Sugar Secrets…& Lies

by Mel Sparke

  CHAPTER 14

  OFF AGAIN, ON AGAIN

  “Cat!”

  “Ollie! Oh, Ollie! It’s terrible, we missed the gig!” said Cat, spinning round at the sound of his voice through the still thronging crowd.

  Ollie’s face fell. He’d already bumped into the others briefly and found out that Kerry and Cat were coming to the concert on their own, and he’d been dying to find Kerry to ask her why they’d decided to do that.

  But she and Cat had missed the whole gig? He couldn’t believe it.

  “What happened?” he asked, glancing round for his missing girlfriend.

  “Oh, it’s my fault! I got in a muddle with the train times and then we got stuck on the train for ever,” said Cat, waving her hand vaguely. “It was awful! I got so stressed out, though Kerry was having a laugh about it.”

  “A laugh?” Ollie said incredulously.

  “Oh, yes,” Cat nodded. “When we realised we’d only caught the very end of your last song – well, she just cracked up.”

  Ollie stared at Cat aghast. Kerry found it funny that they’d not been here for something that was so important to him?

  “Where is she now?”

  “Kerry?” said Cat, arching her eyebrows innocently. “Um, I couldn’t find her when I came out of the loo just now, but I think I spotted her over by the bar, chatting to a bunch of lads.”

  Ollie blinked furiously.

  “So I thought I’d just leave her to it and come and find you and the others, Ollie.”

  Cat had never seen Ollie look so hurt.

  “Where have you been? We’ve been looking for you!”

  Maya was relieved to come across Kerry at long last, but was slightly perplexed at finding her standing vacantly by a sink in the Marshall Hall loos.

  “I was just waiting for Catrina,” Kerry smiled weakly, pointing at the row of closed doors.

  “What? But she’s outside. I saw her talking to Ollie a minute ago!”

  “Oh, I thought she was taking a long time…” said Kerry, staring at the pale grey doors as if some kind of explanation might pop out of them.

  She racked her brains. The last thing Cat had said to her after they’d come in here was, “Wait for me! Don’t go without me!” Wasn’t it?

  Maya looked at her friend quizzically.

  “Have you been crying? Your eyes look red…”

  “Uh, no,” Kerry lied, feeling too stupid after her tearful outburst to admit it to someone as matter-of-fact as Maya. “It’s these contacts playing me up again.”

  “Kerry, you’ve got your specs on.”

  Flipping round to the mirror, Kerry was mortified to see that Maya was right. And it wasn’t just her eyes that gave her away – her nose was red and damp too. There was no point in hiding it.

  “I got in a bit of a state…”

  “Why?” said Maya, putting a protective arm around her.

  “We got here pretty late.”

  “Oh, Kez, you wanted to see Ollie! How much of the gig did you miss?”

  “Everything, except for the last ten seconds…”

  “Ah.”

  “I couldn’t help it – I just started blubbing. So Cat took me in here till I sorted myself out. Then we both needed the loo and I thought I was supposed to wait…”

  Kerry trailed off, feeling too utterly exhausted from sheer disappointment and confusion to finish her sentence.

  Fishing about in her bag, Maya pulled out an old-fashioned silver powder compact and began dabbing the sponge on Kerry’s nose. Maya’s warm-coloured powder wasn’t exactly the right shade for Kerry’s freckly white skin, but it did manage to dull down the ferocious redness of her nose.

  “There, that’s better,” soothed Maya. “Now let’s go and look for your boy!”

  “Ollie! Wait!”

  After a quick post-mortem of the gig with his parents, Ollie was about to return to the backstage area and help pack away the gear with the other band members. At the sound of Kerry’s voice he turned, but didn’t let go of his grip on the Artists Only door handle.

  “Ollie! I’m sorry! We got here too late!”

  “Yeah, Cat explained,” he answered Kerry dryly. “She said it was all her fault for getting the train times wrong.”

  Kerry’s heart, which had been pounding like mad as she tried to catch her breath, suddenly missed a beat. Something was wrong – really wrong. She’d never seen Ollie’s normally animated, friendly face so stony and cold.

  “Ollie? I-I’m really gutted about missing you…”

  “Uh-huh? I heard you were having quite a laugh about it, actually.”

  Her mind racing crazily, Kerry tried to figure out what he was getting at.

  Then it dawned on her. Had Cat told him about that moment, that split second, when Kerry had started giggling madly at the ridiculousness of the whole night? That split second before she started crying? Had Cat mentioned the crying part to Ollie? It didn’t seem like it…

  “But Ollie, I—”

  “So who was it you got talking to all this time?”

  “What do you mean?”

  By this point, Kerry was completely stressed out. Her nerves had been so stretched for the last few days that she didn’t have much energy left to figure out what the hell it was that Ollie meant now.

  “Cat said she lost you, but then she thought she saw you by the bar with some lads.”

  “What?”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, Ollie knew he was being stupid. The crushed look on Kerry’s face said everything and, instantly, he dropped the cold front.

  “Kerry…” he said, letting go of the door and reaching out for her hands. She didn’t move. She looked too frozen to the spot with misery to respond. “I was just so disappointed when I came off stage and you weren’t there. I must have picked it up all wrong from Cat. I’m sorry…”

  Kerry felt his arms wind around her and his lips tenderly kiss her forehead. She’d had a miserable evening, but this made it all worth while. Almost.

  “I don’t like it,” hissed Sonja. “She’s up to something!”

  Kerry, wrapped up in her happiness with Ollie, wished she hadn’t told Sonja and Maya the whole story.

  “Look, it’s all just misunderstandings. It’s just one of those nights,” she tried to reason, her voice dropped low, although it was pointless whispering. The thundering of the late-night train didn’t allow for much eavesdropping from neighbouring seats, and a swift glance along the corridor into the next compartment showed that Cat was still very much engaged in flirting with some boys from college.

  The four girls had all had to resort to the train after Ollie’s parents decided to go on to a party with some of their old friends from the ska band, and Matt had ended up driving Joe, Ollie and various bits of musical equipment home in his Golf.

  “She knew that train was cancelled. She deliberately made you late.”

  “Son, that’s mad!” Kerry protested. “How could she know? And what would be the point of making me miss the gig?”

  “I haven’t worked that out yet,” muttered Sonja darkly. “But all that stuff she told Ollie – that was out of order.”

  “It was just a stupid mistake! She’s already said sorry, me and Ollie are fine, so there’s no harm done!”

  “You’re too gullible and too forgiving, Kerry Bellamy,” said Sonja, shaking her blonde head from side to side.

  “And you seem to think you’re in an episode of the X Files! There’s nothing bizarre going on here. Tell her, Maya!”

  Kerry looked pleadingly at her super-sensible friend. Maya gave her pretty nose a twitch and considered her response.

  “It’s too much of a coincidence. I think Sonny’s right.”

  “God, you’re as bad as Agent Scully here!” Kerry sighed.

  “And all that stuff about my Auntie Sylvia being jealous of her and some new bloke… What a load of rubbish!”

  “How can you say that, Sonja! How can you know that for sure?” Ker
ry kicked herself for spilling Cat’s secrets. Whatever Cat was like, surely Sonja didn’t think she’d make up something as heavy as that?

  “Come on, Kerry – Sylvia? She’s too up herself to care about – let alone fancy – some oik that Cat’s supposed to be seeing.”

  “Oh, yeah? And how well do you really know your aunt?” asked Maya, ever the realist. “She hardly pays Cat any attention, so when did she last come round and let you know what’s going through her mind?”

  Sonja shrugged away Maya’s common sense. It was ruining a perfectly good conspiracy theory.

  “Well, I just think she’s up to something.”

  Some frazzled nerve ending that had been stretched too far suddenly snapped inside Kerry.

  “For Cod’s sake, shut up!” she shouted way too loud at Sonja. It wasn’t what she’d meant, but all Kerry wanted was for life to be calm and uncomplicated. For a change.

  “Fine,” snapped Sonja, grabbing her personal stereo from her bag and jamming the headphones over her ears.

  Oh, God, thought Kerry. Right now, the last thing I need is to fall out with my best friend…

  CHAPTER 15

  FRIENDSHIP FALL-OUT

  Lewis and Ravi were perched on top of the climbing frame having a shouting competition.

  Kerry and Maya were sitting on a park bench with their backs to them, hoping no one would suspect that they were related.

  “It’s been two days now and she still hasn’t spoken to me,” shrugged Kerry.

  “Have you tried talking to her?”

  No…”

  Maya sighed. Sometimes her friends seemed to make their lives so complicated: Cat in a tizz but still finding time to make mischief; Ollie going all huffy about nothing; Kerry letting herself get wound up; Sonja taking offence so easily… Thank God Joe and Matt were OK. For the moment.

  “Look, I know you were feeling a bit emotional, but you shouldn’t have snapped at Sonja like that.”

  “I know…”

  “It’s not like you.”

  “I know…”

  “You should tell her you’re sorry.”

  “I know…”

  Kerry’s shoulders were sinking further and further down. Maya saw that she didn’t have to push the point any more.

  “So,” she said, easing off the subject, “everything cool again with Ollie, then?”

  “Oh, yeah,” nodded Kerry, a smile automatically springing to her face. “Everything’s sorted. It’s really, really good.”

  “I’m glad,” said Maya, relieved that her two friends had seen sense and worked things out.

  “You know,” Kerry sighed, “sometimes I can’t believe we’re really, you know, together…”

  “It’s hard for us to believe too. I don’t mean that in a horrible way,” Maya added quickly. “It’s just that we’ve all had to stop thinking of you two as part of the gang and get it into our heads that you’re, well, going out.”

  “You’re OK about it, aren’t you?” asked Kerry tentatively.

  “Yes, of course! As long as you’re both happy, and as long as it doesn’t affect us all as friends.”

  It was something Maya was keen to get across. As far as she could see, it already was having an effect – that was the trouble. And if it got any worse, they’d all end up siding with different people and it would be all over for the crowd.

  OK, so it wasn’t a perfect friendship all the time. Sonja’s bossiness, Matt’s selfishness and Cat’s, well, obnoxiousness could cause friction and the odd flare-up, but they all had good fun and were pretty good friends in spite of that. And after growing up feeling like an outsider, Maya wasn’t about to give up on this bunch of people who’d made her feel as if she fitted in for the first time in her life.

  “I know what you’re saying, Maya! That whole thing’s the reason I thought nothing would ever happen with me and Ollie. Well, that and the fact that I never thought I had a chance with him,” Kerry laughed ruefully. “But, honestly, me and Ollie are fine.”

  “Well, how come he was so quick to think badly of you on Sunday night?” Maya felt slightly rotten at bursting Kerry’s bubble of romantic bliss, but she really did want to know why people who were meant to be in love could mess things up so easily.

  Before she answered, Kerry glanced round to see what the little boys were up to – it had gone ominously quiet. They’d moved to the sandpit and were silently and seriously constructing something using an empty water bottle and a discarded, broken spade.

  “He was just over-emotional, I guess,” she finally replied. “It was a big night for him, you know? After being so proud and excited, he was just really gutted that I’d missed it and—”

  “—and didn’t seem to care,” Maya finished for her.

  “You don’t really suppose Cat deliberately tried to make him think badly of me, do you?”

  “I don’t know, Kerry,” shrugged Maya. “I mean I usually tend to give her the benefit of the doubt, but…”

  “You don’t think she’s lying about all that stuff she told me, do you?”

  “About arguing with her mum?”

  Kerry nodded.

  “I think that’s probably true to some extent – but the secret love thing sounds a bit far-fetched. It sounds like one of her ‘Look at me! Look at me!’ attention-seeking ploys.”

  “Really? You think she’d go as far as lying?”

  Kerry should have ‘gullible’ written all over her forehead, thought Maya. All the others tended to be able to spot when Cat crossed the line between truth and fiction for dramatic effect. But Kerry always tried to see the best in people – that was her problem.

  “Like Sonja said to me this morning—”

  “What, you spoke to Sonja this morning?” Kerry interrupted.

  “Yeah, I bumped into her on the way to school.”

  “What else was she saying?”

  Maya winced. She didn’t want to get into being a go-between for them. It had been bad enough when the two of them had fallen out over Ollie’s sister. Maya didn’t want it to get to that stage between her two mates again.

  “Why don’t you ask her yourself? It’s silly, you two not talking.”

  “I know, I know. I’ll fix it! But what else did she say?”

  “Well,” said Maya, giving in, “Sonja thinks Cat’s trying to break you and Ollie up.”

  “But that’s mad! Why would she do that?”

  “MAYAMAYAMAYA!” interrupted a voice at high volume. “Ravi says he’s so hungry his tummy HURTS!”

  “Oh, look at the time!” Maya gasped, checking her watch. “I’d better get back for tea. Let’s get going, eh, Rav?”

  “Yes, or Sunny will eat all of ours!”

  Maya rolled her eyes at the mention of her younger sister’s name. She had forgotten that she’d promised her folks that she’d help Sunita out with her art project (which probably meant she’d end up doing it all, knowing Sunny and her lazy streak). All that and an essay of her own to write.

  “I’ll speak to you later, Kez,” she waved to her friend, as Ravi grabbed her hand and started dragging her away.

  “But—” said Kerry.

  “Go home and phone Sonja,” Maya called over her shoulder. “Get this sorted.”

  “OK…” Kerry answered dubiously.

  What on earth was going on in Sonja’s mind to come up with something like that? Things weren’t quite adding up with Cat at the moment, but some bizarre notion of her trying to break up her mates’ relationship wasn’t the answer.

  What a bitchy thing for Sonja to say! thought Kerry.

  “KERRYKERRYKERRY!”

  “What is it, hon?” she asked her brother in exasperation.

  “Can we have our tea?”

  “We already did, Lew – before we came out to the park. Remember?”

  “Oh,” said Lew thoughtfully, rubbing his tummy which had come out in sympathy hunger pangs with Ravi. “I forgot…”

  “I don’t like Ollie!”

/>   “Huh? Since when?”

  Kerry was taken aback by her little brother’s reaction. The times she’d taken him along when she was meeting the others, he’d always made a beeline for Ollie.

  Typically, all kids were drawn to Ollie. He’d have them giggling in minutes with all his goofing around and silly jokes. And all her friends liked Lewis – he was a cute (if loud) kid. She only lived in dread of Lewis opening his mouth one day in front of Cat and coming out with the nickname he had for her.

  As a three-year-old, he’d said – after a visit from an over-made-up Cat – “who was that lady clown?” It had kind of stuck in Kerry’s family ever since.

  Uncharacteristically, Lewis stayed silent.

  “C’mon, Lew – what made you say that?”

  His pronouncement had come when Kerry had suggested they go and drop in on Ollie. The Swan, his mum and dad’s pub, was just through the gates on the other side of the park. She felt like catching up with Ollie and seeing how he was enjoying working back at the End, now that Bryan had returned from his holiday and Ollie’s stint at the record shop was over.

  “Just don’t like him,” shrugged Lewis.

  “Aw, you’ve got to tell me, Lew – that’s not fair!” she cajoled him.

  “He makes you sad,” he said suddenly.

  Momentarily stunned, Kerry stared down at her brother, who was trying to untangle a yo-yo from his fingers as he walked along.

  “Why do you think that, Lew?”

  ‘“Cause you see him all the time now, but you keep crying.”

  It was ridiculous but true, Kerry realised. Since going out with Ollie, she’d gone through times of being more upset than she could ever remember before. It was stupid! She was meant to be happy now that she was with the one person she cared for the most.

  Right, she decided. From now on in this relationship, no more misunderstandings, no more moping. Just bliss, bliss, bliss…

  “Don’t be silly,” she smiled at Lewis, squeezing his hand as they strode through the park gates and turned into the busy road. “He makes me very happy. He’s like – like my special friend.”

  “Your BOYfriend, you mean,” sniffed Lewis.

  “Yep, my boyfriend,” she laughed, seeing the slightly disgusted look on Lewis’s face.