Emil’s Friend.

The group walked down the hill as I was making my way up it. I’d just popped out for a quiet beer and to escape from my flat whose walls seemed to be closing in on me. The group were speaking English as a language of convenience, there were a couple of yanks and one or two Brits but the others had accents from a variety of places, Czech, Dutch, German maybe a really hotchpotch of voices. There was about twenty of them, some male, some female and they were sprawled out over some 20 to 30 yards.

I don’t know what made me do it, what made me think it was a good idea but for some reason I turned around and joined the group. I walked a couple of paces behind them at first but then over took the last stragglers and parked myself in their midsts, listening to their conversations - listening out for names that could come in handy later. I heard one of the girls call a boy Emil and made a mental note of it. Otherwise, I kept my mouth shut and my head down, seeing where the lead group were taking us. 

They were talking us to Waldes, a big, dimly lit pub at the bottom of my hill. Perfect. We went it and headed to a table that was reserved for us. I sat down between two girls who turned out to be Polish. To start with I sat quietly only speaking when spoken too. I was amused to watch the Dutch lad opposite me hitting on the Polish girls, to be honest the conversation was pretty boring and if this was his chat up technique then he was going to be a very lonely man. You could see from his eyes he had a crush on Agata but she didn’t seem too impressed.  

A couple of beers loosened my tongue and I started joining in the conversation. I must admit I’d had my eyes on Agata too and so turned my attention to her, much to the chagrin of our mutual Dutch friend.

            ‘Um who are you?’ He said after I’d been hogging her attention for a little while. This was exactly why I’d been listening for names earlier. I knew sooner or later I’d be challenged.

            ‘I’m a friend of Emil’s.’ I said with confidence, knowing that one of the boys was Emil. I flapped my hand in the general direction of a cluster of males.

            ‘Um, I don’t think you are.’ said the Dutch boy. God why did there always have to be one troublemaker. I wasn’t doing any harm, just enjoying a bit of mischief.

            ‘Well, I am, so let’s not make a fuss eh?’ I said in a quiet voice that I hoped carried just a little bit of menace.

            ‘You can’t be, cos I’m Emil.’ said the boy staring at me. Damn! I hadn’t considered that, my plan could have been brilliant but for  one fatal flaw.

‘Hey does anyone know this guy.’ Emil had the attention of the whole table now. Eyes looked at me and heads shook. The table filled with ‘no’s’. 

            ‘I best be going.’ I declared putting far too much money on the table. ‘Nice speaking with you.’ I said to Agata before scarpering out of the door smiling to myself and satisfied that at least I’d given them something interesting to talk about.