Sugar Secrets…& Revenge Read online

  “It’s not Natasha’s fault,” said Maya, trying to be fair to Ollie’s sister. “She probably didn’t even know you two were an item.”

  “Yeah, why would she?” Sonja agreed. “She hasn’t been back in Winstead for months and Ollie said she only flew in from Milan yesterday ‘specially for the party, remember?”

  “She- she’s still a b-b-bitch,” sniffed Cat. She wasn’t exactly in the mood to forgive. Especially not someone as beautiful and sensational as Natasha Stanton.

  At only just seventeen, Ollie’s sister had been a successful model for over a year. She lived in a flash flat in central London with other drop-dead gorgeous models, and had a jet-setting lifestyle that her old schoolmates could only dream of.

  “Matt’s the one to blame,” Maya reiterated, “so don’t waste your time being angry with Natasha.”

  Cat nodded numbly.

  “And don’t waste your time being angry with him either - he’s not worth it,” said Sonja, handing Cat another piece of loo roll to blow her nose on. “In fact, why don’t you just go back out there and show him what a great time you can have without him? We’ll all be with you!”

  It was the sort of fighting talk that usually got Cat going, but it didn’t seem to be working tonight.

  “I can’t go out there! All those p-p-people saw…” she trailed off, sobbing again.

  That’s it: we’re obviously fated to spend our evening in this loo, thought Kerry grimly, aware of the sound of The Loud launching into their first number in the function room.

  She caught Sonja’s eye and discreetly tapped her watch. It was one thing that Catrina’s night had been ruined, but they couldn’t let Ollie down on his birthday - he’d want to know all his friends were there to witness the first ever performance of his and Joe’s band.

  “Cat - that’s the band on. Everyone will be watching them, not you,” said Sonja, smiling encouragingly and gently pushing her cousin’s hair back off her damp face. “And we should be out there too - Ollie and Joe will want our support.”

  Catrina looked up and nodded meekly, then started groping around inside her bag for a cigarette. Normally, they all moaned at her for smoking, but this time the girls let it pass.

  “OK, let’s do it,” she said defiantly, before turning round and spotting her reflection in the mirror, catching sight of her puffy, mascara-stained face. “God, look what he’s done to me!”

  The others groaned silently, knowing it would take a serious make-up session before Cat would be ready to face the world.

  The Swan’s function room wasn’t huge, but it was packed and Ollie felt a massive buzz as he gave it all he’d got from the tiny stage. Behind him, Mick the guitarist, Rob the bass player and Joe on drums sounded as if they were holding it all together.

  They’d decided not to inflict much of their own stuff on the audience tonight, but to do a whole load of cover versions: newer tracks their friends would be into, plus some old 70s rock songs (Ollie had promised his Uncle Nick) and a few Motown classics (his mum and dad’s favourite - and the sort of stuff he and Natasha had been brought up on).

  This beats the day job, he laughed to himself, thinking of the End-of-the-Line café and the position he held there as cook-cum-waiter-cumdogsbody.

  At the front of the stage, a group of girls started giggling and screaming at him. And you don’t get many girls screaming at you for serving them doughnuts and milkshakes either…

  It was just as he was launching into his Thank you and goodnight’ speech at the end of the set that Ollie caught sight of a puffy-eyed Cat elbowing her way through the party-goers and heading purposefully towards the stage.

  “Uh-oh, here comes trouble,” he turned and mouthed at Joe, who looked as if he’d just spotted a ten-ton truck approaching. Ollie turned back to face the audience just as Cat stepped up on to the stage and grabbed the mike from his hand.

  She pointed a scarlet-nailed finger in the direction of the DJ desk and, in a voice that would have worked well in the horror movie that had first brought them together, Cat let out a menacing growl.

  “You will pay, Matthew Ryan.”

  CHAPTER 3

  MATT MAKES IT WORSE

  Late next morning, Kerry Bellamy was still in her bed. She was watching her portable TV with Lewis, her six-year-old brother, perched on the end of the bed and Barney, their slobbery dog, curled up on the floor next to them.

  There was something reassuring about cartoons and Kerry found it comforting to go through this weekend routine, just the three of them. But she was going to be late if she didn’t get a move on.

  The End-of-the-Line café was always packed on Saturday mornings and Kerry knew that if you didn’t get there early, there was almost no chance of getting a table. And the crowd would definitely need one today.

  “You’ll take root in that bed if you don’t get up soon, young lady!” Kerry heard her mum yell up the stairs.

  She knew her mum hated her ‘moping around in her room’, as she called it, and was always on at Kerry to get up and do something useful.

  For once, Kerry wasn’t going to argue. She had arranged to meet Sonja, Maya and Catrina at 11.30 in the End. They had some serious sorting out to do. The events of the previous night needed to be discussed, Cat would need further consoling and the girls would have to decide how best to handle this messy turn of events - the future of the crowd depended on it. It would be awful if this Matt and Catrina crisis split them all up.

  It probably wasn’t the kind of ‘useful’ Kerry’s mum had in mind, but she’d have to lump it.

  “OK! OK! I’m not deaf y’know!” Kerry called down, already up and on her way to the bathroom.

  After a quick shower and brush of her teeth, Kerry spent her usual ten minutes checking despairingly in the mirror to see if she’d miraculously become beautiful overnight.

  “Still no joy, then,” she tutted, pulling her unruly reddish-brown curls around and trying out different poses and facial expressions. She jumped when she realised Lewis was lurking outside, peeking at her through the crack in the door. “C’mon, Lew, give me some peace, will you?”

  He disappeared from view and she heard him thundering downstairs yelling “PEACEPEACEPEACE! Kerry wants a piece of CAKE!” at the top of his lungs.

  “Not that I’m likely to get any peace round here,” she muttered to her reflection, before heading back to her room to get dressed.

  Putting her watch on, she noticed it was 11.15 already. No time for preening - it’d just have to be jeans and her blue fleece again.

  Oh well, she thought, looks like I’m not going to break any hearts today - but then, why change the habit of a lifetime?

  Miraculously, the girls had managed to nab their favourite table, right in the bay window of the café.

  “Hi, Kez,” said Sonja, grinning at her friend as she walked in the door.

  Kerry smiled a hello at Maya and Sonja, then turned her gaze to Cat to gauge how her mood was today. Not good by the looks of it.

  “Er, feeling better?” she asked uselessly.

  “No,” Cat responded sharply, her eyes still red-rimmed from a night’s-worth of tears. “That Pig…

  “Er, well, I’m just going to get a coffee. Do you want anything?” Kerry was keen to help, but she always felt a bit inadequate around Catrina - even when she was at a low ebb like this - and trusted that Sonja and Maya were going to do the bulk of the emotional sorting out.

  “OK,” nodded Cat. “Hot chocolate and marshmallow, please. With extra marshmallow. And a chocolate croissant, if they’ve got any left.”

  Sonja rolled her eyes to the ceiling. Trust Cat not to let grief get in the way of her appetite.

  Weaving through the packed tables, Kerry made her way over to the counter to order.

  “Hello?” she said, peering over the metal-topped surface and through into the kitchen. “Is anyone there?”

  She nearly jumped out of her skin when Ollie’s face popped up only inches in front of
hers.

  “Oh, hi, Kerry! Sorry - didn’t mean to make you jump. I was just—” he dropped his voice to a whisper, “starting to dig my escape tunnel down there!”

  Kerry looked at the spoon he was brandishing.

  “I think you’d get on faster with a spade,” she joked back. “And let’s face it, your Uncle Nick’s never going to let you go that easily!”

  Ollie had agreed to help out temporarily in his uncle’s café - the End-of-the-Line - when he’d quit school the year before, but had never quite managed to find anything better.

  “Tell me about it!” grinned Ollie.

  He had the best grin in the world. It made his whole face light up and he looked like a big kid who’d just heard the funniest joke ever. In fact, Kerry realised, Ollie always looked like an overgrown kid, with his huge hazel eyes, mop top of floppy brown hair and permanently amused expression.

  Leaning one elbow on the counter and cupping his chin in his hand, he asked, “So what’ll it be then, Kez?”

  “A coffee and a hot chocolate with double marshmallow, please, Ol. Oh, and a chocolate croissant.”

  “Wow, you’re going wild today,” he teased, reaching over for the serving tongs.

  “It’s not for me, it’s for Cat,” she smiled, nodding over in the direction of the bay window booth. “We’re on a mission to take her mind off… well, y’know.”

  “Don’t I!” nodded Ollie, pulling out a tray and beginning to load her order on board. “I nipped over when it was quiet earlier and got the whole story again from Cat.”

  “How’s Natasha? It didn’t spoil her birthday too much, did it?” Kerry asked.

  She didn’t know Natasha very well - none of the crowd did apart from Ollie. Natasha’d had her own little posse at school and, since she’d been talent-spotted, had always been away during weekends and holidays. They’d seen even less of her in the last year since she’d taken up modelling full time.

  “She was a bit shaken up, but she’s all right,” Ollie shrugged. “She had no idea that Matt was going out with someone, of course. He can be such a sly one…”

  Ollie and Matt had become mates after Matt had found himself at a serious loose end and friendless after his years-long stint at boarding school. As a budding (but as yet not very successful) DJ, he’d drifted into a nodding acquaintance with Ollie’s uncle, Nick, when he’d discovered the second-hand record shop that Nick ran. As often as not, he’d end up in the café next door that Nick also owned.

  Nick, a former roadie and ‘big mate’ of practically every band ever known (according to him), loved having an audience to tell his long-winded muso tales to, and Matt was more than happy to listen.

  Ollie, who’d grown up with his uncle’s musical sagas, still got a kick out of listening to them too, even though he took most of them with a very big pinch of salt. Once Ollie got to know Matt, it was only a matter of time before the rest of the crowd got to know him too, even though he was a year or so older than most of them.

  He was friendly and easy-going - the fact that he had a huge house, his own den and a car to ferry everyone around in didn’t hurt either - and so he fitted in well with everyone. Until now.

  “Well, I know he’s been sly with a few girls since he landed in Winstead, but I wish he hadn’t done it to one of us,” sighed Kerry. “I mean, who knows what Cat’ll do, after that little speech on stage last night?”

  “You know what they say about ‘Hell hath no fury like a Cat scorned’,” said Ollie wryly. “Still, I reckon he’ll talk her round. Don’t you, Kez?”

  “What, after she chucked a drink over him and threatened him in public? I doubt it, Ol. Mind you, she was so smitten by him, you never know…”

  By the time Kerry got the tray back to the table, Maya was dishing out some of her infinite wisdom.

  “Stop thinking about ways to ‘get’ him, Cat. Just try to ignore him and get on with having a good time. It’ll probably infuriate him much more when he realises that you’re not heartbroken. That’s the best revenge.” Maya tucked her long, dark hair behind one ear and picked a stray flake of chocolate from Catrina’s croissant.

  Cat looked thoughtful - Maya always managed to get through to people.

  “yeah, I guess you’re right.”

  “It’s true, isn’t it, Sonny?” said Maya, keen for back-up now that Cat seemed to be in the mood to see sense.

  But Sonja wasn’t listening. She’d just spotted a disturbing sight outside in the street. And half a second later, Catrina spotted it too.

  Matt was strolling along the opposite pavement, hand in hand with Natasha.

  CHAPTER 4

  OLLIE TO THE RESCUE

  “The nerve of him! The complete and utter nerve! Just look at him, the slimy little toad!” shrieked Catrina, jumping to her feet.

  The other girls round the table all gasped in unison. Was Matt being insensitive or just stupid? Did he seriously want another fight like the night before? And what had got into Natasha’s head after everything that had happened?

  Catrina’s eyes might have been flashing dangerously but, Sonja noted, her bottom lip had begun to tremble. It really was too much!

  “Ollie! Ollie - have you seen this?” Sonja bellowed over the café. “Sort it out will you? I think it’s time you had a word with your dodgy mate and your sister.”

  Ollie came out from behind the counter to see what they were all looking at… and groaned. Matt really was out of order this time.

  “Yep, OK, in a sec, Son…”

  That morning, as well as his usual workload, Ollie’d been lumbered with settling the new girl, Anna Michaels, into her job at the café and didn’t want to leave her on her own for too long. He poked his head into the kitchen where he’d left her peeling potatoes.

  “I, erm, have to do something for a minute. Will you be OK?”

  Luckily, Anna seemed the capable sort.

  “Sure - I’ll be fine. Do what you’ve got to do,” she smiled easily and followed him through to the counter.

  Giving her a quick thumbs-up sign, Ollie zigzagged through the tables, hauled open the door and shouted after Matt and Natasha.

  “C’mon, Matt,” said Ollie breathlessly, having run across the road to catch up with them. “What d’you think you’re playing at?”

  “Nothing!” Matt shrugged, all innocence. “Me and Tasha were just off to check the railway timetables for her getting back down to London on Monday night. You can’t exactly go to the station without going past here, can you?”

  He did have a point. The station was about fifty metres from the café and you could hear the station announcer from inside, even with the door shut.

  “Yeah, but you could have timed it a bit better!” Ollie jerked his thumb in the direction of the End. “What are you trying to do to Cat, for God’s sake?”

  Matt glanced over at the window and saw four faces glaring out at him.

  “How was I to know Cat would be in the caff?” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

  “It wouldn’t take a rocket scientist to work out she might be in there, since it’s where everyone is, including you, most Saturday mornings! And you—” Ollie turned to his sister. “What are you doing with him, after what happened last night, Tash?”

  “Oh, stop coming over all protective brother on me, Ol,” Natasha sighed. “Matt explained everything to me…”

  “Did he now? Well, I’d be interested to hear that explanation myself,” said Ollie, staring daggers at his friend.

  “Er, later, Ol,” Matt said sheepishly. “Tasha’s got some stuff to do in town and I said I’d give her a hand.”

  Ollie didn’t know who to feel more angry with - two-timing Matt or his sister for being so gullible.

  “You I want to speak to later, right?” said Ollie, poking Matt in the chest, aware that he should get back to the café and not leave Anna on her own for too long. He hadn’t even shown her how to work the ancient coffee machine yet.

  “Er, right,” muttere
d Matt, beginning to look slightly guilty.

  “Give it a rest, Ol,” said Natasha in a bored drawl. “I’m a big girl - I know what I’m doing.”

  “I doubt it,” quipped Ollie, turning away from his sister and heading back to the End. Ever since she’d started modelling, no one could tell her anything - she always knew best.

  Fuming, Ollie barged back into the café, grabbed a tray and immediately started clearing tables.

  He should have known he wasn’t going to get away with it that easily.

  “Well?” said Sonja, grabbing his arm as he passed.

  “Forget about him. You don’t need him,” Ollie said bluntly to Catrina. “You could have any bloke you wanted, y’know.”

  “Yeah? Do you think so?” blinked Cat as tears threatened to spill over yet again.

  But even as she dug into her bag for yet another tissue, a plan began to hatch in her mind…

  CHAPTER 5

  REVENGE IS SWEET

  Cat was going to make Matt suffer for what he’d done and nobody was going to stop her, of that she was certain. It wasn’t exactly the first time she’d been dumped or hurt by a boy, but it was the first time she’d been in love, and only one thing was going to make her feel better. Getting her own back.

  Climbing the stairs to the third floor of the mansion block where she lived with her mother, Cat considered the options that had been whirling around her head since she’d seen Matt strut past the End with Natasha on his arm. She found it hard to think of him without feeling a pang. Every time she saw his face in her mind’s eye, she remembered how much she’d loved looking at him, loved kissing him, loved the way he smelled.

  She paused and leaned against the cool, tiled wall.

  Stop thinking like that, she told herself. I’ve got to be more focused and less emotional about all this.

  As she turned her key in the door, Cat once again rejected the first idea that had come to her - to destroy Matt’s precious record collection.

  His records were the real love of his life, as well as being his livelihood (apart from the sizeable monthly allowance he gets from his daddy dearest, snorted Cat inwardly). The problem was getting near them. He kept his records locked up in vandal-proof boxes, except for the few he took out at a time when he was DJing.