by Nova Weetman
‘Come on, it’s not that hard,’ I said, thinking he was finding it too difficult to move one leg to the right and then the other.
But he shook his head. ‘Sorry, it’s not that,’ he said, looking past me. ‘Is that Asha and Sean?’
I turned around to see Asha dancing with Sean. They were laughing at each other and obviously having a great time.
‘Yeah,’ I said.
‘Let’s go over,’ said Jack, not waiting to hear what I thought of that idea.
He started pushing his way through all the people dancing, but I grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
‘No, wait a minute,’ I said, knowing it was now or never.
‘What?’ he asked.
‘Um, I want to tell you something. Can we go somewhere a bit quieter?’
He frowned at me, ‘Can’t it wait, Frank?’
I shook my head. Nope. Not anymore.
He finally followed me out of the room and down the hall to the kitchen. I could still hear the music but it wasn’t as loud or crazy as it had been in the lounge. Jack leant against the fridge and looked at me, waiting.
‘I saw something tonight at the gig. Asha … and … um …’ I trailed off. I so didn’t want to be the person telling him this, but what choice did I have? Even though I couldn’t understand what he saw in her, I still didn’t want him to have to watch her flirt with someone else and not know what was really going on.
‘Yeah?’ said Jack, getting impatient.
I took a deep breath. ‘She was kissing Sean. Backstage. I saw them after the gig.’
Jack pulled a funny face and then half laughed. ‘Don’t be silly, Frankie. Asha wouldn’t do that. And Sean’s one of my mates.’
I shrugged, surprised at his reaction. I just assumed he’d believe me, but I guess hearing your girlfriend had been kissing one of your best friends wasn’t something to be expected. ‘I know what I saw, Jack.’
‘I understand it’s been hard for you finding out about Asha –’
‘Oh my god. I’m not making this up,’ I said, angry. As if I’d invent this just to get back at him. ‘Forget it, Jack.’ I stormed off, wishing I’d just let him get hurt.
As I ran down the hallway, I bashed into a tall guy. ‘Sorr–’
‘Whoa! You’re the singer, aren’t you?’
‘Yeah,’ I said, wondering who he was.
‘Great song,’ he said smiling. ‘I’m Sammy. I live here.’
I smiled back at him. He was super cute. He had really bright blue eyes and short, neat hair, and where Jack was scruffy like most of the boys back home, this guy was wearing a shirt with buttons and proper pants. He was dressed more like my dad. But still, he was gorgeous.
‘Hey. Great party, Sammy. But I’ve gotta go,’ I said, suddenly wishing I could stay and talk to him. It would be nice to chat to someone who wasn’t Jack.
‘Where are you going?’ he asked. ‘Another party?’
I laughed at that. ‘No. I’m staying at Jack’s. I’m just going home.’
‘Frankie!’ I heard Jack call after me.
‘I’d better go. See ya.’ I hurried towards the front door.
Suddenly, I just wanted to be home. Not Jack’s home. But my real home in Australia. With Gen and Dad and Mum. And then I could forget I ever came to London or saw Jack again, or got messed up in his stupid relationship.
As I opened the front door to head outside, I realised I wasn’t really sure where I was, or how to get home. I walked out onto the street, still annoyed with Jack but half expecting him to come after me. Surely he wouldn’t let me walk home alone. But he didn’t appear.
I turned down the way we had come, and was almost at the end of the block when I heard footsteps behind me. I spun around in the freezing night air, and saw it was Sammy running after me.
‘Hi,’ he said, puffing slightly. His breath formed clouds of condensation in the air. ‘I told Jack I’d walk you home. He wasn’t sure you knew the way.’
‘Right. I don’t, really. But aren’t you leaving your own party?’ I asked, feeling a bit pleased that Sammy was walking me home, partly because all the streets looked the same and I had no idea which one to turn down, and partly because he was very cute and a good distraction from Jack.
‘Nobody will even notice,’ he said. ‘Besides, I want to know if you have more songs like “Tomorrow Land”.’
‘Oh. Yeah, heaps,’ I said, pleased he’d remembered the name of it.
‘Then maybe you’ll sing them to me before you fly home,’ he said with another smile.
‘Are you a muso too?’ I asked.
‘Violin. Classical,’ he told me.
‘Wow. Isn’t violin impossible to play?’ I said, seriously impressed. I’d actually tried to learn the violin at school but I was never very good at it. Guitar came much more naturally to me. But I loved the sound of violin.
We walked through the quiet streets and Sammy told me all about how he and Jack had met in a music class when they were really little and then ended up at school together and stayed friends.
‘Are you still at school together?’ I said.
‘No. I started at a classical music school last year. I get to practise violin all day.’
‘Really? No maths?’ It sounded too good to be true. Writing and playing music all day was my dream.
‘Yeah, it’s great. We still have to do some work in other subjects, but mostly we compose and play.’
‘Wow. I’m officially jealous,’ I said with a smile.
‘Well, this is you, Frankie Jones,’ said Sammy as we walked up to Jack’s house.
I was a bit disappointed that we were back so quickly. I’d really enjoyed talking to him.
‘So, can I drop round one day? Listen to those songs?’
I nodded. ‘Sure. Bring your violin.’
He watched me as I walked up the stairs and fiddled around, trying to unlock the front door. It was sweet. And a bit old-fashioned. I’m pretty sure Mum would approve.
I quietly got into bed, trying not to wake Mum. As I lay there, I decided that if Jack wanted to date Asha even though she was cheating on him, then that was his choice. I wanted nothing more to do with it.
The next day, Mum wanted me to go shopping with her to buy something she could wear to her fancy International Architecture and Design Awards. We jumped on the Tube and got off at Marble Arch. When we popped up onto the street, we headed along Oxford Street, jostling with other shoppers as London whirled around us: black cabs, red buses, roasted chestnuts, beautiful buildings - and people, so many people everywhere. We went into Selfridges and Mum flew into action. Normally, she preferred pottering in homewares shops and buying little things for the kitchen and the lounge room. But here in London, she seemed quite happy trying on designer clothing. She found a gorgeous black dress that was perfect for the awards night.
After we’d shopped for her, we went shopping for me. I led her up Oxford Street to Topshop, which Gen and I had discovered in our shopping research. I wasn’t expecting Mum to let me go crazy, but she did. I bought up big and I also found a few of the things that Gen had wanted me to get for her: a top she’d wanted and her favourite colour nail polish.
Afterwards, we found a cafe in a cool little street nearby and ordered the biggest bowls of soup they had.
Mum asked me about the gig and the party and I told her as little as I could - I didn’t want to ruin our nice shopping day by getting her worried. I left out Asha kissing Sean, fighting with Jack, and Sammy walking me home. So it didn’t leave much.
‘Funny, I thought I heard Jack come home after you,’ said Mum as she finished off her soup.
‘Yeah, he did. But he walked me home and went back,’ I said, concentrating on mopping up the last bits of pumpkin soup with my bread. I wasn’t really lying. Just stretching the truth a bit, and I didn’t think Jack would tell her anything different.
‘You having a good time with Jack?’ asked Mum.
I nodded. ‘Yep.’
/>
‘Glad you came?’ she asked in that way that she has of knowing something isn’t quite right.
I smiled at her. ‘Yeah, course, Mum.’
And it was true. I was glad I came. I just wasn’t very happy that Jack didn’t believe me about Asha, or that he was dating someone who’d cheat on him in the first place. But I was still happy to be in London, shopping and seeing new things. Plus I’d got to sing my own song on stage last night, so that was a bit of a highlight.
Carrying all our bags of shopping, we caught the Tube from Oxford Circus back to the station near Jack’s house. Mum and I laughed as we squeezed onto the Tube with our bags. I loved looking around at all the different people, hearing all the different languages they were speaking, and wondering what had brought all these people to London. It was great having this adventure with my mum. Just being away from home made things feel different between us - today I’d had as much fun shopping with Mum as I usually would with Gen.
By the time we made it back to the house, we were both cold and our legs were aching. Mum went upstairs for a bath and I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t know if Jack was home or if he’d even be talking to me and I really hoped that Asha wasn’t coming over. I went to make a hot chocolate to try to warm up.
‘Finally! I’ve been waiting for you to come home,’ said Jack, bowling into the kitchen.
I didn’t want to look at him so I concentrated on making my hot chocolate.
‘You were right about Asha. She told me last night,’ he said, really casually, like he was telling me about the bacon sandwich he’d just eaten.
‘Oh,’ I said, shocked. ‘Are you okay?’
‘No. Yeah. I dunno. I’m angry with her and Sean. Hurt, actually,’ he said.
‘Did she say why she’d cheated on you?’ I asked him, thinking that if someone cheated on me I’d want to know if there was a reason.
‘I didn’t ask. I just broke up with her,’ he said.
‘I’m sorry, Jack,’ I said, feeling like it was my fault that they’d broken up. Maybe if I hadn’t told him then they would have stayed together.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him shake his head. ‘I’m not. I don’t know what I was thinking, Frank. She’s been really mean to me and to you. I should’ve seen it.’
I stopped stirring my hot chocolate and looked at him. He was watching me with his big eyes and floppy fringe and cute, lopsided smile. I knew that look. And I realised things could be different between us now Asha was out of the picture.
But I couldn’t help remembering his reaction at the party last night when I’d told him about Asha kissing Sean. He’d thought I was making up the story just because I was jealous of her. And then, instead of apologising, he’d left me to walk home with Sammy – who was nice, but someone I didn’t even know.
I’d thought hearing that Jack and Asha had broken up would make me happy. But the way he was just telling me about it so calmly in his kitchen made it seem like it was no big deal to him at all. And it made me wonder if this was how he’d been when he’d stopped emailing me. Like he’d just forgotten about me. And as if our kiss, which had meant so much to me, had meant nothing to him.
‘Well, I’m glad it’s worked out for you, Jack,’ I said coolly. ‘I’m off to text Gen.’
‘I thought you’d be pleased,’ he said, sounding confused.
‘Why?’ I asked him, taking a sip of my hot chocolate; even though I knew it was hot, it almost burned my mouth.
‘So we can hang out now,’ he said, trying a smile. ‘It’ll be awesome. And you can play the gig on Saturday. You haven’t got long to learn all the songs.’
‘Isn’t Asha singing?’ I asked.
He shook his head. ‘No.’
Great. I was just a replacement for Asha. And I was supposed to be happy that he was letting me step into her shoes?
‘I’m not Asha. And I don’t want to sing your songs. Don’t you care about anyone’s feelings?’
And then, because I had nothing else to say to him, I took my hot chocolate and walked upstairs.
I was reading my book in bed, avoiding Jack and feeling warm for the first time all day, when there was a light knocking on my door. I assumed it was Jack, but as I opened it, I was really surprised to see Asha.
‘Do you mind?’ she asked, as she started to come in.
I wanted to say, Yes, actually, I do mind. I don’t want you in my room. But she obviously wasn’t going to give me much of a choice, and I was more than a little intrigued to know what she was doing here.
She sat down on the edge of my bed so I perched across on Mum’s, not wanting to sit close to her. We looked at each other without saying anything for a minute, and it was so uncomfortable that I had to look away.
‘So, I’m sure that Jack told you we broke up,’ she said.
I wondered if she blamed me for telling him, or maybe she didn’t even know. Maybe Jack had kept that part quiet.
‘Well, it was pretty dumb. Kissing Sean,’ she said, looking down at her nails. ‘It only happened that night.’
‘Right,’ I said. Now that I knew she wanted to talk about her and Jack, I wished she’d leave or that Mum would come back or that an alien would land so I didn’t have to have this conversation.
‘Don’t you want to know why I kissed Sean?’ she asked.
Did I? I didn’t know.
But Asha didn’t seem to care because she went on to say, ‘I did it because Jack had been banging on about how great you were for ages and I was sick of it. I was jealous.’
That surprised me. She was his girlfriend! Surely I was the one who should have been jealous. Not her.
Then she said, ‘When we started going out, I knew he still liked you. But you were on the other side of the world, and you were only emailing each other. So I made him cut off contact with you.’
Asha had made him stop? Jack had broken my heart, but he only did it because of Asha.
‘And then you turned up here! You turned up in the same dress as me and sang your song and Jack clearly still thinks you’re amazing. I just wanted to get back at him and make him jealous.’
‘We’re just friends, Asha. That’s all,’ I said.
‘Yeah, maybe. But he really likes you and he thinks you’re amazing and I know you’ve snogged before,’ she said. ‘That’s why I was such a bitch to you.’
She looked straight at me this time. ‘I’m sorry. It wasn’t your fault that Jack talked about you so much.’
I actually hadn’t thought at all about how she’d felt having me here. I guess it was hard having another girl staying at her boyfriend’s house.
‘So just explain it all to him,’ I said. ‘He’ll listen to you.’
She laughed then. ‘No, he won’t. But he’ll listen to you.’
‘Oh,’ I said, as I leant back on the bed, finally realising why she was here. She wanted me to talk to him for her.
‘Please, Frankie. Just explain why I did it. Tell him I was jealous. Make him understand. I really like Jack. I don’t want to be with anyone else,’ she said, almost pleading.
I didn’t know what to do. I had liked Jack for such a long time, and he’d broken my heart when he stopped emailing me.
But if Asha was the one who’d made him do that, maybe he did actually like me. And now he was finally single, why would I want him to work things out with her?
She’d been horrible to me the whole time I was in London.
But I guess if I was really honest, I did feel a little bit sorry for Asha. Kissing Sean was dumb, but I could understand that she’d just been trying to make Jack jealous. And really, it was my fault he found out about her cheating on him.
But that didn’t mean I had to go and sort out their break-up. Did it? And could I really do anything to fix things between them anyway?
I wasn’t sure. Should I talk to Jack or not?
‘Where have you been? Have you seen Asha?’ asked Jack, walking towards me.
It would be so easy
to tell him what I’d just seen. And if I did, maybe he’d realise that he should be with me, not her. I’d never cheat on him.
But what if I was wrong? What if somehow what I thought I’d seen wasn’t actually what I thought I’d seen? Plus, he was so happy after that awesome gig, I didn’t want to be the one to ruin that.
‘Think she’s somewhere backstage. Great gig,’ I said, knowing that would distract him.
His eyes shone as he smiled back. ‘Yeah, it was brilliant. When you guys were backstage just now, the manager offered us a residency.’
I was so happy for him. I totally understood what music meant to Jack, and the fact that I could be a tiny part of tonight was pretty exciting.
‘We’re going to our mate Sammy’s place for a bit of a party,’ Jack said to me. ‘His dad still plays in bands and he’s pretty relaxed – he doesn’t mind a bunch of kids turning up and playing loud music.’
Was Jack asking me to come?
‘I already cleared it with The Mums,’ said Jack picking up his guitar and stand. ‘They said it was cool, as long as we’re home by ten-thirty.’
‘Oh,’ I said, surprised that he cared so much about me coming that he organised it with Mum. Perhaps he was just being friendly. Or maybe he felt like he had to take me with him because I’d sung with his band. Or maybe …
Stop it, Frankie Jones! You’re friends. Just friends, I reminded myself. Jack has a girlfriend. Granted, she’s not very nice. But for some reason he likes her, so I have to respect that. Don’t I? Even if I’d just seen her cheat on him?
‘So, who’s Sammy?’ I asked.
‘A good friend. We’ve known each other since we were four. His dad has been pretty supportive of our band. Gives us advice and stuff.’
‘Are we walking?’ I asked, dreading how cold it was going to be now.
Handing me his guitar stand to carry, Jack shrugged. ‘Yeah, Sammy’s place is near ours. Why?’
‘Why? ‘Cos it’s freezing! You know in my natural environment, it’s summer right now. I could have gone to the beach with Dad instead of coming here with Mum on my holidays!’