Sugar Secrets…& Lies

by Mel Sparke

  “Well, I think—”

  But while Ollie and Sonja were trying to analyse the strange inner workings of Cat’s mind and figure out what to do, Kerry was already dialling Matt’s number on the cafés payphone.

  “Mmm, this should be interesting,” said Sonja pointing out three cars parked in the street outside the modern mansion block where Cat lived.

  Her Auntie Sylvia’s silver Vectra was closest to them, in a residents’ only space, while Matt’s dark blue Golf was further along, overshadowed by Nick’s chunky Shogun jeep.

  “Looks like we’re fashionably late for the party,” joked Ollie, but he wasn’t smiling.

  Climbing the stairs to the third-floor flat, they could all hear the muffled sound of raised voices.

  “You stupid, stupid girl!”

  “But, Mum! I didn’t-I didn’t mean to—”

  “I can’t be bothered with this childish behaviour, Catrina. I really can’t!”

  “But, Mum! Honest! Please…”

  Sonja stared at Kerry and Ollie who, like her, were frozen outside the front door. Quickly, she pressed the doorbell.

  “Oh good God! What are you lot? The cavalry?” sighed Cat’s mum, opening the door to her niece and her two friends.

  She turned away from them and walked back towards the kitchen. They took the fact that she hadn’t slammed the door on them to be the closest thing to an invitation they were likely to get.

  “Nick, come on – let’s go. I’ve had enough of this farce,” barked Cat’s mum, scooping up her packet of cigarettes and gold lighter from the kitchen table and running her other hand through her shiny helmet of hair.

  Still in the short hallway behind her, Sonja, Ollie and Kerry all pressed themselves against the expensive wallpaper and made way for Sylvia to stride past them, with a slightly bashful-looking Nick in tow. He nodded imperceptibly towards them and nervously shoved the sleeves of his leather jacket further up his arms.

  As the front door latch clicked shut, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief, and only then ventured towards the kitchen.

  None of them was quite expecting the sight that met their eyes.

  Matt was sitting on the far side of the kitchen table, cradling a silently sobbing Catrina in his arms, gently rocking her to and fro.

  “I just couldn’t stand to see you two in love.”

  Kerry and Ollie both felt delicious prickles of embarrassment mixed with revelation race across their skin. Neither had brought up the ‘L’ word yet; it was strange and exciting to hear someone say it out loud.

  Cat crumpled up another soggy tissue and chucked it towards the steadily growing pile on the kitchen table.

  “I’ve never been lucky when it comes to boys,” she shrugged sadly, seemingly oblivious to Matt – who was still sitting protectively next to her – and their whole tangled past.

  Of course that could be a dig, innocently disguised, thought Kerry, who didn’t underestimate Cat’s powers of manipulation for one second now. Cat had admitted it all to them in the last hour: the lie about dating Nick; the way she’d deliberately tried to drive a wedge between Kerry and Ollie through misinformation and half-truths.

  Now Cat was trying to explain to the others – and to herself – why she’d done it.

  “Then I see you two,” she sniffed, pointing at Ollie and Kerry, “all cosy together, and I keep thinking – why not me? Why couldn’t it have worked out with you and me, Ollie?”

  “Well, what about the fact that we didn’t fancy each other?” said Ollie, giving her a lopsided grin. He hoped she wasn’t going to start on Matt next. That was a whole can of worms that nobody, least of all Matt, wanted opened up again.

  “I know, I know,” shrugged Cat. “But why doesn’t anyone want to go out with me? What’s wrong with me?”

  With an ear-splitting trumpet, she blew her nose again. Everyone waited in silence for her next proclamation.

  “And when even my mother ends up with a boyfriend, I just thought – that’s it! I’m a failure…”

  “But was it the fact that she was seeing Nick that bothered you?” Ollie asked gently.

  “No! Well, a bit…” Cat alternately shook then nodded her head. “I mean, I’m the young, pretty one – she’s past it!”

  Sonja and Matt exchanged withering glances at Cat’s lack of modesty and tact, but let it pass.

  “And it just pissed me off that she can end up with someone while I’m on my own. And Nick – well, he’s someone I know! I don’t go barging into her world; why should she get involved with mine?”

  “OK, I guess we all get your point,” Ollie pacified her. “But why did you tell us you were going out with Nick?”

  “Dunno, really…” said Cat, dabbing at her mascara-streaked cheeks. “I just wanted to pretend to have a boyfriend so I could feel a bit more special or important – or something, I guess.”

  “Yeah, but if you’d carried on with the secret boyfriend story, we wouldn’t have been any the wiser,” Sonja interrupted. “Why did you go and tell Ollie and Kerry that it was Nick?”

  “I don’t know-it just came out. I just saw you and you,” sighed Cat, looking at Kerry and Ollie, “being all lovey-dovey in the pub together and flipped out. I wanted to shock you. So I came up with the first thing I could think of.”

  “But Nick!” Ollie cackled. “You could have come up with a better pretend boyfriend than him, surely!”

  Along with the others, Kerry started laughing. Trust Ollie to try and lighten the atmosphere. She looked over at him lovingly, happy to see his cheeky grin back in place.

  “So anyone up for a bet?” Ollie asked, clapping his hands together and glancing round the table.

  “What on?” asked Sonja, wondering what Ollie was playing at.

  “How long the budding romance is going to last between my dopey uncle and your old witch of a mother,” he proclaimed, giving a nod in Cat’s direction. Giggles started to overcome her snivelling.

  “Cool! I bet a tenner that it doesn’t last the night!” said Matt enthusiastically. “You should have seen the look on Nick’s face when Cat’s mum turned into a shrieking dragon. He looked ready to turn and run right there and then!”

  “Oh, you guys are the best!” gushed Cat, standing up and reaching across to plant wet-nosed kisses and hugs on Matt, Sonja and now Kerry.

  Wiping the wet patch off her cheek, Sonja turned to Kerry. “Why don’t we give Joe and Maya a call and see if they fancy coming round? We might as well try and make this more of a party than a wake.”

  “Good idea,” nodded Ollie.

  “Oh yes, let’s!” Cat sniffed, looking strangely young now that she had sobbed off all her make-up.

  “Sure,” said Kerry. “I’ll go and give them a call right now.”

  “Kerry, you’re a darling, you really are!” Cat gave her a wobbly smile as Kerry headed out of the room.

  It is better to forgive than… something, thought Kerry warmly, trying to dredge her memory for the appropriate phrase.

  Yeah, so Cat could be a pain in the neck, but she’d been going through a harder time than any of them had realised.

  And. it’s not as though she’s spoiled anything between me and Ollie, Kerry realised. In fact, if anything, it’s made us stronger…

  Smiling at the sounds of laughter and chat coming from the kitchen, Kerry stretched the cord of the phone so that she could peek back along the hall at her friends.

  “Hello?” said Joe, hearing only a deep sigh at the other end of the line. “Hello?”

  Will Cat never learn? thought Kerry in the darkness of the corridor, as she watched Ollie trying to struggle out of Cat’s over-enthusiastic hug and let’s-make-up embrace.

  Tongues and everything, as Lewis would have said…

  Sugar SECRETS …

  …& Freedom

  “Sounds like your Sunday night was as bad as mine,” sighed Maya.

  “Yeah?” said Joe. “What’s happened with you?”

 
; Joe was keen to hear someone else’s moans – it made him feel better about his own predicament. He’d just told his friends about the previous evening, which had gone downhill after he’d agreed to the parental visit.

  His mum had made him call up his father there and then, which was bad enough, but after a few awkward words and arrangements, his dad had had the not-so-brilliant notion to pass him on to Gillian. Trying to make polite conversation with the woman who your dad had run off with wasn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world.

  A sudden thump on his arm brought Joe down to earth again.

  “What are you talking about now? You’re not still moaning on about your dad are you, Joe?” said Ollie playfully, pulling a seat from another table and joining his friends at the booth in the big bay window of the café.

  He knew how difficult Joe found the whole situation and, while he was glad that his friend was opening up about it in front of the others, but he instinctively felt that a bit of humour would lighten things up.

  “And what are you doing, Ollie?” Sonja teased him. “Skiving off on another break?”

  “Well, there’s hardly anyone in except you lot,” he grinned, gazing round the café. “And I’m sure my fellow workers can spare me for a moment.”

  “Oi!” said Anna from behind the counter, flinging a balled-up tea towel at his head.

  Stretching out, Matt caught the unravelling cloth neatly, before it landed smack-bang on Catrina’s perfectly made-up face.

  “Sorry, Catrina!” Anna apologised. “I was aiming for the lazy little git in the apron, but he ducked.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Anna – I’ll kick him for you, if you like,” Cat replied brightly. “If that’s OK with you, Kerry.”

  Kerry shrugged. “Oh go ahead. He’s a rotten boyfriend anyway.”

  “Why am I a rotten boyfriend?” Ollie blinked pitifully at Kerry.

  “‘Cause you got us all excited about the club at The Bell on Friday, and you went and got the date wrong!” she said, trying to sound stern – but spoiling it all by breaking into a grin.

  “What?” yelped Sonja and Matt in unison.

  “OK, I’m guilty – the club is next month. Oops!” shrugged Ollie.

  “You mean I went through a whole heap of hassle with my parents for nothing last night?”

  Everyone turned to look at Maya. For the first time, they noticed that her normally serene expression had vanished. Instead, she seemed tense, and brushed her curtains of shiny dark hair back behind her ears in a more agitated way than usual.

  “So, uh, what’s the story? What went on last night?” asked Joe, realising that he’d already asked this question, but never received an answer.

  “Oh, just the usual rubbish,” May snapped unhappily. “Just no, you can’t do this; no, you can’t do that; no, you can’t be trusted. That sort of thing.”

  The others were silent for a second: the one person they never expected to lose their cool was Maya, and here she was on the verge of… something.

  “But where did this come from, Maya?” asked Cat, studying her friend’s face. She was aware that she never completely understood Maya – after all, Cat invested most of her time thinking about herself – but to see her friend looking so upset was unsettling. “I mean, we know your folks are hot on you studying all the time and everything, but you get on pretty well with them, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yes,” said Maya, laying on the sarcasm thick. “I get on great with them as long as I get good grades, look after my brother and sister, do what I’m told – and have no life!”

  Once again, everyone was silenced.

  Maya didn’t flip out. Maya didn’t have problems. She was the one who sailed sensibly through everything: she was the one who was reasoned, calm and balanced, while Cat, Sonja, Joe, Kerry, Matt or Ollie goofed up, stressed out or said the wrong thing.

  Maya was untouchable, unshakeable; she was the rock. But now something had shaken her up, and that shook them all up.

  “But I thought you kind of got off on all that studying?” said Sonja lamely.

  Maya rolled her eyes. “Just because I’m smart doesn’t mean I enjoy everything I do.”

  Coming from anyone else, it might have sounded big-headed, but they all understood what Maya meant. The top stream in every subject was her natural home, and no one could deny how brainy she was.

  “OK, so your parents are a bit strict and everything,” Sonja continued, trying to make sense of what was going on, “but they don’t stop you coming out with us, do they?”

  As soon as the words were out of her mouth, everyone realised that that wasn’t quite true. There had been plenty of occasions when Maya had bailed out from an outing, and none of them had ever pushed her for an explanation.

  Without spelling it out, they understood that when Maya said no, she meant no, and it wasn’t necessarily her choice.

  “But even during term time, you’re here at the End most days after school with us, aren’t you?” Kerry ventured, trying to say something positive.

  Maya gave a hollow laugh.

  “Yes, but only because my parents assume I’m actually at home studying. By the time Mum commutes back from the city and Dad finishes surgery, it’s nearly seven. I’m always safely back in my room by then, working hard like the good little daughter I’m supposed to be.”

  “What about the nights we all go out?” asked Joe, amazed at the notion of Maya being in any way a liar. “What do you tell them, then?”

  “Oh, I try to stick to the truth – it’s just that I don’t tell them the whole truth,” she answered, her gaze dropping to the table. “It’s like, when I’ve been to see bands with you guys, well, I tell them that’s a concert. And that seems fine, as long as they don’t realise it’s in the back of a pub or in a venue that has a bar or whatever.”

  “What about my parties? You come to plenty of them,” said Matt.

  His house parties were legendary: a den with its own sound system, a fridge full of pizza and beer – Matt was never short of guests.

  “Well, they’ve never met your dad, but they know who he is,” Maya pointed out, referring to Matt’s very influential, very rich property developer father. “That makes you sound quite respectable.”

  Cat burst out laughing. “Mr Love Pants!? Respectable? Who are you kidding?”

  Matt shot her a cutting look. The last thing needed at this point was any of Cat’s barbed little comments.

  “Of course, the other thing is…” Maya hesitated. “Well, they think you’re only sixteen.”

  “What?” Matt burst out, suddenly offended.

  “And they think you’re still at Bartdale’s.”

  “But I left the place more than a year ago!” he protested, shuddering at the memory of the private school where he’d boarded for more years than he cared to remember.

  “Yes, but if I told them you were an 18-year-old unemployed wannabe DJ, who dossed around at his daddy’s expense, hosting drunken parties whenever possible, do you think they’d let me set foot in your driveway, never mind your house?”

  “Uh, I guess not,” said Matt, reeling slightly from Maya’s unflattering description of himself.

  “Ouch!” said Ollie quietly, wincing as he watched Matt wither under Maya’s gaze.

  Matt prided himself on being up with the latest dance music, up with the latest fashion, popular with half the girls in Winstead (make that the county). To find himself reduced to the level of chancer/scrounger on the part of Maya kind of took his breath away.

  But then, that was Maya for you. Kerry was just a sweetheart, Sonja was his buddy, and Cat – well, Cat was another matter. But Maya could always slay him with her ultra-direct talking.

  “It’s just that I’ve had enough of it,” Maya pronounced, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead with the palm of her hand. A vision of her father reading over her homework before she handed it appeared in her head. Wasn’t that what teachers were there for?

  “So what ar
e you going to do?” asked Kerry, staring earnestly through her wire specs.

  “That’s the problem,” sighed Maya despairingly, without opening her eyes. “What the hell can I do?”

  SOME SECRETS ARE JUST TOO GOOD TO KEEP TO YOURSELF!

  Sugar Secrets…

  1 … & Revenge

  2 … & Rivals

  3 … & Lies

  4 … & Freedom

  5 … & Lust

  DO YOU YEARN FOR FREEDOM?

  Maya’s frustrations have suddenly boiled over and are now dominating almost her every thought. But it’s a very familiar scenario.

  Are your parents driving you crazy? Do you wish you had more say in your own life? Try our quiz and see how you score…

  SO, DO YOU YEARN FOR FREEDOM?

  Conclusion 1

  Your parents drive you mad – but, hey, welcome to the club. What you’ve got to do is find a way of getting your point of view across, without resorting to screaming arguments: to get them to agree that you’ll take on board what they have to say, if they’ll do the same for you!

  If only Maya could get her parents to see it like that…

  Conclusion 2

  Most of the time, you have an OK relationship with your parents, but there are times when you resent the way they try to tell you what life’s all about. Of course, they’re right sometimes – but then so are you!

  Maya’s relationship with her mum and dad feels unbearable right now – will they ever let her grow up and lead her own life?

  Copyright

  Published in Great Britain by Collins in 1999

  Collins is an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishersLtd

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

  The HarperCollins website address is www.fireandwater.com

  9 8 7 6 5 4 3

  Copyright © 1999 Sugar Ltd. Licensed by TLC.

  ISBN 0 00 675441 4

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