Sugar Secrets…& Revenge

by Mel Sparke

  “Right,” said Sonja, slapping the table surface so hard that the others jumped. “I’m going to confront the creep right now!”

  “No!” yelped Cat. The last thing she wanted was to give Matt the chance to deny anything. In fact, she was already wondering if Ollie had done that - he didn’t seem to be working in the café today. “No, I think it would be better if we all ignored him from now on. Just blanked him.”

  “Mmm, maybe you’re right, Cat,” said Sonja. “He’s gone too far this time. I can’t believe I was considering easing up on him on Saturday night.”

  Phew! thought Catrina. Just as well I came up with that one, then - otherwise they might have all forgiven him by now.

  The tinkle of cutlery caught her attention.

  “Anna?” she called over to the young waitress, who was clearing up a neighbouring table. “Is Ollie working today?”

  “No,” Anna smiled, carrying on loading up her tray. “We swapped days off. He’s working tomorrow, with Dorothy or Irene.”

  “Thanks.” said Cat. She needed to catch him soon and try to get this romance going before Matt had a chance to put his side of the story to Ollie. If the damage hadn’t been done already. She decided to phone him as soon as she got home.

  Breaking away from her thoughts, she realised that all her friends were staring at her quizzically.

  “Well?” said Sonja. “Since you’ve brought his name up, what exactly did you and Ollie get up to on Saturday? Joe said the two of you were looking very cosy before you vanished…”

  Cat tipped her head down coquettishly and gave her friends a smug, knowing little smile.

  CHAPTER 13

  OLLIE GETS IN DEEPER

  Kerry was heading towards the library for her study period before lunch on Tuesday when a strange thing happened. Instead of taking the corridor that led to the library, she found herself walking out through the exit door and hurrying across to the gate that led out on to the road. The road that led to the End.

  “Kerry! Boy, am I glad to see you!” Ollie beamed, rubbing his grubby hands on an even grubbier apron.

  “Hi, Ol. How’ve you been?”

  What Kerry really wanted to say was “What the hell are you doing?” but, unlike Sonja, she wasn’t cut out to be confrontational. Skipping a study period was about as bolshy as she got.

  “Stressed out, if you must know. I need to talk to you.”

  And I need to understand what’s going on in your head, thought Kerry, agitatedly pushing up her glasses.

  “Listen, I’m a bit busy right now, but I’ll take a break when I’ve finished what I’m doing,” said Ollie, pointing in the direction of the kitchen. “Can you wait? I’ll bring you a cappuccino over.”

  “Course I will, OI.”

  Kerry plonked herself down at the usual table, marvelling that it somehow always seemed to be free. It was as though all the other customers knew instinctively that it was out of bounds - that it was the crowd’s table.

  Well, whatever crowd we’ve got left, thought Kerry ruefully.

  She glanced over towards the launderette where a little old lady in a pink apron and lime-green hairnet was tap-dancing exuberantly in the doorway. Mad Vera was a great source of amusement to the customers of the café, who often sat and watched her for sheer entertainment value. She did the service washes at the launderette, but seemed to spend most of her time showing off to an invisible audience and having the time of her life.

  In a way it must be nice to be like that, thought Kerry. No complications, no worries…

  “Earth calling Kerry! Come in, Kerry!”

  Kerry snapped out of her daydream to see Ollie laughing at her, his face only inches away from hers.

  “Sorry, Ol… I was miles away. Is that for me?” she nodded towards the frothy coffee in front of her.

  “Yep, and it’s on the house this time. Unless Nick asks, of course. But he’s off skiving at the wholesaler’s or something, so I wouldn’t worry.”

  Kerry glanced past him at the counter to check Nick hadn’t just reappeared - she didn’t want Ollie to get into trouble. Dorothy, one of the pensioners who helped out in the daytime, smiled over at her then carried on wiping the work surface.

  “I tried to phone you last night,” said Kerry.

  “Yeah, Mum said. Sorry, I was round at Matt’s for a bit and then I didn’t really fancy talking to anyone.”

  “What did Matt have to say for himself?”

  “I guess you know all about this rumour business?”

  Kerry nodded, cupping her hands round her cappuccino.

  “He swears he didn’t bad-mouth Cat. And I think I believe him.”

  “Any particular reason?”

  “Well, he’s a tactless, thoughtless idiot, but he’s not really got it in him to be that evil. And he’s really gutted, y’know? He hates the idea that everyone’s turning against him.”

  “What do you think happened then?” asked Kerry, deliberately avoiding bringing up Catrina’s name.

  “I think the guys that Cat overheard were maybe speaking about someone else and she just picked it up wrong.”

  “Could be. So…” smiled Kerry awkwardly, wondering who was going to be the first to start talking about the other main event of Saturday’s party. “What’s stressing you out?”

  “Guess.”

  Kerry knew full well, but just shrugged and smiled instead.

  “Kerry, do you think Catrina seriously likes me?”

  She looked at him hard, trying to detect what reply he was hoping for. “I’m sure she likes you, Ollie, but I don’t think it meant anything, y’know… what happened. How can it, if she was so heartbroken over Matt?”

  “Is that what she’s told you?” he said, with a look of hope spreading across his face.

  “Um, not in so many words,” said Kerry, being economical with the truth. In fact, the previous day Cat had been raving on about how wonderful Ollie was compared to Matt.

  “Oh,” said Ollie flatly, realising what Kerry wasn’t saying. “Trouble is, I think she’s really muddled up at the moment. And I was just drunk and did something stupid - I didn’t mean to kiss her, I just felt sorry for her, and - and I don’t know how it happened really.”

  “I know,” Kerry smiled reassuringly, relieved to hear Ollie’s version of events after Cat’s sugar-coated side of the story.

  “But I’m really worried about hurting her feelings, Kerry,” he shrugged. “She’s had enough of that recently - and I don’t want to hurt her any more!”

  “Yeah, but you can’t go along with this just ‘cause you feel sorry for her!”

  “I know,” Ollie groaned, rubbing a hand through his mop of hair until it stood up in comical peaks, contrasting incongruously with the woeful look on his face. “But I think I’ve got to go with it for a bit - she’s so vulnerable - and then I’ll just try and let her down gently.”

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, Ol. I mean, what’s that going to look like to Matt? If you two have just made up and then he finds out something’s going on between you and Cat…”

  “I haven’t quite figured that out yet,” he sighed. “And I got a call from Elaine today - she’s coming over at the weekend…”

  “But she’s just a mate, isn’t she? That’s what you’ve always said.”

  “Well, yeah - but in her present state of mind, what d’you think Cat’s going to make of it if I tell her?”

  “Erm… I think you’re just about to get the chance to find out. Ol…”

  Ollie looked out of the window to see Catrina beaming at him from the front step.

  “Hi, Ollie! Look what I’ve brought you!” She breezed in and handed Ollie a miniature model of a pale blue Vespa.

  “Cat, that’s brilliant! Where did you get it?”

  “Never you mind, Ollie. It’s just my little way of thanking you for… everything.”

  “Oh, don’t be daft, Cat,” Ollie smiled awkwardly.

  Kerry squirmed in e
mbarrassment.

  With her stomach bulging from eating too much spaghetti bolognese followed by Maltesers, Kerry flopped back down on the spare bed in Sonja’s room and stared at her poster of Matt Le Blanc that was Blu-tak’d to the ceiling, while her friend sat transfixed by the TV.

  “Sonny,” she began, desperate to go over the conversation she’d had with Ollie the day before - yet again.

  “Hold on, this is just about finished,” Sonja shushed her.

  Kerry turned her head and watched the last couple of minutes of the programme with her. As the theme music rolled, Sonja pressed the mute button on the remote and gave Kerry her full attention.

  “Sorry. I just had to see what was going to happen,” she said, plumping up the cushions that lay along the length of her bed. “Now what were you saying?”

  “Oh, it’s just the Ollie and Cat thing again,” said Kerry apologetically. “I just - I just don’t get it. I mean, how can anyone go out with someone out of kindness!”

  “You tell me,” shrugged Sonja. “I’ve never quite understood what Brad Pitt sees in Jennifer Aniston when he could be having a much better time with me. Some people are just too nice to say no, I guess.”

  “But only seconds before Cat came in, Ollie was telling me he hoped she didn’t want to go out with him. And then he’s being all sweet with her when she walks in.”

  “The poor boy’s obviously mad, Kez. And too sodding nice for his own good.”

  “I know,” said Kerry, propping herself up on her elbows. “But it’s pretty extreme to go out with someone just because you feel a bit guilty!”

  “Poor Ollie,” muttered Sonja. “Maybe I should tell Cat that he’s not really interested…”

  “Don’t you dare!” Kerry said in alarm. “It would be cruel to her and anyway Ollie—”

  “Ollie’s a big boy and he’s got to sort this one out himself,” acknowledged Sonja. “Don’t worry, Kez - I’d leave this one up to him.”

  Kerry relaxed back on to the pillow.

  “Son?” she said after a minute’s silence between them.

  “Uh-huh,” Sonja responded, flicking through the TV channels with the sound down.

  “D’you think this is going to make things weird for the rest of us? Like, on top of everything else?”

  “Things have a habit of sorting themselves out,” Sonja answered soothingly, though she wasn’t totally convinced herself. “Worrying about it won’t help.”

  Kerry knew Sonja was right, but Kerry was a natural worrier. In fact, she could worry for England.

  CHAPTER 14

  MATT’S HOT DATE

  Matt couldn’t deny it. He was not enjoying the fact that he was in danger of becoming a social outcast.

  Since he’d seen Ollie on Monday night he’d heard nothing from anyone, which he took to be a bad sign. Matt didn’t feel he had the right to go wading in and call the others - though he’d been on the verge of calling good old Sonja the other night, before bottling out.

  He decided it was probably better to stay out of everyone’s way till the whole situation blew over. In the mean time, all he could do was hope that Ollie was doing some good PR for him and managing to convince the others of his innocence over the rumour-spreading and his regret over the messy break-up with Cat.

  Still, he reminded himself, at least one good thing’s come out of all of this…

  He smiled at the memory of Natasha’s phone call an hour earlier, right in the middle of Top of the Pops. He’d been feeling down - stuck in on a Friday night with no work on and no friends to see. Even his dad, who’d arrived home the day before, was off out to some posh function up at the golf club, his second home.

  Then she’d phoned out of the blue, saying that a job had been cancelled and that she was in Winstead for the weekend. And did he fancy going out somewhere, right now? That’s the way it had happened, just like that.

  Of course it wasn’t just like that. He’d got her mobile number from Ollie before he’d left on Monday and had called her on Wednesday. Nice and cool; a long enough time after the birthday party and everything so he didn’t look too desperate. Not that she’d picked up - he’d had to leave some stupid message on her answering service. But it had been worth it. She’d called tonight. They were going on a date. And Matt couldn’t wait.

  Parking his midnight blue Golf outside The Swan, Matt smoothed his dark hair down and took a deep breath. He really liked this girl. Really liked her.

  He’d have felt better talking to Ollie again before going out with his sister, but what could he do? It had happened all of a sudden, and anyway, maybe Tasha had already told her brother she was seeing his mate tonight.

  That’s if Ollie still was his mate. Even he’d been ominously quiet all week, despite the fact that they seemed to have straightened everything out on Monday.

  Hey, what’s done’s done. Matt shrugged to himself as he walked up to the side door and rang the doorbell. He’d doused himself in the CKbe his mother had sent him for Christmas, and had put on his best Carharrt top. He had to keep up with what was going on down in London to stand any chance of impressing Tasha.

  “Hi!” said Natasha, opening the door.

  Matt moved forward to kiss her just as she stepped backwards to grab her keys off the hall table. Awkwardly, he took a step back then headed towards the car and pulled open the passenger door for her.

  As she slipped into the seat, Matt admired her shiny helmet of freshly washed, shoulder-length brown hair and caught a glimpse of the brown sheath dress she was wearing under her long leather coat. His heart beat faster. She looked gorgeous. She was utter class. He couldn’t blow this.

  “Missed me?” he grinned, settling into the driver’s seat.

  “Erm, hardly, Matt. I’ve only been gone a couple of weeks,” Natasha replied, pulling down the sun visor on her side of the car and checking her make-up in the mirror fixed to the back of it.

  Matt felt slightly flummoxed. He wasn’t used to girls who didn’t just fall for him straight off.

  “I thought we could go to Henry’s. Do you know it? It’s just a little…”

  “Henry’s?” Natasha laughed. “I haven’t been there for years! It used to be packed with tasty guys. Is it still like that?”

  Matt furrowed his brow. “I dunno,” he said, feeling a bit miffed. She was supposed to be on a night out with him and she was already thinking about other blokes.

  He looked at her quizzically. “Haven’t been for years? How did you get in anyway? You’ve only just had your seventeenth birthday.”

  “I guess I’ve always looked older,” sighed Natasha as if she was in the company of a real hick from the sticks. “Don’t you ever break the rules. Matt?”

  Matt didn’t know what to say. Did she want to go to Henry’s or didn’t she?

  And if they did go, would she spend the whole evening with him or would her head be turned by some other ‘tasty guy? Matt didn’t relish the idea of competition and thought the whole point of them going out was to spend some time together.

  “Is there anywhere else you’d rather go?” he asked, trying to keep the hurt note out of his voice.

  “Actually,” she said staring out of the window, “I wouldn’t have minded going to the End. I haven’t been there for ages and it would be fun, just for old times’ sake.”

  “The End?” queried Matt, glancing down at the clock on the dashboard. “Your Uncle Nick’ll be locking up there soon. We could always go some other time over the weekend…”

  “OK, whatever,” Natasha murmured.

  “So,” said Matt, feeling as if he was on shifting sand, “do you want to go to Henry’s or not?”

  “Whatever.”

  What does that mean? Matt worried.

  He didn’t know what to make of Natasha. She wasn’t how he’d imagined at all, but then apart from the snog at the birthday party, and the couple of hours he’d spent with her the following Saturday morning, all he’d known of Natasha up until now was what
Ollie had told him - and not all of that was complimentary. According to Ollie, his sister had become pretty big-headed in the year she’d spent in London.

  As they sat at the traffic lights, Matt stole another look at her and his heart lurched with excitement again - she was beautiful, with her dark almond eyes and those high cheekbones… He tried to think back to the few times he’d stayed at his dad’s during the holidays from boarding school, and wondered why he’d never noticed anyone as special as her.

  But then it wasn’t surprising really because until he’d finally put his foot down and refused to go any more, he’d spent most of his holidays for the last few years being packed off to his mother and her new family.

  As it was, the place he was supposed to call home, and the parent who was supposed to have custody of him, were both relative unknowns to Matt. It was only once he’d finished school and moved in permanently with his dad that he’d slowly got to know Winstead and the people in it.

  “So what’s new with you?” Natasha said finally.

  “Not much,” replied Matt, automatically thinking about how bored and lonely he’d been feeling over the last couple of weeks. “Work’s dried up a bit at the moment.”

  “Your DJing?” asked Natasha. “So what clubs have you played at?”

  “Um, none yet,” mumbled Matt.

  His ambition was to end up on the top dance DJ circuit, playing clubs in London, Ibiza - New York even. But right now, he was struggling to get on to the bottom rung of the ladder.

  “Where do you play, then?”

  “Well, birthdays, parties… wherever I get a booking.”

  “What?” snorted Natasha. “Like, ‘Here’s Whitney Houston’s I Will Always Love You for Bob and Margaret’s fortieth anniversary!’?”

  Matt felt himself blush - something he didn’t do too often. She was laughing at him.

  “Something like that,” he muttered.

  “Speaking of birthday parties, heard any more about that mad cow you used to go out with?” she asked casually.

  “Catrina?” said Matt, momentarily taken aback by hearing her spoken of like that.