Sugar Secrets…& Mistakes Read online

  “What?” said Sonja, pushing herself sleepily on to her elbows. “Are you going to tell me that you actually relish the idea of A levels?”

  “No,” Gabrielle smiled. “But I guess they don’t bother me, being such a long way off.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Sonja, her sleepiness leaving her.

  “Well, I’ve got a while to worry about that, haven’t I?”

  Sonja stared at Gabrielle, casually drying herself off, and then at Matt, who wore a slightly frozen expression on his face, as he also stared at his pretty girlfriend.

  “Why’s that?” asked Sonja. “How old are you, Gabrielle?”

  “Fourteen,” she replied, smiling back at Sonja.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Sonja could have sworn she saw Matt go rigid. And to her right, she could make out Cat’s prone body ripple with suppressed giggles.

  Sonja knew, and obviously Cat knew, what was going on inside Matt’s occasionally shallow mind. How could a cool DJ. with looks that got him chatted up by women much older than him, and who was – at eighteen – legally entitled to do whatever he wanted, possibly go out with someone who was still two years away from doing her GCSEs?

  CHAPTER 20

  GETTING THINGS STRAIGHT(ISH)

  Kerry sat on the bench, with Maya and Joe on either side, each clutching a hand.

  “Kerry, you’ve got to tell us what happened – or we can’t help!” Maya tried to persuade her.

  Kerry snuffled again and tried to talk.

  “It- it’s just going to sound stupid.”

  “Try us,” Maya encouraged her.

  “Well, Ollie wanted to buy me this necklace we saw at a stall further down the prom and I said I didn’t want it. I’ve got my chakra and I didn’t need a new necklace.”

  Maya and Joe exchanged fleeting puzzled glances over the top of Kerry’s bowed head.

  “OK, but why did that end up with you running away from him and getting so upset?” persisted Maya.

  “He just kept saying over and over again that he wanted to get it for me and that it would suit me, and- and I just flipped. It was like he was trying to control me or something. Trying to tell me what I should be thinking or doing!” she sobbed. “It’s like that all the time just now!”

  “Ollie being possessive? That doesn’t sound much like him,” said Maya kindly. “Are you sure there isn’t something more to it than that?”

  “No…” Kerry answered unconvincingly.

  “No, there’s nothing more to it, or no, you’re not sure…”

  “Oh, Maya! I just- it’s all changing!” Kerry stammered out, looking directly at her friend.

  Joe sat silently at her other side, leaving Maya to do all the talking. He didn’t feel he had the words to help. All he could do was keep holding the hand that gripped his.

  “What’s changing, Kez? Aren’t you getting on together any more?” Maya asked her, though she could hardly believe it. Ollie and Kerry seemed just about perfect together.

  “No, it’s not really about that… it’s just that—” Kerry took a deep breath as if what she had to say was too painful to express, “—me and Ollie have been going out for a few months now and it’s like I feel this pressure to- well, like it’s getting more serious…”

  Joe felt his face flush as he realised what she was getting at. Maya sussed it too and dived in to help Kerry as she flustered around for the right words. “You’re talking about sex, right?”

  Kerry looked away from Maya and dropped her gaze to the ground, silently nodding her head.

  “Is Ollie actually putting pressure on you?” Maya asked, relieved in a way that she could see what the problem was at last.

  “No, no, not really,” Kerry muttered. “It just feels like it’s getting closer…”

  “And you’re not sure you’re ready,” said Maya.

  “No,” Kerry answered in a small voice. “We’re just so happy the way we are and I’m scared that, y’know, sleeping together might change everything…”

  Joe felt wildly uncomfortable hearing Kerry’s confession, but couldn’t bring himself to speak or move; hardly even to breathe.

  “Kez, have you spoken to Ollie about any of this?”

  Kerry was silent for a moment.

  “No,” she said finally.

  Maya raised her free hand and gently stroked Kerry’s unruly mass of curls.

  “Do you love him, Kerry?”

  “Oh, yes,” she nodded, gazing up at Maya again. “Of course I do!”

  “Well, shouldn’t you be talking to him about how you’re feeling, instead of bottling it up? I mean, what do you think is going through poor Ollie’s mind at the moment? He’s probably wondering what he’s done wrong…”

  “Oh, Maya! Why do you always see things so clearly? How do you always know the right things to say?” Kerry choked out, slipping her hand from Joe’s grasp and throwing her arms around Maya’s neck.

  “Because it’s my job – I’m the only sensible one out of the whole lot of you,” Maya smiled, spotting Joe’s shell-shocked face over the top of Kerry’s frizzy mane.

  Thundering footsteps and a breathless shout heralded the arrival, through the ambling Saturday strollers, of the long-lost OIlie.

  “Kez! Kez! What’s wrong? Where did you go to?” OIlie gasped, falling to his knees in front of her.

  “Oh, OIlie!” she gasped, transferring her arms from Maya’s neck to his. “I’m so sorry!”

  “She’s fine – she just needs to talk to you,” Maya explained, in case Ollie’s imagination was working overtime. “Come on, Joe – we’ve got some ice creams to buy…”

  Stumbling to his feet, Joe looked down at the hugging couple and once again found his mouth incapable of speech. Instead, he silently followed Maya along the pavement, his shoulders hunched with disappointment and mixed emotions.

  Once the shoppers and browsers had swallowed them up and they were a safe distance away from Ollie and Kerry, Maya pulled at Joe’s T-shirt, forcing him to stop.

  She stared deep into his rapidly blinking eyes, then surprised him by leaning close and planting a soft kiss on his cheek.

  “I know,” he heard her whisper in his ear. “And I won’t tell…”

  “Where have you two been? We were about to organise a search party. Y’know, send out the sniffer dogs, specially trained to sniff out Soleras…”

  Maya ignored Sonja’s comment and began dishing out the ice creams to everyone. She noticed that Sonja and Cat were still reclining in true sunworshipper mode on the beach towels. Gabrielle was doodling words in the wet sand down towards the water, with Matt hovering – awkwardly it seemed – by her side, while Anna and Billy sifted through a small pile of shells they must have been gathering together.

  How cosy… she thought, almost bitterly, then immediately got annoyed with herself. Why does it bother me? Am I jealous? And how come I can sort out everyone else’s feelings but not my own?

  Joe thumped down on the edge of a rug closest to them and Maya followed suit.

  Decide! she told herself sternly. Decide how you feel about Billy and then deal with it. Stop letting stupid feelings spoil your day.

  As she watched Billy and Anna rifling through their collection, an obvious thought shot into her mind.

  Imagine what it would be like to kiss him… she thought, closing her eyes and picturing the scene, unaware that Sonja had used exactly the same tactic when it came to analysing her feelings for Matt. Billy leaning closer to me, his hand cupping my face, his lips slowly touching mine…

  Maya felt a shiver at the image in her head; a shiver of something not far from distaste.

  Well, that solves that – I don’t fancy Billy, she smiled to herself, glad that her riddle had been so easy to resolve finally. Unlike Sonja, Maya used her imagination to make sense of things, not to escape into fantasy land.

  What she had to come to terms with, Maya realised, was how she felt about him infringing on her crowd and how she was going to
deal with that. But it was a lot easier than any romantic entanglement. That kind of emotion was something she’d never had to deal with yet, and seeing the mess her friends got themselves into when it came to love, it wasn’t anything she wanted to have happen to her in a hurry.

  “Hey, did you guys see Ollie and Kez on your travels?” Sonja asked out of the blue, raising her sunglasses and squinting at Joe and Maya.

  “Yes.” nodded Maya. “They were just mooching about up on the prom. I think they’ll be down soon.”

  Sonja took another ice-cold bite of her chocolate-covered bar and stared at Joe. He had that same gobsmacked expression she’d seen on Matt’s face earlier, when Gabrielle had blithely revealed her age.

  “Joey? You OK, Joey? You look a bit… funny,” she quizzed her friend.

  Joe went to open his mouth, then closed it again, his head empty of excuses.

  “There’s something Joe feels a little weird about telling you lot…” Maya interrupted.

  Despite the heat of the sun, a chill of panic swept over Joe. What was she going to say?

  “He really, really—” Maya reached over and squeezed his fingers conspiratorially, “—hates being called Joey.”

  Cat had squealed with delight when OIlie came back with a frisbee. She’d spotted some cool lads lounging further along the beach and had been wondering how to casually get their attention. Bouncing about in her bikini chasing a piece of plastic was the perfect excuse.

  With Ollie’s help, Cat had persuaded Maya, Kerry, Billy, Anna, Gabrielle and a reluctant-ish Joe to make up a four-a-side team, while Sonja and Matt offered their services as impartial referees.

  Sonja had quite fancied the idea of joining in when OIlie first suggested it, but an appealing look from Matt made her change her mind. It seemed as though he needed to talk.

  “So, I take it that Gabrielle being fourteen came as a bit of a surprise then?” she asked as they watched their friends begin the game.

  “I feel like I’ve just been run over by a twenty-ton lorry…” Matt mumbled.

  “Is it that bad?”

  “Son!” he said agitatedly, astounded that one of his best mates couldn’t see his predicament. “I’m eighteen! How can I go out with a girl of fourteen?! How big a mistake would that be?”

  Sonja smiled at him and thought to herself what a berk he could be. A likeable berk, but a berk all the same. She suddenly felt so, so glad that she’d come to her senses about that stupid notion of him being boyfriend material.

  “Matt, I know that’s quite a big age gap, but really, what’s the problem?” she questioned him. “I thought you were mad about her!”

  “I am ‘I was! But I just can’t…” Matt chewed his lip in consternation.

  “Is this anything to do with an age of consent thing?” Sonja suggested, reading his mind.

  “Yes! No! I mean, honest, Son, I was only thinking earlier how I’d never rush her – she’s too… special.”

  “So, you hadn’t planned on seducing her in the near future?”

  “No!”

  “And you’re crazy about her?”

  “Well, yes!”

  “you haven’t got a problem then, have you?” said Sonja, poking him in the ribs. “It’s just about your ego – you think it’s not cool to go out with someone of fourteen, which is ridiculous.”

  Matt rubbed the heels of his hands over his face. “I s’pose you’re right. But I just don’t know if I can handle it.”

  “C’mon.” said Sonja, now tickling him. “Get over it. Prove to me what a mature lad you are…”

  “I don’t know if I am mature enough. Son,” he mumbled, then caught a glimpse of Gabrielle as she sprinted easily along the sand in pursuit of the frisbee.

  His heart did a quick double back-flip before melting completely and he knew the decision was made for him.

  “What are those two gossiping about?” Cat asked Maya breathlessly, staring over at Matt and Sonja.

  The others were in a tangle in the sand a few metres away from them, having pursued Gabrielle and ended up in an undignified, giggling pile, all trying to grab the frisbee from her.

  “Don’t know,” answered Maya, just as breathlessly, “but I wouldn’t worry about it. If I was you, I’d pay more attention to keeping your boobs inside your top.”

  Cat looked down and giggled when she saw one bosom had made its bid for freedom while she’d been running around.

  “Oops!” she snickered, rearranging herself.

  Maya took the opportunity to check out her watch while they took a breather.

  “Going to have to head off soon, to make the train,” she said, looking over at her friend.

  Cat’s face fell.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Maya. “Having too much fun playing with your little chums? Don’t want to go home to Mummy?”

  “Too right,” Cat replied, a frown creasing her brow.

  “Why? What’s the big deal?”

  Cat shot a guilty look at her friend. “Maya, you know how I said I’d told my mum about college?”

  “Cat!” Maya gasped. “Don’t tell me she still doesn’t know!”

  “She will by now…” said Cat, twirling one of her bunches. “I left her a letter this morning, telling her.”

  “you’ve let your mum believe you’ve been going to sixth form all week and now you break the news to her in a letter?”

  “I had to – the college was going to get in touch with her this week about fees and stuff.” Cat explained, completely missing Maya’s point. “They hadn’t got round to it till now since I was a late entrant…”

  “Cat.” said Maya despairingly, visualising the rage Cat’s very scary mother would have worked herself up into by the time her daughter got home, “I think you’ve just surpassed yourself. I think out of all the mistakes you’ve ever made, this is one of your biggest.”

  Cat twirled her hair some more, gave Maya an embarrassed little smile and wondered if it was too late to apply for a transfer to a beauty school in Australia…

  CHAPTER 21

  SHOWDOWN

  Cat shivered as she slipped her key into the lock. She tried to tell herself that it was down to leaving a day’s worth of sun behind and stepping into the tiled chill of the mansion block’s high-ceilinged hallway.

  But it wasn’t.

  “Mum? Mum, are you home?” she called out to a silent flat.

  Looking down at her watch, Cat saw it was nearly eight o’clock. She’d tried to persuade the others to stay out a little longer, to make a night of it, but everyone was too tired and lazy after their day out.

  “Eight o’clock,” she muttered under her breath. Maybe her mother was at the gym, but it wasn’t likely – not on a Saturday night.

  Maybe she’s gone out with some of her boring friends from the tennis club? But a sixth sense told Cat that this wasn’t the case. A sixth sense felt a cold, malevolent presence close by.

  It was either a poltergeist or her mother and Cat didn’t really want to make contact with either.

  Tentatively, she peered around the kitchen doorway, one of her giant daisy hairgrips preceeding her anxious face.

  Sylvia Osgood sat at the kitchen table with Cat’s letter and what looked like a large glass of gin and tonic in front of her. She gave her daughter a long, lingering, dead-eyed glare of disgust.

  “Hi!” squeaked Cat, unsure how to play things until her mother started whatever she was going to start.

  “Let me ask you something,” Sylvia Osgood began, picking up a smouldering cigarette from an ashtray. “That lovely little chat we had a while back. About Maya wanting to leave school to do a vocational course. I take it that was all about you?”

  “Mmm,” Cat nodded, clinging on to the doorway for lack of anything more constructive to do.

  “Why? Why didn’t you just say it was you instead of going through that stupid charade?”

  Cat shrugged.

  “Oh, for God’s sake, sit down instead of hovering
over there,” her mother barked.

  Cat shuffled over and sat down in a chair opposite her mum. It suddenly reminded her of the time the deputy headmistress at primary school had called Cat into her office and told her off for showing her knickers to Jeremy Smith in exchange for his Mars Bar.

  “Look at you!” her mother sighed, her eyes roaming over Cat’s little-girl bunches and the novelty hairgrips that kept them in place. “It’s like trying to have a sensible conversation with a five-year-old!”

  Suddenly, Cat knew how to play it. That comment, along with her memory of school tickings-off, inspired her to go for wide-eyed innocence instead of full-on argument.

  “Are you aware of what you’ve done? Do you realise what a stupid mistake you’ve made?”

  Cat pictured a sad little Andrex puppy and drew on her best acting ability to get that same expression on her face.

  “Well? Speak to me, Catrina!”

  “I- I just really, really wanted to do this course and I knew you wouldn’t let me…” she said in a little girl voice, her bottom lip wobbling for added effect.

  “Catrina, apart from the fact that I think it’s a monumentally foolish thing to leave school before you’ve done your A levels,” her mother said, the irritation in her voice making it sound a hair’s breath away from breaking into a shout, “what I want to know is where on earth you suddenly got the idea that beauty therapy was your vocation in life? It’s not one of your silly whims, is it?”

  “Of course not!” Cat protested, although it was. She’d never even thought about it until she’d seen the ad for late applications in the paper and decided she was bored with school. And it had only taken another ten minutes after reading the ad for her to link it with her daydream to get on TV. “I’ve wanted to do it for ages, but I knew you wouldn’t approve!”

  Sylvia Osgood sighed again and rolled her eyes to the ceiling.

  “I suppose it’s a complete waste of time for me to try and persuade you that you should go back to sixth form and do a course like this later?” she said dryly, tapping her nails on the glass in front of her.

  Saying nothing, Cat twirled her fingers through one of her bunches and nodded, her face a picture of childish contrition. At least she hoped so.