Noelle reappeared at the perfect time with three bottles of beer. ‘You called for a party?’ She then whispered to Emmy, ‘I know this is a lame thing to say, but if you see anyone put a beer or wine bottle in the normal bin can you fish it out and put it in the recycling?’
Emmy laughed and cheersed her sister, just then catching Jared’s eye from across the room. He raised his bottle at her and she brought her own to her lips. Talking of letting her hair down. She might be in her thirties now, but… it still wouldn’t be cool to back out of a dare, would it?
Less than two hours later, and the party was swinging. Noelle and Emmy squeezed through the throng of people laughing and dancing in their living room. Their living room. ‘This party is so beautiful,’ Noelle said over the music.
Emmy was feeling wonderfully merry and had been throwing and catching glances and smiles with Jared all evening. It was like living out a scene from one of her Sugar magazines. ‘Is Jenny having a good time?’ she asked Noelle, wanting ALL the love to be in the air.
‘Yes, I’m so relieved. We’re still in the friend zone, but it’s awesome.’
‘Would you like to kiss her up?’
‘Yes!’ Noelle laughed. ‘Have you seen how she looks in that Britney Toxic costume? God, I really, really want to kiss her and stuff, and I think she wants to as well, but I guess we’ll see what happens. That costume though, she’s killing me…’
They went their separate ways, and Emmy stepped on to the porch to cool down a little, surprised to see Rae already out there on the driveway. She was about to call out when she realised Rae was hissing at a couple of people. ‘Just leave, you nosy slags, I know you’ve got some secrets too!’
Rae stomped back towards the porch and only looked up when she was about to ascend the steps. ‘Hi Em!’ she said, stooping at the top step to retrieve a drink she’d left in limbo.
‘What was that about?’
‘Nothing.’ Rae sidled round her and went back inside.
‘Who were those people?’
‘Just a couple of people from school. From your year, actually. Let’s just say they weren’t here to build any bridges. Another drink?’
‘What secrets do you know about them?’
Rae laughed. ‘I’ve got nothing, but everyone has secrets of some form, so it’ll pique a nervous curiosity, if nothing else.’ She was certainly her mother’s daughter at times.
‘This was such a good idea,’ Emmy said, the occurrence already forgotten. ‘I might breakdance – do you think I should breakdance?’
‘Maybe save that for the late-night crowd.’ Rae led her back inside.
Emmy nodded and smiled into her drink. Teenage Emmy had been a good breakdancer. She mentally high-fived that version of herself, who maybe really wasn’t so bad, now she was coming out of her shell. She had amazing taste in music for one thing, and Emmy let out a loud whooooo! As ‘Everybody’ by Backstreet Boys began to boom out.
‘Whoooooo!’ screamed Rae, as she slid down the bannister chugging a beer. The crowd went wild and she put her bottle on her head as a victory. She wasn’t sure who’d started the bannister-slide drinking game, but she loved them for it.
She was partying with old strangers who were now becoming new best friends, for tonight at least. Seeing all these vaguely familiar faces from her past, here in her house now, was laughable, but everybody was having a good time; the past was in the past, and the present was all about fun and forgiveness.
But then she was getting pretty steaming, so she loved everyone right now, including Big Daddy the spider, who’d come in to see what all the fuss was about. Everyone was ignoring him, thinking he was just a Halloween prop.
‘I see you and your cheeky seven legs,’ Rae gurgled up at him as he sat above the living-room doorway-with-no-door.
‘Do you know what’s good about being old?’ she said to nobody in particular.
‘Viagra!’ answered one chap dressed as a devil, who wandered through eating some cheese.
‘Us old people don’t come to a house party to trash it, we just have a really good, really civilised time. AMIRITE, MAPLEWOOOOOOOD?’
The living room whooped without knowing what they were whooping at.
God, she missed Finn.
Nope, nope, nope. No, she didn’t. Time for another drink; hello, parents’ drinks cabinet! Hello Sourz Apple!
Noelle and Jenny squeezed on to one end of the old sofa that was pushed into the corner of the living room. Bonnie and her friends were taking selfies on the other end, and there were so many of them that they kept bumping into Jenny’s back – until her Halloween punch sloshed over the side of her glass and landed on one of her legs.
Jenny gave a tipsy chuckle, and moved closer to Noelle, so that her legs were flopped over Noelle’s lap. This is too much, Noelle thought to herself, knowing they were on dangerous territory. They had been for days, and the minute they’d both allowed themselves to be loosened by the drinks there was no turning back. Noelle didn’t want any broken hearts on either side – but the music, the liquor, the heat all mixed well with the fact that the one who got away was right back where everything started.
‘What are you doing?’ Noelle asked, softly.
‘What are you doing?’ Jenny asked in return. ‘Take your eyes off my lips.’
‘Take your legs off my lap.’
‘You take them off.’
Alcohol. Oh, alcohol. Noelle and Jenny were pleasantly intoxicated in teenage heaven.
Jenny shuffled a little closer as the Bonnie brigade squeezed an extra person on to the sofa down that end. She studied Noelle’s face. ‘I’ve forgiven you, you know,’ she said over the music.
Noelle beamed and squeezed Jenny around the middle. ‘Thank you.’
‘But that doesn’t mean we’re getting back together.’
‘I know.’
‘I’m over you,’ Jenny said, but there was a smile on her face, and she played with Noelle’s hair as she said it.
‘I’m over you too,’ Noelle said. ‘But if you wanted any kind of closure, just say the word.’
Jenny laughed. ‘Closure?’
‘You know, one night only, for old times’ sake.’
‘One night only? I don’t think that’s a good idea.’
Noelle smiled at her first love. She was right, of course. ‘Suit yourself.’
Jenny snickered into her shoulder and kissed her neck. Noelle held her warmth close and it was everything, like it always had been.
‘One night only?’
‘Closure,’ nodded Noelle.
Emmy was in her element. She felt alive in a way she never usually did, in public at least. She was dancing to Haddaway in the centre of the living room and everyone else wasn’t sniggering at her or moving somewhere else, they were right there dancing alongside her. She even threw out some amazing moves she’d learnt from *NSYNC and got a few cheers.
She felt someone run a hand down her arm and turned to see Jared. ‘What is LOVE?’ she yelled at him. She pulled at him, tossing her hair from side to side, and tried to entice him to dance.
He leaned in close to her ear. ‘Em, I’d better go.’
‘Noooooo.’ She pulled away and looked over at the clock under the TV. ‘No, it’s barely eleven. Stay with me for a while.’ She went back to dancing, but held both his hands in hers.
Jared stuck out the song and she loved that he really let himself get into it. Jared had never been one to try and play it cool, and that made him all the cooler in her eyes.
As ‘What Is Love’ merged into ‘Mr Vain’ (which left the ridiculously young Bonnie brigade confused for a moment, before they went with it anyway), Jared extracted himself. ‘I’ve really got to leave,’ he laughed.
But she hadn’t kissed him yet. If he even wanted to. She just knew she didn’t want to lose the momentum while the adrenaline was finally pumping through her body. She stood on tiptoes to reach his ear. ‘Do you have time for a quick walk?’
‘Sure, are you feeling okay?’
‘I could just do with cooling down.’ Girrrrrrrl, wasn’t that the truth. I am so pissed.
They stepped on to the porch and Emmy pulled her frizzed, sticky hair from her neck and beamed at Jared. ‘Did you have a good time?’
‘I did, did you? Are you?’
‘I really am – I am a party animal!’ They climbed down from the porch and set off on their usual walk around the house and into the woods. ‘Wow,’ she said as they became cloaked in the trees. ‘The music’s pretty loud, I didn’t realise. The cops’ll be around in a minute,’ she nudged Jared and snickered.
‘We’re definitely going to be getting some complaints about you three this evening,’ he grinned, slinging an arm around her neck.
In answer, she danced along under the weight of his bicep, jiggling her shoulders and bopping her head, the biggest smile on her face.
‘I love you like this,’ he laughed.
‘You do?’ She loved him like this too.
‘You were always so natural around me, laughing at what you wanted to laugh at, dancing how you wanted to dance, reading anything that interested you and then telling me all about it in so much detail. I basically read the Baby-Sitters Club through you.’
Emmy stopped walking (didn’t stop dancing) and examined his face, unable to keep the smile from hers. ‘I have never felt as comfortable around anyone as I have around you. My sisters are my comfort zone, but seeing you again is like… waking up.’
‘Wow,’ he replied, and he put his hands in his pockets in a way that made him look fifteen again.
‘Are you drunk?’ she asked all of a sudden.
‘A little bit. A bit more than I intended to be. Are you?’
‘Yep. Do you want to go to the den?’
In the distance, nineties dance music mixed with the wind rustling the last of the autumn leaves to provide the soundtrack to the two of them standing face-to-face, weighing up just how heavy that loaded question was.
‘I mean, we can’t stay out here,’ Emmy eventually whispered. ‘It’s Halloween. And I hear this house is haunted.’
Jared nodded his head. ‘That’s a good enough reason for me.’
They continued down the path-that-was-barely-a-path. After a moment, Jared took Emmy’s hand and the way it made her head rush was akin to a long gulp of champagne.
At the entrance to the den, and under the cover of the pine trees, they sat down clumsily on a pile of leaves.
Jared reached over and moved a piece of hair back off her face. ‘What are we doing?’
‘Letting our hair down.’
They moved closer to each other, the leaves crunching beneath them. As their faces closed in she looked at him in close-up. She’d never seen him in close-up before. It was nice.
She felt his breath on her lips for a moment and she savoured it, even in her tipsy state. Every part of her, everything she had been, everything she was now, wanted this to happen. She was drunk but in control. At his mercy, but the one calling the shots. She felt strong and real and present.
And then as Jared’s lips met her own, her mouth curved into a smile and she kissed him back, slowly, images of honey, champagne, moonlight, his biceps, Haddaway and a hundred sweet memories she’d pushed aside saturated her.
She had been happy here. Not all the time, but she was all of a sudden so aware that the happy times didn’t need to be treated as less important and less meaningful than the sad times.
Emmy shuffled in closer still, resting her legs upon his.
Kissing Jared was fun and strange, serious but also funny, exactly what she needed and probably something she’d regret come morning. Finally, she forced herself to come up for air, and rested her forehead against his.
‘That was my first kiss,’ Emmy breathed.
‘It was?’ he asked, his eyes snapping open.
‘No, I’m just kidding.’ She was so funny. And then they both went back in for more.
The doorbell rang and Rae picked her way through the guests, a WKD in hand. ‘Who rings the doorbell at a party? Just come in!’
‘That’s why everyone hates you,’ hiccuped someone as they sauntered past. ‘They call you no-doorbell-dolly. No, they don’t, I’m sorry, are there more Wotsits?’
Rae opened the door to someone dressed in full Ghostface-from-Scream cloak and mask. ‘Trick or treat, muthafuckerrrrrrs!’ squealed a tone of voice Rae hadn’t heard for years. She leapt out of the front door, closing it behind her and pushing Ghostface back on to the porch.
‘Now I know that’s not our upstanding town mayor under there?’ Rae cautioned.
Gabbi whipped up the mask. ‘It is! It’s me!’ Her eyes were bright and her eyeliner thick, just like the old days. ‘But nobody’s going to know because of my incredible costume.’ She danced and grinded around Rae.
‘Okay, how pissed are you right now?’ Rae swigged from her bottle, knowing maybe she should be the sensible one here, but the loosey-goosey tipsy part of her was trying to claw its way out and embrace its childhood friend and go hell for leather.
Gabbi pulled the mask back down as someone popped their head out the door looking like they were going to be sick, but then obviously felt better and went back in. ‘Pissed enough to want to relive the good times and let my fucking hair down FOR ONCEEEEE, but not pissed enough to take this costume off and let anyone know it’s me. If you see me trying to do that, you have to punch me in the tit – okay, Rae?’
‘Gotcha.’
‘Seriously. Like you know we used to be on boob watch for each other when we’d go on nights out? If one of the bongo-bongos was about to jump ship we’d alert the owner to hoik them back in?’
‘I remember it well. Often they came out anyway.’
‘Tonight, imagine my face is a boob. If it starts to come out, shove that squishy bad boy back under its cover. I mean it, Rae. I’m going to be drinking more, and even if I want to take this mask off and sing ‘Earth Song’, you have to stop me.’
‘How are you going to drink with it on?’
‘Ohhhhhh shit.’ Ghostface flopped down on to the porch.
‘We have straws! We have straws, don’t panic.’ Rae helped her up. ‘Come inside, we have music and dancing, and people are actually beginning to let loose. In our house!’
Mayor Reynold didn’t take much convincing. In she twerked, and within seconds was grinding against the Viagra man from earlier while the Vengaboys Boom Boom Boom Boom-ed on the stereo.
A part of Rae knew this was a bad idea. She knew no good could come of it. But as was so often the way, she also told herself that, really, what’s the worst that could happen?
Chapter 19
Emmy woke up with a jolt, her eyes shooting open but her brain struggling to make sense of the world around her. She was cold, the ground firm but damp beneath her. She was outside; her view was of leaves in extreme close-up and the bottom of tree trunks. The light was blue – not bright, more of a muted indigo – which suggested to Emmy that the sun hadn’t risen yet. Her body was facing the ground, and something heavy was pushing her there.
No, not pushing her… Spooning her.
She gasped and lifted her head so she could twist her neck, ouchhhh her stiff and aching neck. Next to her, surrounding her, and sleeping as soundly as if he was in a California King, was Jared. She gasped again, and without pausing to think shot out her right hand, as much as she was able to, to feel his crotch.
Good, jeans still on. So they’d probably not had sex.
Unless they’d had sex and then got dressed again afterwards? They had clearly thought it was a good idea to sleep in the woods, perhaps they had also thought through the ways of avoiding hypothermia. They were both sensible, after all. Nerds would avoid hypothermia. God, she loved being a nerd. Getting dressed après-bonk was a good start in beating the chill-factor, even if going inside would have been way more sensible.
No, no, they hadn’t had sex, she wasn’t that drunk – and no
w that she’d been awake for fifteen seconds, it was all coming back. They had smooched, a lot, and they had discussed having sex and, as much as Emmy was pretty certain she’d been the one egging him on, she was also a girl who liked her sleep, and she’d given up pretty quickly in favour of a good old snuggle among the worms and the —
Ohmygod SPIDERS! Emmy hurled Jared’s arm off her and leapt to her feet. He awoke, sat straight up, and took about the same fifteen seconds to look around and figure out where he was and why he was here and whether or not his jeans were still on.
When he looked like he’d finish processing, Emmy hissed at him, ‘Jared, get up.’
‘What time is it?’ he asked.
‘I have no idea. Five? Six? The music’s not playing any more so I think the party’s over.’
‘Shit.’ Now it was Jared’s turn to jump up. ‘Oh crapbags, I’ve got an early shift. I’m going to need to get home.’
They scurried up towards the house as quietly as they could, Jared peeling at his stuck-on werewolf fur and Emmy trying not to think about all the kissing and stuff for the moment.
They reached the front of the house, where they had to cross a moat of orange pumpkin pulp and what appeared to be the site of a jack o’lantern massacre.
‘Someone didn’t like your decorations,’ Jared commented.
‘The weird thing is, we didn’t have any pumpkins…’
Up the porch steps to a front door that was wide open. Emmy was about to enter when Jared moved her gently to the side and walked in first, the torch on his phone held high, in full police mode.
The hallway was dark and quiet, and freezing cold, any body heat created by the party long departed through the front door.
Emmy was afraid to look inside the living room. Not because of lurking murderers, but because she couldn’t bear to see it if the freshly painted skirting boards were covered in drink, or puke, or whatever else might be in there. The skirting boards took sooooo loooong.
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