Peer Pressure

by Chris Watt

  Jodie felt like she was going to throw up, but instead attempted to make herself heard.

  “Mum, I...” but that was as far as she got, before Katy continued, still looking to Rob.

  “So, I had a really nice time, Rob.” She was speaking in a strange tone, both friendly and conversational, as if this was all normal behavior, a typical Friday night for her. And it caught both Rob and Jodie off guard, as they both then replied,

  “What?”

  Katy ignored the surround sound confusion and continued.

  “Well, you have my number?”

  “Katy,” said Rob, trying to snap himself out of it and behave like the adult he was, “don’t you think we should...”

  “Talk about it? I guess you’re right. But not tonight, it’s too late. Why complicate things further?”

  Rob nodded, adding

  “I’m sorry about this.”

  Jodie could only lean against the doorframe, a supporting character in her own personal tragedy. Katy just shook her head.

  “Don’t be. It’s not your fault, I mean, you didn’t know, did you?”

  “No.”

  “And Jodie,” Katy turned to face her daughter, who felt, suddenly, like she was five years old again, being taught a lesson for being naughty, “You didn’t know, did you?”

  Jodie shook her head.

  “Well, no, but...” Of course she hadn’t known. If she had, she would have done something about it earlier.

  “Then no one’s to blame,” said Katy, turning back to Rob.

  There was silence now, as though a sermon had just taken place and the congregation was now being asked to stand and contemplate the lesson behind it.

  “Should I go?” asked Rob.

  “That’s probably a good idea,” Katy said, with a nod.

  “Right you are then,” he said, slowly starting to turn, before hesitating, adding, “I’m sorry about this, girls.”

  Katy shook her head and gave him a reassuring,

  “Don’t be.”

  “Well, goodnight.”

  And then he was off down the garden path. Katy gave him a wave, before walking through her front door and closing it. Katy leaned her head against the closed door and couldn’t help but giggle. It may have been a night of surprises, but it had also evolved into a night to remember.

  Jodie had already started her slow walk up the stairs to her room, feeling as though her head was on fire. It was a mixture of embarrassment and anger, a lethal cocktail which would guarantee no sleep for her tonight. Katy watched her go, sensing that perhaps what had just happened was a bigger deal for her daughter than it had been for her, before calling out to her as she got to the top landing.

  “Jodie?”

  Jodie came to a stop and leaned against the banister.

  “Yes?”

  Katy looked up at her daughter.

  “Are you okay?”

  Jodie sighed, taking a moment to reply.

  “I guess so.”

  “We’ll talk about this tomorrow, yeah?” was the best she could offer her daughter tonight. Jodie nodded, before turning and heading to her room, offering a

  “Goodnight mum.”

  Katy breathed in and out slowly, calming herself down, and waited for the sound of her daughter’s bedroom door closing.

  “Goodnight,” she replied, although now, she was talking to herself. She stood in the hallway for a moment, not sure what to do next. It was then that she caught a glimpse of her reflection in the hallway mirror and found herself taken by surprise. She almost didn’t recognize the woman staring back at her. There was a look on her face, brightness in her eyes and the way she stood, that gave her a glimpse of something she hadn’t had in ten years.

  Excitement.

  And that was when she let her impulses take control again.

  Rob walked to his car and fumbled for his keys. He felt embarrassed and awkward, the night having not gone exactly to plan. He also felt sorry for Katy and Jodie. In the history of coincidences, this ranked pretty high. It got worse still when Rob looked back to Katy’s house, only to have a figure catch his eye in the window of the house opposite.

  Rob squinted before finding focus on Sean, who was leaning out his window. Again, Rob’s reaction was delayed, before he realized who it was. Sean waved at him.

  “Sean Lewis?” was all Rob could say.

  “How’s it going Mr. Peer?” he replied.

  Rob couldn’t help but look around and wonder to himself,

  ‘Where the fuck am I? The Twilight Zone?’

  Rob tried to shake it off, before replying,

  “You live here?”

  “Sure do,” Sean nodded, his evening suddenly seeming just as random as his teacher’s,

  “What are the chances, eh?”

  That was when Rob sensed someone standing behind him. He spun around to find Katy standing a few feet away. It was a surprise, but not as much of a surprise as what she did next. She stepped forward and kissed him again. It was the longest kiss yet and one that had a hint of finality to it, as if this was goodbye. He wouldn’t have blamed her for it, really. This situation was already messed up and perhaps it was as good a time as any to cut their losses and get out before anyone got hurt. At least, that’s what Rob got out of it.

  But as the kiss broke off, Katy then smiled and said “Just checking,” before turning and jogging back up the garden path and into the house, closing the door.

  Rob stood in the same spot for a moment or two, before snapping out of it and looking up to Sean’s window. He was gone. Rob took that as his cue and he got in his car and turned the ignition on. He sat and licked his lips, tasting Katy’s lipstick. It made him smile as he put the car into gear and slowly drove off.

  Jodie went back to her laptop to find her Facebook profile still open and a message from Sean.

  SEAN: Are you okay?

  Jodie looked across to Sean’s room, but he had drawn the curtains again. It was probably for the best, really. Jodie didn’t have the answer to that question. Or any of the hundred other questions that flew through her brain at the moment. The only thing she knew tonight, for sure, that this was definitely not the best time to send a friend request to Mr. Peer. Instead, she dragged the icon down to the bottom of the screen and clicked

  ‘ YOU ARE NOW OFFLINE.’

  TWENTY-SIX

  Jodie didn’t sleep much that night. She lay awake, staring at her ceiling, occasionally getting up to look out her window, onto the street below. It had started to rain and the ground shimmered, illuminated by the orange glow of the street lights. Lying down again, she considered switching her laptop back on and surfing for a while, but soon lost enthusiasm when the same picture kept popping into her head: her mother, Rob, together?

  How could this have happened? Her mind was far too alert, now, posing questions to which there were no quick answers.

  ‘Is there such a thing as coincidence or is this a sign that Rob is going to be a significant part of my life?’ she thought to herself. ‘ And if so, why the hell is he taking my mother out on a date instead of me? What’s the deal there? She’s far older than he is. She’s never read Hardy, or Dostoevsky. Jesus, she’s probably never even heard of Proust. So why, when I’m clearly more compatible for him, in age and intelligence I might add, why did he choose my mother over me?’

  The thought that he was a teacher never entered her head that night, nor did the possibility that he may actually like her mother over herself, no matter how many books she’d read. It was around two a.m. before Jodie finally managed to fall asleep.

  Even then she couldn’t escape her thoughts. She dreamed that she was the one standing on the doorstep, with her mother opening the door on her. That would show her. This was the way things should be, this felt right. The problem was, in her dream Rob kept pushing her aside and walking into the house with her mother. Maybe this wasn’t a dream. Maybe it was a nightmare.

  Next door, Katy also found it hard to get to
sleep. This was down as much to the excitement of that evening, as it was hormones. Her body was still buzzing from the sensation of kissing Rob and it would not let her forget it. Consequently, Katy ended up getting herself all riled up, even a little horny. She had tried listening to some relaxing music and even considered having a drop of vodka to calm her nerves. That was the worst thing, feeling nervous, as though she was sitting a test the next morning and hadn’t brushed up on her revision. She hadn’t felt like this since she left school all those years ago. Not just the nerves, but the insecurity, that was another thing. She worried about her abilities as a kisser. Had Rob been impressed or disgusted? He’d seemed to enjoy it, but then he’d seemed to enjoy the pate starter at the restaurant that evening and Katy hated pate almost as much as people who didn’t know how to kiss. This line of thinking was getting her nowhere.

  She started thinking back on the men she’d kissed over the years. Whether they had been impressed or whether they even remembered Katy at all. She could remember all of them, but then women were better at remembering details when it came to the more intimate, and therefore important, information that made up the memories of our lives.

  She thought back to her first ever kiss. She had been eleven and the boy, Darren, was twelve. He had planted the kiss right on her lips in the middle of the playground, just as the bell rang. Katy winced, remembering what had happened next. So surprised had she been that she had quickly turned round to run away, only to smack straight into a lamp post. The only thing that had made an impression that day was the pavement as she fell straight on her ass.

  So much for kisses, then.

  Katy had just finished making herself a coffee when Jodie decided to break the uncomfortable silence in which the two had been eating breakfast that morning.

  “So, where did you meet him?”

  Katy had known these questions were coming, so grabbed her cup and took a seat at the kitchen table, next to her daughter.

  “He bumped into me at the supermarket last week,” was Katy’s reply, although she could tell by her daughter’s confused expression that she had skimmed over the details.

  “I don’t get it. Did you guys already know each other?”

  “No, no, I mean literally. He literally bumped into me. He took me for a coffee to apologize. He did say he was a teacher.”

  Jodie nodded.

  “Did you talk about me?” she asked, careful not to sound too interested or, God forbid, jealous, which is exactly how she felt.

  “When? Last night?”

  “Yes.”

  “I told him I had a daughter. That’s all. I guess it’s not that much of a coincidence, when you think about it. I mean, this city isn’t that big.”

  “I guess,” Jodie shrugged, before going back to her plate of toast. Katy took a quick sip of her coffee, but knew that Jodie’s silence was a matter of concern.

  “Hey, Jodie, look at me.”

  Jodie slowly brought her eyes up to meet her mother’s.

  “Are you okay with this?”

  Jodie didn’t know what to say. Or rather she did, but couldn’t. If she’d not cared about sparing her mother’s feelings, she might have said something like,

  ‘No, of course I’m not okay with it, you man grabbing bitch!’

  In the end, however, it didn’t quite feel like the right moment for that kind of honesty, so she merely took her gaze back down to her plate and said,

  “It was only a date, I guess.”

  Katy took another sip, before adding,

  “Because I like him.”

  Katy’s honesty took Jodie by surprise and she found herself blurting out

  “I like him too.”

  Jodie suddenly panicked, terrified that she may have just revealed a little too much of her feelings on this subject. Quickly, she tried to backtrack.

  “..I mean, as a teacher.”

  “Listen,” said Katy, not noticing the panic on her daughter’s face,” let’s not make a big deal out of this, okay? Besides, after last night I might never hear from him again, poor bastard.”

  “You reckon?”

  “Well...” Katy smiled a little to herself. Jodie perked up a little, intrigued that her mother may be hiding something from her.

  “What?”

  “We did kiss.”

  That did it. Jodie put down the toast in her hand and got up from the table.

  “I’ve got to go.”

  Katy watched her leave the kitchen and head up the stairs. It was a rapid exit, of that Katy was sure and she may have put down her coffee and followed her daughter, had her mobile phone not have buzzed at her, signaling a text message. Katy grabbed her phone and went to her inbox. The message was from Rob.

  His text message had read:

  ‘ I think we need to talk. Meet me 1130 outside beach ballroom? Rob x.’

  Jodie, meanwhile, had run to her room and closed the door so hard it caused objects on her bookshelf to wobble slightly. She stood with her back against the door, eyes closed; trying to take in what her mother had just told her. They kissed. Her mother kissed her teacher. Not just any teacher, the teacher she couldn’t stop thinking about.

  Jodie snapped and threw herself onto her bed, grabbing one of her pillows and pressing her face tightly into it, to muffle the scream that was to follow. And scream she did, loud and long, as if screaming would allow all her conflicted feelings, about Rob, about her mum, about school and her future, to fly out and never come back. It was a scream so loud that she would have been better with two pillows rather than one.

  Finally, with no breath left in her body, she gave up and collapsed backwards, discarding the pillow and hanging her head upside down off the bed. She rubbed her eyes and blinked. She then lay there for a second or two, before sitting up, only to find herself face to face with Sean and Laura, who were staring at her from Sean’s window, both unsure what to make of what they’d just seen. Jodie could feel her face starting to turn red, but she was too full of anger and frustration to care at this point. Instead, she stood up and calmly walked to her window and closed her blinds, out of sight, out of mind.

  Laura was in her room within minutes, desperate to know what had rattled her friend’s cage so fiercely. By the time Jodie had finished telling her what had happened the night before, Laura could only think of one expression that would put the situation in any kind of context that either of them could understand.

  “Holy shit!”

  “That’s what I thought,” Jodie nodded, sitting next to Laura on the bed.

  “I mean, really, what are the odds?”

  “I don’t know what to do about it.”

  “Do you think it’s serious?”

  Jodie gave Laura a look of annoyance.

  “Laura, they were kissing. How serious would you call that?”

  “Well, it depends,” she replied, before attempting to make light of the situation by adding

  ”Did he have his hands on her?”

  Jodie was not amused and rolled over onto her back to stare at the ceiling.

  “You’re not helping.”

  “Look, relax. They’ve only just met, right?”

  “Right?”

  “So, how serious could it be?”

  “She likes him.”

  “Really?”

  “She told me.”

  “Well, so do you.”

  “And she kissed him. On the first date, no less.”

  Laura thought this over for a moment, as if she was trying to come up with some sort of answer to her friend’s dilemma. But the answer didn’t come.

  “It’s a tough call.”

  Jodie sat back up to face her friend, now a look of genuine anguish on her face.

  “What do I do now?”

  “Well, you’ve got two choices. First, you forget about it. This time next year, you’ll be at university and Mr. Peer will still be here.”

  “Okay?” said Jodie, sitting forward in anticipation of Laura’s solution. Bu
t Laura couldn’t help herself and added,

  “Getting it on with your Mum, Ha!”

  Jodie was furious, but couldn’t help but stifle a laugh.

  “Don’t be a bitch.”

  “I’m always a bitch, you love it.”

  “And my second choice?”

  Laura hesitated and stood up from the bed, walking over to Jodie’s window and opening her blinds again. She gazed across to where Sean sat in his room, reading.

  “It’s not for you.”

  Jodie persisted.

  “Come on, tell me.”

  Laura turned to face Jodie, for once a serious look on her face, before simply stating,

  “Sabotage.”

  TWENTY-SEVEN

  Katy snuck out of the house later that morning and drove down to the beach boardwalk to meet Rob. She had considered not replying to his text, but after a little thought and seeing as her daughter was hanging out with Laura that morning, she decided that perhaps Rob was right and that a little fresh air and a frank conversation about the last twelve hours might be good for everyone, so she had simply replied:

  ‘ OK, see you there.’

  Katy arrived a good ten minutes early, but Rob was already there. She took this as a bad sign and as she got out of her car and walked across to join him on the boardwalk, she felt she should open with an apology.

  “I’m sorry about last night.”

  “About what part?”

  “The whole thing with my daughter, y’know, it all got a bit...”

  “Complicated?”

  “Complicated. That’s the word for it.”

  Rob nodded before motioning for Katy to take a seat on a nearby bench. They both sat down and stared out to sea.

  “Yeah, I was thinking about that,” Rob continued, ”I was thinking about it most of the night really.”

  Katy nodded a little sarcastically. She could sense a kiss off line a mile away.

  “Here we go.”

  Rob, however, was right on top of it, knowing she was misunderstanding him.

  “No, no, hear me out.” He paused for a moment, trying to find the right words. “The thing is, with me teaching your daughter and then seeing you, it would be enough to intimidate any guy.”