Sugar Secrets…& Jealousy Read online

  Matt couldn’t resist another dig before Nick went. “Well, say hello to the lovely Cyndi for us, won’t you?”

  “Will you bring us a photograph back?” asked Kerry innocently.

  Huffing slightly, Nick muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.

  “Ring us,” Sonja added. “Let us know how you’re getting on.”

  “Yeah and if you need any dating tips, I’m your man,” Billy grinned.

  “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do…” cackled Cat.

  “Don’t do anything Cat would do,” Matt added, “you might get arrested.” The table erupted into roars of laughter.

  “I think it’s about time I went,” said Nick, making a hasty exit…

  CHAPTER 12

  HOPES AND DREAMS

  “Are you nervous?”

  “You bet. Are you?”

  “Uh-huh. I never thought I could be more nervous than when I actually sat down in the exam room and turned over each paper. But that was nothing compared to this.”

  Sonja and Kerry walked briskly down the road towards St Mark’s Sixth Form College where they were due to pick up their A-level results.

  “I know,” Sonja continued. “Nightmare, isn’t it?” She turned to Joe, who was loitering a few paces behind, his gaze fixed firmly on the pavement ahead of him.

  Since he’d been away at his dad’s, Joe had managed to put all thoughts of the dreaded exam results into a little blocked off corner of his mind. Now he was back in Winstead, it had all come flooding back again. And it made him feel physically sick. He kept wondering how Meg must be feeling at this moment too, since she’d be picking up her results at the same time.

  “How about you, Joe?” asked Sonja. “Fancy having a stab at what grades you’ve got? We could all have a go. Whoever’s nearest to their actual results gets a night out at the trendy Winstead club of their choice, paid for by the other two…”

  “Harrumpfh!” Joe scoffed. “There’s not a lot of choice of good places to go round here. It’d have to be a better prize than that.”

  “Two nights?” suggested Kerry.

  Joe laughed. It was an old joke, but he was so hyped up with nervous tension he thought he would laugh hysterically at just about anything right now.

  As they saw the sixth-form entrance looming, they walked on silently, thoughtfully, anxiously. When they got to the open doors, other students were coming out either looking tearful or with smiles that filled their entire faces. The knots in the three friends’ stomachs doubled in size and their mouths went so dry they wouldn’t have been able to speak even if they’d tried.

  In the hallway inside, a small group of people were gathered around the notice board, craning their necks to see the sheets of paper pinned up there. Expectant faces turned to relief or dismay depending on what they’d seen. As Sonja, Joe and Kerry got closer, people in front of them moved away, their futures already determined.

  Sonja took charge, running her finger down the names listed in alphabetical order. The others watched, following her fingernail as it got to BELLAMY Kerry, then GLADWIN Joe, and finally HARVEY Sonja. Until that moment, when, together, they’d silently read all their results, no one spoke. Then they exploded.

  “Arrrrgh!”

  “I don’t believe it!”

  “Bloody brilliant!”

  The three of them hugged and kissed, jumping up and down on the spot, and shouting, “We passed! We passed!” to anyone who cared to listen.

  “That’s amazing!” said Kerry breathlessly, once they’d got back outside. “We did it.” She turned to Joe. “And you’re unbelievable,” she said. “Three straight As. I’m so impressed!”

  “You didn’t do too badly yourself, Kez,” he replied, blushing. “Nor you, Son,” he added quickly. “Hey, I promised I’d phone my parents and call Meg on her mobile as soon as I knew. I won’t be a sec.”

  He roared off down the road to the phone box on the corner, leaping in the air every few strides, and making his friends laugh out loud.

  “So, what do you think?” Kerry asked Sonja once he was out of earshot.

  “What? Of my grades?”

  Kerry nodded.

  “Well, they could have been better, but I think the grades are just good enough to scrape into the uni near Owen.”

  “Oh, Son, that’s brilliant!” Kerry enthused. “I’m so pleased.”

  “Me too. I was convinced I’d failed miserably, but in fact I only dropped one grade in Italian. Could have been a lot worse,” sighed Sonja, “when you consider I took those last few papers when I was convinced I was pregnant.”

  “Oh, Son, of course!” The memory of those fraught weeks whizzed through Kerry’s mind. “I never gave that a thought.”

  “I’ve thought of little else for the last few days. I’ve been cooking up loads of excuses to give my parents as to why I flunked my exams. Thankfully, I won’t have to use them now.”

  “So it’s been pretty successful for all of us then,” said Kerry gleefully. “Fancy celebrating with a big gooey pudding at the café?”

  “Mmm, I will if you’re buying.”

  “Last one there foots the bill!” Kerry yelled, legging it down the street towards the End.

  OIlie was thinking about Natasha. And worrying. He knew there was something wrong, but what? He knew she wasn’t happy, but why?

  When the telephone rang, he instinctively knew it was Natasha. It was the twin thing again.

  “OIlie? It’s me.”

  “Hi, Tash…”

  “Guess what, I’m at the railway station. Will you come and meet me?”

  “Huh?” OIlie was caught off guard. “Which railway station?”

  “Winstead, of course,” she laughed. “But it’s really late and I don’t want to walk home on my own. Will you come and get me?”

  OIlie dived out of his parent’s pub and leapt on his Vespa. He roared to the train station, looking for his sister, delighted that she had come home. Funny, but he had no idea that trains ran so late from the city. Not that Ollie had any idea of the time - he hadn’t thought to look at the clock when he left home and he wasn’t wearing a watch.

  The station was bathed in an eerie orange glow. In the distance, he could see fluorescent-suited men on the track with spotlamps on their hard hats, mending the line. The platforms were deserted. Ollie wandered up and down the exit area from the city line, wondering where his sister had got to. The platform wasn’t lit, apart from a single overhead light attached to the long, narrow railway building, which flickered on and off intermittently.

  Suddenly, as the light came on again, Ollie saw Natasha. She was standing directly underneath it, struggling with a guy. He was big - much bigger than Ollie’s sister, and he was obviously overpowering her, pulling her towards the end of the building which was shrouded in darkness.

  Ollie started running towards them, shouting “Natasha! Natasha!” But although his mouth formed the words, no sound came out. Ollie struggled to increase his speed - he’d never noticed before how steeply the platform sloped uphill. “Tasha!” he desperatedly mouthed again. No one took any notice. The guy continued dragging his sister by the arms.

  As Ollie drew nearer he caught sight of an open door. The guy was pulling Natasha towards it. She was resisting, but not screaming. She wasn’t making any sound at all, just giving Ollie a reproachful look as he continued to struggle along the seemingly endless platform.

  Just as he finally reached his sister, Natasha was pulled inside the door. It slammed shut and Ollie heard a key turn in the lock. Ollie thrust his weight against the heavy wooden door, yelling and screaming. But it was no use. The door wouldn’t budge. Natasha was trapped inside and Ollie was helpless on the outside.

  A telephone started to ring. It was coming from behind the door. Ollie pressed his ear to the door - there was no noise, other than the ringing, which got louder and louder until it was deafening. He wanted to answer it, but there was no door handle. He tried to run to anoth
er door at the other end of the building, but his feet wouldn’t move and his body felt like jelly.

  All Ollie could do was listen and feel completely helpless, knowing Natasha was in there but that he could do nothing to get to her, to help her…

  “Huh?!”

  Ollie sat up, blinked a few times, and looked around him. He was on the sofa and the room was completely dark except for a blue and white flicker from the TV which was playing an old sci-fi film. The sound of ringing had torn him out of an uncomfortable doze.

  Natasha? Where was Natasha? Was she safe? Ollie slowly collected his jumbled senses and realised that he was in the living room above the pub and that he had just had a nightmare. The ringing he could hear was a real telephone, however. As he leapt across the room, he knocked his half drunk mug of cold tea over the carpet. Cursing, he grabbed the phone.

  “Hi, Ol, it’s me…”

  “Natasha? God, that’s really weird, I was just having a dream about you…”

  “Actually, I’ve been thinking about you too and about what you said. I did what you suggested, Ol. I walked away. I’m back in London, at home…”

  CHAPTER 13

  TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT?

  “Hey, guys, look what came in the post this morning.”

  Ollie took a postcard out of his back pocket and skimmed it across the table his friends were sitting at in the End.

  “Who’s it from?” Sonja asked as Kerry picked it up and studied the beach scene on the front.

  “Maya!” Kerry exclaimed, quickly turning it over and reading it out loud:

  Weather’s hot. Villa’s fab. Scenery lovely. Tell Cat the local lads aren’t up to much. Family fine. Little sister unbearable - she announced this morning that Alex had rung on Saturday before we left. She ‘forgot’ to tell me. (Liar!) I could throttle her! Wish you were here? Love Maya

  “Ooh, she sounds a bit stressed,” observed Sonja. “Mind you, I’m not surprised if Sunny pulled a trick like that.”

  “So that was after you guys saw him with that other woman?” Matt asked.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “I wonder why he was calling then?” Matt continued, scratching his chin with his fingers.

  “To explain what he was doing out with an ex?” said Kerry hopefully.

  “Or to wish her a happy holiday and tell her about the great date he’d had the night before?” sniggered Matt.

  “Matt!” Sonja squealed, digging him in the ribs with her elbow. “Don’t joke. She must feel awful stuck out there wondering why he called…”

  “She could ring him from Spain if she was that worried,” Matt replied.

  “Ooh, no,” said Sonja, “Maya wouldn’t do that. It would seem too desperate. I bet Sunny got an earful when she told her though.”

  “And rightly so. Poor Maya,” Kerry sympathised. “She’s having a bit of a hard time at the moment, isn’t she?”

  Ollie came back out from the kitchen with a trayful of drinks. “Oh, and the other person I heard from is this morning is Anna. She rang first thing to say she’s coming back today and did I need her to work a shift this afternoon,” he told them.

  “Really? She hasn’t phoned me,” said Matt, looking surprised. “I wasn’t expecting her back until Saturday morning. Why’s she coming back early?”

  “Apparently, her mum’s doing really well and Anna feels like she’s in the way,” said Ollie, reversing back behind the counter and starting to make coffees for the couple sitting at another table.

  “Haven’t you spoken to her since she’s been away then, Matt?” Sonja asked.

  “Uh, no,” Matt replied sheepishly, recalling the strained conversation they’d had on Monday night. “She said to give her a couple of days to get things sorted at her mother’s. I was planning on calling her tonight.”

  “Well, you won’t need to now,” said Sonja, “because you’ll see her later on. Is she coming to work this afternoon then, Ol?”

  Ollie shook his head.

  “I told her not to bother, though I’ve squared it with her for me to take tomorrow off. I’m going to London to see Natasha,” he replied, offloading his order and disappearing into the kitchen once more.

  “That’s odd, isn’t it? Why’s he going to see Natasha? I’ve never know him do that before.” Sonja turned a quizzical face towards Kerry.

  “She rang Ollie from London late last night to say she was back at home, even though her contract in Milan hasn’t finished yet,” Kerry explained.

  Sonja’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the news. At that moment, Ollie came back and sat down next to Kerry. “Phew, I’m hot. Let’s have some of your Coke, Kez,” he said, taking a glug from her glass.

  “So how did Natasha seem?” Kerry asked him.

  “Pretty down, low, flat. y’know, how you’d normally expect Natasha not to be. She wouldn’t say much over the phone, only that she flew back into Heathrow yesterday evening and was back at her flat sorting a few things out.”

  “So has she walked away from the Milan job?” asked Kerry.

  “Sounds like it. I think she’s in a bit of a state about it.” Ollie gave a discontented sigh. “She must have made a snap decision to come home and, now she’s here, she doesn’t quite know what to do next.”

  “D’you think she’ll come here?” Sonja asked.

  Ollie shook his head. “I don’t think so, not under her own steam. Which is why I thought I’d hop on a train first thing tomorrow to go and see her.”

  “Shall I come with you?” suggested Kerry.

  Ollie pondered for a few moments before replying. “Thanks, Kez, but I don’t think that’s such a good idea. I think she’s more likely to tell me what’s been happening if I’m on my own. I still don’t know what’s going on with her, but it must be pretty bad for her to walk out on a job like that.”

  “Poor Tasha,” Kerry sympathised. “1 can’t imagine what must be going through her head right now. I wonder what she’ll do?”

  “I dunno. I’d like to persuade her to come home for a few days, but whether or not I’ll succeed is another matter.”

  The bell tinkled and a group of people come into the café. Ollie slid out of his seat ready to carry on working. “I’d better go,” he said, bending over to give Kerry a quick kiss on the lips.

  From the dark circles under his eyes, Kerry could see that worrying about his sister was beginning to get to Ollie. It was no surprise. Even though they had very different personalities and led lives that could hardly be more contrasting, he had always been protective of her and, as twins, they shared a stronger bond than most brothers and sisters she knew.

  “I’d better get going actually,” said Kerry, getting up.

  “Yeah, me too,” Sonja agreed. “What are you up to Matt?”

  “Uh, not much. I think I’ll hang out here for a while longer,” he answered, looking towards the kitchen. Suddenly his face lit up. “Hey, Gabrielle!” he called. “I thought you were hiding in there. Come out here a minute, I’ve got a present for you.”

  Kerry shot Sonja an alarmed look as a beaming Gabrielle hurried out from the kitchen and came up to him. Matt reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a package. “It’s that CD I promised you,” he said thrusting it into her hand.

  “Aw, Matt, that’s really sweet,” she giggled. “I didn’t think you’d remember.”

  “As if!” he replied.

  “Well, thanks very much,” she replied, bending down to give him a peck on the cheek. “That’s really nice of you.”

  “Uh, we’d better be off,” said Kerry, hurrying to the door. “See you guys later.”

  “What d’you think that was all about?” Sonja hissed as they stood outside the café for a moment.

  “Search me,” Kerry replied. “But they seemed a bit cosy, didn’t they?”

  “That’s what I thought. You don’t suppose they’re getting back together, do you?”

  Kerry shook her head. “I can’t see that Matt would be interested,
not now he’s got Anna. But I have to say, if I saw OIlie looking that comfortable with an ex-girlfriend, I’d be a little uneasy.”

  “Me too. They… ooh, change the subject, look who’s coming.”

  Kerry looked up from the pavement she was studying to see Anna coming towards them from the railway station, a rucksack on her back.

  “Hiya,” smiled Kerry. “OIlie just told us you were coming back. Didn’t expect to see you quite so soon, though.”

  “Yeah, I got the earliest train I could,” Anna replied brightly. “Phew, it’s nice to be home.”

  “How’s your mum?” asked Sonja.

  “Oh, fine, thanks. She’s on the mend and very determined to do everything herself. And, as expected, it wasn’t long before we were at each other’s throats, so I thought I might as well be here as up there being surplus to her requirements. Any news from this end? What am I thinking - of course there’s news. How were your exam results?”

  Kerry grinned. “Well, believe it or not, we passed!”

  “That’s brilliant, I’m so pleased for you both! You must be over the moon.”

  “Yep, just slightly,” Sonja laughed.

  “And Joe and Meg - how did they do?”

  “They both passed too, which is great. Joe got three straight As - can you believe it? What a star! And, of course, what’s great is that he and Meg won’t be too far away from each other, what with Joe in London and Meg in Brighton.”

  “Oh, sweet,” smiled Anna.

  “Actually, that reminds me,” Kerry went on, “we’re all having a day out down by the river to celebrate. On Sunday. Can you come?”

  Anna shook her head slowly and pulled a face. “‘Fraid not. I’ll be working.”

  “Of course. Oh, Anna, that’s a shame, we’re taking a picnic and everything…”

  “Well,” she laughed, “much as I’d love to leave Dot in charge, I don’t think we’d have any customers left by the end of the day. Look, I’d better go. I’ll just nip into the café to say hi, then I’ve got loads of stuff to do in the flat. I’ll see you later, OK?”

  As Sonja and Kerry headed off down the road, Anna turned to glance in the End-of-the-Line’s window. Sitting at the gang’s usual table, and oblivious to the fact that she was outside, was Matt. Anna’s stomach flipped nervously. She had fretted and worried about him - and Gabrielle - ever since she’d left Winstead on Tuesday. Try as she might, she couldn’t help wondering about how much they might see each other while she was away. She had been determined to not to call Matt after he’d been so off with her, and somehow had managed to tough it out, even though she’d been desperate to hear the sound of his voice.