Sugar Secrets…& Freedom Read online

  Sugar

  SECRETS…

  …& Freedom

  Mel Sparke

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  CHAPTER 1 PARENTS: WHO’D HAVE ‘EM?

  CHAPTER 2 HOME TRUTHS

  CHAPTER 3 SNAP DECISION

  CHAPTER 4 MAYA JOINS THE CLUB

  CHAPTER 5 JOE WOBBLES

  CHAPTER 6 MAYA GETS A GRILLING

  CHAPTER 7 MAYA GETS A GRILLING

  CHAPTER 8 ‘JOEY’ GRITS HIS TEETH

  CHAPTER 9 SYMPATHY SLEEPOVER

  CHAPTER 10 TROUBLE IN STORE

  CHAPTER 11 A FEW HOME TRUTHS

  CHAPTER 12 THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR

  CHAPTER 13 SMILE, PLEASE!

  CHAPTER 14 OH NO YOU DON’T!

  CHAPTER 15 “HI!”S AND LOWS

  CHAPTER 16 ACT NATURAL

  CHAPTER 17 OPEN MOUTH, INSERT FOOT

  CHAPTER 18 DEEPER AND DEEPER

  CHAPTER 19 OTHER SECRETS AND PAST LIVES

  CHAPTER 20 AND THE WINNER IS…

  Sugar SECRETS … …& Lust

  SOME SECRETS ARE JUST TOO GOOD TO KEEP TO YOURSELF!

  COULD YOU MAKE THE FIRST MOVE?

  SCORES

  Copyright

  About the Publisher

  CHAPTER 1

  PARENTS: WHO’D HAVE ‘EM?

  Scooping up her long dark hair in her hands, Maya Joshi twisted it into a loose knot and fastened it with a butterfly clip while gazing out of the open kitchen window. Oblivious to everything around her, including the family meal she was currently a part of, Maya idly watched the golden evening sun dapple the pale green leaves of the mock orange bush with soft light.

  Closing her eyes, she breathed in the heavy scent of the honeysuckle that curled its way around the arch at the side of the house. Maya loved summer. Lazy days like she’d had today, hanging out in the park with Sonja, Kerry and the others, catching some sun, fooling around, having a laugh. Summer: long days, warm nights, no homework, no school, no pressure – just freedom…

  Eyes still closed, Maya suddenly felt the softest, lightest stroke across her ankle. Half tickly, half delicious, she knew at once who was responsible for the sensation. Marcus. He must have sneaked in from the garden without anyone noticing – her parents certainly wouldn’t approve if they knew he was around.

  Turning and looking down at her plate, Maya deftly scooped some butter off her bread with her little finger and held it under the table. A strangely rough tongue licked it off while the Burmese curled his tail gratefully around her calf.

  Unfortunately, Marcus was in the mood for more.

  “Aaaaark!” he croaked loudly.

  “Maya! How many times have we told you we don’t want the cat in the kitchen while we’re eating?” said her mother, looking across the table at her sternly. “And please don’t play with your hair at the table either!”

  “But I’m not– I mean, I didn’t let Marcus in!” Maya protested. She hated being accused of something she hadn’t done. “He must have—”

  “Maya, listen to your mother, please, and get that cat out of here!” her father interrupted, in his that’s-the-end-of-that-conversation voice. It was the same voice that managed to reduce adult patients to nervous little kids in Dr Sanjay Joshi’s surgery.

  On the other side of the table, Maya’s little brother Ravi bobbed down to look at the unwelcome guest. Sunny was wearing her best as-good-as-gold expression as she smugly watched her big sister stand up and shoo the reluctant Marcus out of the room.

  Maya gently pushed him by the bottom through the gap in the door, but Marcus did his special trick of turning into an origami cat, flipping around magically to face her. Staring up at his favourite member of the family, he bawled his indignation.

  “Aaaaark! Eeee-aaark!”

  Maya couldn’t help grinning – Marcus had the most un-pussy cat voice. No pretty purring and delicate miaows for him. “It’s like listening to a nail being dragged down a blackboard!” Sonja Harvey had once said, and it was the best description Maya had heard of Marcus’s screechings.

  “Come on, now. Hurry up!” her dad’s voice came impatiently from behind and Maya dropped her smile. Pushing Marcus more firmly out of the kitchen and into the hall, she closed the door behind him and returned to her place at the table.

  “So, what’s on everyone’s schedule this week?” her mother asked brightly, gazing round the table at her three children.

  Here we go, sighed Maya to herself. The Sunday night interrogation. Even though it’s the holidays, we still have to go through this.

  In term time, the Sunday evening meal was the point in the week where the three younger members of the Joshi family discussed with their parents what lessons, essays, projects or tests lay ahead in the coming days. Sanjay and Nina Joshi were big believers in discussion – but only, it seemed to Maya, when it came to homework. Or revision. Or getting those top-grade marks.

  And apart from keeping their parents up to speed on school work, it was also the time when the three children could bring up any plans they had – for parental discussion and approval. Or disapproval, as the case may be.

  “I’ve got an extra rehearsal for the summer school play on Saturday. You haven’t forgotten, have you, Mummy?” said Sunny, so sweetly it almost made Maya’s teeth hurt. Both parents smiled indulgently at their thirteen-year-old daughter.

  “No, of course not,” said Nina Joshi. “But what about your art project, Sunita? You’re not letting this play get in the way of that, are you?”

  “No, of course not, Mummy – I’ve nearly finished it!” Sunny chirped.

  And you wouldn’t have got on so far if I hadn’t helped you out with it, with no thanks, thought Maya darkly. But you might as well make the most of it. Sunny. Once it comes to choosing your subjects at school next year, Mum and Dad aren’t going to let you carry on with the fun stuff like drama and art.

  “Mum, it’s Calum’s birthday party next Saturday afternoon!” Ravi piped up, his big brown eyes wide with excitement.

  “Well, so it is,” smiled his mother. “Your sister can take you shopping for a present this week and she can drop you off there on Saturday. All right, Maya?”

  It wasn’t all right with Maya, but there was no point in arguing. Her parents’ attitude was that the whole family should look after one another. But, being the eldest, Maya seemed to do a whole lot of looking after with nothing much in return. Unless you counted being continually pushed to study – at the expense of a social life or anything else that was remotely fun. And that certainly seemed to be her parents’ way of showing they cared.

  “Maya?” her father looked over at her sharply. “Did you hear what your mother said?”

  “Yes, of course – it’s fine,” she nodded, giving her adorable little brother a smile. He grinned back, showing off his two new chunky front teeth.

  It always surprised Maya to see little signs that he was growing up – for her, seven-year-old Ravi would forever be her cuddly baby bro. It was a far cry from how she saw Sunny, who’d always seemed much smarter than her years and who knew exactly how to get her own way, whatever the circumstances.

  The reason Maya had wanted to keep Saturday afternoon free was pathetic really; she wanted to go shopping for pyjamas. Sonja was having a sleepover on Saturday – not the normal girls’ night in, but a proper, giggly, silly sleepover.

  For Sonja, Kerry and Cat, it was a nostalgic thing to do – they’d had loads of sleepovers together in the past. But for Maya, it was all new. Not just because she had only known the others for eighteen months or so, but because staying the night at friends’ houses was something her parents had frowned on when she was younger.
Now she was sixteen, they could hardly complain, but Maya was still faced with the problem of what to wear.

  Was her long cotton nightie too mumsy-looking? Would the others have cool and cute PJs, or was that out too? Perhaps she should just take a pair of leggings and an old T-shirt to sleep in.

  Maya knew that Cat and Sonja would laugh if they found out that she was worried about something so trivial, which was why she’d asked Kerry to go shopping with her on Saturday afternoon. They couldn’t go before then because Kerry had a holiday job at a chemist’s during the week.

  But Maya could rely on Kerry not to tease her, and to understand her self-consciousness. If there was one thing Maya hated more than anything it was feeling like the odd one out. But she often did, more than anyone knew – even her best friends.

  What to wear for a sleepover wasn’t the only thing bothering her. When Maya had been in the End-of-the-Line café the day before with Matt and Joe, Ollie had told them about an indie night at The Bell on Friday. Everyone in their crowd was right up for it and all set to go. But then, not everyone had Maya’s parents…

  This is ridiculous, thought Maya, squirming in her chair. I’m sixteen years old, I’m worrying about what pyjamas to wear and I’m scared to ask my parents if I can go out with my friends…

  “Sonja and everyone are going to a club on Friday night and I’d like to go too,” she found herself blurting out, before she could worry about it further.

  “A club? Where exactly?” asked her father, his fork paused in mid-air.

  “At The Bell,” she answered, hoping they wouldn’t realise exactly where she meant.

  “The Bell…” her father ruminated. “What, you mean that pub off the High Street?”

  “It’s-it’s more of a venue than a pub,” Maya waffled, knowing that her chances of going had dropped from poor to zero.

  “Oh, no, young lady. You know full well that you’re under age for that sort of thing and you know it’s not the kind of place I would expect my daughter to be seen in!”

  “But you know I don’t drink!” Maya appealed to her father. “I only want to go because of the music and to be with my friends—”

  “Now come on, Maya,” said her mother in an attempt to pacify her. “Apart from anything else, you’re already going out on Saturday evening.”

  As ever, when it came to her parents, Maya swallowed her objections. She stared down at her plate, anger burning inside her. How could her mother class sitting around in Sonja’s bedroom as ‘going out’? And why couldn’t they both just trust her for once when she said she didn’t touch alcohol?

  On top of the indignity of it all, she could sense the smirk on Sunny’s face, even though she couldn’t see it.

  “So what will you be doing in maths club this week, Maya?” her mother asked, changing the subject to one that didn’t exactly lift her eldest daughter’s spirits.

  “I’ve no idea,” said Maya blankly.

  Summer holidays equal freedom? Who am I kidding? she thought hopelessly.

  Her parents had enrolled Sunny into a full-time summer school and Maya into a day-a-week maths club, complete with homework. Ravi had got off lightly, which caused problems for Maya: his part-time holiday club meant plenty of part-time babysitting for her.

  Maya felt resentment bubble in her chest. The rules and regulations she could cope with. The stupid maths club and the unpaid nannying she could just about handle. But the constant refusal to recognise that she was sixteen, that she needed to have her own life…

  I feel like I’m suffocating!

  Maya stared fixedly at her plate as she willed the hot tears not to spill out of her eyes

  Something– something’s got to change! And soon…

  Apart from the clanking of forks and knives on plates, only one sound broke the awkward silence hanging over the dinner table.

  “Aaaark!” came a muffled cry from outside the kitchen door.

  Ten minutes’ walk away, in a house across from the park, Joe Gladwin shovelled peas from one side of his plate to the other. He was not in the mood for eating, nor was he in the mood for listening to what his mother had to say.

  “Joe, darling? What do you think?”

  “I think I don’t want to do it,” he answered through gritted teeth.

  “But, Joe, you haven’t been to see him for ever such a longtime…”

  “Look, I’m sixteen, Mum. Going to spend the weekend with my dad and his girlfriend isn’t exactly thrilling. You know what I mean?”

  “Yes, but Joe – he is your dad…” Automatically, Susie Gladwin reached across and pushed her son’s tangled brown hair away from his face.

  “Mum!” Joe flicked her hand away in irritation.

  She looked at him apologetically. “Sorry, darling.”

  Joe’s nostrils flared, but he tried to keep his temper. After all, it wasn’t really the hair-stroking or the ‘darling’ stuff that was getting on his nerves (although both of these, along with all his mother’s other over-protective habits, did drive him mad). It was more the whole idea of being ‘summoned’ to see a father he couldn’t stand – and the fact that his mum seemed to want him to go.

  He took a calming breath before he spoke.

  “Mum, why are you so keen for me to visit him? It’s not like he’s your favourite person either.”

  “I know, darling,” nodded his mother, reaching out to pat her son’s hand. “It’s just that it has been a long time since you saw him and I don’t want him thinking that I’m, well, keeping you from going.”

  “Oh, for God’s sake, Mum! It’s not like I’m some three-year-old and you’re trying to snatch me away! I think I’m old enough to decide when I do and don’t want to see my own father!”

  “Yes, I know, sweetheart, but your dad might not see it that way…”

  Joe noticed with alarm that his mum looked uncomfortably close to crying.

  Oh no, not that, he sighed to himself.

  “OK, OK,” he said, holding up his hands in defeat. “I’ll do it.”

  Although after what Dad did to Mum. I know what I’d really like to do, thought Joe bitterly. Never have to see my scumbag of a father again…

  CHAPTER 2

  HOME TRUTHS

  “Sounds like your Sunday night was as bad as mine,” sighed Maya as she sat with the rest of the crowd in the End-of-the-Line café.

  “Yeah?” said Joe. “What’s happened with you?”

  Joe was keen to hear someone else’s moans-it made him feel better about his own predicament. He’d just told his friends about the previous evening, which had gone even further downhill after he’d agreed to the parental visit.

  His mum had made him call up his father there and then, which was bad enough. But after a few awkward words and arrangements, his dad had had the not-so-brilliant notion to pass him on to Gillian. Trying to make polite conversation with the woman your dad had run off with wasn’t exactly the easiest thing in the world.

  A sudden thump on his arm brought Joe down to earth again.

  “What are you talking about now? You’re not still moaning on about your dad are you, Joe?” said Ollie Stanton playfully, pulling up a seat from another table and joining his friends at the booth in the big bay window of the café.

  He knew how difficult Joe found the situation with his dad and, while he was glad Joe was opening up about it in front of the others, he also instinctively felt that a bit of humour would lighten things up.

  “And what are you doing, Ollie?” Sonja teased him. “Skiving off on another break?”

  “Well, there’s hardly anyone in except you lot,” he grinned, gazing round the café. “And I’m sure my fellow workers can spare me for a moment.”

  “Oi!” called Anna from behind the counter, flinging a balled-up tea towel at his head.

  Stretching out, Matt caught the unravelling cloth neatly, before it could land smack-bang on Catrina Osgood’s perfectly made-up face.

  “Sorry, Catrina!” Anna apologi
sed. “I was aiming for the lazy little git in the apron, but he ducked.”

  “Don’t worry about it, Anna – I’ll kick him for you, if you like,” Cat replied brightly. “If that’s OK with you, Kerry?”

  Kerry shrugged. “Oh, go ahead. He’s a rotten boyfriend anyway.”

  “Why am I a rotten boyfriend?” Ollie blinked pitifully at Kerry.

  ‘“Cause you got us all excited about that indie night at The Bell on Friday and you went and got the date wrong!” she said, trying to sound stern – but spoiling it all by breaking into a grin.

  “What?” yelped Sonja and Matt in unison.

  “OK, I’m guilty – it’s on next month. Oops!” shrugged Ollie.

  “You mean I went through a whole heap of hassle with my parents for nothing last night?”

  Everyone turned to look at Maya. For the first time, they noticed that her normally serene expression had vanished. Instead, she seemed tense and brushed her curtains of shiny dark hair back behind her ears in a more agitated way than usual.

  “So, uh, what’s the story? What went on last night?” asked Joe, realising that he’d already asked this question, but never received a reply.

  “Oh, just the usual rubbish,” Maya snapped unhappily. “Just no, you can’t do this; no, you can’t do that; no, you can’t be trusted. That sort of thing.”

  The others were silent for a second: the one person they never expected to lose her cool was Maya, and here she was on the verge of… something.

  “But what’s all this about, Maya?” asked Cat, studying her friend’s face. She was aware that she never completely understood Maya – after all, Cat spent most of her time thinking about herself – but to see her friend looking so upset was unnerving. “I mean, we know your folks are hot on you studying all the time and everything, but you get on pretty well with them, don’t you?”

  “Oh, yes,” answered Maya, laying on the sarcasm thick. “I get on great with them as long as I get good grades, look after my brother and sister, do what I’m told – and have no life!”

  Once again, everyone was stumped. Maya never flipped out. Maya never had problems. She was the one who sailed sensibly through everything; she was the one who was reasoned, calm and balanced, while Cat, Sonja, Joe, Kerry, Matt or Ollie goofed up, stressed out or said the wrong thing.