Sugar Secrets…& Revenge

by Mel Sparke

  But why should I get defensive over Cat? he thought to himself. She did act as if she was totally demented when she saw me and Tasha together, and—

  Out of nowhere it hit him. That rubbish about him spreading rumours about sleeping with her: it was Cat herself who’d told Ollie about them - it had to be!

  Why else would Ollie be all protective and not tell me who he’d heard it from? reasoned Matt. And what’s more - she didn’t overhear anything! She’s made this whole thing up, just to spite me!

  “Little bitch!” he suddenly exclaimed as the truth hit him.

  “What?” said Natasha startled at the venom in his voice.

  “She’s been running telling tales to your brother, that’s what she’s been doing,” snarled Matt.

  Natasha stared at him, wondering where this change of character had come from. A second ago he’d sounded like a bit of a buffoon - and one that smelled of too much aftershave - and she’d been regretting her spur-of-the-moment decision to call him. Now he’d suddenly turned into some scary psycho who she really didn’t want to be with, let alone date.

  “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “Oh, she told him how I’ve been boasting about having sex with her,” Matt almost spat the words out.

  “Really?” said Natasha, alarmed now and completely missing the sarcastic tone in his voice. He was angry with this girl - all because she dared to be hurt about him blabbing about something so private? How could this guy ever have been a mate of her brother’s? He was horrible!

  “Listen, Matt, I should have said earlier, but I’ve got a killer headache and it’s getting worse,” she improvised. “Could you take me home, please?”

  Matt was startled out of his bad temper. His date was over already and it hadn’t even begun…

  Outside The Swan, Natasha got out of the car without saying a word, slamming the door behind her. Matt knew he’d blown it, but he had no idea why.

  Nick had just left the End, happily taking stuffed money bags away to lock up in the small safe he kept in his flat above Nick’s Slick Riffs, the record shop next door.

  It had been an unusually busy Friday evening and, with a good day’s takings under his belt, he was more than happy to let Ollie finish cleaning and locking up. This left him free to go and celebrate with a pint with Bryan (who looked after the record shop for him) down at the Railway Tavern.

  “I thought he’d never leave.” purred Cat, coming round the counter to where Ollie was stacking the tall milkshake glasses. “In fact, I thought they’d all never leave!”

  “Tell me about it!” sighed Ollie, who was tired out after a hard shift and exhausted at the thought of spending quality, romantic time alone with Cat.

  He’d managed to avoid it all week, but there was no getting out of it now. She’d been hanging around him all evening as he ran about madly serving everyone, and had happily offered to keep him company when she heard Nick ask his nephew to lock up.

  “Well, it’s just me and you,” she said flirtatiously, reaching around Ollie’s waist and undoing his white apron strings.

  “Ha ha, I, uh—”

  “Shhh.”

  A dull thunk from above temporarily saved Ollie as Cat dropped her hands and stared at the roof.

  “What was that?”

  “It’ll just be Anna upstairs - she got the bedsit as part of the job here, remember?”

  “Hmm,” muttered Cat and then grinned her Cheshire Cat grin again. “This is the light switch, isn’t it?”

  She reached behind Ollie and flicked the switch, plunging them into a semi-darkness that was only broken by the blue fluorescent End-of-the-Line sign in the window, and the soft orange-purple glow of dusky light outside.

  Cat moved in closer.

  Ollie gulped, seeing no way out. He was glad of the darkness so that Cat wouldn’t be able to read the truth in his eyes - that the only feeling he had for her was pity, not lust.

  Cat was glad of the lack of light too. It meant that when she kissed Ollie, she wouldn’t have to see his funny, familiar face. When she felt his lips on hers, she could imagine it was someone else she was kissing. Maybe even imagine it was Matt…

  That was her latest worry. How long she could keep up the pretence of fancying Ollie before she got the chance to snog his face off in front of Matt.

  And she couldn’t give up until she’d done that - her final revenge.

  Ollie was worrying too: worrying about telling Cat that maybe, just maybe, she’d been mistaken about what she’d heard at Matt’s party.

  Worried about how and when to tell Matt that he and Cat were - well, whatever they were.

  And worried about how to let Cat know that Elaine was arriving the next day without her taking it all the wrong way.

  Just as Ollie felt those arms encircle his waist again, a rapping on the glass door of the café made them both jump.

  “Ol! Is that you? Are you still in there?” shouted Nick.

  “Yeah! Hold on!” said Ollie, slipping past Cat and running to unlock the front door.

  “Hey, Ol, I just had a phone call from that old mate of mine that runs The Bell, remember?”

  Ollie looked puzzled. He knew The Bell was the pub off the high street that regularly had bands on, but he didn’t know the owner. And Nick had countless numbers of old mates, so many that Ollie could never keep track of them. He nodded anyway.

  “He says he booked some band to play next Friday and they’ve blown him out at short notice. He remembered me telling him about you guys… Would you be up for doing it?”

  “Too right!” said Ollie.

  It was time The Loud expanded out of the back room of his parents’ pub. Even if it was just to the back room at some other pub. At least this one had a proper stage!

  “Well, he’s coming down to the Railway Tavern in about half an hour. You fancy coming along and talking it over?”

  “Absolutely!” Ollie answered excitedly, before suddenly remembering his prior commitment.

  He turned and peered at Cat in the gloom of the café behind him.

  “Oh, Cat - I really need to meet this guy. I’m really sorry…”

  Although sorry was about the last thing Ollie felt.

  CHAPTER 15

  MAKING UP WITH MATT. OR NO

  “Hey, stranger!”

  “Hi, Son,” said Matt almost shyly, slipping into the seat across the table from her. “Good to see you again.”

  Gazing across at her sheepish-looking friend, Sonja couldn’t help feeling sorry for him. She’d always really liked Matt, in spite of his cockiness.

  She understood Matt because, like him, she was pretty confident and realised that underneath all that bragging and bluster, he was quite a nice bloke. Even quite sensitive, if you looked hard enough.

  Right now, she knew he must be feeling pretty down, what with the way everyone had shut him out. Sonja, for her part, was keen to put it all behind them and get their friendship back on track. Especially since Ollie was now convinced that Cat had just misheard the so-called rumour at Matt’s party.

  “I’m glad you phoned earlier.” Sonja smiled warmly at him.

  “Me too,” he smiled back. “So… am I forgiven yet?”

  “Almost,” she laughed.

  “Did Ollie tell you that I had nothing to do with that rumour about Cat?”

  “Uh-huh. He told us earlier in the week.”

  Matt suddenly wore a hurt puppy dog expression. More like the sort of expression Sonja was used to seeing on Joe’s face.

  “What, so you knew I was innocent for the last few days and you didn’t get in touch with me?”

  Unfazed, Sonja grinned at him. “Yeah, well, you deserved to be ignored for a bit. Maybe you had nothing to do with that rumour, but you certainly had plenty to do with making a fool of Cat at Ollie’s birthday party.”

  “So,” said Matt quietly, staring down at the table. “Is it just you that forgives me?”

  “Nah, Kerry and Maya are co
ol now. So’s Joe.” Sonja glanced down at her watch. “In fact, they should all be here soon; I told them to come down about eleven.”

  “What about Catrina?”

  “Hey, that might be pushing it a bit, Matt,” smiled Sonja ruefully. “Anyway, we haven’t seen much of her this week: Ollie’s kind of been looking after her…”

  Sonja noticed that Matt hadn’t reacted to her comment. He obviously didn’t know about the burgeoning romance.

  Uh-oh, thought Sonja. And guess who’s going to have to tell him…

  “Is Ollie working today? I haven’t spoken to him all week.” said Matt, glancing through to the kitchen.

  I’ll bet you haven’t, thought Sonja.

  “He’s due in a bit later, according to Anna,” she answered instead.

  “Have you heard my news?” Matt asked her, before she could go back to the prickly subject of Catrina and Ollie.

  “No,” she answered, curious as to what he was going to say.

  “I had a date with Natasha last night.”

  He wasn’t looking smug, Sonja noticed. It couldn’t have gone very well.

  “And?”

  “And it lasted for all of ten minutes.”

  “Matt, babe - you’re losing your touch,” teased Sonja as the café door tinkled and Maya, Kerry and Joe walked in.

  Natasha sat at the kitchen table and agitatedly stirred her black coffee.

  She looked up as Ollie came into the kitchen, yawning and rubbing his newly washed hair with a towel.

  Irritation made her stir even quicker - she hated to admit defeat and she was just about to have to tell her brother that he had been right. Going out with Matt had been a bad idea.

  Ollie had just launched into a chorus of Wonderwall as he clattered around the kitchen, fixing himself some breakfast, when Natasha finally said what was on her mind.

  “Ol, I need to tell you something.”

  Damp towel still draped round his neck, Ollie quit his singing and sat down opposite his sister. It had been a long time since they’d had anything like a serious conversation, and as this looked like it might just be the start of one, Ollie wanted to give her his full attention.

  “Tasha? What’s up?”

  “There’s something you should know.”

  “Yeah? Nothing bad, I hope?” Ollie’s imagination started going crazy with possibilities.

  “I went out with Matt last night.”

  That was it? Ollie didn’t think it was too bad. He wasn’t exactly one hundred per cent comfortable with the idea of his mate dating his sister, but since he’d asked for her mobile number, it wasn’t a big surprise.

  “So?”

  “So, he creeped me out,” she shuddered.

  “How?”

  “Oh, don’t worry,” she said quickly, seeing the concern in her brother’s face, “he didn’t do anything. It was just something he said…”

  “Well?” The suspense was killing Ollie. “What was he saying exactly?”

  “He started going on about sleeping with that Catrina girl.”

  “What?”

  “He was saying something about how she’d caught him boasting about it and how he was mad at her for coming crying to you over it. He’s a nasty piece of work, Ollie.”

  Ollie was livid. So Cat had been right after all…

  Ollie stormed towards the End, mentally ticking off the hours of his shift; how many hours he’d have to hold on to his temper before he’d get the chance to track down Matt and confront him. But, glancing in the bay window as he strode up to the door of the café, Ollie realised it was a matter of seconds rather than hours.

  “Oi, you!” he yelled at Matt as he approached the table.

  Matt stared up at him blankly while the others froze mid-chat, wondering what was coming next.

  “You were mouthing off about sleeping with Cat at your party!”

  “I wasn’t!” protested Matt, completely dumbfounded.

  “You bloody were!” barked Ollie. “So stop denying it!”

  “For God’s sake, Ollie, I told you before—”

  “Forget it! First you tell me that Catrina’s got it wrong, and now you’re saying my sister has too?”

  “Tasha?! But I was- I was only trying to tell her that stuff wasn’t true!” Matt stammered, trying to get his point across and all too aware of the accusing looks he was getting from all his friends. “And as for Cat—”

  “What about Cat?” asked Catrina, walking in the café door.

  CHAPTER 16

  CAT TRIUMPHANT

  “I didn’t do anything!”

  “So, feeling proud of our little self, are we?” Sonja sneered at Matt, her arms folded on the table in front of her.

  Being the closest to Matt, she felt particularly betrayed and disappointed in him. She’d defended him, got the others together today to rally around him again, and now she felt let down.

  “Don’t be daft, Son - you know I didn’t—”

  Matt stopped before he got to the end of his sentence. He didn’t like the look on Sonja’s face one little bit.

  “How could you do it. Matt? I thought we were all supposed to be friends?” said Maya, her tone curt and serious.

  “Bragging about your ‘conquest’ - how could you lie about something like that?” Kerry burst out, looking close to tears.

  Matt swung his gaze round to Joe and looked at him pleadingly. He was shocked by the stony expression on Joe’s face. Were they all against him now? Just when he’d thought it was all sorted?

  “Please! I—”

  “Don’t bother, Matt,” snapped Sonja. “We’ve given you enough chances. And you’ve never once apologised to poor Cat!”

  Still sitting rigid with shock, Matt turned to stare at ‘poor Cat’, who’d been tearfully clinging on to Ollie since she’d walked in and found out what all the commotion was about.

  Meeting his gaze, she knew it was her chance.

  “See what he’s like? He’s just a liar!” she said to her friends, before looking up adoringly at Ollie. “Thank God I’m with you now!”

  Everyone, including Matt, stared open-mouthed as Catrina ran her hand round the back of Ollie’s head and pulled his mouth on to hers.

  “Well, cheers, everyone! Thanks for the support, you know? And thanks for the floor show, Catrina!” barked Matt, grabbing his jacket and storming out of the café.

  Hearing the bell above the door jangle violently, Cat broke away from Ollie, trying very hard to stifle the grin that was threatening to break out on her face.

  At last! she thought. Now Matt knows exactly how it feels to be humiliated in public. And it happened without me even trying!

  Struggling to settle her features into an expression of hurt, rather than one of triumph, she turned to the others.

  “Listen… Don’t worry about me…”

  “Oh. Cat, don’t worry, we won’t have anything more to do with him. He doesn’t deserve to have any friends after this,” said Maya grimly.

  “Thanks. Thanks, you guys,” Cat said humbly. “Anyway. I’d better go… I’d like to be on my own now.”

  “Cat, try not to let this get to you, OK? He’s just not worth it,” said Ollie, concerned that she was just going to go home and cry.

  The fact was, the strain of having to pretend to be the injured party was almost too much for Catrina. She’d finally got what she wanted, but she knew she’d have to wait until she was on her own before she could relish the feeling properly. Far from going home to cry, all she wanted to do was jump around her room for joy.

  I’ve won! she sang in her head. I got revenge! Making one final effort to look upset, she kissed her finger then stretched over and pressed it to Ollie’s lips. “I’ll be fine, Ollie. Honest.”

  It was only then that she realised how quiet the busy café had become. Every customer at every table had swivelled around to witness the scene. And Cat kind of liked that.

  CHAPTER 17

  REGRETS AND SOLUTIONS

/>   Thankful that her mother was out, Cat had spent some time blasting out her favourite CDs, dancing round the flat and singing at the top of her voice. She’d given in to gloating and was revelling in the distinctly pleasurable feeling of knowing that Matt had finally got what he deserved.

  Until she flopped down breathless and exhausted on the sofa. Until she realised, to her dismay, that she felt strangely empty.

  What’s bugging me? she asked herself, running through the events of the last couple of weeks in her head.

  One part of it was obvious: her guilt over using Ollie was getting in the way of enjoying her victory.

  God! How am I going to sort that out? she worried, aware that now her plan of action had succeeded, she wanted out of this messy, lovey-dovey business with Ollie as quickly as possible.

  Pity I don’t fancy him really. It would make everything a lot easier…

  She turned over on her side and sighed. It was all so hugely frustrating. Every bloke she’d ever been out with up until now had been a total loser and ended up hurting her. Now here she was, with the potential to go out with the nicest guy in the world, and she knew her chances of caring for him that way were zilch.

  Why do I always fall for the bad boys? And when am I going to meet someone who’s as good to me as Ollie, someone who I actually want to fall in love with…?

  But something else was bugging her, something that she hardly wanted to admit to herself…

  She missed Matt. She missed Matt so much it hurt.

  Shivering, Cat fastened the buttons on her jacket against the afternoon breeze that had sprung up. She was hurrying past the part of the park where the kids’ playground was, but the giggling and laughter coming from there didn’t cheer her up as it normally did.

  Heading back towards the End, Cat’s head was in a swirl. She still didn’t know how she was going to break it off with Ollie yet - she wanted to do it in such a way that she kept face (Cat wasn’t about to forget who came first in her world), but she didn’t want to jeopardise her friendship with Ollie either.

  I’ll think of something, she shivered again. I always do.

  After her earlier bout of guilt, the one thing Cat was sure of was that she wanted all this madness to stop and to get back to normal. All this scheming and plotting was exhausting. She was even starting to forget who she’d told which lie to. And she couldn’t bear torturing Matt any more.