Gypsy Wedding (30 page)

Vicky, bawling and drunk, shook Kelly’s shoulder to get her attention. Kelly swivelled her eyes sideways to see who was interrupting her.

‘Fuck off, Vicky,’ said Kelly amiably. ‘Can’t you see I’m busy?’ Then she clocked Vicky’s face. She gave her bloke a shove and stepped backwards. ‘Vicky, babes! What’s happened?’ She threw an arm around Vicky, mouthed ‘sorry’ to the guy she’d been kissing and dragged Vicky over to a quiet corner. ‘Babes, what’s happened? Tell me.’

Vicky began to cry all the harder, this time with relief. ‘It was … it was … it was Jordan,’ she finally got out.

‘The bastard. What’s he done to you?’

But now Vicky was sobbing so hard that there was no way she could talk.

‘I’m taking you home right now,’ said Kelly. Vicky was obviously completely pissed but Kelly knew it wasn’t just that that was making her cry so badly. Something had happened, something that had really frightened and shocked Vicky and, realistically, Kelly could only think of one thing.

She grasped Vicky by the hand and dragged her towards the exit of the club, as Vicky, terrified of running into Jordan again, hung back.

‘For God’s sake, Vicky,’ snapped Kelly as she tried to get her out of the front door.

‘But Jordan,’ squeaked Vicky, her face white and haunted.

‘What about him?’ Although Kelly thought she could guess, and it made her furious. How could Jordan have taken advantage of Vicky when she was so pissed? And to think she’d trusted him to look after her friend. What a bastard!

‘Is he out there? I can’t see him, I can’t. Not after …’ She whimpered. ‘I just couldn’t bear it.’

Kelly propped Vicky up against a wall near the cloakroom while she checked outside. ‘Nowhere in sight,’ she reported. With that reassurance Vicky finally allowed herself to be led outside.

The combination of being extremely upset coupled with drunkenness meant that leading Vicky along the pavement towards the bus stop was a complete mission for Kelly. She didn’t try to talk to Vicky about what had happened. Vicky was still crying her eyes out and Kelly was having to concentrate on stopping Vicky from cannoning into street furniture or falling off the pavement and into the road. Finally they got to the stop and she dropped Vicky onto the bench before sitting down beside her with relief. She glanced at her watch. A bus was due in about ten minutes. Thank God for that.

‘Want to tell me what happened, Vick?’ she asked gently.

Vicky shook her head and mopped at her face with a soggy tissue.

‘I blame myself,’ said Kelly. ‘It’s all my fault. I should have been the one to take you outside, but I thought we could trust Jordan. I never believed he would have … have attacked you.’

Vicky shook her head and sobbed again. ‘He didn’t attack me.’

‘He didn’t? Then what the fuck …?’ Maybe Jordan wasn’t as bad as she thought.

‘I upset him. Again.’ She sniffled. ‘Kelly, it was awful. We got a bit carried away and then I realised it was all wrong. I want Liam, Kelly. I don’t want Jordan and I told him.’

Kelly rolled her eyes. ‘I can see that would go down like a bucket of sick.’

‘Oh Kelly, he’s threatened to tell Liam that I’m a prick-tease,’ she sobbed.

‘He won’t,’ she said reassuringly and with a confidence she didn’t really feel.

Poor Vicky – and her such an innocent. Okay, so Jordan hadn’t raped her but just because he hadn’t managed to get into Vicky’s pants didn’t mean he had to be such a bastard. Poor Vicky, she didn’t need more shit in her life, she had enough crap to deal with as it was. Maybe she’d have a word with Jordan in the morning, try to make him see sense.

The bus finally appeared. Kelly pulled Vicky to her feet and somehow managed to haul her friend into it.

‘Two singles to Lambourne Road,’ she said to the driver, plonking a couple of pound coins under the Perspex barrier.

‘Nah,’ he said. ‘I’m not carrying you. I don’t have drunks on my bus. No way. Off you get.’

‘But,’ said Kelly, ‘she’s upset, I need to get her home.’

‘Not on my bus you don’t.’

‘But …’

‘Off or I’ll call the police. This bus ain’t going nowhere till you two get off.’

The other passengers were starting to give Kelly and Vicky evils and muttering to each other. It was obvious that the two girls didn’t have them on their side either. Wearily, Kelly took back her money and dragged Vicky off the bus. As soon as they were on the pavement the bus doors hissed closed and off it went.

‘Bastard,’ Kelly yelled after it. ‘Come on, Vick, Shanks’ pony for us.’

She hooked her arm round her friend’s waist and set off to walk the two miles back to her parents’ house. It was a real struggle to keep Vicky moving and to keep her upright. And it didn’t help matters that in her drunken, upset state she seemed to have lost all concept of road safety. Whenever they came to a junction or road to cross, Kelly would stop to check it was safe while Vicky just seemed to want to plough straight over.

‘Hell’s teeth,’ said Kelly as a white van swerved, hooting, as Vicky launched herself between a couple of parked cars. The van squealed to a halt thirty yards along the road and then the reversing lights came on. Kelly pulled Vicky back onto the safety of the pavement as the van raced backwards towards them, the engine note rising as the driver accelerated. He stopped opposite them and wound down the passenger window so he could yell at them.

‘You stupid, drunken cows,’ the driver shouted. ‘I nearly killed you, so I did.’

‘I’m not drunk,’ countered Kelly.

‘You mightn’t be but your friend is pissed. Pissed as a fart.’ He leaned over. ‘Look at her. She’s a disgrace.’ He narrowed his eyes as he stared at Vicky, then shook his head. ‘Fuck me,’ he said.

‘Not in a million years,’ retorted Kelly but the bloke didn’t listen to her. Instead he shook his head again, muttered something she didn’t catch and drove off.

‘Come on, Vicky,’ said Kelly. ‘Not far now. Let’s see if we can get you home without you killing either of us. And let’s hope nothing else awful happens tonight.’

It was almost midnight when they finally got to Lambourne Road and Kelly was exhausted. She still had another couple of hundred yards to go to get to her parents’ house but she needed a breather before she made the last push with Vicky. For such a slim person the girl was a deadweight. Kelly’s shoulders ached and burned like she’d undergone some ghastly medieval torture and it didn’t help matters that she had a blister that smarted and throbbed on the sole of her left foot. At the corner of Lambourne Road and the one that led to her parents’ house was a low wall. She sat Vicky on it and then plonked down beside her while she took off her shoe and massaged her foot. At least Vicky had finally stopped crying. She was still pretty pissed but she was now a quiet drunk. Kelly slipped her shoe back on and rolled her shoulders to ease them. As she did she heard the tap-tapping of high heels approaching.

She glanced up and saw a faintly familiar face approaching. It was a girl she’d seen around college a few times. Some mate of Chloe’s? Or Vicky’s? Nope, she couldn’t remember but it didn’t matter. Time to get Vicky on the move again but she’d wait for this girl to pass before she got Vicky vertical.

‘Hiya,’ she said as the person drew close.

‘Hiya,’ she replied, giving a fleeting smile. Then, ‘Oh hi! I know you from college, don’t I?’

Kelly nodded. ‘Kelly,’ she volunteered.

‘Leah,’ the girl in high heels responded. ‘Didn’t know you lived round here.’

Kelly pointed down the road. ‘Down there a few hundred yards.’

The girl stared at Vicky, who was slumped, apparently looking at the pavement, but at that moment she stirred and went to rest her head on Kelly’s shoulder.

‘Is that Vicky?’ she said.

Kelly nodded.

‘You’re not friends with
her
, are you?’

‘Yes.’ And Leah’s point was? Not that it really mattered. ‘I don’t suppose you could do me a favour. She’s a bit upset and had a bit too much to drink. I’m trying to get her home. You couldn’t …’ Kelly looked at her new acquaintance, pleadingly.

‘I suppose,’ she said, giving Kelly an odd look. ‘She staying with you or something?’

Kelly nodded again as she started to manoeuvre Vicky off the wall.

Five minutes later Kelly had Vicky back at home safe and sound. Now it was just a question of getting her upstairs and into her bed. She wasn’t going to attempt to undress her friend, she’d just have to sleep in her clothes. Kelly looked at her mate, sprawled over the bed, face down with a bowl she’d placed ‘just in case’ beside her.
Poor kid
, she thought.
What a shit day she’s had
. And tomorrow wasn’t going to be much better, not with the hangover she was going to have.

Vicky slowly came round. And then wished she hadn’t. Apart from the most awful taste in her mouth, her head throbbed, her eyes felt like someone was trying to grind sand into them using a stiletto heel and her stomach was churning. She swallowed and wondered hazily if she was going to be sick. If she lay absolutely still would the feeling go away? Or would it be better to head to the loo just in case? What the hell was wrong with her? She’d never felt like this in her life. Was it something she’d eaten, she wondered woozily. Or drunk?

Drunk.

Oh God. How much …? She tried to think. A glass and a half before she’d set out with Kelly and then one huge glass at the club and then … Had there been another? It was a bit hazy.

She forced her brain to clamber slowly back over the events of the night before. She started at the point where she and Kelly had gone into town. Then they’d met Jordan, then she’d got weepy and then Jordan had taken her outside.

And then … and then … and then she’d led him on until …

A feeling of cold shame began to well up from her stomach along with a feeling of total nausea. Vicky bolted for the bathroom. Sometime later she was sitting on the edge of the bath, sipping a glass of water, trying to rinse the taste of vomit out of her mouth. Now she’d actually been sick, she felt less dreadful. Or she did until she remembered Jordan’s reaction. She groaned and shifted uncomfortably. Well, she couldn’t blame him. She leaned her aching head against the cool tiles as she felt shame wash over her. He hadn’t deserved to be slapped down like that, not when she’d led him on, behaving like a hooker, making him think he was in with a chance.

She heard a quiet knock at the bathroom door.

‘Vicky?’

She stumbled to her feet and unlocked it.

‘You all right?’ asked Kelly gently.

Vicky shook her head. ‘Not really.’ She hoped she didn’t reek of vomit.

‘We need to talk,’ said Kelly.

Did they? But Vicky was feeling too fragile to argue and allowed herself to be led into Kelly’s room where an empty bottle of wine and two used glasses reminded her silently of her wickedness.

She sat on Kelly’s bed with her back to the glasses – she knew she was bad without it being rubbed in by the previous night’s leftovers.

‘Vick,’ said Kelly. ‘Vick, what happened last night? Was it just you and Jordan having a row? About him calling you a prick-tease?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Vick, you came to me in the club, crying and in a complete state. I can’t believe that was all it was about.’

‘What do you mean, “all it was about”? That’s enough, isn’t it? He’s threatening to tell the whole town, Kel.’

‘He won’t. He’ll get over it.’

‘You weren’t there, you didn’t hear him.’

‘So he hoped to go all the way and you said no. He’s not the first bloke that’s happened to. In fact, it’s probably happened to him before. He’ll live.’

‘But he hates me so much now.’

‘Look, he went ape, of course he would, but so what? Just because you’re all wrapped up in cotton wool on the trailer park. It’s different out here in the real world. Most of us girls don’t see anything wrong with letting a lad have a bit of a feel. Some of us,’ Kelly gave Vicky a thin smile, ‘quite like it. It’s not just me saying this, think about Chloe.’ This time Vicky returned the smile with a hint of one of her own. ‘Jordan was expecting you to be a bit more like her. I don’t suppose he’s ever met someone quite like you, quite such an innocent. But hey, it’s no big deal in the long run.’

Vicky shook her head. Things certainly were different and she wasn’t sure she liked them. Suddenly she wished she was back on the trailer park where she was safe, where no boy would ever think of behaving like that, where she understood the boundaries and where she was treated like a princess. Another surge of nausea rolled around her stomach. And if she were there, she wouldn’t now be feeling so shite because she wouldn’t have got hammered.

‘Can we drop it now?’ said Vicky. She gazed at Kelly, willing her to leave the subject well alone. Apart from feeling filthy from sleeping in the previous night’s clothes, she’d been sick too. She felt completely disgusting. ‘I think I’d like a shower, if that’s all right.’

Kelly leaned forwards and gave her friend a hug. ‘Of course. And then we’ll get you some paracetamol and a nice cup of tea to make you feel better, how about that?’