by Jacky Gray
Kat knew her brother in this mood. He was likely to spin it out for a while; he liked a good yarn. “We’d love to stop and listen to how you an’ Luke took on the whole of the sixth form and won.” She pretended to yawn. “But it’s been a long night already, and I’m ready for bed.” A wink at Jude had her stretching and nodding her agreement.
“So you’ll not be wanting to hear how Ray Donnelly got out of his wheelchair and rugby-tackled Jimmy Parr to the floor, then.”
“Ray did what?” The white in Jude’s eyes doubled in area.
Kat folded her arms. “Come on, Pad. Spill the beans.”
“Oh I don’t know, I’m thinking you girls are looking tired.” His face parodied concern as he settled back in his chair.
“We’re not.” Kat’s patience, normally a huge, elastic thing, had stretched beyond its comfortable limit. “Get on with it.”
“Is that any way to be talking to the man with the tale to tell?” He massaged his throat. “I’d like to begin but I’m after having such a powerful thirst.”
Only activity could release Kat’s built-up tension, so she jumped up and got a beer and a glass and put them on the table in front of him. He stared at them, and she sighed, pulling the tab and pouring the frothing beer into the glass.
“Thank you.” He took a long drink, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and belched.
Although eaten alive with curiosity, Kat knew better than to say any more, and she willed herself into a calm place. When he was in one of these moods, her brother could spin it out for hours.
With a magnanimous expression, he curtailed the tease. “Twas after Evensong, and Padraig O’Flynn, famous Celtic warrior, prepared to bed down for the night after a long hard day in the training grounds.”
With a grin, Liam stood and got himself a beer. Kat knew this sort of thing was not unusual for him; they were fond of the tale back home.
Paddy leaned forward dramatically and rapped on the table. “Suddenly, there came a knock at the portal. One of the young squires, going by the name of Luke O’ the Harp, came bursting in, telling a sorry tale of a fair maid in distress. So without thought of the danger, the brave O’Flynn fired up his trusty steed and charged to the rescue.”
Eventually, they managed to get the full story out of him. How Luke’s mate, Paul, was worried Liv’s drink had been spiked. He’d overheard someone referring to her as “a cherry ripe for the picking,” and exited the loos to see Jimmy’s gang disappearing down the corridor.
Paul had rung Luke with the warning and Ray happened to be there helping Luke with some computer stuff. So they nipped next door, and Paddy drove the three of them to the club.
Apparently, Jimmy had lured her into a pool room out the back and Paddy arrived in time to drag Jimmy off her, while Luke took on Dave.
“Two of them at her? Bastards.” Liam virtually growled.
Jude rapped out, “What happened? Have the police got them?”
“And what about poor Liv? I can’t imagine. Two of them.” As Kat shuddered, Paddy held up his hands to stem the questions.
“All in good time. You young things are not appreciating the effort taken to best two highly competent street fighters all fired up with lust and a skinful of the falling-down water.”
Kat translated for Jude. “They were drunk, fought dirty and …”
“I got the lust bit.” She shook her head, rolled her eyes and huffed a sigh. “But there were only two of them against four of you. And given O’Flynn’s so-called warrior prowess …”
Paddy frowned, falling into the purest bog-Irish. “I’m not great at the figuring, but I don’t see how Luke and I can become four. We’re good, but not super heroes.”
“Ray …”
“I’m afraid a wheelchair-bound warrior has limited efficacy.”
Jude ignored his interruption “… and Paul.”
“Aha. I see now where you are coming from.” Paddy took another long swig from his glass, repeating the mouth wipe and belch.
Liam joined him in the ale ritual, and Kat fired a long-suffering “this is what I have to put up with” glance at Jude, who folded her arms as she humoured them.
“Picture this. Padraig O’Flynn pulls the nefarious villain Jimmy Parr off the swooning beauty while his trusty sidekick, Luke, tackles the equally despicable Dastardly Dave.”
Despite herself, Kat was drawn into the drama of his outlandish storytelling, made all the more vivid by his exaggerated actions as he mimed the tale.
“But the desperate criminal forsakes the Queensbury rules and goes for the most loathsome tactic – a kick in the unmentionables.”
“He kicked Luke? Is he ok?”
Paddy grinned at Jude’s fervent concern. “Ah sure, I was forgetting you’re his lady. Put it like this, if you offer to kiss it better he definitely won’t be refusing.”
Jude blushed bright red and glanced at the door, preparing for flight. But she deflated as the kitchen clock decreed it was much too late to go round there tonight. She’d have to wait until morning.
Liam’s brow made field-sized furrows. “Now tell me this, for I seem to have missed something here. You said the almighty O’Flynn tackled Parr, so how did Luke’s crown jewels get damaged?”
“If youse lot will stop interrupting and give the tale some breathing room, all will be revealed. I never said Parr kicked Luke, it was me who took the drubbing.” I don’t suppose you’d be up for handing out a few of those healing kisses of yours.” He winked at Jude.
She recoiled. “In your dreams, mate.”
“Oh you are, always.” He held up his hands in surrender as Kat turned a megawatt glare on him. “Only joking. I’ve too much respect for that rugby-playing stud of yours.”
Shaking her head, Jude made an attempt to get him back on track. “I’m still not sure what happened to Ray.”
“As I said, no one seems to know exactly how he managed it, but when Parr tried to escape, Ray had him on the floor, hanging on like a wrestler.”
“Liv’s always saying what terrific upper body strength he’s got from the gym work.” Kat glanced under her eyebrows at Jude, but she had her terrier-like problem-solving hat on as she persisted.
“So he kicked you, sorry, O’Flynn, who let him go. Presumably Ray’s limited efficacy came into play as he stopped the villain getting away. Meanwhile, the great and glorious O’Flynn writhed on the ground clutching his wedding tackle.”
Paddy’s eyebrows rose. “Ah, sure. There’s Irish in your family, that’s for sure. Were you that fly on the wall?”
Jude ignored the pantomime, continuing her reconstruction of events. “And presumably Ray couldn’t hold him either, so …”
“A cornered rat fights mean and dirty, and he barrelled into Luke, releasing Dave. The two of them ran into the corridor where Paul was waiting.”
Jude nodded. “So, three against two, then. No, wait a minute, you’d still be in all manner of excruciating pain at this point, am I right?”
“Didn’t stop me from leaping up to help. But it was all over. Dave aimed a kick at Luke’s privates, and he stepped back, tripping over Paul and Jimmy. All three of them went down in a heap of tangled limbs.”
In the pause, Jude worked it out. “You let them go?”
“We didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. Dave escaped while we were all incapacitated and we couldn’t hold onto Jimmy ’til we decided what to do with him. Of course, he kept shouting his innocence, but we’d caught him bang to rights.”
Liam’s voice was grim. “If I get hold of the …”
Simultaneously, Kat said, “But couldn’t you just …”
Paddy cut them both off. “No just about it. The little bastard fights dirty and two of us had no chance of holding him while the other one went for the police or something.”
Jude repeated her earlier assertion, this time with more sympathy. “So you let them go.”
“We gave him a stiff talking to, first.” Paddy swapped a
grim look with Liam. “I don’t think he’ll be in too much of a hurry to go picking on young girls for a while.” Another gulp, swipe and burp. “As it goes, we made the right decision. Liv wasn’t at all keen on getting anyone involved; didn’t even want her folks to know, although Ray tried to insist.” He shook his head. “In the end, I dropped her off at her house and Ray and Luke went straight home.”
Jude hadn’t finished. “What about the disco? Did they have to stop it with all the fuss?”
“And why would they? No one even knew there’d been an incident. No point stopping everyone from having their fun. We had it all under control.”
“Yeah, you’re just a hero superstar, aren’t you?” Kat grinned to lessen the sarcasm.
Paddy missed it as he settled back in his chair, replete with the satisfaction of a tale well told and reasonably well received. “Nice to know I’m appreciated.”
3 Passing First Base
The girls lay in the dark half an hour later, still far too wired to sleep. Jude sighed. “What a night.”
“I know. I can’t get over poor Liv. While we were having fun on stage, she was fighting for her life.” Kat was in danger of stealing the drama queen crown.
With a wry smile, Jude calmed it down. “Not quite her life.”
“Her honour, then. Or even her virginity. That’s bad enough.”
“Mmm-huh.” Jude hoped the non-committal sound would reveal her discomfort with this subject, and Kat would take the hint and drop it. No such luck. Although … was that a wobble in her friend’s tentative question?
“Have you ever thought about it?”
“With Luke? Give us a chance.” Jude almost choked on her words, and gulped in some air, striving for a neutral tone. “We’ve only had couple of proper dates; we’re barely past the hand-holding stage.”
“Yeah, but it’s not like you don’t know him really well or anything.” Kat’s voice vibrated with affection.
Jude didn’t have the tiniest niggle of jealousy – the two had been next-door neighbours forever. They both told her independently about their botched kiss – how their brother-sister thing meant they had not even the hint of a spark. She tuned back into her friend’s reasoning.
“… so alike the two of you are practically soul mates. You see each other every day, and you’ve known him for years.”
“I know all that, but somehow it’s different. He’s been more like a brother all this time – just like he is with you.” Jude sighed. “I know I fancied him rotten in year seven, but I wouldn’t have known what to do about it, back then.” She grinned. “And he certainly wouldn’t have.”
“And now you do?”
“Who says I do?” Jude returned to extreme discomfort.
“You just did. Or at least, you implied it.”
“Oh, God. You sound like a Liv clone.”
“Ok, so if not with Luke, how about someone else?”
Where was this relentless Spanish Inquisition coming from? “Get real. You know perfectly well I’ve never had a boyfriend before.” Jude’s tolerance for the subject had timed out a while ago. “Why the sudden interest in my sex life? Or lack of one.”
“It’s not that, so much.” A pause. “It’s just, with what happened to Liv, and like, with those guys tonight ...” She broke off and, when she resumed, the wobble had returned. “They were well tanked up and a lot older than us. And I think they’d been smoking pot.”
“They had.”
“I thought so. If Liam and Gary hadn’t stepped in they might have got a bit heavy.”
“Is there a point to all this? I’m failing to connect the dots.” Jude borrowed the phrase.
“Now you sound like Liv. The thing is, when I do have s ... make love for the first time, I want to choose who it’s with. I’d rather not lose my cherry to a stranger or some animal like Jimmy Parr.”
Jude was stunned into silence. Then she took a shaky breath. “Oh wow, Kat. So-oo deep. I can’t say I’ve given it much thought before now, but when you put it like that … Yeah, I guess I’d rather choose then have it forced upon me. I always imagined the first time will be with someone I truly love.” She paused for a moment, frowning as she thought it through. “Surely what happened to Liv is an isolated incident? You can’t be saying every guy is like him.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
The sombre tone had Jude peering at her friend in the dark, sensing a story. “What do you mean?”
A brief pause. “Most guys want to go all the way. If they’re a bit older, they expect it.”
“And of course, you’ve had so many boyfriends you would know this.”
“Not at all. I’ve overheard Rory’s mates when they all get together. I don’t know if they do it deliberately, but they go on about bikes, dykes, screamers and fridges. Rory goes bright red if I ask him about it, but Paddy’s told me what some of them are.”
“Everyone knows what a dyke is, and I think I can guess what a screamer is, but a bike?”
“Everyone’s had a ride on her. And a fridge is someone who won’t do any more than a quick snog; won’t even let them feel her boobs.”
“That’s me out, then. I’ll never be a fridge.”
Kat snorted.
Grinning, Jude couldn’t resist the snark. “More like hot stuff, me.”
“The ice queen melts.”
“And then some. Trouble is, he’s trying to be this proper gentleman, taking it slow. But there are times I wish he’d get on with it and at least get into my bra. Does that make me a slut?”
“Not at all.”
“You would say that, because you’re a good friend.”
“Eww.” Kat’s accent went all stateside. “TMI. Don’t wanna think of my big bro feeling up my bestie’s boobs. Gross-out.”
Jude’s train of thought steamed ahead at a rate of knots, still concerned about the slut issue. “I thought about asking Mum, but she’s such a hippy, she’d just say ‘whatever feels good.’”
“Eww again. Can’t imagine having that kinda convo with Mum. Like, everrrr.”
“Mum’s cool, more like a sister. Most of the time.” When she’s not stressing about Dad or money. Which is all the time, lately.
As Kat giggled, Jude heard a brittle edge to her friend’s laughter.
It stopped abruptly as she sighed. “I don’t want to be a party pooper, but be careful. Once you let them do things like getting inside clothes, they think you’re prepared to go all the way.”
Jude drew a sharp breath. She didn’t like where this was heading. “Is that what happened to you?”
A short silence, then a sniff. “Yeah. While I was in Ireland in the summer holidays. I got really friendly with a guy and we kissed: Oh, how we kissed.” Another pause. “He was incredible, and we soon got past first base. The day before I came home, we went for a meal in this nice little place by the seaside. After, we strolled along the beach with the sun sparkling on the water.”
Another sniff. “It was so romantic; he told me he loved me and he wished I wasn’t leaving. He said he wanted to give me something to remember him by.”
Holding her breath, Jude didn’t want to say anything which might stop Kat from continuing.
“He gave me a silver cross and chain and we climbed down to the water. We paddled in the surf, and walked along the sand to let our feet dry. Bless him, he carried my sandals. The sun got really hot and we sat down in the middle of some dunes. It started getting really heavy; then he asked if I was on the pill or anything.” Kat paused again: this time, it seemed like forever.
Jude let out a shaky sigh “So what did you do?”
“I told him I wasn’t sixteen. End of story.” A sob blurred Kat’s voice and a loud shuffling noise suggested she’d turned over to bury her head in the pillow.
Getting out of bed, Jude went over to comfort her friend until the crying stopped, passing a hanky to blow her nose. Kat’s eyes glistened in the dull glimmer from the street lamp.
&
nbsp; “The guy. It was Liam wasn’t it?”
Kat nodded sadly. “But he’s like a different person now.”
“I thought I spotted something between you two when we were at Stratford, but you reckon he’s been so ...”
“Change the subject; I don’t want to talk about it anymore.” Kat turned round to lie on her side, hugging a cushion.
Jude returned to her bed, talking about the up-and-coming skating competition in the Sky Dome arena at Coventry. “It’s on a Saturday, so you guys could come along and watch. I can’t remember how many tickets Bernie says I’m allowed, but there should be enough. We nailed the routine last week; he’s beefed it up with a couple of extra doubles and a standing spin.”
With a hiccup, Kat turned over again. “Your trainer’s always pushing you too hard.”
“Not really, he just wants me to be the best I can. I’m so excited about the music. Do you know ‘Sway?’ By Michael Bublé.”
“Yeah, Mum’s always listening to that.”
“It’s got great Latin American rhythms and Bernie reckons it’ll be a great crowd pleaser, with loads of scope for really big moves. I’ll be practising pretty much every day from now ’til the end of January.”
“What about Christmas?”
“I might have a day off while the rink is closed, but there are always the strength and fitness exercises to do and ...”
“Are you two still up? You’re worse than Connor and his friends. Come on girls, it’s nearly two. Get some rest.”
They burst into giggles as Kat’s mum left.
“Oh dear, she thinks this is bad. Last time Megan had her friends round it was half past three.”
“No way. Your sister’s only …” Kat obviously couldn’t remember.
“I know. Not bad for a bunch of nine-year-olds. They didn’t get up ’til one o’clock on Saturday; barely had time for breakfast before their mums came to pick them up.”
Kat yawned. “Oops, sorry. Goodnight, Jude.”
“Goodnight, Kat. Sleep tight. Hope the bed bugs don’t bite.”
“If they do, use dynamite.”
Jude knocked on Luke’s door, before ten, making a bet with herself on whether he’d say it or not. So far, he really hadn’t got the measure of how much the phrase irritated her. He didn’t disappoint.