by Natasha West
Then someone else, a random meathead, punched Sam. ‘That’s my mate!’ the meathead said. Then he got punched. ‘That’s my mate!’ said another footballer.
About then, it turned into a full-on group brawl. Fists flying, chairs crashing, people running to get out of the way. Juliet was locked in place until she felt a hand grab hers. ‘Come on!’ said Riley, dragging her away from the smackdown, and they ran together from the cafeteria, struggling through the herd of teenagers either running away from or toward the fight.
When Juliet finally stopped running and caught her breath, she found she was out on the front lawn with Riley. They looked at each other. ‘What the hell just happened?’ Riley asked herself.
‘Ummm, I don’t know,’ Juliet lied.
Riley grinned. ‘You did trip him, didn’t you?’
Juliet shrugged. ‘I might have… I mean, maybe my leg was just, you know… Sometimes your legs are just hard to keep track of.’
Riley laughed. ‘I’m not gonna tell anyone if that’s what you’re worried about.’
Juliet took a chance. ‘Fine. I did it. On purpose.’
Riley laughed a bit more before she tamped it down to ask, ‘What for?’
That was a much trickier question. ‘He was being… I didn’t like how he… I thought you might…’
Riley raised her eyebrows. ‘You did that for me?’
Juliet took the chance that Riley wasn’t about to laugh directly in her face. ‘Yeah.’
Riley looked at her very seriously, and Juliet couldn’t read her remotely.
‘Juliet Sullivan!’ said an adult voice, and they turned to see the deputy head, Mrs. Traynor, bearing down. ‘I’ve just broken up a mass brawl, and I’ve been told it was all down to you!’
Juliet felt like she might soil herself as Mrs. Traynor flew at her. But as she reached her, Riley stepped forward. ‘Mrs. Traynor, I was there. I saw what happened.’
‘Then you can come too.’
Juliet cracked like an egg the second they got in Mrs. Traynor’s office, blabbing about the leg-up. She’d never been good at defying authority. When she’d finished talking, Mrs. Traynor didn’t immediately say anything, and Juliet felt pressured to confess further. ‘And there was this one time during a science test - it was on photosynthesis – that I kept writing after the teacher said pens down. I was writing an answer to the last question, and because I was at the back of the room, I had a few more seconds until she—’
‘Juliet, can you please shut up a second? I’m trying to figure out how to punish you,’ Mrs. Traynor said.
‘Juliet, wait a sec,’ Riley said. ‘She missed the bit where she was defending me because Jack was being a bully.’
Mrs. Traynor frowned. ‘What?’
Riley explained the start of it. Jack had, as Meera had guessed, been dumped and not taken it well. Jack was sure he was leaving her for someone else. That had come to a head in the cafeteria. ‘I said I didn’t want to talk, and he was being quite intimidating, and I felt like I had to go with him. That was until Juliet tripped him. That’s when everything went off the rails.’
Mrs. Traynor sighed through her nose. ‘Right. This just got more complicated. Thank god Ofsted finished with us yesterday.’ She pinched the bridge of her nose and looked up at the ceiling. ‘Everyone that was fighting gets a week’s detention.’
‘I wasn’t fighting,’ Juliet began hopefully. ‘Does that mean I don’t have detention?’
‘No. You’re doing clean-up instead. The cafeteria’s a mess.’
Riley’s mouth swung open. ‘What? You’re gonna punish her too?’
‘She started the fight.’
‘Not really, that was Sam. And he was trying to help as well.’
‘People don’t get to use violence to solve disputes. Not in my school.’
Riley’s brow wrinkled. ‘For fuck’s sake!’ she said, thumping her fist on Mrs. Traynor’s desk. A picture frame was upset and slid off the desk, falling to the ground with a crack. Juliet was shocked. She thought Riley floated through life on a serene cloud of perfection. She’d never seen this side of her. She was having a shit fit at the deputy head. On her behalf, too.
Mrs. Traynor heaved a sigh. ‘What was that supposed to achieve?’
‘I don’t know!’ Riley said. ‘But you’re just being… you’re being a dictator.’
‘Riley, I didn’t expect this from you. I always thought you had a good head on your shoulders. You too, Juliet.’
Juliet blushed. Riley, far less humbled, crossed her arms tightly. ‘You’re being unfair. You’re punishing everyone without a thought.’
‘That’s right,’ Mrs. Traynor agreed. ‘Which is why you can join Juliet for clean-up duty.’
‘Me? What did I do?’ Riley demanded.
‘You just broke my picture and you’re being belligerent. That enough?’
Riley opened her mouth but couldn’t seem to find a good comeback, so she got to her feet and stormed out instead. Juliet was left with Mrs. Traynor. ‘Go and get her. And then find the caretaker. She can direct you to the things you need to clean up the cafeteria.’
Juliet stood and sloped out. Riley was stood down the corridor. Juliet walked down the corridor, not sure she wanted to approach her right now. She looked het up. ‘We’ve, erm, got to, err, go and get some, mmm, cleaning supplies,’ Juliet told her, breaking out in a light sweat.
Riley had hell in her eyes. ‘That… bloody… woman!’
Juliet shrugged. ‘I don’t know. I did trip Jack.’
Riley looked at her. ‘You’re too nice.’
‘People always tell me that,’ Juliet sighed.
Riley cast one last evil look to Mrs. Traynor’s door and then said, ‘Right. Better get this done.’ She headed off down the corridor. Juliet scurried to keep up with her. She felt worried, nervous. She’d tripped up one of the most popular guys in the school. She was in trouble with the deputy head, which had never happened before. That was all a bit scary. But the scariest thing was knowing she was about to spend the next few hours with Riley Powell, alone. Scary and exciting.
NOW
As Juliet legged it away from the Powell residence, she was thinking, I can’t take that job now. Not a chance.
But as she got on the bus, she was already doubting the doubt. There were two reasons she wasn’t sure she could say no to the job. First, she’d already said yes to it. And Amanda had seemed to need help and support. It would feel cruel to tell her she’d changed her mind.
The second problem was that she’d be making herself unemployed. That scared the cream cheese out of Juliet. Her family had always been ten minutes away from financial disaster; the only thing that kept the wolf from the door was that everyone worked, and they worked all the time. Juliet had gotten a part-time job when she was thirteen, washing cars, and stayed there until the place closed when she was eighteen. While she was getting her NVQ in childcare and education, she was working in a call centre. The minute she was out of training, she got a job in a nursery. A couple of years later, she was poached out of the nursery by Helen to be a private nanny. Work was a constant fact of life. The idea of being voluntarily jobless sent a chill down her spine.
But how the hell could she possibly go and work in the same household as Riley? Even though all that business had been ten years ago, she still thought about it sometimes. She didn’t like to admit it, but it still pained her.
As Juliet made her way home from her interview, she swilled the memory of that day around, the fight, and the clean-up. It was just the start. But was this the end, here and now? Was she going to call Amanda and tell her she was reneging?
Six
Riley was checking her watch. It was Monday morning. She had to head out in a minute; she was going to be late if she didn’t leave soon. But she was waiting to see if something was going to happen. Or not happen. She was waiting to see if Juliet was going to show up today.
Amanda hadn’t said otherwise. She was going about w
histling this morning. Riley didn’t need to ask her if she believed Juliet was coming. That was obvious. But Riley found it hard to believe that Juliet would turn up, given the speed at which she’d sprinted from the house when she realised who lived there.
Riley checked her watch. It was eight twenty-nine, and she had to go. She let herself out the front door and shut it behind her.
‘Oh, err…’ said a voice, and Riley turned around on the doorstep to find herself eyeball-to-eyeball with Juliet. ‘Hi,’ she said. And then, ‘Morning.’
‘Good… good morning,’ Juliet said, swallowing nervously.
‘So, you’re here,’ Riley said.
‘Yeah, of course. Said I would be, didn’t I?’ Juliet said, looking at her phone. ‘Speaking of which, I’d better get in.’
Riley unlocked the door and let Juliet in. ‘Well, I’m off to work, so… I’ll see ya.’
‘Yeah. See you around,’ Juliet said, stepping past Riley. Once she was in the house, she turned to look at Riley as though she might say more. But nothing was said as Juliet went deeper into the house.
Riley turned around and headed for work. Amazing. Of all the people that could be coming here to this house to look after her little sister, it had to be Juliet.
Riley didn’t have time for this. She had other things to focus on. Getting a new place to live was top of the list. It would solve two problems: getting out of the house and out of Juliet’s way. Once Riley found a new pad, she’d likely never see Juliet again. Riley hadn’t been a regular visitor at her dad’s, and that situation was likely to resume once she didn’t live there.
As she rode the train to work, she was hitting Rightmove hard, looking for a place that someone who worked in marketing for a non-profit who wasn’t exactly making the big bucks could afford. Which ruled out living alone, unfortunately. She just had to hope she could find a place with relatively normal people. Somewhere clean and comfortable and in her price range, surely a basic ask. Though, as she flicked through various properties, it began to feel like a big demand. It was either nice and way the hell out of town, or a well-situated dump. She had a decision to make. She could either take a shithole and get out of her dad’s ASAP or hold on for something better.
Tough call. Even without her dad’s enraging presence, being around Juliet was going to be weird and uncomfortable. They simply had way too much history.
THEN
Riley was sweeping resentfully. She shouldn’t be here, neither of them should. The only person who should be punished was that wang, Jack. He couldn’t accept she was breaking up with him, could he? Be cool about it, accept her decision like an adult. He had to make a big drama, act like a shit. That was the reason she’d dumped his arse in the first place. He didn’t care about what she wanted. He never had. She was a trophy to him. Once she’d agreed to be his girlfriend and the chase was over, he’d taken so little personal interest in her, it became almost funny. She’d started saying ridiculous stuff to him just to check if he was listening. ‘Hey, Jack. I’m thinking I might not want to go to uni, I’m probably gonna go into porn instead. Really niche stuff, maybe scat.’ ‘Yeah?’ Jack answered, looking at his phone. ‘Sounds good.’
He also talked about himself constantly. Boring stuff that he thought was fascinating. The more Riley got to know him, the more obvious her initial mistake was thinking that Jack was a real person with feelings.
She was so happy to be free of him, it was sort of worth the chaos it had wrought. Though she did feel bad that Juliet had gotten dragged into it all. She was a bit of a mystery to Riley. She didn’t speak up in class unless she was told to. She hung about with those two idiots who were always bleating on about boys they fancied, but she never heard Juliet say anything of the sort. In fact, she never seemed to be dating anyone. Turned out she was amusing too, that thing she’d said in the library. But the big thing was her tripping Jack, all for Riley’s sake. Despite the fact she’d been sat at a table with her friends, no one else had bothered to interject on her behalf. And Juliet had gone further than that. Riley didn’t know how to feel about that. Or rather, she wasn’t sure she should feel the way she did, in fact, feel about it.
She liked it.
Riley glanced over at Juliet picking bits of baked potato out of a wall display. ‘Hey, I’m thirsty. I’m gonna get a can from the machine. You want one? On me?’
Juliet looked over. ‘Oh, yes, thanks.’
‘What’s your poison?’
‘I’d love a Ginger Beer.’
‘A woman of refined tastes,’ Riley smiled, going over to the machine. She grabbed two cans and took them over to Juliet. Juliet dropped a handful of cold potato into the nearby bin and took the can. ‘Thank you.’
They cracked the cans open and took sips. Riley felt like she should say something about the Jack business, but she wasn’t sure how to put it. ‘Thank you for tripping my ex-boyfriend over’ was a bit lame. ‘How are you getting on with that book I recommended?’ she asked instead.
Juliet’s eyes popped in excitement. ‘Oh, yeah, it’s pretty fantastic.’
‘It’s old school spooky, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah,’ Juliet agreed. She took a pause. ‘I like the central character. I kind of relate to her.’
‘Yeah?’ Riley asked, interested.
‘Yes. She’s very… She’s on the outside of things.’ Juliet looked embarrassed.
Riley smiled. ‘I related to that too.’
Juliet laughed. Riley bristled. ‘What’s funny about that?’
‘Sorry, I just didn’t think… Never mind.’
Riley raised an eyebrow, trying to relax a bit. ‘Go ahead.’
‘You’re kind of…’ Juliet paused, and Riley could tell she wasn’t sure if she should say it. But she did anyway. ‘You’re the It girl. Like if this was a John Hughes film, you’d be Molly Ringwald.’
Riley burst into laughter. ‘What?’ she spluttered.
‘Come on, you must know that,’ Juliet said, which was bold for her. But Riley wanted to encourage it. ‘So, who would you be?’
‘I think it’s obvious. I’m an Ally Sheedy type. Pre-makeover,’ she added quickly.
Riley laughed. ‘Yeah, but after she has that makeover, everyone thinks she’s hot, don’t they?’
Juliet blushed. ‘Well, maybe not Ally Sheedy then.’
Riley took a long look at Juliet and said, ‘Might be dead-on, actually.’
Juliet’s lips parted in a look of shock. And then she looked away, embarrassed. ‘This potato won’t bin itself.’
Riley hadn’t meant to embarrass Juliet. She meant what she’d said. She was getting a good look at Juliet for the first time, and she was seeing that there was some serious cute underneath that long fringe. Her eyes were a blazing green, flecked with little amber sparks. Her body had a slender fragility that was quite arresting. And when she smiled, which she rarely did, it was a dazzler. It was just a shame she didn’t know it.
But Riley knew it. And part of her felt like she’d never unknow it now. Because once you notice a thing like that, it can start to take ahold of you. It starts as an idle thought, swirling around your mind until it begins to take root as a notion. And the next stage? It becomes an embedded belief.
As Riley watched Juliet scrape flecks of potato off the board, she had this feeling that she’d just taken the first step down that long, winding path.
Seven
Juliet was dead on her feet. Mia was a hurricane of a child. She’d forgotten what the under-threes could be like. Mia needed to be watched constantly; she seemed to be ever on the lookout for trouble to get into. She never did a single thing she was asked. And she knew a selection of rather adult insults that were hard to hear coming from such a little child. Still, Juliet didn’t regret her eventual decision to see through her commitment. Not because of Mia, anyway.
But this morning, bumping into Riley at the door, bloody hell, that was awkward. They’d seen each other three times in the past week, and th
e discomfort seemed to grow with each encounter, even though they were only in each other’s presence for a minute, tops. But what if they had to be together for an extended period? How would that play? Would they be forced to acknowledge their history? It seemed like no one wanted to be the first to do that. But it was ten years ago, they’d been kids. They were adults now, so it didn’t matter still, did it? Whatever had been said and done, it was consigned to childhood. Dredging it up now would be like holding it against Mia that she’d… drawn all over the kitchen cabinets with a pen she’d found from somewhere. Shit.