Heart of Glass (4 page)

“
Its eleven thirty
sweetheart, Prue’s father is here to collect her and it’s time for
your visitors to go home.”

***

Ben leant his back against
the door of the van, hands shoved into the pockets of his jeans. I
stepped close to him, tentatively touching his waist. His forehead
bent to meet mine sending a wave of affection through my veins. It
was a warm kind of feeling and it made me feel safe. In fact, there
was something about his whole demeanour that made me feel
safe.  Maybe that was why I’d been so weird to start with? I’d
certainly never felt this kind of thing before.

“
I had a great time
tonight, Bella. Pity we didn’t get to spend some time alone. Maybe
next time, eh?”

The warmth spread into my
bones. He wanted to see me again. He didn’t think I was a nerd.
“That would be nice.”

Then, I did something so out
of character I even surprised myself. I balanced on my tiptoes and
kissed his cheek. “‘Night.”

“’
Night,” he
smiled.

The game was two sets to one
in my favour. Lucy was going to have to pull out all thestops to
win this one.

Chapter 3

I WAS MADE FOR LOVIN’
YOU

Tonight, I wanna give it
all to you

In the darkness there’s so
much I wanna do.

KISS

Lifting back the curtain, I
stared at the rain spilling down the window in rivulets. It was
falling in torrents and my room, at the back of the house, was
colder than the deep freeze, but I didn’t care. I sighed, the heat
of the previous night enough to keep me warm for life. I was in
love. Ben James was the most perfect boy I had ever met. The fact
that I'd never had a real date, or boyfriend, before seemed
unimportant. He was all I ever wanted. There was just that
something about him.

All morning, I’d played the
stereo over and over… ‘I was made for lovin’ you baby…’until Mum
had screamed at me to either turn it off or she’d take the stereo
away. But how could I? That song was playing when Ben had held me
in his arms. I would never forget it. My mind was filled with
it.

I couldn’t concentrate, I
couldn’t think. All I could see was his darling face dancing across
the page as I tried to study. So, I slammed the books shut and took
my pen to my homework folder. Practising my new signature over and
over was a far more productive use of time. When we got married,
after all, I’d need to know how to sign my name.
Annabelle James
. It had
a certain ring to it.

At eleven-thirty, the phone
rang. Still in my pyjamas, I ran to answer it.

“
Hello, Annabelle Stone
speaking.”

“
Hi, it’s Prue. Have you
come down from your cloud yet?”

I sat down on the carpet
next to the phone and curled my legs under my body. Surely, she
couldn’t see the ridiculous smile plastered across my face from
over the line. Could she?

“
I had such a great time,
Prue. I really like Ben. He’s so cute. But I made such a fool of
myself with the coke and everything and I didn’t know how to talk
to him. Not like you and Paul.” I heaved a sigh. “I just don’t know
if he’s that keen on me. How are you supposed to know?”

“
Well, apart from the fact
that you walked around for the entire evening looking like a reject
from the Red Cross Op Shop in that stained top, I'd say he’s
stoked. You should have seen him checking you out when he thought
you weren’t looking. He looked as if he wanted to eat you
up.”

“
Really?” I smiled. Ben
eating me up was not a prospect I had considered. I hadn’t got past
him ravaging my lips.

Prue was silent for a
moment. “So, are you going to see him again?”

“
I don’t know. He didn’t
ask me outright. Should I call him? I have his number.”

“
Good heavens no! He’ll
think you’re desperate or something.”

“
I s’pose so. Anyway,
enough of me, what do you think of Paul? He’s quite a spunk and he
has a car, that’s a bonus. Did he say he wants to see you
again?”

There was an audible groan
from the other end of the line. “He mentioned something about going
to the movies next time he comes to town, but I don’t know. He’s
nice enough and he’s a good eight ball player but is that the basis
for a relationship?”

“
At least you have
something in common. I’ll probably never see Ben again. There are a
million other girls more experienced than me. I must be so boring
to him.”

“
Don’t bet on it. I think
he’ll call soon.”

“
Maybe. Look, I have to go
Prue, tonnes of homework, you know….”

“
Yeah, right, and I’m the
Queen of England. See you at school.”

***

Petulant, I threw myself
onto the grass of the top oval. Three more days to go. How could I
last another three days until I saw Ben again? My copy of ‘I Was
Made for Lovin’ You,’ illegally taped from the radio, was starting
to sound as if it was on it’s last legs and Mum was threatening to
throw it away while I was at school. Without that I’d never survive
until I saw him again.

I hadn’t needed to worry
about that Saturday being our one and only date. It had turned out
just as Prue had said. As soon as he had gotten home from his
journey, Ben had been straight to the phone. He wanted to see me
again.

“
I had a good time,” he’d
said.

“
Me too.”

“
Paul and I are in town
again next weekend. Can we come to your house on Saturday after
dinner?”

“
Sure. I’ll tell Prue to
come too.”

Had I sounded cool? Was my
voice too eager? Love was so difficult; I didn’t want to scare him
away. Deciding there was nothing I could do about it now, I lay
back on the grass and closed my eyes, sketching out my wedding
dress in my head.
Bella James.
What a lovely name.

Prue tossed her books onto
the grass and sat down beside me.

“
Oh God, we don’t need
three guesses to figure out what you’re thinking about. Have you
calculated the hours and minutes yet?” she asked, taking a chip
from the bag she was carrying and offering one to me. The ‘eat
anything brown diet, had been usurped by the ‘eat as much as you
want’ regime. If she continued along that vein she wouldn’t be able
to complain when her Levi’s wouldn’t do up. Her bottom was
straining to escape the confines of her school skirt as it
was.

I waved the chips away. “I
can’t eat, I’m too excited. You are coming on Saturday?”

“
Of course, I can’t wait
for another evening of watching you and Ben get it on. What else do
I have to do?”

“
Paul is coming too, I’m
sure he won’t want to play eight ball all night.”

“
No, with my luck he’ll
bring his Monopoly board. What a hoot!”

***

The chemistry between us was
‘palpable’, Prue said, when we made a trip to the kitchen on the
pretext of getting more Cheezels. God knows what that meant, she
had read it in a Mills and Boon novel, but it sounded good. All
evening Ben and I had skirted around each other but not quite
getting together. I had relaxed in his company. He’d me with
compliments and told me funny stories about his friends and rested
his hand on my forearm. I’d found myself flirting back, teasing him
and smiling at him under my lashes. I wanted him to grab me and
pull me to him, to feel his body against mine, yet still we played
the game.

At last, we sat on the sofa,
and Ben gazed down into my eyes as he tipped my chin with his
finger. It was coming, I could feel it. This time he was going to
kiss me.

“
Your lips look so soft. I
want to find out if they taste as good as they look. Can I kiss
you?”

I liked that he asked. 
I thought it was sweet and with a nod, my lids fell closed as he
bent his head, touching his lips to mine in a chaste and innocent
kiss. His lips were warm and firm. They took my breath away. The
smell of the eucalyptus fabric softener in his jumper filled my
nostrils as his chest pressed against me. The heat from his large
hands radiated across my back and up and down my spine as he
continued. Nothing could ever feel so good. I was certain that
fireworks would be exploding from the ceiling if I opened my eyes.
It was heaven, our first kiss.

Yes, I know I’d kissed boys
before, teenage groping in the dark; but I’d never experienced
sensations like those I was feeling as Ben kissed me. Every time
his lips shifted, I thought I was going to die.

After a minute or so, he
broke the kiss and looked at me. “They do taste good.”

I smiled and snuggled into
him. He nuzzled my ear, making me quiver as he blew hot air along
my neck. Then he bent his head once more to mine, kissing me fully,
slowly. His lips raced over my jaw line. His breath scorched my
neck. He nibbled on the tip of my earlobe and dropped tiny pecks
down the pulse along my throat. I was on fire. I was
lost.

“
That tickles,” I
whispered.

“
Do you want me to
stop?”

“
Um…no, I just said it
tickles.”

“
Shh, stop talking
then.”

What else could I
do?

The room was silent, except
for the humming of the stereo in the background and the sound of
Paul and Prue whispering from the beanbags. I was besotted, as I
lay trapped on the sofa wrapped in Ben’s arms, wanting the feeling
to never end.

Chapter 4

IT’S IN HIS KISS

If ya wanna know if he
loves you so

It’s in his kiss

Betty Everett

The common room where we
congregated in our free time at school was, in reality, a disused
classroom. The walls and pinup boards were plastered with posters
and notices, the perfect solution to a long overdue paint job, and
the space scattered with a mishmash of second hand furniture. Each
particular group in the senior classes had their own designated
area, the ultimate being the privilege of sitting on the orange
vinyl sofas in the centre of the room. That was where the popular
girls sat. You had to be extremely special to be admitted into that
hallowed group of ‘beautiful people’ and a pecking order was
strictly adhered to, though none would care to admit it.

The cool group, of which my
friends and I were fortunate members, (all thanks to our older
brothers who played football) sat on the lounges and plotted our
social lives and futures. Well, rather, we sat on the lounges as
Lucy plotted our social lives, for even though we were only Year
10’s, Lucy was the queen of the school. And we were her loyal
servants. I didn’t want to be her servant, I wanted to be myself
and sometimes it made me cross that we all bowed to her every whim.
Sometimes, I wanted to shout out that she was wrong but it had
taken a long time to be accepted into that crowd and I wasn’t about
to give it up for the sake of voicing my opinion, so I let it
slide.

By right of her parents
being loaded and her extremely good looks, Lucy dictated all that
took place in St Brigid’s that was acceptable- what to wear, where
to be, who to go out with. To gain her acceptance and possibly soak
up some of her popularity, a girl had to prove herself many times
over. We had to look good, be intelligent, say the right things,
have the right hair and the right clothes; but most importantly, we
had to be supremely cool. In the bible according to Lucy, that was
the way to get the boy’s from St Peter’s to go out with you. The
ultimate in cool. The way to keep them was to have sex,
apparently.

In my modest eyes, I failed
in all areas.

1. I was a
virgin,

2. I was not good looking or
cool. I was plain and mousey.

3. I had no boobs, a limited
wardrobe, my forehead was too big and my nose too bulbous. But I
knew one thing for sure, having Ben James as a potential boyfriend
would increase my standing in the group, no end.

By the time recess came on
the Monday after ‘the kiss’, I was so excited I was almost jumping
out of my skin. It was a cold morning and we would rather have
gathered closer to the heater, but discussion of such delicate
nature required privacy, so we assembled in our usual corner on the
lounge, holding steaming mugs of chocolate. Coffee was out. Queen
Lucy had decreed it dehydrated the body, causing you to drink more
and thus put on weight. I couldn’t have given two hoots at that
stage. I was dying to talk to someone, anyone, about Ben and our
new found relationship.

Jen spoke first. She was
eager to learn of our adventures on the weekend. She was allowed
out about as much as me and lived vicariously through Prue and
Lucy.

“
So how was Saturday night?
Come on,spill the beans.”

I sipped my chocolate,
considering my reply. “We had a nice time. Ben likes a lot of the
same bands as me so we talked about that a lot.”