Dare You (16 page)

I was alone, watching TV. Harrison was staying at his friend Jed’s place and Mum and Dad had just left to go to Archie’s end-of-year concert, which I’d weaselled out of by faking sick. Technically not a lie, as the thought of spending three hours on hard seats watching little kids in Christmas costumes prance about a makeshift stage did make me feel ill.

I lay on the sofa flicking from station to station. Every couple of flicks I’d check my mobile. I hadn’t heard from Sas or Khaden—no texts or messages on Facebook, MySpace or MSN—since the train thing. At one point, my paranoia was so strong, I checked to see if they’d dumped me as a computer friend too, but they hadn’t. That didn’t make me feel any better.

Nothing felt the same, not the sunshine, the water in the shower or even my mattress. My body felt heavier, harder to move, and food tasted like dead grass, or at least how I figured
dead grass would taste. Dad avoided me. Mum watched me as though I was a bomb about to explode at any second. She kept asking if I was okay, which only made me feel worse. When Mum wasn’t asking me if I was okay, or if I needed to talk, she encouraged me to ‘phone a friend’, as if my life was some demented TV game show.

Maybe she had a point. Maybe I should make the first move, but if Sas or Khaden contacted me first, it would mean more.

After flicking through the channels for the fourth time, I settled on an ancient movie,
Ghost,
more for the hilarious fashions than the story. That was when my phone vibrated on the coffee table. I stared at the message symbol with ‘Sas’ beneath it.

I took a deep breath and reached for the phone.

‘Hey. What’s goin on? S xo’

My thumb twitched against the side of my phone before I replied.

‘Watching
Ghost.
Check out the overalls!’ I waited before pressing send.

Sas’s reply was fast.

‘Can u come over?’

‘Sure. What’s up?’

‘Nothing, just hanging. Stay over.’

Sas wanted to hang out with me again. ‘Catch you in 15.’

In the kitchen, I snatched up the home phone and dialled Dad’s mobile.

‘Ruby, what’s wrong?’ he whispered. I could hear movement and knew he was leaving the hall. In the
background I could hear that terrible
Rusty Holden Ute
Christmas song. Why did teachers think that was cute? I shuddered.

‘Ruby?’

‘I’m going to Sas’s place, Stuart.’

The
Rusty Holden Ute
had faded to a buzz. Dad cleared his throat. ‘I thought you were ill.’

‘I am, but it’s not catching. Anyway, I don’t feel like being alone.’

I could almost hear Dad’s brain grinding as he thought. ‘Ruby, if you’re up to anything, I swear...’

‘Well it’s not like you can do anything about it, is there, Stuart, unless you’ve—’

‘Don’t you dare call me Stuart,’ he hissed. ‘I am your father.’

I scoffed. ‘Yeah.’

‘Ruby—’

‘So, I’ll be back tomorrow.’

‘Your mother...’

‘Mum has been nagging me to call my friends all week. She’ll be happy.

‘Do I have a say?’

‘Nope. Just telling you.’ I hung up and sprinted upstairs to pack.

Lou opened the door when I knocked. ‘Hello, Ruby! Haven’t seen you for a while.’

I shifted the overnight bag on my shoulder. ‘Kind of grounded after...’

Lou smiled. ‘The cling wrap?’

I raised my eyebrows.

‘Well, it’s not like you smashed her windows or scratched the duco, is it?’

‘Wish my mum and dad saw it that way.’

‘How is Ginny?’ asked Lou, still standing in the doorway. ‘I haven’t seen her for ages. Or Stuart.’

‘They’re at Archie’s end-of-year concert.’

‘What torture,’ said Lou. ‘I bribed the girls to miss tonight. Cost me two DVDs, a packet of microwave popcorn
and
a trip to Luna Park after Christmas. You, Sas and Khaden can take them.’ She sighed. ‘Now I just have to find an excuse to miss Madison’s graduation. Sas’s ceremony went on and on.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘That’s right, you were there too!’ Her laugh reminded me of a bird’s trill. ‘Honestly, it’s just the end of primary school.’ She stepped back to let me past. ‘Sas is in her room with Khaden.’

I grinned. We were Khaden, Ruby and Sas again. I pushed my overnight bag ahead of me with my knee, and headed to Sas’s room.

She met me in the doorway. ‘Hey!’ Sas grabbed my bag and tossed it on her bed. I dumped my handbag beside it.

Her room looked fantastic, even better than when I’d last seen it. The curtains, in blocks of lime, purple and fuchsia, billowed with the breeze coming through the windows either side of the mantelpiece. Bright photo frames, the cream lamp, massive Buddha, purple alarm clock and iPod speakers, jostled for space on the mantelpiece. Heavy purple curtains hung over the glass doors, blocking out the lounge room. In front of them was a blue sofa and in the corner, a desk.

‘It looks amazing, Sas.’

‘Doesn’t it?’

Khaden stepped back from the laptop on Sas’s desk. ‘How you been, Ruby?’

As he moved, I saw the silver frame edged with flowers. I stood frozen to the spot. For as long as I could remember, there’d been a photo of Sas as a little kid sitting on her dad’s shoulders in that frame. Now it held a photo of Sas and Khaden that I’d taken at the pool. They sat on Sas’s towel, heads together and smiling. Goose bumps popped up along my arms and the back of my neck.

‘Like it?’ said Sas, brushing past. ‘My father gave it to me.’

It took me a minute to realise she was talking about the laptop.

‘Yeah. I guess.’

‘The hard drive is huge, bigger than Mum’s PC, and it has wireless broadband.’

Sas’s voice washed over me as I stared at the photo and tried to make my smile real. I hadn’t been paranoid. Sas and Khaden had been different—they were different. Why hadn’t I realised before now? The signs were there—the looks, the stepping apart when I neared them, the ring—but somehow I had pretended it wasn’t happening.

If Sas and Khaden were more than friends, what did that mean for us—Khaden, Ruby and Sas? And if it didn’t mean anything for us, then why hadn’t they just told me?

My head spun.

‘Awesome, isn’t it?’ said Sas, wrapping an arm around my shoulder.

‘Early Christmas present?’

‘Nah, just another bribe to make me talk to him.’

Everything—Sas’s voice, Khaden’s stance, even the air—felt different. I wiggled away from her and perched on the edge of the sofa, gripping my knees. ‘And this?’

She rolled her eyes. ‘Cast-off from his old place. Now that he’s moved, everything is “uber cool”—black and white, not that I’ve seen it. Eliza told me.’

‘We ready? asked Khaden.

‘Ready for what?’ As I spoke, I checked out Khaden. His hair was gelled into a mess, and he wore black bracelets on his arm, a Ramones t-shirts, but not his favourite, black skinny legs and, instead of his holey Volleys, tartan skate shoes. A faded purple bruise still clung to his jaw.

‘Angst Ridden at The Basement. Didn’t I put that in my text?’ said Sas, applying mascara at the mirror. She wore a silky singlet with shoestring straps and skinny legs.

‘Umm...’ I looked down at my baby-doll top and thongs.

‘You look great.’ Sas recapped the mascara. ‘Just change the thongs.’

‘Do I have time to do my hair and makeup?’ I asked.

Sas looked at Khaden. ‘Sure. Just be quick.’

I set to work on my hair and face.

‘Sas, is your mum okay about the band and me staying over?’

Sas laughed. ‘She’s so delirious about missing tonight’s concert, she’d agree to anything. Anyway, we’ll be hanging out with Taj, so she’s cool. We just have to be back before midnight.’ Sas draped a scarf around her neck. ‘Set?’

‘I guess.’ I packed away up my makeup and brush and
reached for my handbag. ‘Umm ... is it ... like, is it an underage gig?’

‘Are you going chicken out on us, Ruby?’ asked Khaden.

‘Yeah, thought you were fearless these days,’ added Sas.

‘No, I mean, I am, I’m just checking about ID.’

Khaden patted my shoulder. ‘Taj has taken care of that, and tickets. A peace offering.’

I was too wound up to wonder why Taj was making him a peace offering.

Sas clapped. ‘So, let’s rock.’ She danced down the hall to the family room, where she said goodbye to her mum.

Lou hugged Khaden and made him promise to look after us. She kissed my cheek.

I did and said all the right things—we’ll be good and home on time—but it was like I wasn’t really there. All I could think about was Sas and Khaden, Khaden and Sas.

Why had they asked me tonight? It wasn’t as if I was into the indie rock, grunge stuff like them. Sas loved to say that I was into ‘commercial’ pop, with a hint of disgust hanging around the edges of the word ‘commercial’.

On the footpath, casting long shadows, we talked as if the train and fight had never happened. We laughed about the bombs at the pool, Lyndal’s expression when The Fink banished her from the gym, and the trolley thing.

I looked down at our shadows, linked together on the footpath, and realised I didn’t care why they’d asked me, I was just relieved they had, because being with them was easy. Comfortable. Right.

We were Khaden, Ruby and Sas.

‘Left here,’ said Khaden, turning down the side street that led to the main road.

Sas groaned.

‘What’s up?’ asked Ruby.

She screwed up her face. ‘There’s a queue. I hate queues more than anything.’

‘More than The Fink?’ asked Ruby.

‘And Lyndal?’ asked Khaden.

‘Okay, so I don’t
hate
them. Queues annoy me about as much as Dad.’

Khaden stood closer to her. She’d dropped enough hints that things weren’t great with her dad, but it was the first time she’d come out and said it.

‘Sas, is everything okay?’ asked Ruby. ‘I don’t mean to, you know ... I just...’

Sas’s deep breath was loud and long. She stopped walking. ‘He has a new partner. It’s ... complicated.’

Words tumbled from Ruby’s mouth in a rush. ‘Don’t I know it. Fathers are worse than complicated, mine is a complete idiot.’

Ruby looked freer, happier than she had in ages. Khaden glanced at Sas. Her face grew dark.

‘I mean, at least yours are divorced, that’s got to make it easier,’ continued Ruby, without noticing the change in Sas’s mood. ‘My dad has been—’

Sas cut her off. ‘Where are we meeting Taj?’ she asked, her voice flat.

The lightness in Ruby’s expression disappeared. She fiddled with her cardigan button.

‘I have to text him when we arrive.’ Khaden crossed the road a couple of steps ahead of the silent girls.

Khaden just wanted to chill and enjoy the band, not referee their catfights. If they fought or became competitive tonight, he’d lose it at both of them, for sure.

What had I been thinking? For the few seconds I’d teetered on the edge of spilling my guts to them, I felt so light, but while I was pouring out my horrible secret, all Sas was worried about was where to meet Taj. I was over being laughed at, pushed around and ignored.

Sas fell in step with Khaden and their hands, hanging by their sides, brushed. Instead of pulling away like I did if I accidentally touched Khaden, Sas left her hand where it was. A chill slithered down my arms to my fingertips. They weren’t even pretending any more.

They could stick their hints! No way was I coming out and asking what was going on.

‘Hey, Khade.’ I forced myself to sound light and bright. ‘Cool shoes—they new?’

‘Yeah.’ His voice was a little softer than before. ‘Sas helped me choose them.’

‘Good choice, Sas.’

Sas just nodded.

As we drew close, I checked out The Basement. Two bouncers the size of rugby players stood in front of the door, arms crossed, faces stern behind identical black sunglasses. The queue, which snaked along the footpath and past the bottle shop, was full of people way older than us.

‘May as well queue while we wait for Taj,’ said Khaden. He took his phone from his pocket and sent a text.

Sas and Khaden strolled the length of the queue. I slunk behind them, feeling small under the stares.

‘What the hell?’ said a gruff voice. ‘Someone left the kindy gates open.’

Other harsh voices buffeted us. The laughter was loud and grating.

‘Go home to Mummy, kiddies,’ crowed a voice.

I lowered my head further. Sas and Khaden didn’t seem worried by the heckling or laughter.

‘If I wanted to hang out with little kids, I’d have gone to a Hi5 concert.’ This voice was slurred.

I lifted my head and glared. A girl shorter than me, wearing a striped T-shirt, fedora hat and mini skirt, leered. Equally cool people in dark skinny legs and T-shirts surrounded her.

‘Problem, Princess?’ she said, looking me up and down.

My laugh was more a scoff. ‘Are you asking me a question or introducing yourself?’

A couple of her friends laughed.

Sas, Khaden and I stood behind her in the queue. She stepped away from the brick wall and onto the footpath.

‘This isn’t play school.’

‘Ignore her,’ said Khaden.

‘Like Ruby will take her on,’ said Sas, leaning against the wall.

Ears buzzing, I faced the girl, hands on my hips. ‘What is your problem?’

The fedora girl grimaced. ‘My problem is you under-age
tools.
’

‘Didn’t know it was a gig for only
old
tools.’

Khaden groaned. ‘Leave it, Ruby.’

Sas clapped. ‘Go Ruby.’

The girl’s eyes were so narrow they looked like black lines. ‘Watch your smart mouth.’

A guy wearing a grey cardigan and white T-shirt pulled her back into the queue. Whatever he said to her made her laugh. She looked over her shoulder at me, shaking her head. I swear she mouthed
skank
at me.

I bit the inside of my cheek.

‘Oi, Khade,’ bellowed Taj from the corner. ‘What are you doing in the queue?’ He beckoned us forward. ‘It’s all squared with Mal and Deck. Come in.’

I frowned. ‘Who are Mal and Deck?’

‘The bouncers,’ said Khaden. ‘Let’s go.’

A rumble rolled through the queuers around us.

‘You’re kidding,’ said fedora girl.

‘Hey! No queue jumping,’ growled the guy in the grey cardigan.

I nodded at Taj. ‘We
kiddies
are with the band.’ I pulled my sweetest smile. ‘See you in there.’

Fedora girl lunged forward and pushed me. After all the stuff from the last few months—Dad, Khaden and Sas, Mojo’s death—I wasn’t putting up with this. My body
swelled. I was strong, unbeatable, and so bloody angry.

The girl stood toe to toe with me. ‘Get back in line.’

I shoved her as hard as I could, the smack of my hands against her arms, loud.

Fedora righted herself and slapped me across the face.

Bright sparks of pain exploded in my cheek and jaw. I staggered, hand to my face. Tears stung my eyes.

‘Not such a smart arse now, are we, kitty cat?’ She leered.

‘Piss off, loser’ I said, blinking away the tears.

She raised her hand to strike me, but I was faster and blocked it with my arm.

A deeper rumble passed through the crowd. People surged around us. Movement and noise pressed against my skin.

A tangle of arms wrapped around me. I elbowed fedora girl hard and air rushed from her with an
ooooof.
She grabbed my hair and pulled. I screamed. Hands around my waist dragged me backwards and a gap in the crowd opened up.

‘Enough,’ yelled Khaden, standing between fedora girl and me, his arms outstretched like a boxing referee.

‘This has nothing to do with you,’ snarled the girl.

‘Look, I’m sorry about the queue thing.’ Khaden sounded so calm and reasonable. ‘My brother’s mixing and—’

‘I don’t give a shit.’ She pushed Khaden aside. He cannoned into her mates, who pushed him back towards us.

Sas yelled, ‘Stop it!’

The circle of bodies closed in on us, herding Khaden, fedora girl and me closer together.

Fedora girl’s lip twisted. She reached behind her back and lunged at me.

Khaden stepped between us.

Fedora girl kept coming. She thrust out her arm.

A glint of silver.

A scream.

‘Knife!’

The crush of bodies eased back.

I tumbled to the ground. Khaden landed beside me, curled into a ball.

‘Khaden?’ I crawled towards him.

He clutched his chest, face twisted in pain. ‘She punched me,’ he gasped. ‘Hurts. Bad.’

I eased his hands away from his body. A dark stain spread across his white Ramones T-shirt.

My skin turned icy. ‘Khaden!’ I fumbled in my bag for my phone and dialed 000.