by C. J. Duggan
I rolled my eyes. “That’s right! And I am going to haunt you for the rest of your days.”
“You hadn’t checked in so I thought I would … what’s that noise?”
“I’m hitchhiking.”
There was a moment’s silence on the phone, and then he twigged.
“Toby found you!”
“Yes, you dibber dobber.”
“Hey, don’t blame me, when I said you had walked home he basically accosted me and then high-tailed it after you. I said if I knew you, you would stop at the Caltex for junk food.”
“Oh, you think you know me, huh? Well, it so happens I didn’t buy a thing.”
Condom! Condom! Condom!
“Nothing from a certain vending machine?” His voice was teasing. I nearly dropped my mobile switching to the other ear away from Toby. Damn him! We had been friends for too long.
“No!” I said a little too high-pitched.
Adam chuckled on the end of the phone. “You so did! And you can’t even blame it on Ellie this time.”
“I’m hanging up now.”
“Oh, hang on a minute.” There were muffled voices followed by scratching and static.
“Tess?” Sean’s voice came on the line. “Can you please put Toby on?”
“Oh, um, he’s driving. Hang on a sec, I’ll put you on loud speaker.”
“Tooooobyyyyyyyyy, Toooooooobyyyyyyy,” sing-songed through the phone like a nightmare.
“Can you come and pick me up? Old buddy, old mate, old pal … what do you say?”
Toby sighed and gave me a bored look.
“Do you mind?” he asked.
A destination to delay me from getting out of this car, hell no.
“Fine by me.”
“Be back there in five.” Toby worked to turn the car.
I was just about to hang up when Adam’s voice echoed through the loud speaker.
“Tess? Okay, so where were we before we were so rudely interrupted? Oh that’s right, you went and got yourself a co…” I hung up the phone with lightning speed and threw it on the dashboard.
Toby did a double take. “Everything okay?”
You mean apart from forgetting to turn off the loud speaker and nearly having my best friend reveal that I was packing heat? Apart from that, fine!
I texted Adam a very brief ‘SHUT UP!’ message and then placed my phone on silent. If Toby wondered what Adam was talking about, he didn’t let on. Maybe I bought myself a Cosmo mag or something. That could work.
We pulled into the Onslow car park, which was nothing more than a big circular space of gravel out the front of the hotel. There were people everywhere, loitering, most intoxicated after a big session. We couldn’t see Sean, and neither of us really wanted to get out of the car.
Near the front entrance a fight broke out; there was a lot of pushing and shoving before their mates held back the two obviously hammered guys.
We wound up the windows at this point and waited for our package to be delivered.
We both jumped as a sound thudded against Toby’s window.
“Toby!” A muffled sound with a smattering of condensation as Angela pressed herself drunkenly against the glass that she then proceeded to kiss.
This could not be happening.
“I missed yooooouuu…” she crooned. Toby unwound the window, and Angela’s eyes lit up now that there was nothing stopping her from getting her claws on her man. She paused as she caught sight of me, tilting her head in wonder. I gave a small smile.
“Tic Tac?” she said. I flinched. So much for our bathroom bonding, at least her predictable behavior made it easy for me to hate her. “What are you doing in here?”
Toby saved me from answering. “I’m just dropping Tess and Sean home.”
“Sean?” Angela’s eyes squinted into the interior thinking she might have overlooked him the first time. How anyone could overlook Sean’s six-foot-three stature, I couldn’t be sure.
“He’s inside, do you want to grab him for me? I don’t want to leave the car.”
Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Sure thing, babe, I know the law doesn’t look too kindly on people leaving kids in cars.” She looked pointedly at me and laughed at her own joke.
Before she went, she pulled Toby into a full-on kiss, her eyes on me, laying claim on her man. Finally she pushed him away and zig-zagged through the crowd.
Well, that was awkward.
At least she didn’t call me out and try to claw my face off, but the night was still young. We just sat in silence. I could tell Toby was embarrassed by public displays of affection. It was always Angela pawing at him, and although he looked at her affectionately and smiled, you would never see Toby getting all gooey. I was thankful for small mercies because I didn’t think I could stomach that. Sean stepped through the front door, sauntering his way across the gravel with a pot glass of beer in hand.
He came around to my passenger side to get in.
“You can’t take that with you,” I said.
“It’s for my collection, don’t tell Chris.” He put a finger to his lips and climbed in, his giant frame filling the inner cabin. I scooted over to the middle, and he leaned on me, spilling a bit of beer on himself. It was at this point I realised I was pushed right up against Toby, his bare arm burning against mine. I gave him an apologetic smile, even though I was not in the least bit sorry.
Toby whispered to me, “I think we better get him home first, if he passes out we’ll have no hope.”
“Agreed.” I muttered and tried to push Sean away from crushing me.
“Hey lookie, it’s my girlfriend.” Sean put his arm around me. “What’s for tea, honey? Are all the house chores done?”
“One: in your dreams, and two: it’s the 1990’s, not the1950’s, you sexist pig.”
I felt the vibration of Toby’s laughter through his arm as we both watched Sean’s brows rise in surprise.
“Tess, will you marry me?” Toby laughed.
I blushed, not knowing what to say, when a familiar cackle sounded from across the drive. Angela had stumbled over in the garden. Her equally drunk friend tried to help her up, but she was too busy laughing.
“Wow, someone’s drunker then me. Impressive.” Sean threw back another mouthful of what looked like flat, warm beer.
Angela hauled herself up and spotted us again.
“Heeeeyyyyy, where are you going?”
“I’m just going to drop –”
“You can’t go.” Angela pouted, glanced around her and then cupped her hands around her mouth. “Chris is going to do a lock-in.” She whispered in a loud, obnoxious way, as if she was privy to this amazing secret. As I looked over her dishevelled state, I knew Chris wouldn’t let her stay; she was a loud, messy drunk and Chris wouldn’t have that time bomb in his pub. Lock-ins were risky enough. All hush-hush as the beer continued to flow past their 12 o’clock licence. It could mean big trouble for Chris and his uncle if they were found out.
I prayed that my little cozy refuge, pressed up against Toby, wouldn’t be spoiled if Angela convinced him to stay with her. But he didn’t budge.
“Stay here, Ang. I’ll come and get you after I drop them home.”
Her eyes cut daggers at Sean and me, like he had chosen us over her. Which he kind of had.
She shrugged. “If I’m here, I’m here.”
“Don’t be like that, I won’t be long.”
She flicked her hair and walked off in a huff. What a child. I could stress and blush, and ask all the stupid naive questions in the world, and I still would look more mature than Angela Vickers every time. Toby stared after Angela with a deep scowl; he resonated such anger, I was sure he wouldn’t go after her. His jaw pulsed as he tightly clenched the steering wheel.
“She’ll be alright, she’s got her friends. She’ll be here when you get back.” I tried to pacify him like the idiot I was.
She’s a freakin’ idiot!
“Yeah,” Toby said as he sta
rted up the engine. He slung his arm over the seatback to check his back view. “I’m not coming back.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Life could be worse than being wedged between the Onslow Boys in Toby’s ute.
Sean suggested we go for a drive, and from the moment we had left Angela back at the Onslow, a new-found awkwardness had settled over the three of us. Toby’s solemn silence was thick and heavy; I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel the tension in his body where it was pressed against mine. I stole a quick sideways glance at Sean who could only respond with a helpless shrug.
Regardless of the change in mood, I was glad we were churning into the darkness; the last thing I wanted was for Toby to have a sudden hit of remorse and head back to the Onslow to pick Angela up for a make-up session … yeah, I didn’t want to think of that.
The possibility of turning around became bleaker as we drove further and further away from the hotel, veering onto McLean’s Bridge en route to Perry. My heart spiked with panic; maybe Toby took going for a drive as a male bonding thing? I didn’t want to go home yet! Sure I had desperately wanted to earlier, but now? Pressed next to Toby, feeling the warmth of his skin against mine; I never wanted to go home.
I listened to the rhythmic hum of wheels along the stretch of the never-ending concrete bridge that connected me to my impending doom. Home.
Be cool, Tess, be cool!
Then Toby sped past the turnoff to my street and kept driving up the winding road into the dense bushland. I tried not to smile too wide as relief flooded through me. He continued passed the Rose Café, leading deeper and deeper into the Perry Ranges, veering down the Point turnoff.
We were heading to the Point?
We climbed higher and higher. Toby laughed for the first time when he noticed that I was making a funny jaw movement to force my ears to pop.
“There’s chewy in the glove box.” He motioned with a head tilt.
I leaned across Sean who was like a brick wall; he lifted his arms to maneuver out of my way a bit, allowing me access to the glove box. The inside of the ute cabin was claustrophobic, pressed in between Sean and Toby – but don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t complaining! The glove box light momentarily highlighted a bemused smirk on Sean’s face, as if he was loving every minute of me lying awkwardly across his lap. Was the chewy worth that smug look? Yeah, I decided, it kind of was, as I accidentally on purpose elbowed him in the side as I straightened back into my seat.
“Ugh! Christ, Tess.” Sean clasped his side.
“Oops, sorry!” I offered sweetly, unwrapping and popping a piece of gum in my mouth. Toby took a piece from the pack.
The close proximity of the cabin wasn’t the only thing that caused a swirling giddiness in my stomach. I had never been to the Point at night. Come to think of it, I had only been there a handful of times during the day.
Once was with my Uncle Bernie who loved to go bird watching (yeah, that had been a riveting afternoon), so much so that my mum promised she would never subject me to it again. The other time was for a Grade Six field trip to replant trees after a bush fire swept through the ranges.
The Point was a popular haunt for young rebellious delinquents who were looking to hang out. I knew this because I had witnessed plenty a young couples stopping off at the cafe in the early hours of the morning. Their kiss-swollen lips, dishevelled hair and creased clothing. Oh, how I secretly envied them.
Unofficially, the Point was the designated playground for the eighteen-plus crowd, mainly because, thanks to the steep incline, you could only access it via car. Adam, Ellie and I had attempted it once by bike, but the winding ranges were far too steep for our little peddling legs; it didn’t take long for us to breathlessly voice, “You know what? We can totally wait ’til we’re older”.
The shadows of bushland passed by in a blur; I tried not to imagine what my parents would think. Me, travelling to the Point with two twenty-two year olds; I quickly shook the thought from my mind. No time for guilt tonight. It took us about ten minutes to make it to the final turnoff, abandoning the bitumen and winding up the rough dirt track that seemed much steeper at night. Up and up we crawled, not seeing more than a metre or so in front of us. The canopy of trees cast an eerie blackness, and as I looked out at the dense scrubland, I thought it would be the perfect place to bury a body. Had Toby and Sean not been debating the hard-hitting topics like chickens being the greatest of all of God’s creatures, I might have been a little bit nervous.
“Chickens?” Sean said in disbelief. “What about echidnas? They’re so tough you could run over one in your car, and it would still be alright.”
Toby chewed thoughtfully on his gum for a long moment. “Yeah, echidnas are pretty cool.” He nodded.
Yep, pretty thought-provoking stuff. I stifled my smirk, and my thoughts switched momentarily to Ellie. I wondered where she was right now. A part of me knew I should have stayed with her, but if I had, I certainly wouldn’t be pressed up against Toby, mere metres from the Point. Instead, I would be playing lookout for Ellie and her new fling; God only knows what kind of company I would be keeping.
The track evened out at the very top of the climb. It was so dark it felt like we could have easily driven off the edge of the earth for all we knew, but like everything with Toby, he maneuvered his way up the track with great care.
The Point was a mass clearing on top of one of the highest parts in the Perry Ranges. Sheer rock boulders sloped downwards into the abyss of darkness that ended with the distant twinkle of the town lights of Onslow. A derelict, boxy, wooden shack sat to the right of the clearing that had once been the fire observation tower. Over on the left of the clearing stood two ugly pylon towers, servicing as some beacon of technology. They were fenced off but it still didn’t prevent adrenalin junkies scaling them and climbing the pylons on drunken dares. Miraculously no one had plummeted to their death, yet. At least, not that I’d heard of.
And sure enough, tonight we were not the first car to crunch up the gravel track to the Point. Three other vehicles were parked in a circle and a crowd of people perched on bonnets. As we edged closer, Toby sounded the horn and wound his window down. He pulled over to where Ringer stood, cigarette in one hand, can of Jim Beam in the other.
“Well, if it isn’t the Onslow Boys. What brings you to this neck of the woods?” Ringer took a long draw of his ciggie, past his smirking lips.
“We’re out of options, we have partied it and pubbed it,” Sean said.
“And now your here parkin’ it?” Ringer laughed.
“Not with you bunch of pervs.” Toby smiled.
Ringer looked at me as if seeing me for the first time.
“McGee!! What you doing stowing away with these bums?”
“Oh, you know, enjoying the view.” I looked out towards the dark smudge that would be Lake Onslow, speckled with dotted lights from the town.
Toby steered us slowly closer towards the edge where the lookout was more prominent.
“Whoa, hang on a sec,” Sean said, “you two kids take a look at the pretty lights, I gotta go whizz.”
Sean climbed out and stumbled into the night.
Toby smiled and placed Sean’s empty pot glass in the cup holder. “Although I don’t doubt his authenticity, something tells me he won’t be heading back in a hurry.”
I cast Toby a questioning look.
He drove forward bringing his ute closer still to the edge. He pushed it into park and killed the engine, flashing me a devilish grin.
“He’s afraid of heights.”
We were silent for a while as we stared at the beauty of our little town. Growing up in Onslow seemed mundane, even claustrophobic at times, but sitting above it, as we did now, it looked well … kind of beautiful. Toby shifted and relaxed in his seat. I became all too well aware that I was still pressed right up against him, I hadn’t even bothered to move across when Sean had gotten out. I was torn between scooting across, because that seemed like the appropriate thing t
o do, or not saying a word; act like I didn’t even notice and stay right where I was.
I chose to be ignorant a little bit longer.
Toby gripped the steering wheel with one hand.
“What made you think I was angry at you?”
Damn! Memory like a freakin’ elephant.
Just because I desperately wanted to forget the things that came out of my mouth didn’t guarantee others would.
“Oh no … I just thought you seemed a bit quiet tonight, that’s all. I didn’t think it was solely directed at me.”
Yes I did.
He nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer.
He laughed a breath through his nose.
“I think you would be the last person I could be angry with.”
My head swung around to look at him but his eyes were diverted as his fingers played with a thread on his shirt.
“I’m sorry about how Ang treated you tonight,” he said.
My mouth gaped. “It’s not your fault,” I said.
Angela had pronounced Tic Tac in front of Toby as a means to deliberately humiliate me. Fresh anger boiled to the surface. Actually, yeah, maybe he should apologise for her. It was because of boys like him thinking she was a goddess that gave her grounds to be so cocky. My silence must have made Toby uncomfortable because he pressed further.
“You know, I had a nickname in high school.” My head snapped up, that had my attention.
Oh God, he knew, he heard. Of course he did.
“Oh?”
He gripped both hands on the steering wheel sighing deeply as if psyching himself up to tell me. I tucked my foot under my leg, settling in, waiting for Toby to continue.
“They used to call me Toby–Wan.”
Okaaaay? I frowned, unsure as to how it compared.
He looked at me expectantly. “Toby-Wan-Kenobi,” he repeated slowly, as if my first language wasn’t English.
My hand flew up to my mouth to mask the smile that automatically formed on my lips.