Sugar Secrets…& Scandal

by Mel Sparke

  “He’s been surrounded by three girls who’re flirting like mad with him - and he looks scared to death.”

  “How do you know they’re flirting with him?” asked Joe, craning his neck to see what was going on.

  “I’ve watched Cat in action often enough to spot serious flirting when I see it!” Maya smiled wryly, pushing her stool back and heading over to help Andy with the drinks and with his escape.

  “Oi-I heard that!” Cat yelped after her, breaking away from her current conversation.

  “You were meant to!” Maya laughed back over her shoulder.

  “Right, anyway, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted,” Cat continued, turning back to the others. “Tonight, we ask around and see if anyone knows who she is.”

  “Yeah, fair enough, Cat, but Stalker Girl might turn up herself anyway!” Billy pointed out.

  “Astrid…” mumbled Ollie.

  He felt she at least deserved the dignity of being called her real name. Even if she was bonkers and making his life a misery. Somehow, Ollie felt riddled with guilt over the whole situation. Maybe if he’d handled it better, or put her straight from the start, or been nicer to her the day she came into Slick Riffs, or been more horrible to her the day she came into Slick Riffs…

  “I don’t think she’ll come tonight. Not after her yelling at Kerry last time we played here,” Joe reasoned.

  “But we said the same thing about her not turning up last week,” said Sonja. “And boy were we wrong about that!”

  “And you saw her spying on you from the launderette on Saturday,” Anna chipped in.

  Sitting with his friends and the band packed round a small table in the Railway Tavern, Ollie felt fidgety with all the attention. Having everyone focus on you when you were doing something fun like being on stage was one thing, but having them all analysing your life like this made him squirm.

  “Well, maybe I got it wrong on Saturday-maybe it was someone who just looked a bit like her. I mean, you girls didn’t see her in the launderette, did you? And I waited in your flat for ages.”

  “And ate all my chocolate Hob-nobs while you were at it…”

  “Sorry, Anna,” Ollie grinned. “I was tense-I needed to do something. I’ll make it up to you-I’ll buy you another packet, and a blueberry muffin, too, as interest!”

  “Look, Ollie, we’re trying to help you sort all this out,” Cat interrupted sternly. Only it was hard to take seriously someone who was wearing a skin-tight T-shirt with the slogan ‘Hi guys!’ on it. “Do you want to stop making jokes for once and concentrate?”

  “Sorry, Cat,” Ollie apologised, pulling a pathetic face at her.

  “So, you think we should ask people in the pub tonight if they know her?” Kerry asked.

  “Yes,” nodded Cat. “If we can find out what school or college she goes to or where she lives or works…”

  “Well, what then?” Matt quizzed her.

  Cat stared at him as if he’d asked the most ridiculous thing in the world.

  “I don’t know, do I? Hey, do I have to come up with all the ideas round here?” she said, holding her hands out in front of her pleadingly. “Isn’t it enough that I come up with the first part of the plan?”

  Sonja sighed and rolled her eyes to the paint-peeling ceiling. Cat could quite easily drive a person mad.

  “I think this Astrid girl needs someone to have a quiet word in her ear,” said Sonja. “And I don’t mind being the person to do it.”

  “No, Son-if anyone speaks to her, it should be me,” winced Ollie. Going through an awkward confrontation with Astrid came level with the idea of watching his Vespa go through a crusher in his personal list of nightmare scenarios, but if it came to the crunch, he knew he’d have to do it. For Kerry’s sake if not for his own-he couldn’t have people verbally abusing his girlfriend.

  If only I hadn’t been such a coward on Saturday, he told himself off. If only I’d just stomped over to the launderette there and then and confronted her. Instead of running up the back stairs and hiding at Anna’s…

  “What’s the point in that, Ol?” said Sonja. “If you talked to the girl, she’d either burst into tears or throw a garland round your neck and try to snog your face off!”

  “This sounds interesting! Who’s trying to snog whose face off?” asked Nick, catching the last of the conversation as he pulled out a spare stool and settled himself down with a slosh of his pint glass on the table.

  “Stalker Girl. We’re just taking bets on whether she’ll turn up tonight and what surprises she’ll pull if she does,” shrugged Matt.

  “Oh, her,” Nick grimaced. Ollie had been keeping him up to date with the goings-on of The Loud’s first officially overenthusiastic fan. “Well, you better get used to it, boys-if you hit the big time, you’ll have more groupies than you’ll know what to do with, and plenty of them will be as barking as her! Actually, I remember when I was on the road one time with Aerosmith, there was this girl who—”

  While the others got ready to smile politely and laugh in the right places at the rock’n’roll anecdote Nick was about to tell-for the hundredth time-Cat turned her attention elsewhere.

  “Yoo-hoo! Derek!” she called out to the pub’s owner, who was clearing glasses from a nearby table. “Got a minute?”

  Nick halted his story as he watched Cat wobble her way over to Derek in her high-heeled boots.

  “What’s she up to then?” he asked, scratching his stubbly chin.

  “I dread to think!” said Sonja, noting the way her cousin struck several wiggly, coquettish poses as she chatted to the middle-aged man. It always amazed Sonja, the way Cat could stand up straight like a normal person when she was in the company of females, but automatically turn into an eyelash-fluttering contortionist in front of blokes.

  Cat suddenly turned beaming towards them, with one thumb aloft, then reached for Derek’s hand and dragged him over to their table.

  “All right, Derek?” Nick nodded at him. “Cat been pestering you, has she?”

  “Me, no!” Cat protested. “I’ve been playing detective, haven’t I?!”

  “What are you on about, Cat?” asked Sonja.

  “Well, who would know the customers in here better than anyone? The person who runs it!”

  “Ah!” said Matt, catching her drift. “So Derek, do you know this Stalk—”

  Cat’s eyes instantly widened at him, giving him an obvious red light on what he was about to say.

  “Um…” he tried to backtrack, “…this girl who’s been hanging round the band?”

  “Astrid? I certainly do know her,” nodded Derek. “She’s my daughter.”

  There was a faint ‘clink!’ as Billy’s glass collided with his teeth, but other than that, not a peep came from anyone seated around the table.

  “Your friend here…”

  “Cat,” she simpered at Derek.

  “Cat was saying our Astrid’s been up to her old tricks. Been pestering you a bit, has she, Ollie lad?”

  Ollie gave a nervous half-nod. It sounded like Derek was being sympathetic, but he didn’t want to jump to conclusions. He didn’t really want an irate dad knocking his teeth out and tearing up his band’s Thursday night gig agreement.

  “Don’t worry, lad-she does this with every new band on the go around town,” he shrugged. “Gets a bee in her bonnet about them, starts trailing them around, then takes it too far and makes a fool of herself. Me and her mum have told her time and time again, but… We just keep hoping she’ll grow out of it.”

  “Uh… right,” muttered Ollie, not sure what else to say.

  “She’s your daughter? Since when?” Nick exclaimed. “Last time I saw you and Eva with your kids they were two little things about this size, with pigtails and braces!”

  “Hey, you know what teenagers are like, Nick,” shrugged Derek. “Can’t stand being around their folks, unless it suits them. That’s what it’s been like with Astrid anyway-never see her round this place unless th
ere’s a band playing. Thank God for our other daughter, Sacha-mind you, she’s about to turn thirteen and she’s getting into music too.”

  “Uh-oh,” muttered Matt under his breath to Ollie. “Stalker Girl 2-the sequel.”

  Ollie gave a cough, to cover up his sniggers.

  “But don’t worry, Ollie,” said Derek, turning his attention back to his daughter’s object of adoration, “I’ll have a word with her about it. And anyway, she’s probably bored with you by now. She’s like that-two, three months following one band and she’s off trailing another one.”

  “Well, you guys,” said Matt, looking round at Billy, Ollie and Joe as soon as Derek had ambled off, empty glasses in hand. “So much for the loyalty of your first proper fan!”

  “Can’t say I’m going to lose sleep over it!” Ollie grinned, feeling his body go weak with relief. No confrontations, no more hassles for Kerry, no more staring out in the audience for a glint of diamante and a pair of eerie staring eyes…

  “What have I missed?” asked Andy, finally arriving back at the table with a trayful of glasses and bottles.

  “The boys’ll fill you in later-c’mon, take your drinks and get backstage,” Nick ordered them jovially as he checked his watch.

  “Where’s Maya? I thought she was helping you, Andy?” asked Kerry as the boys all shuffled to their feet.

  “Oh, she’s talking to Alex-he’s just arrived,” he replied.

  “Wow-he’s come to see us again? He must really like our stuff!” grinned Billy, chuffed at his tutor’s enthusiasm.

  “Doh-I don’t think he’s come to see you!” Cat joked tactlessly.

  Billy looked quizzically at Cat and then noticed the other lads had all headed off without him.

  “Did you hear what Cat said just then?” he asked Joe, catching him up at the door to the corridor.

  “Urn, yeah,” nodded Joe.

  “Do you know what she meant?”

  Joe hesitated before he replied: he knew Billy had had a thing for Maya way back last summer, and he was pretty sure that was all in the past. But it might be weird for him to hear that she and Alex were together. It had been weird enough for Joe to take in, but it wasn’t as if he had a connection with Alex like Andy and Billy had - and neither of them had heard this little bit of news yet.

  “Uh, Billy-Maya and Alex are… kind of seeing each other.”

  Billy stopped dead in his tracks in the scruffy corridor. Up ahead, the door to the dressing room banged shut as the others filed in.

  “Since when?”

  Uh-oh, thought Joe, seeing a tell-tale gutted look cross Billy’s face. Joe knew what that felt like all too well.

  “Since last week, I think. I don’t really know exactly-I heard it second-hand from the others.”

  Billy stared down at the lino as if he’d find some explanation for all this scrawled down there.

  “You want to hear something crazy, Joe?” he said, scuffing the toe of his trainer on the floor.

  “What’s that?” asked Joe.

  “That fortune-telling stuff? That reading she got about finding true love? I kind of thought it was meant to be me…”

  Seeing Billy’s misery, Joe was half-tempted to spill everything out-tell him all about Kerry, all about the time he wasted, making himself miserable holding out for a girl he could never have. About how all the love songs in their set were written by him, and not Ollie, like everyone thought, and that every one of them was about Kerry - and no one knew that.

  “Still,” said Billy suddenly, raising his face upwards and slapping a broad smile on it. “Plenty more fish in the sea, aren’t there? Or at least plenty more gorgeous girls in the Railway Tavern tonight who might fancy going out with a guitarist in a top band!”

  “Oh, yeah?” grinned Joe, who knew a brave face when he spotted one. “Is there a guitarist in a top band in here tonight?”

  Joe ducked the jokey punch coming in his direction and both lads hightailed it, laughing, towards the dressing room door.

  As the boys came on stage, Maya spotted Cat turn round and stare in her direction.

  She’d give anything to come scurrying over here and give Alex the third degree, she smiled to herself, knowing that the other girls wouldn’t let her.

  Sonja, Anna and Kerry were giving Maya a little space and she appreciated it. She knew they still felt a little strange about what was going on with her and Alex, but they were trying to understand.

  She’d take him over to join them in a little while, after she’d had him to herself a few minutes more.

  “Happy?” Alex smiled down at her as they leaned back against the bar together.

  Happy? Maya thought to herself. What about scared and confused and uncertain and nervous…?

  But what was the point of worrying about the rest of it right now? She’d have to deal with it soon enough.

  Maya rested her head against Alex’s shoulder and sighed contentedly. “Very happy,” she smiled back up at him.

  Sugar SECRETS…

  …& Guilt

  “So, what did she say to you?” Kerry asked Cat, at the same time wondering what was keeping Sonja this Saturday lunchtime. Kerry needed Sonja to be here, finding out what was going on in her cousin Cat’s life, because Sonja would know what to do and say, unlike the boys, who were just making useless, sympathetic noises.

  It’s just like when we found out about Maya and Alex going out together, thought Kerry, glancing over the Formica table at Joe Gladwin and Matt Ryan. None of us-not even Ollie-really knows what to say in the face of a big, scary, important situation.

  And to Kerry, Cat’s situation did indeed seem big, scary and very, very important. The idea of being forced to move away from home, from your normal life, was just about Kerry’s worst nightmare. (Not that she’d ever told anyone in case they said she was just being silly.)

  Kerry glanced quickly at her watch-her lunch hour from the chemist’s shop where she worked on Saturdays would be over soon and she’d have to run to make it back to the high street on time, but she just had to hear more of Cat’s tale of woe.

  “Well, Mum didn’t say anything last night ‘cause she switched off the TV and went to bed after that, and I didn’t want to let on I was home.”

  “Why not, Cat?” asked Joe, looking confused. But then, Cat confused him on a regular basis.

  “Because I didn’t want her to know I’d been listening in,” she explained. Joe still looked puzzled.

  “But did she speak to you this morning?” Kerry persisted.

  “Oh, yes, she certainly did,” replied Cat, rolling her eyes and folding her arms across her chest.

  “And?” Matt chipped in, trying to hurry Cat along to the crux of the matter and not drag out the drama, which she was perfectly capable of doing.

  “And she came out with all this stuff about taking a few days’ holiday at short notice; how she’s going off to the coast or somewhere tomorrow, with a pal of hers from the tennis club or something.”

  “But what did she say when you confronted her with the business about moving?” asked Kerry, her brow furrowing with worry.

  “I didn’t.”

  Matt and Joe both gave Cat an incredulous look.

  “What d’you mean, you didn’t?” asked Matt.

  “Well, it’s all about getting the upper hand, isn’t it?” Cat pouted. “Like not letting her know I heard her on the phone: if she wants to keep this a secret from me, then she’ll just look more of an idiot in the end.”

  “But, Cat, it’s not about point-scoring, is it?” Kerry pointed out, trying to think what Sonja or Maya would say if they were here. “It’s about finding out what’s going on…”

  “What’s going on is that my mother either expects me to drop my friends and career prospects and trot off after her to God knows where,” Cat shrugged huffily, “or she’s thinking of deserting me.”

  “Cat, she wouldn’t just up and leave you!” said Joe.

  “Why not? My dad did!” />
  “Don’t be so melodramatic!” Matt chided her.

  “It’s true!” Cat railed at him. “And who are you to talk, when your mother isn’t exactly on the scene!”

  “Cat, it’s not that simple!” he argued, but deep down, Matt wondered why he was bothering. Maybe his mum hadn’t just headed out the door one day and vanished into thin air like Cat’s dad had done, but for all the effort she made to have a proper relationship with her son these days, the difference wasn’t particularly noticeable.

  “But either way, Cat, you must be freaking out!” said Kerry, her heart swamped with sympathy for her friend.

  “Well, it’s not like I get on with the old witch,” said Cat, gazing soulfully out of the window of the End-of-the-Line café, “but what am I supposed to do if she does want to sell up and go on her own?”

  “You’ll love it, that’s what you’ll do,” Matt grinned. “Independence at last. No more Sylvia sniping at you about being a disappointment of a daughter because of your college choice, or the colour of your hair, or the fact that the way you dress embarrasses her stylish sensibilities or whatever.”

  Cat flipped her gaze round to him, her whole face suddenly lit up.

  “You know, it’s not often I agree with anything you say, Matt Ryan, but just this once, you have a point!” she grinned back, her red-painted lips stretched into a bright smile. “This could be a whole new phase for me-making my way on my own, just like Anna…”

  “Except Anna’s got a job with a flat thrown in,” Joe couldn’t help pointing out.

  “Maybe I should go and see one of the college advisers tomorrow-find out if there’s any student accommodation going…” said Cat dreamily, ignoring Joe’s comment.

  “Might be difficult to find anything half-way through a term, Cat,” Kerry pointed out gently. “And it’s not like you even know when you might need to move in…”

  “Maybe you could move in with Sonja-her old room’s been empty since her brother moved out and she moved into his bedroom.”

  Kerry knew Matt was only stirring, but Cat didn’t.