Sugar Secrets…& Lies

by Mel Sparke

  “Nah, it’s all right,” said Ollie, clambering to his feet and holding out a hand to help Kerry up from the comfort of the deep, squashy sofa cushions. “The fresh air’ll probably be better for her, and anyway, I promised my folks I’d get back early and help tidy up at the pub. They’re short-staffed tonight.”

  Cat flipped her gaze from Ollie and Kerry over to Sonja, who seemed to be half-smiling all of a sudden. This was like a re-run of the other day at the fair. Some weird little thing was going on between the three of them…

  “I didn’t know you could lie so well!” giggled Kerry, enjoying the warmth of Ollie’s arm around her as they sauntered down the long, darkened lane that led to the main road from Matt’s house.

  “I only do white lies and I only do them for a good reason – like being alone with you,” he replied, squeezing her closer.

  Kerry’s heart surged. So much for her great intentions of pretending not to care about Ollie. How could she resist him? She still wasn’t sure what was going on, but she wasn’t about to complain.

  “Good old Sonja,” he said, out of the blue. “I wouldn’t have dared to make a move if it wasn’t for her.”

  “How come?” Kerry practically squeaked, her stomach lurching at the notion of Sonja disloyally blurting out confidences to Ollie.

  “All that hinting stuff she was doing at the fair last week,” he explained. “She’s as subtle as a brick, isn’t she? The way she was trying to pair us up… and the way you were reacting. I sussed then that I had a chance with you – that I wasn’t going to muck everything up, you know, with our friendship.”

  Kerry smiled to herself and immediately thought warm thoughts about Sonja.

  “You smell gorgeous,” said Ollie, nuzzling into her neck and feeling her curls tickle his face. “But you always smell gorgeous.”

  “It’s coconut – my conditioner. It’s the only thing that sorts my hair out. Kind of,” Kerry mumbled, immediately aware of how silly her words sounded in the circumstances. She also felt a rush of excitement: always smelled nice? How long had he noticed?

  “Ollie?” she began tentatively, not sure what to say next.

  “Yeah?” he answered softly.

  “What… I mean, why…?” she stumbled out.

  “What – you mean why this?” he laughed gently.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Well, I guess because for ages I’ve wondered what it would be like to kiss you and wondered if I’d ever have the chance.”

  Kerry felt her heart hammering above the sound of the gravel crunching under their feet.

  “And because I think you’re the most lovely, warm, real person I know. Is that enough?”

  Kerry was silent for a moment.

  “No!” she suddenly laughed, making Ollie start too.

  “OK,” he said, trying to carry on through their giggles. “How about I knew I’d fallen for you that day we all had a picnic down by the river. Remember?”

  Kerry remembered it well. She and Ollie had left the others and gone for a walk together along the towpath. She couldn’t remember what they’d been talking about – only that they’d stumbled on poor old Joe, in a right state. It was obvious that Joe had been drinking – in the middle of the afternoon – and Ollie had tried to sort him out, while Kerry ran back and covered for Ollie.

  Still, why had that been The Day for Ollie? Kerry wondered, before another thought struck her.

  “But you were with Elaine that day!” Kerry was unable to keep the surprise out of her voice.

  “I know,” Ollie acknowledged. “I remember what she was saying too. All that stuff about travelling being the only way to appreciate nature and get to see real people. And there you were – helping me, helping Joe. Doing stuff that mattered.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Kerry, desperate to understand every tiny detail.

  “Well, I realised right then that Elaine was one of those people who’s always searching for something, thinking brilliant things are far away in the distance. But you – you appreciate what’s around you now. People, friends – everything.”

  “Do I?” said Kerry, not really sure she understood completely, but too thrilled to ask him to explain it any further.

  “C’mere, you,” Ollie laughed again, pulling her to him and wrapping his arms round her waist. Standing in the unlit lane, with the smell of wild honeysuckle wafting all around them, they kissed for the second time that night.

  “Yoo-hoo!”

  Ollie and Kerry sprang apart.

  “Is that you guys? I can’t see a thing!”

  “Cat?” said Ollie, trying to focus on the figure that was clip-clopping in high heels towards them.

  “Hi! I thought you two could do with some company!”

  CHAPTER 9

  NOT QUITE TEN

  “On a scale of one to ten…”

  “Nine and a half.”

  “Why? Why not a full-blown ten?”

  Kerry swirled the spoon around in her cappuccino and shrugged. She still felt a little bit shy talking about Ollie, even though her voice was being practically drowned out in the café today. There were a whole load of little kids in, with accompanying mums, all stuffing their faces with sundaes and yelling their lungs out.

  “I guess once I see how everyone reacts to me and Ollie being together, then I can relax. Then I can be ten-out-of-ten happy,” she said finally, above the din.

  “Well, everyone sounded pretty pleased for you when I told them.”

  Kerry looked up at her friend, curiosity burning in her eyes. Sonja had offered to spill the beans to the others to spare Kerry and Ollie having to make any awkward ‘announcements’ about their new status. Sonja had guessed what was going on when they’d left Matt’s house together. The day after she’d popped into Slick Riffs after college and caught Kerry and Ollie in mid-smooch behind the counter.

  “Is that a special offer this week, Ollie?” she’d joked as she walked in on them. “Every customer gets a free snog?”

  “What did they all say?”

  “Let’s see,” said Sonja. “Maya tried not to sound surprised – ‘cause that’s not her style – but I knew she was. She said, and I quote, ‘Personality-wise, they complement each other very well.’”

  Kerry and Sonja giggled – it was exactly the sort of thing the analytical Maya Joshi would say. It wasn’t in her nature to be swept away by the spirit of romance.

  “Matt just went, ‘Whay-hey!’ or some laddish thing, then started talking about himself again,” Sonja continued, “and Joe said he was really chuffed for you both.”

  He hadn’t really said that, but Sonja wasn’t about to spoil the moment by telling Kerry that Joe had actually been pretty weird when she’d called him.

  “Hey Joey! Have I got some juicy news for you!” she’d blurted out.

  “Uh, oh yeah?” he’d answered cautiously. But then Joe always sounded cautious on the phone.

  “It seems that love is in the air…”

  “Wha-what do you mean?” he’d stammered.

  “Ollie and Kerry – they’re together!”

  There had been a long, long silence at the other end of the phone line.

  “Joe – are you still there?”

  “Uh, yeah,” he’d said finally. “That’s brilliant. Listen, I’m right in the middle of something. I’ll, uh, catch up with you later, OK?”

  Sonja supposed he was either gutted at the idea of having someone take his best mate away – although it hadn’t bothered him when Ollie was going out with Elaine. Or he was annoyed that Ollie hadn’t told him himself. But that couldn’t be helped.

  The kiddie racket was reaching epic proportions, while the mums fought a losing battle getting them to calm down. Kerry leant over the booth table to make herself heard.

  “What about Cat? What did she say?” she asked Sonja, an unexpected quiver of unease disturbing her good mood.

  “Cat? She was pretty intrigued, I think. Kept asking for more details.” Sonja ca
ught sight of the look of alarm on Kerry’s face. “Which I didn’t give, of course.”

  Relieved, Kerry nodded, but still felt strangely unsettled. Catrina was fascinated by the ins and outs of other people’s love-lives – whether it was someone at school, characters in Aussie soaps or real-life film stars. Kerry certainly didn’t want what she had with Ollie to be just another little entertaining diversion for Cat. But there was more to it than that… something else was bugging her.

  “I thought Cat might have guessed about us already. I thought she might have spotted us kissing in the lane together the other night when she caught us up.”

  “Nah, I don’t think so. She never let on anything like that when I told her,” said Sonja dismissively. “What about getting out of here and nipping next door to see Ollie? The noise in this place is doing my head in.”

  Kerry nodded in agreement. Counting out some coins, she signalled to Anna that she’d leave what they owed in the saucer.

  Scooping away empty, sticky dishes from full, sticky children, Anna gave her a wave of acknowledgement and mouthed the word “Help!”

  She seems good fun, thought Kerry, as she and Sonja headed out into the much more relaxing sound of roaring traffic. Anna kept to herself most of the time, but these rare glimpses of her sense of humour always intrigued Kerry, and she made a mental note there and then to try to get to know her better.

  “It’s funny with Anna, isn’t it?” said Kerry a little later, perched on a rickety old stool in the back room of Slick Riffs. “She’s always so friendly, but I still feel like I hardly know her.”

  “Uh-huh,” agreed Sonja distractedly, inspecting a moth-eaten chair before she dared put her bottom on it. “She seems pretty cool.”

  “Yeah, Anna is cool,” agreed Ollie, coming through to join the girls having just got rid of a customer. “We always have a laugh when I work in the caff, but she doesn’t give much away.”

  “Well, it’s not as if you’ve got much time for chatting in there. You’re too busy ‘cause Nick’s too mean to hire enough staff,” said Sonja. “How you and Anna cope with just Dorothy and Irene helping out I’ll never know.”

  “Tell me about it,” Ollie sighed. He’d agreed to help his uncle out temporarily at the End when he left school last summer, but in the absence of anything better coming along, it had become a little more permanent than Ollie had planned.

  Yet he did love the liveliness of the café and the banter he had with his girls’, Dorothy and Irene, both of whom were well into their sixties and doted on Ollie. And he loved it when he got to help out in the record shop too, as he had this past couple of weeks.

  “Of course, it would help if Nick actually worked a whole shift now and again, instead of sloping off to wholesalers and trade fairs and whatever else he makes excuses to do.”

  “Or whisking mystery girlfriends away for days out,” said Sonja.

  “Ah now, Sonja, I can’t blame him for that,” grinned Ollie, reaching over and circling his arms round Kerry’s waist. “There’s nothing wrong with a bit of romance…”

  “Oh, yes there is,” Sonja said with mock horror. “Like when my two mates go all mushy on me. Save it for later – puh-lease!”

  Kerry heard the phone ringing and idly wondered who’d be calling at this time of night. She could also hear her mum trying to shush Barney – he always started barking along with the trill of the phone.

  Two seconds later, there was a tap at her bedroom door.

  “It’s Catrina for you,” said her mum, peeking round the door and looking crossly at her watch, which translated as, “Can you remind your friends not to phone when your brother’s asleep?”

  Kerry ran down the stairs and, stepping over Barney, grabbed the receiver from the hall table.

  “Cat?” she said apprehensively.

  It wasn’t like Catrina to make social calls to Kerry. It was fine when they were out in the crowd together, but there’d never been any big one-to-one buddiness between them.

  “Hi, Kerry!” Cat’s voice buzzed brightly down the line. “I just wanted to phone and say how brilliant it is about you and Ollie getting together!”

  “Oh… thanks,” Kerry answered selfconsciously.

  “I’m sure you’ll be so happy,” Cat gushed.

  We’re not getting married, Kerry felt like saying, a little taken aback by Cat’s over-enthusiasm.

  “Ollie’s such a sweetheart!”

  “I know,” muttered Kerry.

  “He’s a real one-off – one of the nicest boys I’ve ever met!”

  “I know,” Kerry repeated.

  “I mean, you don’t get many boys who understand a girl’s feelings like Ollie does, do you?”

  “I guess not.”

  Kerry assumed that Cat was referring to the way Ollie had been really cool and still remained her friend after that whole disastrous episode when they’d gone out together. Not many boys would be thrilled to know they’d only been used to make another boy jealous.

  “Like the way he still keeps in touch with Elaine.”

  Keeps in touch with Elaine? What was Cat on about? Elaine had only been gone a couple of weeks. She’d promised to send him the occasional postcard on her travels, Kerry knew that much, but nothing had arrived yet, as far as she knew.

  “I mean, that business about her telling him it’s not too late to join her…”

  A cold shadow passed over Kerry.

  “Even now, for her to beg him to change his mind – it shows how special he must be to her… Of course, you two are together now, but it’s still sweet, isn’t it? Knowing that your boyfriend is so popular.”

  ‘Sweet’ wasn’t exactly the word Kerry would have chosen.

  CHAPTER 10

  FIRST DATE – LAST DATE?

  Glancing round Burger King, Kerry could see no sign of Ollie.

  Good, she thought. She’d been far too fidgety and uptight to fix herself up properly at home, so at least this gave her a chance to nip to the loo and see how bad/good/dishevelled she really looked.

  The smell of cleaning fluid caught the back of her throat and made her eyes water. Kerry felt slightly alarmed. This was only the third time she’d braved her contact lenses in public and she hoped they weren’t going to play up again.

  Grabbing a piece of loo roll, she leaned towards the brightly lit mirror and dabbed her eyes gingerly. That done, and glad of the emptiness of the toilets, she stepped back and gave herself a critical once-over.

  Hair: behaving badly as usual. The new, skinny, black hairband she’d bought didn’t feel particularly stable and she suspected her rebellious curls might just spring it off her head at any minute.

  Face: everything in place, but – God! – there was the start of a pink flush already, and she hadn’t even met up with Ollie yet!

  Clothes: OK white fitted T-shirt (she wished she’d worn her blue top – she was bound to spill something on this one) and smartish black trousers (she wished she’d worn her comfy combats).

  Kerry sighed at her reflection. This was supposed to be a special night, but she didn’t feel very special. This was her first proper date with Ollie. No hanging about in the café or record shop: no hanging around with the others. Just Kerry and Ollie. And the ghost of Elaine…

  Stop it! Kerry told herself. Ever since she’d spoken to Catrina on the phone, she hadn’t been able to shake off the thought of Elaine and of how much she might still mean to Ollie. Sonja, of course, had told her it was all nonsense.

  “What’s she on about?” Sonja had exclaimed when Kerry had phoned her immediately after Cat’s call. “No way is he in touch with E! She’s trekking round Outer-sodding Mongolia or wherever. How many phones or post offices do you think she comes across?”

  “I know, I know,” Kerry had mumbled unhappily.

  “And,” Sonja ranted on, “if Ollie was by some kind of miracle in contact with her, he’d have told us, wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t have kept that from us – he’s got no reason to!”
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br />   Unless he’s still slightly in love with her, worried Kerry, brushing dog hairs off her white T-shirt. Gathering up her jacket and bag, she left the sanctuary of the loos and headed back out into the loud, bustling burger bar.

  Kerry sipped her coffee, thinking how different it tasted from the cappuccino spat out by the ancient, gurgling machine back at the End-of-the-Line café. She wondered if the others would be there now, chatting and laughing companionably in their favourite booth, while she sat here gazing out at the drizzly high street. On her own.

  Burger King wasn’t the main venue for their date, naturally; it was just a handy spot to meet up before they went on to The Bell, round the corner. It had been Ollie’s idea to meet somewhere away from the others and to go out on their own.

  They were going to check out a band at The Bell. Mick – who used to play guitar in Ollie and Joe’s band, The Loud – had got himself a new group. Kerry used to quite fancy Mick at the same time as Sonja used to fancy his mate Rob, who’d been in the band too.

  It should be fun tonight, Kerry told herself. If Ollie ever comes…

  Forty minutes and two cups of cold coffee later, Ollie came barging through the door.

  “Kez! I’m so sorry!” he said breathlessly, flopping down into the plastic seat opposite her.

  Kerry, who’d spent the best part of an hour fretting herself into a frazzled tangle of nerves, didn’t know quite what she was meant to say.

  “Uh, it’s OK…” she muttered eventually. After having convinced herself that Ollie had either decided he’d made a terrible mistake or been run over by a bus (in her fragile state of mind, Kerry wasn’t sure which option she preferred), she was too much on edge to say anything more.

  “It was Cat,” gasped Ollie, his breath not quite steadying. “She came into the shop just as I was closing up.”

  It still didn’t add up. So Cat had dropped by – why did that make him so late?

  “She was just wittering on about a load of old rubbish – you know what she’s like,” he said, sounding more like himself. “I just couldn’t get rid of her!”

  You couldn’t have tried that hard, thought Kerry’s frazzled, hurt, distrustful side.