Caught Inside

by Mandi Greenwood

  'And now?' he asked quietly. She liked how the moonlight made his brown eyes shine softly.

  'Now,' she said. 'I'd die if I had to leave Seamere… and if I had to leave you.'

  'Same.' He brushed her hair off her forehead. 'I'm so grateful that your family came to Seamere. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, Ais.'

  She buried her face in his neck. 'Likewise,' she said.

  'What do you think the chances are of us finding a bedroom just for the two of us?' he whispered.

  'No chance,' she told him. 'There are two bedrooms. One for the boys and one for the girls. That's it.'

  'You can come and sleep in the boys' room with me then,' he suggested obligingly.

  'Right! With the others snoring and farting all around me?'

  'Have you got a problem with that?' He was laughing now. 'Ah well,' he said. 'We can always stay out here, or sleep on the couch.' He rolled out of the banana lounge and pulled her to her feet. 'Come on. Let's go and check out the situation.'

  'The situation sucks…' she began.

  'We'll work it out.' He slipped his arms around her waist and leaned his forehead against hers. 'I'm not wasting tonight sleeping across some hallway from you. I don't care where we end up so long as we end up somewhere together.'

  She smiled and rested her chin on his shoulder as he held her, her gaze wandering around the darkened garden.

  'Where does that lead?' She pointed to a cobbled path snaking away from the deck and into the garden. 'Maybe there's another part of the house we haven't seen yet. We may get some privacy yet.'

  'Only one way to find out.' Chandra led her down the two steps from the deck and along the path. It curved around the side of the house and ended at a small building. 'Aw crap. It's just a garden shed,' he said, disappointed.

  'It's a bit posh for a shed, isn't it?' Aisley stood on tiptoes and tried to look through the window but it was pitch black inside and she could see nothing. She tried the door, almost positive it would be locked but the knob turned easily in her hand and she pushed the door open.

  The moonlight flooded in and they stood on the threshold, looking about. The floor was wooden boards and they could make out the shapes of pieces of furniture. Chandra fumbled his hand along the wall and flicked on the light switch, washing the whole place with bright radiance.

  'This is no garden shed,' he murmured. 'Are we allowed in here, do you think?'

  She shrugged. 'I guess so.' There was an overstuffed couch under the window with a table next to it. A cast-iron bed sat in the other corner and there was another door with a tiny bathroom beyond.

  Chandra shut the door gently behind them. 'Can we sleep here?'

  Aisley crept over and peered into the bathroom. She nodded. 'I reckon we can.'

  'Sweet!' Chandra took two running steps and jumped straight into the middle of the big bed. He pulled off his pirate boots one at a time and flung them onto the floor.

  Aisley joined him, crawling across the mattress. When he reached for her she pointed at the door. 'Is that locked?'

  'Yep.'

  She fumbled with her hair ornament but it got tangled so he helped, gently pulling strands of hair free from the silver chains and diamonds. When it came loose he tossed it onto the bedside table.

  'Let's turn off the light,' she begged.

  'Not yet.' He tugged hard at the clip on the back of her bathers.

  'Careful,' she scolded him. 'You're going to break it.'

  'It can't be that hard to undo,' he muttered. 'Has it got a combination lock or something?'

  She burst out laughing. 'You are so adorable,' she told him, taking his face in her hands and kissing him on the lips.

  'I am, aren't I?' This time when he pulled at the clip, it came apart easily. His hands were warm against her bare skin as she unbuttoned his shirt.

  'How can you stand wearing this?' she asked, peeling it from his shoulders. 'Ew Chandra! It's all cold and damp! Gross!'

  'Archie said he likes how it feels wearing wet clothes.'

  Aisley wrinkled her nose. 'Yeah, with Archie, that doesn't surprise me at all.'

  'I don't wanna talk about Archie anymore.' Chandra wormed quickly out of the rest of his clothes.

  Aisley squirmed. 'Um, I don't know where I'm allowed to look.'

  'Everywhere.' He pulled her down onto the pillows. 'You can look everywhere,' he repeated. 'And so can I.'

  'I don't know if this is such a good idea.' Cate looked about warily. 'What if someone gets up to go to the loo?'

  'No stress,' Drew said. 'Even if someone does go for a piss they won't see us from here. The back of the couch is in the way.' He patted the cushions next to him. 'C'mon. Sit down and chill.'

  Cate perched on the very edge of the couch. 'We can't spend all night out here,' she warned. 'There's not enough room, for a start.'

  Drew stretched out. 'Bullshit. There's plenty of room.' He pulled her down beside him. 'See.'

  'It's a bit narrow.'

  'That's okay,' he insisted. 'It just makes it easier to stay close.' He immediately started tugging at her bather top but she slapped his hands away.

  'You said just snuggling,' she reminded him. 'I don't need my top off to snuggle.'

  'Oh come on Cate. Loosen up.'

  She tried to relax and pretend she was enjoying his attention but the truth was her mind kept wandering. Most alarmingly, whenever she closed her eyes she saw Archie's face looking back at her, wearing that big-eyed sooky expression he got when he was pretending to be hurt. Her eyes snapped open again and she pushed Drew away a little. 'Where did Troy and the others go,' she asked. 'When they left the party?'

  'Dunno.'

  'Did they want you to go too?'

  'Yeah, probably.'

  'Why did they leave?'

  He pulled back and looked at her. 'What is this? Twenty questions?'

  'No.' She took the opportunity to hitch the top of her bathers up a little. It was strapless and due to its saggy-bagginess was alarmingly close to sliding down to her waist. 'I just wondered. They only stayed for ten minutes.'

  'Well, they were really just dropping me off. They were thinking of staying but it was a bit, you know …'

  'What?'

  'Lame.' He tossed his bed-head hair to one side.

  'Freya's party wasn't lame!'

  'For them it was.' He reached for her again. 'Nothing to drink, and that music … '

  'The DJ was fabulous!' Cate's brows drew together.

  'Sure. Whatever.' He nuzzled her neck and pushed at her top again and she decided to let him. But she still couldn't relax.

  'What did Troy mean?' she asked. 'When he asked you if Aisley knew? What did she know?' She knew she'd gone too far when he abruptly sat up and stared straight ahead with a fixed expression.

  'Nothing,' he said. 'He was off his face.'

  'Are you sure? Because …'

  'Are we gonna make out?' he asked, raising an eyebrow at her. 'Or chat all night?'

  Cate had had enough and she stood up. 'Neither, actually.' She faked a yawn. 'I'm going to bed. I'm tired.'

  'Yep. Whatever.'

  'I am!'

  'Got it.' He leaned back against the cushions and when she looked at him sceptically he spread his hands. 'You're tired. You're going to bed. Don't worry. I'm not gonna sneak in and rape you.' He smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. He wasn't happy but Cate found she didn't particularly care.

  'Well … goodnight then.' She moved to the door.

  He didn't answer and she hurried away down the hallway. Once inside the bedroom she closed the door and stood with her back to it. Staring into the dark with her eyes wide open, she breathed deep and tried to bring up an image of Drew in her mind, one she could think of with affection. But the only face she could see in her mind's eye was Archie Evans.

  Aisley stretched and rested her head more comfortably against the pillow. 'If you had to pick one absolute favourite moment in Costa Rica,' she asked and held up her inde
x finger. 'Just one, mind you, what would it be? And then after that you have to pick one absolute worst moment too.'

  'That's easy,' Chandra replied without hesitation. He folded his arms behind his head. 'The worst moment, I mean. My first day at college and I'm in advanced maths. My best subject, right?'

  'Right.'

  'So, the teacher is this dude called Don Barbaro and he's huge. I'm talking seriously big …'

  'Overweight?'

  'Nuh uh! Massive, like the Incredible Hulk. Turns out he's a heavy-weight boxer in his spare time.' Chandra snorted. 'I was pretty relaxed, thinking hey! Just wait til he realises what a freakin' Einstein I am. He'll be blown away.'

  'What happened?' Aisley grinned.

  'So he throws a couple of problems my way,' Chandra said. 'And I fire the answers back just like that!' He clicked his fingers sharply. 'Then I get a bit too cocky and decide to answer in Spanish, just to further impress, you understand.'

  'Of course.'

  'But as you know,' he raised his eyebrows at her. 'I'm as bad at languages as I am good at maths. Geez, I can't even remember any Hindi except hi and bye.'

  'Oh no. What did you say to the teacher?'

  'Well, all of a sudden the guy looks pissed off. Things um … got lost in interpretation and what I said had nothing to do with trigonometry and everything to do with…' He burst out laughing.

  'What?'

  'The literal translation of what I said, apparently, was your sister must be ugly.'

  Aisley started giggling and couldn't stop. 'How on earth did you get from maths to that?'

  'I dunno!' Chandra said mournfully. 'I thought he was going to kill me! He had no sense of humour at all and he obviously thought I was a real smartarse. It didn't help that everyone else in the class was pissing themselves! It was my first day, Ais! Omigod, I just wanted to die!'

  Aisley finally managed to control herself. 'Aw, you poor thing,' she crooned, stroking his hair. 'You did your best. Don Barbell…'

  'Barbaro.'

  'Don Barbaro was mean!' She giggled again. 'How could you have had much Spanish on your first day?'

  'I wish I'd just kept answering in English,' he groaned. 'Why'd I have to be such a wanker? He hated me the entire time I was there after that.'

  Still smiling, she hugged him, covering his face in kisses. Completely soothed, he burrowed into her arms, hiding his face in her hair.

  'Forget that now,' she ordered. 'Tell me your favourite bit.'

  'That's a no-brainer.' His voice was muffled by her hair so he pulled back. 'It would be the first time I went to Playa Avellanas. It's beautiful there … totally unspoilt. I so want to show it to you.' He smiled. 'It was early in the evening. Lorenzo, Mateo and I… it was like we were the only three people on the ocean. The size of the waves … man, it was going off! It was incredible, really.'

  He stopped speaking and gazed at her. 'That was my absolute favourite moment,' he told her. 'That first time at Playa Avellanas. I meant it when I said I want to go back one day, Ais. Would you really come with me? Because I'd really love to take you.'

  'Of course I would,' she said. 'I'd go anywhere with you.'

  He kept watching her. 'I'm so lucky,' he said.

  'We're lucky, Chandra.' She snuggled her cheek against his shoulder. 'We're the luckiest people in the world.'

  Where's Willa?

  Aisley was having the strangest dream. She was trying to sleep on a pile of giant pink marshmallows but every time she dozed off, Cate poked her shoulder with a toothbrush. It was very annoying!

  'Go away,' Aisley muttered, snuggling further into her soft, strange bed. Marshmallows? Really?

  'Ais… Wake up!'

  She tried to dive back into sleep, but it was no good. She lifted her head and squinted at Cate crouched beside the bed in the semi-gloom.

  'Please wake up!' Cate begged 'Willa is missing.' She poked Aisley's shoulder with her finger again. 'And I don't know what to do.'

  'You can stop poking me for a start,' Aisley grumbled, closing her eyes again.

  'Don't go back to sleep!'

  Aisley reluctantly forced her eyes open. 'What did you say about Willa?' she mumbled, certain she was still dreaming.

  'She's missing,' Cate repeated urgently. 'I'm worried.'

  Groggy with sleep, Aisley sat up. She blinked through her curtain of hair and, spotting Archie lounging on the couch, she gasped and pulled the covers up to her chin.

  He theatrically shielded his eyes. 'I saw nothing,' he proclaimed solemnly.

  'What the hell,' Aisley muttered, rubbing her eyes. 'What time is it?'

  'Just after six,' said Cate.

  'Oh god! I feel like I only just went to sleep. Am I dreaming?'

  'No!' Cate snapped. 'You're not.'

  'What are you two even doing here? How did you get in? Chandra said he locked the door.'

  'Pfft! I think not.' Archie pulled a face.

  Aisley frowned. 'Well, you shouldn't sneak into bedrooms and watch people sleep! It's… it's creepy.'

  'We're concerned!' Cate protested. 'Not creepy.' She sat on the edge of the bed and explained. 'Listen, I got up to go to the loo and Willa's bed was empty so I thought I'd search for her. After all, she didn't have the happiest time at the party so I thought maybe if she was awake and out in the lounge or something, she might want to talk, right?'

  'Right.' Aisley yawned.

  'But she wasn't in the lounge,' Cate continued. 'She wasn't anywhere. She's gone!'

  'Maybe she rang her mum and went home,' Aisley reasoned. 'If she was that upset?'

  'But all of her things are still there next to her bed,' argued Cate. 'Her clothes, her bag, and even her phone... she wouldn't have gone without them, surely.'

  'So at that point she decides to wake me up,' Archie said, crossing his long legs at the ankles. 'I told her! I don't know where Willa is. Why the hell would I? I was asleep!' He threw his hands up. 'But she makes me get up and look anyway. So we search the house, top to bottom, and we search the garden and we find this little place. No Willa though … just you and Chan canoodling.'

  'Sleeping,' Aisley corrected sternly. She pulled the doona tighter around her. 'We were sleeping.'

  'I'm starting to think we should wake Mr and Mrs Biddy,' Cate worried. 'But then again, if we find Willa in a sulk somewhere she'd be so embarrassed by Freya's parents.' She looked at Aisley beseechingly. 'Will you come and help us search? Please?'

  Archie picked up Chandra's discarded shirt from the floor and balled it up. 'And he can come too,' he said lobbing the shirt at the sleeping Chandra and making him stir. 'If I have to get up then so does he.'

  'My stuff is still in the girls' room,' Aisley remembered.

  'I'll go get it,' said Cate eager to get Aisley searching. 'I'll grab Chandra's backpack too.' She jumped up and dashed from the room, banging the door shut behind her.

  The slamming door awoke Chandra properly. He stretched luxuriously and smiled at Aisley. 'Hey babe,' he murmured but then Archie suddenly loomed over his side of the bed like some ghostly apparition in board-shorts.

  'We need you!' he howled demonically.

  Chandra screamed like a girl and dragged all the covers over his head, making Archie laugh so hard that he collapsed on the floor beside the bed.

  'Jee-zus!' Chandra gasped dropping the covers and glaring over the edge of the bed at Archie writhing on the floor. 'Where the hell did you come from?'

  Archie was cackling too hard so Aisley answered for him. 'He's come to ask us to help search for Willa,' she told him. 'She's missing, apparently.'

  'Am I dreaming?' Chandra asked.

  Cate returned at that moment and handed Aisley her backpack. 'Good morning!' she chirped, smiling brightly at Chandra. 'Here's your stuff.' She dropped his bag onto his lap.

  He was less than impressed. 'It's like freakin' Flinders Street station in here! I thought I locked the door. What's going on?'

  'You and Ais have to join the search for Willa,'
Cate said. 'I can't do it all alone.'

  'But you're not alone,' Chandra grumped. 'You've got buggerlugs there.' He gestured at Archie who was still lying beside the bed. 'Leave us out of it.'

  Cate was all business. 'We need more people,' she said.

  'Okay, okay,' sighed Aisley pulling on a hoodie. 'You've made your point.'

  Chandra needed more convincing. 'It's still dark though,' he said looking out the window. 'What time is it?'

  'Six o'clock.' Archie's voice floated up from floor beyond the bed.

  Chandra was appalled. 'What? No way!' He burrowed down under the covers again.

  'Please Chandra!' Cate fretted.

  'No. Go away.'

  Archie climbed to his feet and tugged at the covers, almost pulling them off the bed. Chandra clutched at them wildly, playing tug-of-war.

  'Oh, alright!' he barked. 'Sheesh!'

  Archie let go of the blankets and looked smug. Cate headed for the door.

  'We'll wait for you in the lounge,' she said. 'Come on Archie.'

  Archie made no move to leave and Chandra glared at him. 'I'm not getting up until you're gone,' he declared.

  'And why not? Are you shy about me seeing your bare arse?'

  Chandra crossed his arms and waited.

  Archie sighed and rolled his eyes. 'Alright,' he snorted sauntering to the door. 'I have no desire to see it anyway. Believe me, it's not that impressive. It's not like it's mine!'

  The rest of the house was fast asleep as the four of them huddled quietly together next to the snooker table.

  'Okay,' Archie said. 'So now what?'

  'Now we search.' Cate found a hair-tie in her pocket and bundled her hair into a ponytail.

  'Where do we start?' Aisley wondered. 'Should we split up?'

  All of a sudden the giant beanbag in the middle of the floor spoke to them, making everybody jump in fright. 'Search for what?' Stewart climbed clumsily out of it and got to his feet.

  'Jee-zus!' hissed Chandra clutching at his chest. 'My heart can't take much more of this!'

  Stewart smiled. 'You're just not a morning kind of person are you?'

  'This is not morning,' Chandra said shortly. 'This is still night-time.'