Sugar Secrets…& Luck

by Mel Sparke

  “Seeing Matt’s father…” Cat mumbled darkly. “So why do you want to see her on her own?”

  Eddie Osgood gave his daughter a lingering look.

  “Me and your mum have things to sort out, love. Like… well… we need to talk about a divorce.”

  Cat felt like a rock had smashed against her chest. For all the outward, obvious signs that her parents could never get back together, the little girl inside her had secretly hoped against hope that a miracle might happen and her family would magically transform into what it never had been-happy.

  Now that her father had said the dreaded ‘D’ word, she knew there was no hope.

  “It’s bad,” Ollie announced matter-of-factly.

  “No, it’s not that it’s bad. It’s just really, really…” Joe searched for the right word and couldn’t find it.

  Anna hadn’t been able to find the right words to describe it ever since she’d torn off the newspaper.

  Now she was sitting in the living room of her tiny flat above the End, staring-along with Ollie and Joe-at the large urn teetering on the coffee table.

  Ollie turned his head to one side and narrowed his eyes to slits.

  “Nope, it doesn’t get any better when you try and look at it from a different angle.”

  “So why did she decide to give you this… thing as a thank you?” Joe asked Anna.

  “Apparently,” Anna explained, “it’s an heirloom.”

  “But aren’t heirlooms supposed to be like antiques; you know-classy, worth a bit of money…?”

  “Well, maybe it is,” shrugged Anna, staring at the hideously ornate, giant Victorian urn. “Vera says her mother got it from a rich old dear she used to clean for.”

  “The rich old dear was probably just trying to get rid of it!” Ollie joked.

  “It’s so big! What are you going to do with it?”

  “Joe, I haven’t got a clue,” Anna replied.

  The garishly-painted monstrosity would have to go somewhere-Anna couldn’t ditch it when it obviously meant so much to Vera-but Anna’s flat was on the small side of bijou. There was only just enough room to swing a gerbil round the place she called home. Fitting the urn in her flat was like putting a full-size tea cup into a doll’s house.

  “Maybe you could turn it upside down, put a cloth over it and stick your telly on top…” Joe suggested. “At least it wouldn’t look so bad with a cloth over it. And at least it would be useful.”

  “I know!” said Ollie, his eyes bright beneath his floppy fringe. “You could buy yourself a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig and use that as its kennel! It’s the right shape, if you roll it on its side, and those designs on it are supposed to be oriental, aren’t they?”

  “Ollie, if you hadn’t carried this up the stairs for me, I might be tempted to stick you in there!” grinned Anna.

  “Ah, come on-it’s not that big! I’d only get half of me inside!” Ollie laughed.

  “Go on then!” Joe bet him.

  Ollie stood up and stepped towards the overgrown vase. Anna’s eyes widened-he wasn’t really going to try it, was he?

  Joe and Ollie both groaned as a ring on the doorbell spoiled their fun.

  “Didn’t fancy having to call the fire brigade to get you out anyway!” giggled Anna as she made her way towards the front door.

  “Oh!” she gasped, her manners temporarily deserting her. She felt unsettled seeing Matt standing on her doorstep.

  “Uh, hi,” he said shyly. “Hope you don’t mind. Only I thought I’d come round and… oh!”

  It was Matt’s turn to be surprised when he saw his two best buddies lounging across Anna’s sofa.

  “Oh!” said Anna again as she was about to close the door behind her friend. There, at the top of the steps, was another boy.

  “Uh, yeah, sorry-I found him lurking outside…” shrugged Matt, by way of explanation.

  CHAPTER 16

  ANNA’S AMAZING SHRINKING FLAT

  So much for my quiet night in front of the telly, Anna smiled to herself.

  When the girls had all come round one evening, it had seemed as if there was just enough room. But now that there were four boys and a bulbous urn in her living room, things were starting to get seriously cramped. Not that the lads seemed to mind.

  “He’d come along to the End on the off-chance that Cat might be there,” said Matt, explaining Zac’s presence. “He hasn’t seen or heard from her all week.”

  “We were meant to be going to the movies tonight… Thought she might be downstairs, in the caff, but all the lights were out,” shrugged Zac, blinking furiously and looking sheepish as he perched on the seat Anna had dragged over from the small dining table. “I was just going to go when Matt turned up…”

  “Jeez, sorry, Zac! We closed up twenty minutes early-it was absolutely dead in there,” said Ollie. “Don’t tell the boss though!”

  “Cat hasn’t been in anyway, Zac,” said Anna gently, bypassing Ollie’s flippant remark. She turned to Matt. “Have you told him what’s going on?”

  “Yeah, I filled him in. Zac thought she’d been seeing another bloke, didn’t you, Zac?”

  The shy boy nodded.

  “I guess the cinema’s off, but she’s invited me to go and watch her rehearse her play on Sunday…” he said soulfully, staring down at his shoes. “I don’t know what to do now.”

  “She’s just been busy with her dad turning up,” Joe pointed out.

  He liked Zac; he seemed a nice guy. He also quite liked the fact that next to this quiet lad, Joe came across as positively brimming with self-confidence, even if that wasn’t quite the truth.

  “Doesn’t make any difference,” said Zac in a small voice. “She’s still finished with me, I know. If she cared, she would have phoned to explain; I would have understood.”

  “Nah-don’t worry! That’s just Cat for you!” said Ollie, trying to explain their friend’s personality in a nutshell to her disappointed boyfriend. “Once she gets things sorted with her family, she’ll be back-you’ll see!”

  “Yeah?” said Zac, looking fractionally more hopeful. Ollie’s optimism was pretty infectious.

  “Definitely! No worries!” grinned Ollie, leaning over and slapping him on the arm.

  As Zac winced under the friendly thump, a thought occurred to Joe.

  “Hey, Matt…”

  “Huh?” Matt raised his dark eyes to his friend’s and tried to concentrate; he’d been lost in thought for a second there.

  Joe paused momentarily as Zac got up and followed Anna’s directions to the loo.

  “What made you bring Zac up to Anna’s?” he asked directly. It had crossed Joe’s mind that Matt was more the come-for-a-pint school of sympathy. He wondered why his mate hadn’t dragged Zac off to the nearby Railway Tavern, rather than bothering Anna.

  “I was on my way over anyway,” answered Matt without thinking.

  Anna stiffened in her seat. It was the first she’d heard of him planning a visit. What had he intended to say to her? Luckily, Ollie asked the question for her, saving her the embarrassment.

  “Yeah? How come?” said Ollie casually, unaware that Matt was now wishing with all his heart he’d switched his brain on before he’d opened his mouth.

  The truth was, after his spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to talk to Cat earlier, he’d felt totally fed up. But it wasn’t just Cat that had got him down; the situation with Anna was eating him up. If it was a situation… but that’s what he’d decided he had to find out. He’d pulled on his jacket, jumped in his car, rehearsed his lines all the way over and had psyched himself up-until he parked the car and spotted poor, miserable Zac hovering outside the End.

  But he could hardly tell everyone that, could he?

  “1-1… was…” Matt flailed around, trying desperately to think of an excuse. “I was… on my way to the station to, uh, pick up a timetable for Sunday and I… I thought I’d double-check with Anna that she definitely knew about this day out thing, since she was the on
ly one I hadn’t really spoken to about it.”

  Joe frowned. That didn’t sound right. Matt was generally pretty lazy-why would he waste time driving all the way to the station for a leaflet when he could have just phoned the timetable service? And why didn’t he just phone Anna too, for that matter? Or why hadn’t he asked her last night, when they were all at The Loud’s gig?

  Just as he was about to open his mouth with one of these questions, Anna hurriedly spoke.

  “I can’t come anyway, Matt. Can’t get cover,” she shrugged.

  “My God, have I lost my memory or what!” exclaimed OIlie, whacking his hand on his forehead.

  The others all looked at him, including Zac, who’d settled back in his seat.

  “I spoke to Dorothy this morning and she’s not busy after all this weekend-so you’re OK. She’ll cover for you!”

  “Wow-that’s good,” said Anna, hoping she sounded genuine. “I must have picked her up wrong. She must have been speaking about a different weekend…”

  She felt edgy; it wasn’t just Joe who’d sensed that Matt’s story wasn’t for real. And now bang went her excuse for avoiding Matt’s birthday day out.

  “Anyway, it’s good news for a certain someone that you can definitely come now,” OIlie winked at her.

  At his words, both Anna and Matt broke out into a cold sweat.

  “What are you on about, OIlie?” Anna asked, sounding slightly more high-pitched than she’d have liked.

  Does he know something? she fretted. Did Matt tell him what happened at the party?

  “Well, I shouldn’t tell you this-I’ve been sworn to secrecy and Kerry would absolutely kill me if she could hear me now…” Ollie smiled wickedly.

  “What?” Joe asked, innocent of his other friends” discomfort.

  ‘You’re never going to believe this, specially you, Anna,” sniggered Ollie, “but it seems like Sonja’s up for doing a Cupid with you and her brother. Who she just happens to be bringing along to Bushmeade Theme Park on Sunday!”

  Ollie had cheered up enormously when he’d come off stage the night before and found Peter turning his blue-eyed charm on Anna, instead of his girlfriend. He knew Kerry and Peter had a whole history of acquaintance that stretched back years, thanks to Kerry’s friendship with Sonja, but it really hacked him off that Peter was laying on the compliments thick and fast right in front of him, Kerry’s boyfriend. Who did he think he was?

  But Anna was Peter’s real target, he could see that now-and Kerry only confirmed it when she told him in secret later about Sonja’s schemes.

  “Me and Peter?” Anna positively squeaked.

  She hadn’t expected that bit of news, but at least it had nothing to do with Matt. Who at this point, she couldn’t help noticing, was hanging on every word.

  “So what do you reckon? Do you like him?” asked Ollie, wiggling his eyebrows up and down cheekily at her.

  Matt was straining every muscle towards her answer. It was one of the questions he’d been rehearsing in the car on the way over. So now tonight wouldn’t be a complete waste; at least he’d find out if she had any interest at all in Sonja’s brother…

  Doooooiiiinnnnngggggg!

  The sound of foot hitting ceramic reverberated around the room and everyone leapt up to catch the toppling urn.

  “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” apologised Zac, whose simple leg-crossing had inadvertently caused the near destruction of Vera’s ‘heirloom’.

  “It’s all right,” Anna assured him, propping the undamaged urn back up again with Matt’s help.

  “What are you doing with that thing anyway?” asked Matt, spotting the hard-to-miss object for the first time.

  “Don’t ask,” laughed Ollie. “All you need to know is that this flat ain’t big enough for one giant urn and four hulking blokes. C’mon, lads- maybe it’s time we got out of here before we wreck Anna’s place!”

  Anna smiled as they all pulled on their jackets and got ready to leave. She was doing her best not to make eye contact with Matt.

  “Sorry about the vase thing…” Zac blinked at her as she held the door open for him.

  “Don’t be-it’s fine. And I hope everything works out with Cat,” she smiled, leaning forward automatically and giving him a peck on the cheek.

  “My turn!” said Ollie brightly, pointing to his cheek and holding his face forward for Anna to kiss.

  Joe began to shuffle by hesitantly.

  “Bye, Joe,” she smiled, kissing his cheek quickly and knowing he’d blush.

  She hesitated as Matt came and stood in front of her. But that was stupid; she had to treat him like the others if she had any chance of getting their relationship back to normal.

  Fixing a smile on her face, she raised her eyes to his.

  “Bye, Anna…” he said softly, bending forward and kissing her on the lips.

  It only lasted a split second.

  But it was all Anna could think about for hours…

  CHAPTER 17

  CAT’S GLOOM, MATT FUMES…

  Joe looked at the blank sheet of paper, sighed and tried again.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, my father and Gillian…”

  He trailed off, completely stuck on what to say next. His dad’s wedding was only a few weeks off and, as best man, Joe was going to have to get his speech together soon. So, this Saturday morning, he’d taken a glass of orange juice and a bacon roll upstairs to his room and decided to get down to it at last.

  Only trouble was, he was finding it the hardest thing he’d ever had to write.

  It wasn’t as if Joe normally found it difficult to put pen to paper; in fact, he was much more comfortable-and much more fluent-with the written word than saying things out loud. He scored high marks in exams, when he could pour out all his knowledge silently via a biro, but his oral test in his French GCSE still left him with cringeworthy memories of stuttering and stammering over words he knew well in the face of a stern examiner.

  When it came to the band, Joe had come up with some of The Loud’s best songs, but the notion of people analysing the meaning of his lyrics freaked him out so much that he’d made Ollie agree to pretend he’d written them.

  And now…

  Well, yeah, I probably could come up with something about my dad, he admitted to himself. But standing up in front of everyone to say it? Having all eyes on me? Oh, God…

  Joe groaned and screwed up the piece of paper into a ball in despair. Then he groaned again at the thought of something else preying on his mind.

  While Matt was driving them home from Anna’s the night before-after dropping Zac off at the bus stop-Ollie had started talking about Cat. He was wondering how things would turn out with her dad, and brought up his worries again about seeing Eddie Osgood down a vodka surreptitiously at the bar of the Railway Tavern, while sticking religiously to mineral water back at the table.

  “I mean, what’s with the guy?” Ollie had asked rhetorically. “Is he a secret drinker or something?”

  Joe had said nothing, but his mind was racing. He’d kept Cat’s secret for a long time. Way back last summer, when Joe had been struggling with his own battle with booze, the turning point for him was when Cat had pulled him aside and told him in stark, depressing detail how her family had been torn apart by her father’s alcoholism.

  When Joe had heard that Cat’s father was back on the scene, he’d worried straight away. When he’d seen Eddie Osgood in the Railway Tavern the night before, he’d been relieved at first to see that he was drinking water and seemed sober. But then he’d noticed the trembling hands and now with Ollie mentioning the vodka…

  “Listen, lads, my dad told me some stuff earlier tonight,” Matt had begun, clutching the steering wheel tightly. “Apparently, Cat’s dad was a serious alcoholic. Like really bad. Selling just about everything they owned to buy booze, turning nasty when he was drunk…”

  “Did Cat’s mum tell your dad all this?” Ollie had asked, shocked.

  “Yeah-she’s
totally flipped out about him turning up. She thinks he’s still drinking, even though he’s pretending he’s quit, and it looks like she’s right,” Matt had shrugged. “But I’m not meant to be telling you this-my dad made me promise. It’s just that I’m really worried about Cat; I called her and tried to talk to her on the phone before I came round to Anna’s, but she just got hacked off with me and hung up.”

  Joe had stared silently out of the windscreen at the lights of the oncoming cars, knowing at that moment that the only person who might get through to Cat about all of this was him.

  “C’mon, Joe-you can’t bottle out of this as well,” Joe muttered to himself, getting to his feet and heading off downstairs to the phone.

  “Joe? What’s up?” Cat yawned lazily into the receiver. She’d been woken by the phone and tried to ignore it, thinking her mother or the answering machine would pick it up. Neither had, so she’d been forced to haul herself out of bed, grab her dressing gown and pad through to the living room to see who it was.

  “I, urn, just wanted to, uh…”

  “Hey, Joe, I don’t mean to be rude, but you woke me up here. So do you want to get on with it?” she said sleepily, cradling the phone between her shoulder and chin and wriggling into her dressing gown.

  “Cat, I… it’s just that, well, it’s your dad.”

  “What about him?” she asked, pausing as she tied the towelling belt.

  “It’s… it’s just that I thought you should know. He’s still drinking. I think. I mean, I’m pretty sure,” stammered Joe, taking the plunge.

  “No, he’s not!” Cat barked defensively. “He’s been sober for years! He told me! Where did you get this from?”

  “Well, it’s just that I put two and two together. The other night, you know, his hands were shaking and…”

  “Joe, I don’t want to hear this,” Cat said angrily. “Matt was doing my head in last night, ‘warning’ me about my dad. Well, I’m sorry if my so-called friends can’t be happy for me, but my father’s what’s important to me right now.”

  Cat slammed the phone down hard, then thinking Joe might phone back, she picked it up and left it off the hook.