The Favour
Page 30
*
Renee and I squeezed into the back seat of Daniel’s car with his two friends, me squashed against one window and Renee practically sitting in Vince’s lap. No one bothered with seatbelts. As silvery beams from streetlights slid across our laps, I indulged the fantasy that Daniel secretly liked me and was only with Shona to get closer to me. It would explain his barbed comments to Rasheed, coupled with his offer of a lift home. And there was that wink before. Though his enthusiastic groping with Shona on the dance floor didn’t exactly fit this theory. Then I caught a glimpse of my reflection in the window: the childish jut of my chin, my boring chestnut-brown hair, the dusting of freckles visible even in this light. I pressed my cheek against the cold glass. Of course he didn’t like me; I was ridiculous.
When we stopped at Glasswater Bay’s only set of traffic lights, Daniel started kissing Shona again. The lights turned green but they showed no sign of stopping. I went to nudge Renee, only to discover that she was similarly occupied with Vince, while Sam was too busy staring out of his own window to notice. Irritation rose within me.
‘Hey!’ I shouted, louder than I’d intended. ‘The light’s green.’
Shona broke away from Daniel with a laugh and he took off, the tyres squealing. Renee didn’t even come up for air.
As I directed Daniel to my house, I realised that it wasn’t going to parties or being Daniel’s girlfriend that I wanted … I wanted to want it, but the truth was, what I really felt like doing was going home with my friends and talking all night like we used to do. Wearing our undies on the outside of our clothes and standing on Renee’s parents’ coffee table to mime Madonna songs. Talking about cute boys at school, safe in the knowledge that we’d never do anything about it.
My friends were leaving me behind, but I didn’t want to catch up with them. I wanted to hold them back with me.
Renee finally came unstuck from Vince as we pulled up outside my house, her freshly applied lipstick kissed away, the pale skin around her mouth raw and red. There was an unfocused look in her eyes as she put her arm around my shoulder. ‘Sure you don’t want to come with us? It’ll be fun.’
‘Nah, I don’t think so. Have a good night.’ I swung open the door and got out onto the footpath. Daniel didn’t even wait for me to get to the front door before he screeched away up the street.
Mum was sitting at the round table in the kitchen when I walked in, her hands clasped around a mug of tea. ‘I thought you were staying at Renee’s tonight?’
‘Nah,’ I said. ‘They were going to a party, but I didn’t feel like it.’
Her face brightened over the rim of her mug, and I could tell she was trying to mask her delight at how responsible I was. ‘Do you want a cuppa?’
‘Think I might go to bed,’ I said.
‘All right, sleep well.’
I went to my bedroom and threw myself onto my single bed with its pink quilt cover and girlish ruffles, cursing my stupid dumb immaturity and the stupid dumb boys in this stupid dumb town.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organisations, dialogue and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, organisations, events or locales is coincidental.
First published in 2021 by Pantera Press Pty Limited
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Text copyright © Rebecca Freeborn, 2021
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