Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 05] (13 page)

‘I know, but… you
could do all that with anyone -with a teacher or your mum. I mean, do you have
a good time, a laugh? Silly times and serious times when you really talk, you
know, about what you want and all your plans? About how you feel?’

That made me think. We
didn’t really. He talked, or rather, lectured. He liked an audience and I did
find what he had to say interesting. But no, we didn’t talk about personal
stuff, not really, and we certainly never got silly. I couldn’t imagine Daniel
being silly. He’s far too busy trying to be sophisticated, I told myself. But
that’s what I like about him. He’s different.

‘OK,’ said Izzie,
coming back in with a huge box of Liquorice Allsorts. ‘Let’s do Lucy’s cards
next.’

Nesta followed her in
carrying a tray full of tortilla chips and Pringles and Diet Cokes.

Izzie handed me the
cards and told me to shuffle them while thinking about my question.

What’s going to happen
with Daniel? I thought. What’s going to happen with Daniel? Then I laid out the
cards as Izzie told me.

‘OK,’ she started.
‘Hmmm. The first card is the Page of Swords.’ She flicked through her book then
read what it said. ‘This card denotes a young man with a strong will. He’s very
clever, but can be ruthless and unconcerned about the feelings of others.’

TJ gave me a knowing
look. I guess that’s true, I thought. He wasn’t very sensitive when he looked
at my designs.

‘And it’s crossing the
Page of Wands. Another boy. Oh, that’s interesting. Hmmm, some kind of conflict
coming up, I’m afraid, as there’s the Lovers card as well.’

‘That’s good, isn’t
it?’ I said.

‘It can be - let me
just look it up,’ said Izzie, turning to her book again. ‘It says that you have
a choice ahead of you, and the other cards are saying that you need to
reassess.’ Just at that moment, my mobile rang. ‘Daniel,’ I said.

‘Just checking in,’ he
said. ‘What are you wearing?’

‘Oh, jeans and a
T-shirt. It’s only us here.’

‘Ah, but us designers,
we’re the ambassadors of style. Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing.’

Oh, get a life said
pre-menstrual twin in my head. Who does he think he is? The fashion police?

After that, we went
downstairs to watch the
Pop Idol
video. Talk about taking criticism, I
thought, as we watched some of the judges destroy people’s performances. It was
funny, though, especially a girl who sang ‘YMCA’ really out of tune. Then
Daniel phoned
again
.

‘I miss my little
bear,’ he said. ‘What are you doing?’

‘Watching
Pop Idol
,’
I said.

‘Oh, that rubbish.’

‘It’s not rubbish,’ I
said. ‘It’s great.’

‘Well, you’re
obviously enjoying yourself, so I’ll leave you to it,’ he said huffily. ‘When
am I seeing you next?’

‘I have to pick up
some business cards for Mum in Hampstead tomorrow morning, so in the
afternoon?’

‘Great,’ he said. ‘We
could go round Camden.’

‘Fine,’ I said. I
wished he’d get off the phone so I could get back to having a laugh with the
others as we watched the excruciating performances on the video.

‘OK, going now. Miss
you.’

‘Yeah,’ I said, then
hung up. Whatever, I thought.

‘He’s really got it
bad, hasn’t he?’ whispered TJ.

I nodded. The fact
that he phoned so often was starting to bug me. I was beginning to feel
suffocated. I decided that next time I saw him, I’d take the bull by the horns
and have a word about maybe giving each other a bit more space. After all,
Mum’s always saying that you have to work on relationships and not give up at
the first hiccup. It was still early days for Daniel and me, and maybe it was
going to take time to adjust to each other.

C h a p t e r
 
1 5

Page
of Wands

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The sun was shining
with not a cloud in the sky the next day as I walked down Hampstead High
Street. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the weather, dressed in light cottons
and sitting about outside the cafes. I went and picked up Mum’s cards from
Ryrnans and decided to have a mooch in the shops. I still had an hour before I
was due to meet Daniel.

Just as I walked past
Cafe Rouge in the High Street, I heard someone call my name. I looked over the
road and there was Tony waving at me. He crossed the road and came towards me.

‘Hey, Lucy,’ he said.

‘Hi,’ I said, blushing
furiously. ‘How are you?’

‘Good. Are you still
speaking to me, then?’

‘Yeah, course.’ ‘I
tried ringing you…’

‘I know. Um, sorry…’
Tony looked around.

‘So, what you doing?’

‘Not much.’ I showed
him the bag with the cards in it. ‘Just picked these up for Mum, then I was
going to have a wander round the shops.’

‘Let’s go and get a
drink and catch up, then,’ he said, linking his arm through mine. ‘I haven’t
seen you for ages.’ We found a table outside the Coffee Cup and he ordered a
Coke, then asked what I’d like.

‘Hot blackcurrant,’ I
said, thinking, Thank God I don’t have to drink another of those awful
espressos.

‘You’re looking good,’
he said when the waitress had gone.

‘So are you,’ I said.
‘Been out in the sun?’

He nodded. ‘So, Nesta
tells me that you have a new boyfriend.’

‘Sort of. And you have
a new girlfriend?’

‘Sort of,’ he said.
‘Actually, no. That’s over. Um, she doesn’t know yet, though, I don’t know how
to tell her, but… nah, it’s not working.’

‘Why?’

Tony shivered and
pulled a silly face. ‘You know me, I’m not really into having the
big
relationship. You know, the world of coupledom. And she, well, she’s getting a
bit heavy, if you know what I mean. Always wanting to see me, like
every
day, and always phoning wanting to know what I am doing.’

‘Too clingy?’

‘
Yeah
, I feel
like she’s taking over my life.’

‘Yeah,’ I said.

‘So how’s it going
with you and what’s-his-name?’

‘Daniel.’ I shrugged.
‘Not sure. I mean, it was great in the beginning, brilliant, but… I don’t know,
still early days. But same thing, really. He wants to do the couple bubble
thing, just us in there. I don’t know if I like it.’

Tony looked at me
fondly. ‘
We
got on, though, didn’t we?’

‘We did.’ I smiled
back at him. ‘And I’m sorry I overreacted when you… you know, that evening in
Highgate. I hope we can be mates.’

Tony put his hand on
mine. ‘You bet. Always. I tell you what, we’ll be like Hugh Grant and Elizabeth
Hurley. They used to go out and they’re still best of friends.’

‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘But you
can be Liz and I’ll be Hugh.’

Tony laughed. I’d
forgotten how easy he was to be with. Fun. Not like Daniel, I thought.
Everything was
so
intense with him. And so serious.

‘So this new bloke is
clingy, is he?’ said Tony, looking pleased.

‘Yeah. Always wanting
to know what I’m doing, where I’m going. I feel like he’s always checking up on
me.’

‘Like that boy over
there,’ said Tony. ‘He’s staring at you. You’ve got an admirer.’

I glanced over to
where Tony was looking and my heart stopped. It was Daniel. And he didn’t look
happy.

I waved and beckoned
him to come over, then introduced Tony. The two boys nodded at each other.

‘Sit down,’ I said.
‘Join us.’

Daniel shifted about
on his feet and seemed reluctant.

‘Well, I was just
off,’ said Tony, getting up.

He leaned over and
gave me a kiss on the cheek. ‘See you soon, Lucy.’ Then he left me, but as he
walked away, he turned back and gave me a look as if to say, ‘You’re in trouble
now, girl.’

He was right. Daniel
took his seat and looked at me accusingly.

‘So?’ he said.

‘So what?’ I asked.

‘Explanation?’

I didn’t like his
tone. ‘For what?’

‘You said you were
doing a job for your mum, then I find you holding hands with some boy.’

‘We weren’t holding
hands - well, not exactly. Tony’s a mate. I haven’t seen him for a while and we
were catching up.’

‘Didn’t look like that
from where I was,’ said Daniel sulkily. ‘It looked like you were really into
each other.’

‘I bumped into him
when I came out of Rymans,’ I said, thinking, Why am I feeling so defensive?
‘Nothing was going on.’

‘Yeah right,’ said
Daniel.

‘You know what?’ I
said, getting up. ‘You can think what you want.’

Daniel caught my hand
and pulled me back down. ‘No, sorry. Don’t go, Lucy. It’s just, well, it looked
like you were having a really good time with him.’

‘I was,’ I said. ‘But
we’re mates, that’s all. Do you think you can’t trust me or something?’

‘I guess I just want
you all to myself,’ said Daniel, then grinned, ‘and who can blame me? I guess I
get jealous.’

‘Well, there’s no
need.’

‘No need, as long as
you promise not to see him again.’

‘
What’
? No
way. Anyway, he’s Nesta’s brother. I’ll see him whenever I go to her house. Are
you going to tell me I can’t go there next?‘

‘No, but maybe I
should go with you next time.’

I stood up again. ‘You
know what, Daniel? I don’t think it’s working with us. I don’t like people
telling me what to do all the time. And I don’t like having to explain myself
when I’m completely innocent. My friends mean a lot to me. And they include
Tony, and if you don’t like it, then too bad, because we’re finished.’

And with that, I left
him sitting there with his mouth hanging open. Ha, I thought. Put that in your
designer pipe and smoke it.

C h a p t e r
 
1 6

Dumbers
and the Dumbed

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Instead of going home,
I called Izzie. She was rehearsing with Ben near Highgate and was only too glad
to have an excuse to get out for a break.

‘Nesta’s just called
too. I said I’d see her in Raj’s in half an hour,’ she said.

On the way over to
meet her, I began to have second thoughts about Daniel. Had I been too hasty?
Mean? Heartless? Just finished with the best boy I would ever find? I hoped
that Izzie would make me feel better about it all as it was my first experience
of dumping someone.

As soon as Izzie
appeared at Raj’s, I filled her in on what had happened in the last week. It
was such a relief to be able to talk freely to her again and I told her
everything - what he’d been like when he came to my house and what had just
gone on in Hampstead.

She looked shocked.
‘How could he say that about your hair and your designs? You’re brilliant. I
reckon he’s jealous, because he can see you have more talent than he’s got in his
little finger.’

‘Anyway, I just
finished with him,’ I said.

‘Good,’ said Izzie.
‘What a creepoid. He’s like an emotional bully. What a control freak. But are
you OK?’

I nodded. ‘I think so.
I don’t know. I mean, some days we had a really good time. Maybe I shouldn’t
have been so hard on him. You know, with time, maybe I could have changed him.’

Izzie shook her head.
‘My mum always says that the only time you can change a man is when he’s a
baby.’

I laughed. ‘I guess. I
was starting to feel like I had no space.’

‘Like that joke,’ said
Izzie. ‘Boys are like dogs - give them a bit of affection and they follow you
everywhere.’

‘Yeah right,’ I said.

Izzie looked
thoughtful. ‘It’s never easy being the dumper. You feel rotten.’

‘Have you told Ben
yet?’

‘No. But I’m going to
do it soon. I’ve been agonising over it for days. I don’t know what I’m going
to say. There’s no easy way, is there?’

I thought back to how
I’d told Daniel. ‘Try, “We’re finished.” That says it all.’

‘I guess,’ said Izzie
sadly. ‘I hate having to do it.’

‘Yeah. It’s like, I
think I made the right decision,’ I said, ‘but I feel mean.’