by Mel Sparke
“Girls out on the town? Huh! Make that some girls out on the town…” Cat snorted, the diamante clasps in her hair glinting as she tossed back her blonde curls.
“Oh, don’t start that again!” snapped Sonja. She was as annoyed with Kerry as Cat was, and suspected – like her – that Kerry hadn’t so much dropped out of this evening because of a cold as she’d told them, but because she wanted to spent a cosy night in with Ollie instead. That said, it wasn’t worth ruining the night moaning on about her absence: they could have fun enough without her, Sonja had reasoned.
“Didn’t you get enough pictures last weekend?” Cat asked Maya, giving Sonja a don’t-snap-at-me haughty look.
“They didn’t come out so great – I was still using my old camera, so the quality was pretty crummy once I got them developed.”
“What about that thing you went to at the country park on Wednesday? Didn’t you get anything good there?” Sonja chipped in.
“I haven’t developed them yet,” Maya answered, switching the bag to her other shoulder. There was one thing to be said for her cheap’n’nasty little snapper – the pictures weren’t much cop, but it sure weighed a lot less than the Konica. “And I just don’t know if I got my shot that day.”
“Well, how could you, since you had your mind on other matters?” Cat teased.
“I– I– didn’t…” Maya faffed, feeling a blush rise to her cheeks. She’d tried to be as casual as she could when Billy had asked her out, saying “Sure”, as if going out on a date was something she did all the time. But Cat was right – it had blown her concentration for the rest of the day. The rest of the week, in fact.
“Oh, good – not too much of a queue,” Sonja interrupted as they turned off the high street and headed down towards the bus station – and the Enigma nightclub.
Now, instead of her heart pounding about her impending date, Maya’s heart began to race at the idea of walking into a club. Suddenly, she felt it must be blindingly obvious that she was just sixteen; as if she had her age tattooed on her forehead for all the world – and the bouncers of Enigma – to see.
“Don’t worry,” smiled Sonja, knowing instinctively what was going through Maya’s mind. “Girls never have any hassle getting in.”
Maya nodded as they joined the short queue and tried to feel reassured. But sneaking in underage to a club wasn’t something that made her feel comfortable, even if Cat and Sonja made it sound so easy. And the knowledge of how outraged her parents would be if they knew didn’t make her feel too good either.
“Anyway, stuff boys, stuff parents, stuff Kerry for being a party-pooper – let’s just have a night to remember!”
Maya laughed at Cat’s enthusiastic outburst and tried to relax. If Cat and Sonja weren’t worried, then neither was she.
“Yes, love, go on through… Sorry, lad, no trainers… Co through… Yes, straight through, love…” The doormen on either side of the entrance ushered the waiting punters through.
“Fine, straight through…” said the doorman nearest the girls, waving Catrina in.
“And you too, nice and quick, thanks…” he nodded at Sonja.
“Hold on, love, I’ll need to check your bag,” said the other doorman as an arm came out in front of Maya, stopping her in her tracks.
“Move ladies. No blocking the door, please!” a male voice boomed. Maya glanced up to see Sonja and Cat being motioned forward and heard Sonja yell, “Meet you inside!”
Feeling beads of sweat forming on her forehead, Maya folded her slightly shaking hands across her chest as the besuited giant rummaged in her bag.
It’s OK, she reassured herself, aware of two bored-looking disco dollies in nearly matching pink dresses snickering at her predicament. This is just a security check – it’s got nothing to do with my age.
“Thanks, love,” growled the doorman as he handed back the saddlebag.
Relieved, Maya took it from him – but found he hadn’t let it go.
“Er, how old are you, love?”
Maya looked up at the two-metre high, metre-wide human doorstop and suddenly felt very small and fragile.
“Eighteen…” she whispered unconvincingly.
“Got any proof of that, love?”
“Er, no. I don’t think I brought anything out with me tonight…”
“Then sorry, no can do.”
“But my friends…” she protested feebly, pointing towards the entrance to the club.
The doorman wordlessly shook his head at her.
What was it that my horoscope said on Saturday? thought Maya, thinking back to Sonja’s sleepover as she turned and trudged miserably up towards the high street, tears of disappointment and embarrassment stinging her eyes. ‘A night out with friends will be full of surprises.’ Well, that sounds about right…
CHAPTER 15
“HI!”S AND LOWS
“Look – isn’t that Cat and Sonja running along the road?”
“Uh, yeah, looks like it,” Matt agreed with Joe, scrunching up his eyes to focus all the better on the distant, receding figures. “And it looks like they’re trying to catch up with Maya.”
“Wonder what they’re up to then?” said Joe balefully, wishing he was spending the evening hanging about with the girls instead of going on this double date Matt had set up.
In fact, he’d tried hard to wriggle out of it. After the trauma of the last week he wasn’t exactly in the mood for partying, but Matt wouldn’t take no for an answer. Had even told Joe it would do him good.
“Don’t know,” shrugged Matt as they approached the turning that led down to Enigma. “They were on a girls’ night out tonight, weren’t they? They didn’t say what they had planned.”
“Well, at least they’re not going to Enigma,” said Joe with a certain amount of relief. He couldn’t have handled Kerry seeing him getting flustered and tongue-tied as he tried to talk to some stupid girl he hardly knew.
At the thought of Kerry, he squinted ahead, but couldn’t see any of the girls now – traffic from the junction obscured his view.
“That’s a good point. We don’t need them messing up our chances with Naomi and Stella by cackling away at us.”
Joe threw a quick look at his friend. Matt was obviously anticipating some kind of action tonight and the thought of it made Joe’s heart start hammering in panic. Yes, he had girl friends, but he’d never had an actual girlfriend. Or been out on a date for that matter.
How can I match up to Matt and all his experience? thought Joe as they turned a corner and the Enigma nightclub came into view.
Standing close to the entrance to the club, two girls in spookily similar sugar-pink minidresses began waving at them.
“Brilliant – they’re here already,” smirked Matt, giving the girls a half-hearted, casually cool wave back. “By the way, I told them that you’re an unemployed musician.”
“What?” Joe burst out. “Why did you do that?”
“Because Naomi’s eighteen and at college. You’ve a much better chance of getting a snog if she thinks you’re a bit more interesting than a seventeen-year-old schoolboy,” said Matt with a grin. “But if she’s not interested in you, then Stella isn’t going to be interested in me. Geddit?”
“Oh, great! So for the sake of your love-life, I’ve got to pretend I’m an eighteen-year-old drummer on the dole, then?”
“Nah…” Matt shook his head. “I said you were nineteen.”
“Gee, thanks!” hissed Joe as they came within a few feet of the Hi! Twins. “And did it slip your mind to tell me or did you just leave it till now in case I flipped out and said I wouldn’t come?”
“Something like that,” Matt hissed back with a knowing smile. “Hi there, girls!”
“Hi!” trilled Naomi and Stella in unison.
“You…” said Naomi, ramming her finger repeatedly in Joe’s chest. Her piercing blue eyes seemed to be struggling to get him into focus.
Joe waited a while, wondering what she was going to
say next. Even in the darkened club he could see how flushed her cheeks were as a result of too many vodka and Cokes.
“What?” he asked finally as her sentence trailed off. The jabbing finger was still working though.
“You… you are weird.”
“Am I?”
“Yep.”
“Why?”
“Because… because…”
Because I’ve kept my hands to myself and haven’t tried to snog your face off yet, Joe finished her sentence inwardly.
He didn’t feel he could handle this for much longer; his brain was too frazzled with bigger issues to deal with this ridiculous situation. Joe looked away from Naomi’s drunkenly accusing expression to the dance floor, where Matt and Stella seemed to be doing their version of the lambada (with lips and hips in constant contact) to some slow and whiny Celine Dion track.
Just ‘cause I believe you have to know and like a person reasonably well before you kiss them – if that makes me weird, then fine, Joe told himself, watching Matt’s antics.
Just ‘cause I don’t happen to think a few drinks and a grope on a dance floor is romantic – fine. Just ‘cause—
“Oi, you! I’m talking to you!”
The jabbing became more insistent. Joe looked back at Naomi and realised that, just as it had happened at her party, a transformation had come over her after she’d had a few drinks. When they’d met outside the club, she’d seemed quite pretty (not Joe’s type – but then, only one girl was Joe’s type) but now Naomi’s soft, round features had turned into a boorish, boozy snarl.
Did I look like this when I was drinking? he wondered. Uncomfortable memories of his own alcohol-fuelled exploits flooded into his mind as he watched the girl in front of him make a fool of herself.
“Is there something wrong with you?” Naomi sneered.
“Like what?”
“Don’t you like girls or something?”
“Yeah! Yeah, of course I do!” Joe stuttered, suddenly aware that Naomi was insinuating that he might be gay, just because he didn’t happen to fancy her.
“But just not me?”
“No – it’s not that. I just—”
“Think you’re really something, don’t you?”
“What?”
“You’re an arrogant, big-headed pig!” she spat out with venom in her voice.
Joe stared at her in silence, completely stumped. She could have called him all sorts of things: shy, awkward, introverted, difficult even. But arrogant? Big-headed?
Before he could try and reason out her thinking any further, he found that Naomi had one more surprise for him.
CHAPTER 16
ACT NATURAL
“This spotty guy behind the counter just kept staring at us and staring at us…”
“Well, I don’t suppose they often get girls glamming up to come and sit in Burger King for their Friday night out, do they?” Sonja interrupted as Cat relayed the events of that evening to the others.
“Oh, don’t go telling lots of good stories while I’m too busy to stop!” Ollie moaned as he passed by, laden with plates covered in the remains of Sunday morning fry-ups.
“Don’t worry, Ollie,” Maya called after him, a wry smile on her face, “they’re just having a laugh at my expense, that’s all!”
“You poor thing!” said Kerry, imagining herself in the same position. She’d sneaked into a few strictly over-eighteen venues and had felt just as nervous as Maya. Luckily, she’d never been caught the way Maya had. Yet. “You must have been mortified!”
“Mmm,” muttered Maya, raising her eyebrows. “It was just the fact that I didn’t know what to do with myself – and wondering what the girls would be thinking, waiting inside for me.”
“And we just stood in the corridor for a bit,” Sonja took up the story, “then when there was no sign of Maya—”
”—I stuck my head out the door and asked one of the bouncers where she’d gone,” Cat continued.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been so glad to hear Cat’s high heels clip-clopping behind me,” Maya smiled across the Formica table.
“Oh and you looked like little orphan Annie, moping up the high street in your party frock with nowhere to go!” said Cat, sticking out her bottom lip for effect.
“And that’s when we decided, sod it! Comfort eating, here we come!” Sonja continued, remembering how they’d dragged Maya into the fast food joint to spend the rest of the evening eating, commiserating and giggling.
“At least it’s a small comfort to know you guys had a worse night than us!” Catrina snickered.
Matt hadn’t been able to resist spilling the beans about their night out – especially the last part.
“Yeah, I still can’t get over that! Some stupid cow slapping our Joey’s face,” said Sonja, throwing her arm protectively around him. “How could she?”
“He’s all right about it, aren’t you, Joey?” said Matt amiably. “We had a laugh about it on the way home, didn’t we?”
“Did we?” Joe responded flatly. Although it had happened on Friday evening, he still felt slightly in shock after being at the wrong end of Naomi’s drunken rage. And he was so relieved when Stella came rushing over after seeing what had happened and had dragged her sozzled mate off to get a taxi.
He’d spent yesterday avoiding everyone. He just couldn’t bear the thought of them all giggling about it.
“Anyway, I don’t know how you can laugh,” Sonja said pointedly to Matt. “Considering you’re no stranger to having a girl deck you one.”
Cat broke out into a tuneless whistle, gazing at the ceiling, all innocence, with a smirk on her lips.
“Yeah, but that was a long time ago,” said Matt straight-faced, in response to Sonja’s dig about the time he and Catrina had gone out together for a while and then broken up – messily. “And it was only Cat’s way of showing how much she cared about me!”
“Oooh, you!” gasped Cat, turning and thumping him on the arm, trying not to laugh at the same time.
“OK, OK, truce!” Maya cried out, before war was declared. “What’s important is that I still didn’t get my photo, so…” she dragged the chunky camera out of her bag “…I want your help!”
“What?” said Matt, pretending not to understand, but running his fingers through his hair and turning his face to profile. “Is there something we can do?”
“Yes,” nodded Maya. “But you can quit those catalogue poses right now, Matt. I want you all to carry on talking while I wander round the table and take spontaneous pictures of you.”
“How can they be spontaneous if you’re telling us you’re doing it?” asked Joe, panic-stricken at the idea.
“For me, Joe, please,” pleaded Maya. “I’m running out of time for this portrait competition next weekend!”
Joe nodded while the others giggled and tried, with varying degrees of success and fooling around, to carry on with their conversations.
Twenty minutes later, Maya felt the shutter button resist as she pressed it and knew that she’d used up all her film.
“It’s a wrap!” she smiled at her friends, sliding back on to the red leather banquette beside Matt.
“Well, thank you, Ms Spielberg! Now can we go? Some of us have other commitments!” joked Sonja, clambering over Joe to get out of the booth. Joe looked slightly flustered.
“Me too,” nodded Cat as she stood up. “Me and Mum have been invited for Sunday lunch round Sonja’s, so I better go and practise being a lovely daughter.”
“Don’t waste your time, Cat,” said Sonja with a wicked grin, “you’re not going to fool anyone in my family after all these years.”
“I’ll give you guys a lift round, if you want,” Matt offered, scooping up his car keys from the table. “I’ve got to get back and catch my dad when he gets home from golf. I need my allowance before he shoots off to London later today.”
“Aww, isn’t that sweet,” teased Cat, chucking him under the chin. “What a loving son you are!�
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Joe watched the two of them and wondered again if there was anything brewing up once more between them. It would probably mean trouble, but who could stand in the way of love…?
“‘Scuse, Joe!” said Kerry, following Sonja out of the booth. “I promised to take Lewis to feed the ducks this afternoon.”
Joe stood up and breathed in deeply as Kerry shuffled past. She always smelled of something light and sweet.
Like coconut, he thought as he felt the warmth of her slip past him.
“Just me and you then, Joe,” he heard as the café door jangled shut.
“Yep,” he said to Maya, who’d settled herself across the table from him.
“Listen, I heard about what went on at your dad’s last weekend,” Maya began. “Doesn’t sound like a lot of fun.”
“No,” Joe acknowledged.
“Have you spoken to your mum yet about… what your dad said?”
“No,” Joe answered, playing with the glass salt and pepper set on the table.
“Did you at least tell her about the baby?”
“Nope.”
“You should, you know,” Maya smiled sadly at him. “Take it from me, secrets make you miserable.”
Joe stared across the table at his friend. He wanted to ask her all about her own worries, her own problems, but he was too shy to ask, unless she offered the information.
“We’re kind of the same, aren’t we, Joe?”
Joe stared at Maya, wondering how this beautiful, serious girl could consider herself anything like his bumbling self.
“The others – they all show their emotions up front, don’t they?” she said rhetorically. “Me and you – we always try and sort it out ourselves, but sometimes it doesn’t work, does it?”
She was right, Joe knew. The others, including Ollie when he wasn’t wrapped up in love, always had to prise any information out of him. But their suggestions and advice always somehow made things more bearable.
“How are you feeling right now?” she asked him bluntly.
“What – apart from the total humiliation of having someone dislike me so much that they slap my face?”