Sugar Secrets…& Revenge

by Mel Sparke

  Matt, you idiot, she thought to herself, you deserved everything you got. But…

  As selfish as she could be, Catrina wasn’t completely heartless. She knew Matt was having a miserable time of it. She’d caught sight of him one day during the week at the wheel of his car, waiting at a red light, and the gloom on his face was almost heart-breaking.

  She’d momentarily felt truly sorry for him and the feeling had surprised her. Had she caused that? Was it because of her that he was so unhappy?

  And now, after what had happened in the café earlier, he must seriously be down. Matt loved the crowd and now none of them was speaking to him. Thanks to Catrina and whatever fluke conversation Natasha had had with him.

  The problem with Cat’s revenge plan was that she hadn’t thought long-term. And now the prospect of Matt’s punishment being permanent didn’t fill her with any joy. She realised that she didn’t want him excluded from the gang for ever.

  Aside from the time they’d gone out together - she shivered again as she remembered kissing him - Cat missed the way things had been even before they’d dated, when they used to tease each other and banter constantly. Now everything felt flat and boring.

  Matt was one of those charismatic types who always kept everyone entertained; excitement seemed to follow him around and life felt distinctly dull without him, especially now Catrina had run out of steam on her revenge plot.

  Coming out of the park, Cat crossed through the traffic and followed the road round until she was standing across from the End.

  Come on, girl! she told herself as she stepped off the pavement and walked towards the café. You can do this.

  Pushing the door open, she caught sight of Ollie sitting on a high stool by the counter, holding hands with a hippyish girl on the stool next to him.

  Here we go! she thought as Ollie turned and spotted her, shock written across his face. Fate’s just done me its second favour of the day!

  “Ollie! How could you!” sobbed Cat, running back out into the street as Ollie and Elaine stared after her.

  CHAPTER 18

  MAKING UP IS HARD TO DO

  “Cat!” said Ollie as Cat opened the front door to his urgent knocking and ringing.

  Cat swore under her breath. Because he was still on his shift, she hadn’t expected Ollie to follow her back round to the flat so soon, and hadn’t quite had time to prepare her lines.

  Better just wing it, she told herself. It’s worked up till now.

  “I’m so sorry!” said Ollie breathlessly. “I meant to tell you Elaine was coming over this weekend, but I—”

  “It’s OK,” Cat managed a brave smile and ushered him into the hallway. “Come on in.”

  “She’s just my friend, that’s all - it’s not some big romance like all you girls think!” Ollie continued to protest.

  Cat pulled a tissue out of a box on the kitchen worktop and dabbed her dry eyes.

  “I think- I think it’s more than that, Ollie.”

  “No, honestly—”

  “Wait, Ollie, listen to me,” Cat said, placing her fingers gently over his lips. “I’m not angry - really I’m not. It’s just that I can see more than you can at the moment, and you like Elaine a lot more than you’re admitting to yourself.”

  “But I—” he tried to mumble through Cat’s fingers.

  “No, please don’t. I know I’m right.” Cat smiled sorrowfully.

  “Bu—”

  “And, Ollie, I think you two are so right for each other; better than we could ever be,” she continued dramatically. “In fact, I think we work better just as friends…”

  Cat noticed Ollie didn’t try to contradict her. She also noticed the expression in his eyes, which looked a little like relief.

  God, does he want out of this as badly as I do? she wondered fleetingly to herself.

  “Are you sure, Cat?” he asked finally, clasping her fingers with his own.

  “Oh, yes,” she nodded with a sniffle or two, just to keep up appearances. “Actually, Ollie, I’d like us all to be friends again… Matt too.”

  “What, after everything he’s done to you?”

  “Yes, even after everything he’s done. I- I forgive him.”

  “Are you sure?” asked Ollie, stunned at how magnanimous Cat was being.

  “Yes. I just want everything to be back the way it was,” said Cat with - for once in this conversation - genuine feeling. She knew that she and Matt could never be a couple again after all that had happened, but if she could just be close to him, as a friend… “Do you think that could happen, Ollie?”

  “Don’t worry, Cat, I’ll sort it out! If you can forgive him, I reckon we all can!”

  “Thank you, Ollie!” she beamed. “Now, you get back to that girl of yours!”

  “Honestly, she’s not—” Ollie began to protest then stopped himself. Instead, he planted a quick kiss on Cat’s cheek before heading out of the flat.

  “Cat - you’re a star!” he shouted up the stairwell as he jumped the steps two at a time.

  Just as he vanished round the bend, Cat took a little bow to her imaginary audience.

  The three girls stood in the doorway of the café and stared at the scene before them.

  “Sonny, Kerry, Maya, c’mere! I was just telling the guys this joke about a lobster going into a bar. Heard it yet?”

  “Er, no…” said Sonja. Kerry and Maya swapped puzzled glances. Out of habit, they walked over to the window table where the ‘guys’ - Joe, Elaine and, surprisingly. Matt - budged up to make room for them.

  Completely ignoring the girls’ discomfort - Kerry, Sonja and Maya were, after all, strictly not on speaking terms with Matt - Ollie proceeded to tell the joke, laughing uproariously at the punchline.

  “Like all your jokes, that was rubbish, Ol,” Matt said amiably, getting to his feet. “Er, sorry to make you move again, people, but I said I’d give Elaine a lift to the bus station.”

  Elaine stood up, the various bangles round her wrist jangling as she picked up her embroidered rucksack from the floor.

  “Can’t afford the train,” she shrugged, smiling at the new arrivals. “Sorry I didn’t catch you lot this time round - it was just a flying visit. Felt I had to make up for missing this one’s birthday.”

  Laughing, she reached over and ruffled Ollie’s hair.

  Sonja felt Kerry stiffen beside her; no doubt she’d be worrying about what exactly that affectionate gesture meant.

  “Thanks for taking her, Matt. My Sunday shift starts in…” Ollie glanced at his watch, “…ten minutes, so it would have been a bit of a mad rush.”

  “No problem,” grinned Matt, shuffling his way out of the booth.

  “See you soon, gorgeous,” said Elaine, bending over to give Ollie a peck on the lips.

  “I’ll phone you during the week, E,” Ollie smiled up at her. “Safe journey.”

  Sonja could feel prickles of curiosity practically fly from Kerry’s body.

  “What are you lads playing at?” Sonja asked Ollie and Joe as soon as the door had clanged shut. “What’s with the big buddy act?”

  “Listen, I got a few things sorted out with Cat yesterday,” Ollie began to explain.

  “Like?” asked Sonja tetchily.

  “Like, we’re not an item.”

  Sonja felt Kerry shudder slightly.

  Well, at least that’ll be one thing less for her to worry about, thought Sonja.

  “And she’s decided that life’s too short to hold grudges. So she wants us all to make up with Matt,” he shrugged. “And I guess if she’s willing to forgive him, then we all can.”

  He looked at them each in turn, beaming one of his biggest smiles. Ollie hated conflict and he’d felt so much better since he’d made peace with Matt the night before.

  Not that Matt had made it easy.

  “But she made that whole rumour thing up!” he’d moaned. “Why should I forgive her?”

  “I’m sure she didn’t start that rumour - it’s a
ll some misunderstanding. Anyway, you started all this by being a tactless git, so let’s call it quits,” Ollie had reasoned.

  Eventually, Matt had come round to the idea, since it meant being back with his mates, and had agreed to meet Ollie and Joe on Sunday as a first step towards coming back into the fold. And it was agreed that he’d leave Ollie to smooth the ways with the girls.

  “Well, I’m sorry, but I just think it’s all a bit too easy,” sniffed Sonja. “Take it from me, my cousin wouldn’t just forgive Matt after what he did. Not her.”

  “Sonny, I know it’s hard to get your head round this one, but Catrina’s quite capable of being kind, you know,” insisted Ollie. “She’s no saint, but she told me she felt really uncomfortable about Matt being out of the gang, so she decided it was up to her to do something about it.”

  Up until this point, Sonja had had every sympathy with Cat over the whole episode. But now something didn’t quite add up. This wasn’t a side of Catrina that she knew.

  In all the years they’d grown up and hung around together, Cat had always been an attention-seeking drama queen, and this new, kindly, forgiving, martyr act didn’t ring entirely true. Was it possible that her cousin had learned a few lessons and changed for the better? Sonja doubted it.

  “Come on, Sonja - don’t be so mean,” said Maya. “I think it’s brilliant if Catrina’s thinking like this, and if Matt’s happy with that, then who are we to criticise?”

  “But Matt was really out of order—” Kerry began, still upset at Matt’s behaviour.

  “But Matt made a mistake, right? I mean, Sonja, what about that time you had a fringe cut that made you look like a complete spanner? And Kerry, I distinctly remember you buying a highly dodgy Aerosmith CD not so very long ago, however well you thought you’d hidden it from us…”

  The stupidity of his argument made everyone start to snigger - exactly as Ollie had hoped.

  “And we’ve got to get this sorted ‘cause poor old Elaine came all the way here to visit me and all she heard was me mouthing off about all our troubles,” Ollie continued. “I want us all to be back to normal next time I see her or she’ll never want to see me again!”

  “And, urn, when is that?” asked Kerry in a little high-pitched voice. “The next time you’ll see her, I mean?”

  Kerry, you’re so transparent! Sonja laughed to herself. Ollie must be able to see that you’re fishing for information a mile away!

  She gazed out of the window for a second while the others babbled away around her. Sonja was glad, she had to admit to herself, that things might be getting back to normal for the crowd.

  And maybe Cat has changed into a calm, rational human being, she thought, trying to be more generous about her cousin. It’s a crazy world, so you never know…

  As if on cue, Sonja spotted Mad Vera outside the launderette opposite, attempting to do the Macarena with a passing businessman who was desperately trying to shake her off.

  Yep, thought Sonja, grinning in spite of herself, it’s a crazy world.

  CHAPTER 19

  FANCY MEETING YOU

  Cat’s heart skipped a beat.

  It was Sunday night and she was on her way round to The Swan where Ollie had organised a get-together in the back room of the pub. He’d phoned her earlier to say everyone was fine, everyone - including Matt - was happy to start over, and that he wanted them all to come round to his that evening for a bit of a celebration.

  Catrina had looked out her favourite sundress and a cute little cardi to match - she wanted to look her best for her first peace-time meeting with Matt.

  But that first meeting was happening quicker than she thought.

  “Matt! Wait!” she called. He stopped walking, turned and looked slightly shaken to see her.

  “What, no car? I’m not used to seeing you use your legs!” she said as brightly as she could, once she caught up with him.

  Matt flailed around for an answer; he hadn’t anticipated bumping into her so early either.

  “So, did your fancy car break down then?”

  He looked at her warily, unsure if this was old-time friendly teasing or the start of some barbed and bitter barrage.

  “No, I just thought I might have a beer tonight, so I left it at home,” he answered flatly.

  “Ooh, you’re so grown-up and responsible,” simpered Cat then realised how sarcastic it probably sounded.

  “Hey, Cat, I thought the whole point of tonight was to reach a truce?” said Matt with an edge of irritation to his voice.

  Catrina felt flustered; she didn’t want him to get the wrong idea. She was going to try her best to be civil because she did miss his friendship. And him. Not that she was going to admit that out loud to anybody.

  “Of course, it is!” she smiled sweetly at him, linking her arm into his and leading Matt along the road towards The Swan. “Now, let’s go in together and show the others how civilised we can be!”

  Being so close to him. Cat caught a whiff of the aftershave he wore - and felt her heart skip a beat again.

  “Here’s to us!” said Ollie, holding up a glass of orange juice.

  Matt was the only one in the back room of The Swan with anything remotely alcoholic in front of him: Ollie’s parents - with the exception of his birthday party when they bent the rules a little - were hot on keeping strictly to age limits when it came to serving drinks.

  “Pity Maya couldn’t be here,” sighed Kerry who was all aglow at having her friends back together.

  “Well, you know what she’s like: she never seems to want to come out on a night before school,” shrugged Sonja. Sometimes sensible old Maya’s lack of spontaneity could put a real damper on things. But not tonight.

  The atmosphere had thawed out much quicker than Ollie could have hoped for - helped, of course, by the fact that Catrina and Matt had arrived together and seemed relatively at ease with each other.

  Ollie was pleased. Now that their friendship seemed back on the right track, and now that his stupid romantic entanglement with Cat was over, he could get seriously excited about the gig that was coming up.

  “So, are you all coming to see us on Friday then?”

  “Of course!” said Cat and Sonja in unison. One thing the cousins had in common was their love of a good night out.

  “Show them the poster for the gig, Joe!” Ollie nudged his friend. “Joe went and picked this up from the bloke at The Bell. He’s putting them all around town!”

  Joe pulled the rolled-up poster out of his inside jacket pocket and spread it out across the table for the gang to read.

  “But it’s just someone else’s poster with your band’s name slapped on top!” said Cat, picking at the sticky white label with ‘The Loud’ written on it in black marker pen.

  “Well, they cancelled at the last minute - the owner couldn’t afford to go printing a load of new posters!”

  “Hey, Ol - it says here it’ll be ‘a night of old favourites’. What does that mean?” asked Matt. “Aren’t you playing your own stuff?”

  “Nah - the other band were just going to be doing covers of other people’s songs, so we’ll have to do the same,” explained Ollie, slightly disappointed by his friends’ lack of enthusiasm. “Anyway, that’s how we got this gig - Nick told the bloke at The Bell how good we were at doing old songs at my party.”

  “Um, Ol,” said Sonja, pointing at the poster. “What does this bit mean - ‘plus extremely special VIP guest’?”

  “Dunno,” said Ollie, scratching his head and reading the line over. “Must be a publicity stunt the last band were going to do.”

  “But Ollie, your band’s name’s on this poster now,” Sonja tried to spell it out to him. “People who buy tickets are - strangely enough - going to expect to see an ‘extremely special VIP guest’!”

  Ollie scratched his head again and looked at Joe, who just shrugged his shoulders.

  “I hadn’t thought of that!”

  “Well, you’d better think of something fast
or everyone’s going to be demanding their money back by the end of the night!” said Sonja.

  “Your dad used to play in local mod bands back in the ‘60s, didn’t he? You could always get him in on bongos or something!” Cat giggled.

  “Oh yeah, Cat - like I’d really let my dad ruin our set. Actually, knowing him, he’d probably steal the show…”

  “So if your special guest’s not super-mod Stuart Stanton, let me see…” said Cat, drumming her fingers in the table. “Can the lucky punters of Winstead expect to see someone like Richard Ashcroft from the Verve? No? Jay Kay from Jamiroquai? Erm, Kate Moss? Liam Gallagher? Robbie Williams?”

  Ollie’d been grinning while she ran through her list of stars, but as she reached the end of her wish-list of celebs, his face fell.

  “They won’t really be expecting anyone famous to turn up, will they?” he winced.

  “Better get that black marker out again,” remarked Matt with a cheeky smile.

  “How come?” asked Ollie.

  “You’re going to have to run round town crossing that bit out on all the posters.”

  Ollie dropped his head in his hands and groaned.

  It was only when he felt a wet kiss land on his forehead that he sprang to life again: looking up, he saw Cat’s face loom in front of him as she stretched across the table.

  “There, there,” she purred, brushing his hair away from his face affectionately. “It’ll be all right…”

  Ollie felt panic rise in his chest. Not only did he have to worry about this stupid special guest business, but now Cat was getting all gooey on him again.

  And why did she gave him that conspiratorial wink as she slid back down into her seat? It didn’t help. It didn’t help at all.

  CHAPTER 20

  A VERY IMPORTANT PERSON

  The telephone had been ringing for ages.

  “Ollie!” shouted Anna, her hands full with a tray of dirty dishes - it had been really busy for a Tuesday lunchtime. “Ollie!!”