Syed lurked by the doors of the school hall, nursing his plastic cup of watered down orange juice. There was also free wine available, and it had begun to cause the volume, amongst some of the groups, to increase. The sound of over excited chatter echoed against the wood panelled walls.

He looked nervously about, trying to place names to faces. No one had changed a great deal, they were all still young. Maybe a slight crinkling of lines around their eyes, faces beginning to fill out. A sense that life had stealthily started to wear them all down. The exciting experience of University, new marriages, babies, receding, as work life and reality crept in.

He smiled when he spotted Hakim, his friend from the music club, weaving his way through the throng towards him.

It dawned on Syed that he had been a member of a lot of clubs, his mother had actively encouraged it, every evening seemed to have been filled with some activity, in between all the after school meetings, Mosque, family gatherings, he marvelled that he'd ever found time to think.

'Which was probably for the best…' He mused.

"Hakim! How are you?"

Syed shook his friend's hand warmly.

"No bad matey. This is mental isn't it? What are you up to now? Did you travel down from Leeds?"

"I'm living in Walford now, over in the East End. The family moved there."

He felt heat rising up the skin of his throat, scared of what he could say when asked about his parents, uneasy about revealing he had been disowned. He deftly turned the questioning to Hakim.

"What have you been doing since we left?"

Hakim puffed his chest out proudly.

"Got a first, got my own accountancy firm, got married.."

He hesitated slightly, suddenly recalling Syed's popularity amongst the girls, and, in particular, his new bride.

"..to Yasmina. You remember her?"

"Of course, beautiful Yasmina. Well done you! Is she here?"

Syed glanced around the room, looking for her pretty flower face. His mother had been very keen on his friendship with her, mostly due to the fact that her father owned his own chain of hotels. He could hear Zainab's voice nagging inside his head;

"Why don't you bring Yasmina round for tea? Why don't you take Yasmina to the cinema? Why don't you ask Yasmina to that school prom disco party?"

And Yasmina would have been happy to do all of these things, Syed knew, from the way she had looked at him with soft, hopeful eyes. The light in them dimming, hopes crushed, as he had fobbed her off time and time again.

He saw her approach and grinned delightedly, kissing her on both cheeks before Hakim possessively pulled her to his side.

She looked him up and down.

"Still skinny then, Syed. And handsome as ever."

Syed tried to ignore Hakim's cross expression.

"And you're still beautiful.." He pointed to her growing stomach. "And congratulations seem to be in order!"

He slapped Hakim on the back.

"Lucky for you it is a baby, not too much good food." She chided him.

"When's it due? What are you hoping for, boy or girl?"

Hakim put a protective arm around his wife's shoulders.

"We don't mind, as long as it is healthy, that's all we want."

Yasmina smiled into her husband's face, and Syed felt a warm glow of relief at the love he saw pass between them.

From the corner of his eye he could see a tall, willowy blonde woman, teetering across the hall on stiletto's. She did a double take and skewed around, tipsily lurching in their direction. Waving a pink leather clutch bag in the air, she bellowed;

"Syed!"

"Simone."

He tried to fend her off as she swooped towards him, holding her too tightly by the arms, worried that he might leave finger marks on the smooth tanned flesh.

He pulled a face as Hakim and Yasmina melted politely away to join another set of friends.

"Baby!" Simone stroked his face and he flinched slightly.

"You look well.."

"So do you!"

She managed to drape her arms around his neck and Syed took a step away from her, cursing inwardly when he realised he was backed up against the wall.

"Still so bloody gorgeous. I'd almost forgotten those lovely, lovely eyes.. What you up to? I heard you got married, lucky cow. Used to think it could have been me, if it weren't for your bitch of a mother. Is she here?"

Syed opened and shut his mouth, a part of him experiencing a knee jerk annoyance at her rudeness about his mother, whilst the rest of him wondered why.

"My mother or my wife?"

He tried to smile charmingly, aware that the muscles of his face were stiff and unfriendly and that it probably appeared more like a snarl.

"God, neither I hope. Why'd you stop returning my calls?"

Syed could tell the alcohol was making her sentimental. He recognised the signs.

"Did I? I'm sorry, you know how it is, life gets in the way?"

Her lipstick red mouth drooped downwards.

"Married life?" She asked plaintively.

"It didn't work out Simone, it should never have happened…"

She perked up and slumped against the wall besides him, leaning against his shoulder.

"I'm trying to pretend to be sorry.."

"Don't be. I fell in love with someone else, you see I'm…"

She cut in before he could finish the sentence.

"Bugger it. The timings always wrong for you and me, isn't it? All those times you were either studying, or in training, or had family commitments or something, blah blah... Michael always thought you had a secret.."

Syed felt his muscles tighten.

"Did he?"

She nodded glumly.

"Yep. Speak of the devil.." She gestured towards the door and took a slug of wine.

The tall man in the doorway stood with casual, self confident, ease. His well cut, expensive suit, hung stylishly from broad shoulders. The short sharp crop of his dark hair, the bright cornflower blue eyes, the slow easy grin as someone reached up to shout above the din into his ear, brought memories flooding back.

Syed groaned inwardly as his guts turned to water. A forgotten reflex making him whisper the name;

"Michael."