Sugar Secrets…& Mistakes

by Mel Sparke

  “Thanks for tonight, it was lovely. And thanks for this too!” she giggled, touching the clematis blossoms tucked into her braids, which Matt had pinched off the tumbling vine that cascaded down the pub wall. She moved closer towards him – for only their second ever kiss – and Matt could smell the sweet scent of the flowers.

  I’ll remember this moment for ever, he told himself, sensing her lips so tantalisingly close to his.

  Suddenly, an unwelcome thought intruded on his blissful state.

  Of course, I’m also going to have to remember to tell all my friends that I’m only supposed to have been out with two girls. Ever. And one of them most definitely wasn’t Cat.

  Matt could imagine – all too easily – how they’d all laugh when they heard that…

  CHAPTER 18

  DAY TRIPPERS

  Cat leant over the back of her seat and stared down at the four people sitting there.

  Kerry was leaning against the glass, gazing out at the sun-drenched green fields that flashed past the train window. The three boys – Ollie, Joe and Billy – were all animatedly chatting about whether Fender Telecasters were better guitars than Gibson Les Pauls.

  How dull! No wonder Kerry’s looking so cheesed off, thought Cat. Are they going to just drivel on about band stuff all day? I thought this day out was supposed to be a laugh…

  The lads were so engrossed that they hadn’t even noticed her presence looming over them, which was pretty hard to ignore. Cat had bleached her hair a lighter, whiter shade of blonde (“It’s the new Nordic look,” she’d explained. “And this is the old Swedish look,” Sonja had retorted, patting her own natural, soft blonde locks), and pulled it into two fat little bunches, secured by bands that each had a palm-sized daisy attached.

  Cat wasn’t used to being ignored.

  “Ollie!” she interrupted in a thin, whiny voice.

  “What?” he asked, glancing up at her over Joe and Billy’s heads.

  “Why isn’t there a buffet car on this train?” she asked petulantly.

  “Cat,” sighed Ollie good-naturedly, “you asked that on the train up to the city.”

  “But that was just the train that does the commuter run. I thought it might not have a buffet…”

  “Well, this train only takes forty-five minutes to get down to Maiden Bay. It’s probably not worth their while having one,” he answered patiently.

  “So why don’t they have someone walking through the train with one of those little trolley things?”

  “I don’t know, Cat. Do you want me to find the guard and ask him?” Ollie teased her. “Or I could knock on the driver’s door…”

  “Cat,” said Maya, who was sitting across the aisle with Anna, “you wouldn’t happen to be bored, would you?”

  Cat stuck her tongue out at Maya, looking even more like a five-year-old girl with her bunches. She turned and flopped back down into her own seat, next to Sonja.

  She was bored. Bored looking at Matt and Gabrielle mooning over each other across the table from her for the last half-hour. Not to mention the cooing they were doing on the first part of their journey from Winstead up to the city. Only then, Cat was lucky enough not to be sitting opposite them.

  “We could take a walk along to the rock pools…” said Gabrielle, gazing into Matt’s eyes.

  “That would be brilliant…” Matt replied, smiling enthusiastically at her as if she’d just said the most amazing thing in the world.

  Yeuchhh! thought Cat and glanced round to see if Sonja was as disgusted by this wanton show of slushiness as she was.

  But Sonja had her headphones on, listening to the new tape she’d bought at WH Smith in the station while they waited for their connecting train. She’d opened up the inner sleeve and was engrossed in reading the lyrics.

  Lucky Sonja, escaping from all this lovey-dovey stuff. It’s enough to drive you mad, thought Cat, fidgeting in her seat and tapping her platform-trainered toes on the floor under the table in irritation.

  Then another more wicked thought popped into her head and a small smile flitted over her face. Yep, these two could drive a girl mad – or bad…

  “Hey, Matt,” she said sweetly. “Didn’t we go up to the rock pools together once?”

  Matt flashed his eyes at her and Cat knew she’d hit home. During their brief time as a couple, they had driven to Maiden Bay one chilly April day, spending most of their time at the arcade on the prom or snuggling up in steamy, cosy, seafront cafés.

  “No, we didn’t,” he answered, trying to suggest with his eyes that maybe Cat should shut up.

  Anyway, it was true – on that day out they’d never made it as far as the rock pools because Cat had been too worried about scuffing the heels of her black suede boots.

  Cat shrugged in response, batting her eyelashes innocently.

  “In fact, I can’t remember the last time we were all down at Maiden Bay,” Matt continued, in a desperate attempt to make out it had been a whole crowd outing Cat had been referring to, and not the romantic day out it actually was.

  Seeing her ex squirm perked Cat up no end. She loved winding him up as a matter of course, but it was much more fun when it was dangerous like this. The fact that he would kill her later – especially after her promising faithfully, along with the others, that they would play along with Matt as far as his past love-life was concerned – didn’t enter her mind. She was just beginning to enjoy herself.

  “Why didn’t you two drive up together today?” she asked, twirling her finger through one of her bunches.

  “Because we thought it would be nicer to come on the train with everyone else,” said Matt through slightly gritted teeth. He was obviously beginning to regret it.

  “Been in Mart’s car yet?” Cat turned wide-eyed and questioningly towards Gabrielle.

  “Oh, yes, a couple of times,” nodded Gabrielle.

  “Oh, boy,” Cat laughed, turning her attention back to Matt. “If that car could tell stories, eh, Matt?”

  Matt gave an insincere guffaw of laughter.

  “Yeah, the amount of travelling I’ve done in that car, all the gigs I’ve driven to in it!” he said quickly, trying to deflect Cat from the dangerous route she was taking.

  “I was thinking more of what’s gone on in the back seat…” Cat responded, still maintaining a look of absolute innocence.

  “Uh-huh.” nodded Matt, aware of the prickles of sweat breaking out on his forehead. Batting off Catrina’s volleys was pretty hard work. “Packing all those heavy speakers and equipment in it all the time. It’s a wonder the suspension’s not gone.”

  “Mmm, I’ll bet…” Cat replied, allowing herself a small smirk.

  Matt gulped and wondered how long it would be till they arrived at the station.

  Joe was oblivious to the strained conversation going on behind him, but then again, he was also oblivious to the one he was supposed to be having with Ollie and Billy. As the boys chattered on about guitars and amplifiers, great songwriters and record deals, he nodded where it seemed appropriate, grunted “yeah” or just shrugged when they needed some response from him, all the time surreptitiously studying Kerry out of the corner of his eye.

  Her forehead was resting on the glass, her eyes staring blankly out at the passing scenery.

  It’s more than just boredom with the conversation, Joe reasoned. He was no expert at stuff like body language, but even he could see that Kerry seemed to be leaning as far away as possible from her boyfriend.

  What’s going on between them? Has Ollie done something to hurt her? Joe fretted to himself, his loyalty to his best mate wavering at the unlikely idea of Ollie doing or saying anything to upset Kerry. But what if he has? What can I do about it without giving away how I feel about her?

  “I just remembered,” Joe heard Billy suddenly say, “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but there’s a guy in our photography club who’s a bass player. I could ask him to meet up with us sometime?”

  “Yeah,
brilliant!” Ollie enthused. “If he’s any good, then that would be the band up and running!”

  “He told me once that he’s been playing about a year, but I don’t think he’s been in a band before,” Billy continued. “You know him, Maya – Andy, that quiet guy.”

  “Oh, yes,” answered Maya, breaking away from her conversation with Anna. “He seems nice.”

  Maya knew her voice sounded flat, but she was still vaguely annoyed at Billy’s presence on her crowd’s day out. It was unreasonable, she knew, but she didn’t feel comfortable with the way he’d just sailed right in and fitted so comfortably in the space of a few short days, all because Ollie and Joe were so keen to have him join their band.

  And she was particularly annoyed with Ollie for inviting him along today, without asking her, without thinking that Billy was supposed to be her friend.

  I’m being so petty about this, she scolded herself. But there was no getting away from the fact that the boys seemed so at ease chattering away together, while she’d been relegated to sitting at a separate table with Anna. My old friends are getting on so well with my new friend that they don’t seem to need me…

  “Maya,” Anna said quietly, touching her hand to get her attention.

  “What?” Maya answered equally quietly, sensing from Anna that something was up.

  “Listen…” Anna indicated with a nod of her head and a sideward glance in the direction of the seat where Sonja and the others were sitting.

  Above the fragmented buzzing noise coming from Sonja’s over-loud Walkman, Maya could make out a snatch of conversation.

  “Has Matt told you that Ollie’s a twin?” Cat was saying.

  “No,” Gabrielle replied. “Are they identical?”

  “Oh no,” Cat laughed. “His twin’s a girl! Her name’s Natasha and she’s a model in London. She’s absolutely beautiful. I can’t believe Matt didn’t tell you about her. Didn’t he say that him and Natasha—”

  Right, Maya said to herself, leaping to her feet. Time to rescue Matt…

  CHAPTER 19

  SEA, SAND AND SHOCKS

  “OK, so that’s two Soleros, two Twisters, three Magnums and a Calippo,” Maya counted off on her fingers.

  “No – wait a minute,” interrupted Cat, pushing herself up off her beach towel. “Make mine a Mr Whippy, if they’ve got it.”

  “Make up your mind,” said Maya dryly. She was beginning to wish she hadn’t volunteered to go for ice cream – the others had taken so long to make up their minds.

  Joe shuffled by her side, eager to get going. He hadn’t been able to settle down with the others on the beach. Firstly, Cat – unlike the other girls who were dressed mainly in shorts and vest tops – had taken advantage of the blistering late summer sunshine and stripped down to an eye-wateringly

  tiny bikini, which Joe found far too embarrassing to sit very close to. Secondly, Ollie and Kerry had gone off together ages ago and he couldn’t relax for wondering what was going on between them. “Last chance to change your mind…” Maya looked round at everyone settled on the mishmash of towels and rugs spread out on the sand, as if she were daring them to say anything. “Right, that’s me and Joe off then.”

  Joe followed her silently, trudging through the shifting sand with his hands wedged deep in his pockets.

  “Did you hear any of what was going on in the train just before we arrived?” Maya asked as they neared the steps up to the pavement.

  “Nope,” Joe shook his head.

  “The wicked Miss Osgood was doing her best to mortify Matt in front of his new girlfriend.”

  “How?” asked Joe. Cat always amazed and regularly intimidated him. The lengths she’d go to to get what she wanted, or just to amuse herself, he found astounding. To Joe, being friends with Cat was like being friends with an unexploded bomb.

  “Oh, by dropping about three thousand hints about was a ‘lad’ he was, and stuff about him and Natasha…”

  “Wow!” said Joe. “Even after Matt making us promise not to let any of that stuff out to Gabrielle?”

  “Oh, yes,” nodded Maya, taking the steps two at a time. She hadn’t been thrilled about the idea of having to lie, but she’d said she’d go along with it if everyone else did. And they’d all said they would, even Cat – until she’d got bored and thought she’d torture Matt for fun.

  “Did Gabrielle get any of it?”

  “I don’t think so,” Maya shook her head. “I waded in just at the point that Cat was about to go overboard.”

  “They seem to be getting on all right now,” Joe nodded back to the group on the beach.

  “Mmm, well. I had a word with Cat on the way down to the beach and told her to lay off,” Maya explained. “I think Matt just wants a quiet life and for Gabrielle to have a nice time with his mates, so he’s happy enough if Cat’s on her best behaviour. Which she’d better be…”

  “I wouldn’t put bets on how long that’ll last.” said Joe wryly.

  “No, I guess not,” smiled Maya, negotiating the Saturday afternoon traffic on the main promenade. “Wonder where OIlie and Kerry got to?”

  Watching for cars as he walked towards the cafés and gift shops on the farside pavement, Joe felt his silence would go unnoticed by Maya.

  Fat chance.

  “What’s up?” asked Maya, sneaking a peek at him once they’d stepped safely on to the kerb. “You’re quiet. Is something up with Kerry and Ollie?”

  Joe didn’t know which was worse or more disloyal: his silence signalling to Maya that he was troubled by his friends’ absence or that something might be amiss between Ollie and Kerry.

  Unknown to Joe, Maya – her subtle intuition attuned as ever – had already spotted signs of something negative going on between the missing couple. She’d also sensed that whatever it was seemed to be bothering Joe…

  “What would I know?” Joe shrugged, staring blindly into the shop windows filled with boxes of Maiden Bay rock and assorted tacky trinkets.

  Maya could see that he wasn’t ready to talk and decided to let it drop.

  “Fancy a rummage about in here before we get the ice creams?” she smiled, pointing to one gaudy souvenir shop. “I’d like to get a corny snowstorm or something to take back to Ravi.”

  Joe was glad that she’d changed the subject, but he didn’t particularly want to go and hang around in the crowded, dark store.

  “Nah, you go,” he nodded towards the shop’s entrance. “I’ll wait out here for you.”

  “OK,” said Maya, respecting his privacy and watching him walk over to a sea-facing bench. She just hoped that Joe would feel he could talk to her, if he ever needed to.

  Joe leant back on the bench, breathed the salty ozone of the sea air and cursed himself for allowing the gloom to settle over him.

  Why do I let impossible dreams of being with Kerry get me down? he worried to himself. Things are going pretty well in my life and then I let IT bother me again. I start fantasising about her… I start thinking about what’s going on with her and Ollie…

  ‘Oh, Joe- Joey!” he suddenly heard a hiccuping cry come.

  Joe glanced up quickly and saw Kerry, tears streaming down her cheeks, hurrying towards him.

  Before he could draw breath, she’d landed beside him on the bench, sobbing wetly into his neck, her wild, red-brown curls tickling his face as she hugged into him.

  Joe found that his arms had involuntarily encircled her, holding her protectively close to his chest. But before he could ask her what was wrong, before he could catch his own shocked breath, his eyes locked on to Maya’s face as she surveyed the scene from the shop doorway.

  Not knowing what to say or do, Joe shut his eyes tight and breathed in the scent of coconut that was ever present in Kerry’s hair; he willed every fibre in his body to remember this sensation of holding the girl that he loved in his arms.

  Finally.

  Languidly drawing warm handfuls of sand through his fingers, Matt watched Gabrielle kick through the surf
, the foamy droplets of water clinging to her long, brown legs.

  “She’s really lovely.” said Sonja, sitting somewhere behind him.

  “I know…” he answered contentedly.

  Matt had never felt so drawn to any girl before – so in tune, so comfortable.

  “She looks a little bit like Lauryn Hill,” came Cat’s sleepy voice.

  “You always think people have to look like someone else,” Sonja teased her. “And who’ve you come as today, Cat? Denise van Outen in a bikini?”

  “Yeah, but Cat’s got a point,” Matt heard Anna say. “Gabrielle does look a bit like Lauryn Hill – same heart-shaped face, same almond eyes…”

  “If she can sing as well as Lauryn Hill then you’re on to a good one. Matt!” joked Sonja.

  But Matt had stopped listening. He was imagining how it felt to kiss Gabrielle… How it felt when she slid her arms round his back…

  Everything was so wonderful, so special with her. He might have been guilty of rushing things in the past – with other girls that he cared less about – but that wasn’t going to happen with Gabrielle.

  She waved as she made her way towards him out of the water and up over the soft, warm sand, her perfect smile making his heart skip a beat again.

  No, I won’t rush anything with her, he vowed. Everything feels wonderful with her and when the time comes for… more, it’ll be more wonderful for the waiting…

  Gabrielle dropped down on to the rug, breathless and laughing.

  “That was lovely,” she gasped.

  Just like you, Matt thought adoringly.

  “See, this is the life – hanging out at the beach instead of being trapped in dusty schoolrooms and swotting,” Sonja murmured.

  “Too right,” laughed Gabrielle, grabbing a towel and drying her legs.

  “A levels – who came up with that stupid idea, eh?” Sonja continued her anti-education rant from the comfort of her horizontal position. “What do you say, Gabrielle?”

  “I guess,” she smiled, still rubbing her legs.