Sugar Secrets…& Rivals Read online

  Sugar

  SECRETS …

  …& Rivals

  Mel Sparke

  With thanks to Sue Dando

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  CHAPTER 1 IT’S ONLY A GAME

  CHAPTER 2 TRUTH, DARE… OR LIE?

  CHAPTER 3 THE POST-MORTEM

  CHAPTER 4 CAT AND MOUSE

  CHAPTER 5 SONJA GETS STOOD UP

  CHAPTER 6 HUNG-OVER… AND HUNG UP

  CHAPTER 7 TWO’S COMPANY…

  CHAPTER 8 … AND THREE’S A CROWD

  CHAPTER 9 MISSING, PRESUMED LATE

  CHAPTER 10 KERRY GRITS HER TEETH

  CHAPTER 11 SURELY NOT JOE?

  CHAPTER 12 CAT GETS STUCK IN

  CHAPTER 13 OLLIE GETS A PROPOSAL

  CHAPTER 14 WILL HE, WON’T HE?

  CHAPTER 15 A BAD DAY FOR KERRY AND JOE

  CHAPTER 16 FROM BAD TO WORSE

  CHAPTER 17 OLLIE MAKES UP HIS MIND

  CHAPTER 18 CAT COMES CLEAN

  CHAPTER 19 THE PENNY DROPS

  CHAPTER 20 NOTHING BUT THE TRUCE

  Sugar SECRETS … …& Loss

  SOME SECRETS ARE JUST TOO GOOD TO KEEP TO YOURSELF!

  DO YOU BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU HEAR ?

  SCORES

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER 1

  IT’S ONLY A GAME

  “Ooh, you’re such a good snogger!”

  “I know…”

  “I’ve been dying for this to happen for ages.”

  “Me too…”

  “You’ve got lovely soft lips.”

  “Mmmm.”

  “And such a tasty bod.”

  “Uh huh…”

  “And you smell fab!”

  “Sonja?”

  “Yeah?”

  “D’you think you could shut up a minute while I stick my tongue down your throat?”

  “OK. Sorry, Ol!”

  To loud cheers and wolf whistles from the rest of the gang, Ollie Stanton and Sonja Harvey wrestled each other to the ground and began rolling around on the grass in mock passion. They hadn’t had this much fun playing spin the bottle in ages.

  It was a balmy Saturday and everyone had gathered at Matt Ryan’s huge house in the posh part of town.

  As the afternoon turned into evening, Matt had lit the barbie, raided the larder and his dad’s drinks store and rigged up his sound system so that it could blare music out into the vast, secluded garden.

  Someone had suggested they play silly games and, after a couple of rounds of tag and blind man’s buff, they had now settled into the ultimate party game.

  When Catrina Osgood had dared Ollie to snog the most fanciable female there, she had really expected him to choose her and was a bit miffed when he didn’t.

  In fact, fuelled by a couple of glasses of punch, Ollie had grabbed her cousin. Sonja, not because he fancied her - he didn’t - but because he knew she’d take it all in good part.

  “Eurroouf!” gasped Ollie suddenly. “Son, your elbow’s digging into my stomach!”

  “Oh, sorry! I can’t move though ‘cause you’re lying on my hair…”

  “Oh, right. Hang on… better? Now, where was I?”

  “You were about to give her a love bite, mate!” called Matt.

  “Don’t you dare!” hissed Sonja.

  “No way!” Ollie laughed. “She’d knee me where it hurts.”

  “Too right I would!” yelled Sonja.

  “If only Elaine could see you now, Ol,” chortled Cat. “She’d dump you like a shot!”

  Ollie had a long-distance relationship with Elaine, who lived quite a distance from Winstead, and only saw her occasionally. He refused to call her his ‘girlfriend’, insisting that it was more casual than that. But even so, Cat had a point. Surely Elaine would be pretty annoyed by the convincing display that Ollie was putting on, no matter how innocent.

  And while Ollie hadn’t expected Sonja to join in with such enthusiasm, he was pretty chuffed that someone so drop-dead gorgeous appeared to be quite keen on snogging him.

  Only Kerry failed to join in the heckling. The sight of her two best friends thrashing about on the lawn was giving her a strange sense of unease, though she couldn’t work out why.

  “This is looking good!” Matt continued. “Swap places for a fiver, Ol?”

  “I’ll pay a tenner to see Ollie and Matt snog,” Catrina quipped. “That’d be much more interesting.”

  “In your dreams, Cat,” laughed Ollie.

  “More like a nightmare,” Sonja added. “Now, have you lot had enough ogling? I can feel ants crawling up my leg…”

  “Are you sure it’s not Ollie?” joked Matt. “OK, the show’s over. Well done you two, although I would have liked to see more exchange of saliva. Now it’s my turn to ask the questions.”

  When Sonja and Ollie rejoined the circle, Matt gave the bottle a flick with his fingers. As it spun round once more, Sonja, Matt, Catrina and Ollie shouted excitedly, while Kerry, Joe and Maya watched in silence.

  Gradually, the bottle slowed and the neck came to rest, pointing accusingly at… Kerry.

  She groaned inwardly. Kerry hated this game and dreaded it whenever one of the others - usually someone loud like Matt or Sonja - suggested they play it. She wasn’t the most outgoing person in the world and hated the idea of being asked to spill her guts or undertake some ridiculous dare in front of everyone.

  “So, Kerry!” Matt announced dramatically. “What do you want… truth or dare?”

  Kerry shifted uneasily in her seat. She knew that with Matt in charge of proceedings, his demands would be deeply humiliating or really rude.

  Or both.

  Kerry made a snap decision.

  “Truth, please,” she announced, as lightly as possible.

  “Hmmmm…” Matt continued with an air of drama. “I wonder… what do we want to know about you, Kerry?”

  He put his index finger to his mouth, furrowed his brow and looked thoughtfully skywards.

  “I know! Is it true that you’re considering cosmetic surgery to have your breasts enlarged?”

  His question had the desired effect. Sonja and Maya gasped out loud, the boys looked down at the grass, embarrassed, and Kerry blushed furiously.

  Sometimes she hated Matt. He knew exactly which buttons to push to cause her the utmost humiliation. Although she’d never spoken to him about it (like, as if), somehow he obviously knew she had a thing about the size of her boobs (or rather, lack of them).

  Her 34-inch chest with its A-cup bra had been the bane of Kerry’s life in recent years. And at sixteen, she had practically given up on the notion that she might ever sprout proper boobs, believing deep down that if it was going to happen it would have done so by now.

  Sure, she had a hang-up about them, but it wasn’t something she harped on about or even admitted to in public. The fact that Matt had taken this moment to point out her childlike chest to the entire world caused Kerry considerable embarrassment.

  She had three options. Refuse to answer and therefore be expected to carry out some equally cringe-making forfeit, answer truthfully… or lie.

  Kerry chose the final option. There was no way she was going to give Matt the satisfaction of causing her any more embarrassment.

  “I’m p-perfectly happy with my chest, thank you very much,” she stammered, thinking I mustn’t let him get to me. “So the answer is a most definite no.”

  “Anyway,” Ollie chipped in, winking at Kerry, “more than a handful is a waste, that’s what I say.”

  Everyone laughed and Kerry smiled, grateful to Ollie for taking the pressure off her.

  “Right, my turn to do the spinning
,” Sonja called, grabbing the bottle and flicking it with her fingers so that it whizzed across the grass at great speed and landed right in front of Matt.

  “Ooh, I think that must mean it’s your turn Matt,” Sonja grinned wickedly.

  She and Matt were good mates and knew each other well, but Kerry was Sonja’s best friend and what Matt had just done to her was pretty mean.

  Sonja was about to make him pay for his big mouth.

  CHAPTER 2

  TRUTH, DARE… OR LIE?

  “Truth or dare, Matt?” cooed Sonja. She was sitting cross-legged on the grass, a tanned picture of glowing health in white shorts and a skimpy, strappy top.

  “I’ll take a dare, please, Son.”

  She smiled sweetly at Matt, knowing exactly how to knock the smirk off his face.

  “I dare you to take your father’s beloved Mercedes SLK sports car - which, for anyone who doesn’t know, is worth the price of a small house - from the garage, drive it round town, park it on double yellow lines and leave it there.”

  Matt was aghast. “No way, Son!”

  “Uh-oh, wrong answer,” Sonja tutted. “That means you have to do a forfeit.”

  “Oh come on, Sonja. You know that’s a non-starter!” wailed Matt. “Dad would kill me if he knew I’d even touched his wretched car, let alone driven the thing. You’re being unfair.”

  “Sorry, mate,” Ollie chipped in, laughing, “but life’s not fair, is it?”

  Matt looked crestfallen. He was perfectly aware that this was Sonja’s revenge for his being so cruel to Kerry and he sorely wished he’d kept his mouth shut. Not that he’d admit it to anyone.

  “Is that a refusal then, Matt?” asked Sonja sweetly.

  Matt nodded glumly.

  “Right then. For a forfeit I want you to spend the next two turns standing over there by that bush.”

  “Easy,” Matt smirked as he leapt to his feet. “Cheers, Son!”

  “Oh! Something I forgot to mention,” Sonja continued. “I do want you standing, but on your head. With an apple in your mouth.”

  Everyone roared with laughter as Matt stood, open-mouthed and horrified. The gang howled even louder when he dutifully carried out the task, with his face gradually turning a deeper shade of purple and dribbling profusely from his open mouth where the apple was neatly wedged. It was a bit of a comedown for someone who spent his life trying to be the coolest person on the planet.

  Then it was Joe Gladwin’s turn to spin the bottle. When it came to rest in front of Sonja she immediately chose a truth - and Joe’s mind went blank. It couldn’t have stopped at anyone worse. She was beautiful and witty, and frightened him half to death.

  He racked his brains frantically for something interesting and/or amusing to ask her, but came up with a big, fat nothing.

  “Uhhh… umm…” he muttered under his breath.

  “Come on,” heckled Sonja. “Don’t keep me in suspense, Joe. Hurry up!”

  Joe felt his face turn red and begin to throb with embarrassment. He cursed the fact that he blushed so easily and wished he’d stayed at home playing computer games rather than put himself through this torture.

  He felt as if everyone’s eyes were boring into him, staring at him, waiting for him to say something funny. He felt under pressure to join in, perform, be one of the gang, when in fact he felt really uneasy sitting there.

  “Umm… is it true that you fancy Matt?” he eventually blurted out, which was the first thing that came into his head.

  Several groans were heard. Everyone in the world knew that Sonja didn’t fancy Matt.

  “Um no, Joe, it isn’t.” Sonja replied, her voice full of sarcasm. “It’s you I really fancy. Didn’t you know?”

  She laughed and Joe looked down at the ground with a face the colour of fuchsia, his humiliation complete. Like everyone else, he knew she was joking. A drop-dead stunning girl like Sonja would never fancy a scruffy little runt like him.

  Sensing how uncomfortable Joe must be feeling, Kerry made a great show of picking up the bottle.

  “OK, my turn,” she called, spinning it round. When it stopped at Catrina and she chose a dare, Kerry challenged her to take her bra off under her low-cut top without showing her chest to anyone. This rapidly diverted attention from Joe’s duff question and gave everyone a good giggle as Cat attempted the near impossible deed.

  Catrina relished the chance to be the centre of attention and wasn’t at all embarrassed by the challenge. Belting out the tune to The Stripper, she unhooked the back of her bra and began wriggling out of it. Only when one of her ample boobs threatened to pop out did she give a girlish squeal of fake coyness.

  In less than thirty seconds she had deftly removed the black, lacy, D-cup number which she then held proudly aloft for everyone to see.

  “Waa-haaay!” Matt hollered from the bush, spitting out the apple that had been threatening to choke him and falling on to his knees in a heap. “You could hold a party in that bra! Can I have a closer look?”

  Attempting to stand up caused a sudden rush of blood to Matt’s head so instead he crawled back to the group on his hands and knees, grinning and leching at the same time.

  Cat wasn’t impressed. She and Matt had gone out together for a short time recently, but the affair had ended abruptly when she saw Matt getting off with Ollie’s twin sister, Natasha. Although the pair were now officially on friendly terms, Catrina was still a little miffed that he had humiliated her so publicly.

  “Get lost, creep,” she snarled. “This is one bra you’ll never get your hands on again.”

  “Ooh, touchy!” Matt laughed, pleased that he’d got the intended reaction. Although he sometimes felt twinges of remorse at the way he’d treated Cat, he still found it impossible to miss an opportunity to make her mad. She was so easy to wind up.

  Now it was Catrina’s turn to devise the line of questioning. She was delighted when the bottle pointed at Joe. Like a cat about to pounce on a defenceless mouse, she knew she would have fun playing with him.

  “OK, Joe, truth or dare?” Cat demanded, her grey eyes glinting merrily.

  Joe’s heart sank for a second time. He really loathed this game. It didn’t suit his sensitive nature at all. He didn’t even know what he was still doing here - he should have left ages ago.

  He wished he’d gone before everyone started this stupid charade, but he’d come with Ollie and thought it would have looked odd if he’d left on his own. And, of course, Ollie was having the time of his life, so Joe hadn’t wanted to be a killjoy by suggesting they leave. Now, with the prospect of Cat the man-eater about to maul him, he sorely wished he had.

  “Um, I guess it’ll have to be a truth,” Joe said weakly.

  Cat pondered over her question. Other than the fact that they had a crossover of friends, she and Joe didn’t really connect at any level. Cat didn’t know much about him and, as far as she was concerned, Joe was shy, awkward and a bit of a geek. Totally different to her. Catrina oozed confidence from every pore.

  She wondered if there was anything more to him than the studious, good-guy impression he gave out. Were there any hidden depths?

  Perhaps he was a secret tattoo-freak, or a hardened criminal with a police record. It wouldn’t surprise Cat at all to find out that he had another life, one that he kept secret from the rest of the world.

  “You’ve got the reputation for being a bit of a goody two shoes,” she announced. “So what I want to know from you, Joe, is whether you’ve ever done anything risqué in your life. Like handed your homework in late, or stolen sweeties from the corner shop, or got hammered on your mum’s Baileys…”

  She paused as inspiration suddenly hit her. “Yes, that’s it!” she shrieked, laughing. “I know what I can ask you, Joe. Have you, our resident Mr Perfect, ever been so drunk you didn’t know what you were doing?”

  Catrina’s eyebrows were raised and her eyes bulged as she giggled wickedly at such a ridiculous notion. So did everyone else.

 
; Joe remained stony-faced at the question, wondering whether to tell the truth. He knew it would be a real shocker if he did. After a few seconds of mulling it over, he gave his answer.

  “Er, no. No, I haven’t,” he replied quietly.

  Only Joe knew that he was lying.

  CHAPTER 3

  THE POST-MORTEM

  It was way past midnight when everyone finally decided to go home. After leaving Cat at the end of her road, the others turned into the high street, which was brightly lit but almost deserted.

  “So, do you think Catrina was expecting you to pick her when she dared you to kiss the most fanciable girl at the barbie?” Sonja asked Ollie.

  Always very sceptical about her cousin’s motives, Sonja had immediately been suspicious of Cat’s dare. Ollie and Catrina had gone out together briefly after Matt had dumped her: now that they were ‘just good friends’, Sonja could imagine her trying to pull off a trick like that.

  The way she saw it, if Catrina had been picked out as more attractive than anyone else - especially Sonja - it would bolster her ego hugely and be one in the eye for her cousin.

  “Oh, I dunno,” Ollie replied, contorting his face as if he’d been sucking a bag of lemons. “I’m not sure she’s that calculating. Anyway, I couldn’t have snogged her. Not now. She’d eat me for breakfast and still have room for Joe, wouldn’t she, Joey?”

  Ollie looked back to where Joe was loitering behind them, slouching along in a world of his own. He was staring at the pavement as he walked just behind Kerry, hands deep in his pockets, brain deeper in thought. He wasn’t even bothering to try and engage her in any kind of conversation.

  Typical, thought Ollie. Useless at talking to girls - always has been, always will be.

  Joe was Ollie’s closest friend and someone he held in high regard, but it didn’t stop him being exasperated at times by Joe’s excruciating shyness with the opposite sex. And the fact that he often seemed totally incapable of communicating with anyone other than Ollie niggled him even more.

  “Oi, Joey, are you listening?” Ollie hollered.

  Joe’s head shot up and, with a startled look on his face, he grunted a “Huh, what?” back.