer, he could still hear them, though.
“You need something reliable,” her mum continued. “it’s still under guarantee. we’ll go and tell them to sort it out or replace it –” “No,” Melanie interrupted .“it’s obviously something Stephen’s doing to it that’s causing the problem.” He’d heard enough.
Far from impressing her with his technical skills, she clearly thought it was he who was responsible for the computer’s sudden erratic behaviour! “It seems to be working now,” he called to her, and then, with a hasty goodbye, he set off back home.
He was so pleased he hadn’t sent that boastful text to Ollie. He had accepted that he couldn’t compete with him in terms of looks.
No, he’d been aware all along that what he had to offer was simply his cleverness.
Stephen scowled as he walked back along the road.
He knew he was smart. Everybody said so. there was no way a little computer glitch was going to get the better of him!
“It’s obviously something Stephen’s doing to it that’s causing the problem.” Her words came back to him, stinging him just as sharply as if they had been one of the insects buzzing round his mum’s front garden flower-bed as he opened the gate to his own house. ****
“Yes, you will notice a change in him.” “It’s been a couple of years now since I saw him.”
“He’s at a neighbour’s at present, helping them with their computer.”
“Oh, yes, still the bright button he always was. that hasn’t changed.” “He’ll be back soon.”
The voices drifted through the open window into the garden. His mum’s, gran’s and Auntie Celia, who wasn’t really an aunt but a close friend of both his gran and mum.
Celia and his gran had worked together in their respective first jobs.
They’d kept in touch after they’d moved on and after they’d both married. So Celia had become Auntie Celia to his mum, and then to him. then Celia and her husband had moved away.
They all kept in contact, with Celia often visiting his gran.
He had been aware Celia was coming to stay with his gran, which inevitably would involve them coming to his house. Normally he’d be glad to see her, but now he wasn’t really in the mood.
He was going to creep down the path. But it was too late – he’d been spotted.
“How’s Uncle Charlie?” he asked Celia as he sat on the sofa beside her. “He’s well,” Celia replied. Stephen’s gran started laughing. “What’s with you?” Celia asked her. “I was just thinking,” his gran said, “about how you and Charlie met.” “How did you meet?” Stephen asked. Celia smiled.
“It was when your gran and I worked together. Charlie worked for the office equipment people the firm dealt with, and he used to repair our typewriters.”
“Particularly,” his gran interrupted, “your typewriter, Celia.” She nodded meaningfully .“at least once a week!” “That is an exaggeration!”
“It is not!” His gran was adamant. “love at first sight, it was.you fancied him from the first time he turned up to give our typewriters their yearly check-over.” They were all laughing.
Stephen had the feeling he was missing something.
“Celia wasn’t going to wait another year to see Charlie again, was she?” his mum explained. “so she –”
“– sabotaged her typewriter to keep him coming back,” Stephen finished for her. He was suddenly aware of a grin forming on his face.
On his way back round to Melanie’s, he decided he had to face it. Maybe he wasn’t so clever after all!