The Boys of Summer (21 page)

“Tess?” Sean’s voice came on the line. “Can
you please put Toby on?”

“Oh, um, he’s driving. Hang on a sec, I’ll
put you on loud speaker.”

“Tooooobyyyyyyyyy, Toooooooobyyyyyyy,”
sing-songed through the phone like a nightmare.

“Can you come and pick me up? Old buddy, old
mate, old pal … what do you say?”

Toby sighed and gave me a bored look.

“Do you mind?” he asked.

A destination to delay me from getting out
of this car, hell no.

“Fine by me.”

“Be back there in five.” Toby worked to turn
the car.

I was just about to hang up when Adam’s voice
echoed through the loud speaker.

“Tess? Okay, so where were we before we were
so rudely interrupted? Oh that’s right, you went and got yourself a
co…” I hung up the phone with lightning speed and threw it on the
dashboard.

Toby did a double take. “Everything
okay?”

You mean apart from forgetting to turn off
the loud speaker and nearly having my best friend reveal that I was
packing heat? Apart from that, fine!

I texted Adam a very brief ‘SHUT UP!’ message
and then placed my phone on silent. If Toby wondered what Adam was
talking about, he didn’t let on. Maybe I bought myself a
Cosmo
mag or something. That could work.

We pulled into the Onslow car park, which was
nothing more than a big circular space of gravel out the front of
the hotel. There were people everywhere, loitering, most
intoxicated after a big session. We couldn’t see Sean, and neither
of us really wanted to get out of the car.

Near the front entrance a fight broke out;
there was a lot of pushing and shoving before their mates held back
the two obviously hammered guys.

We wound up the windows at this point and
waited for our package to be delivered.

We both jumped as a sound thudded against
Toby’s window.

“Toby!” A muffled sound with a smattering of
condensation as Angela pressed herself drunkenly against the glass
that she then proceeded to kiss.

This could not be happening.

“I missed yooooouuu…” she crooned. Toby
unwound the window, and Angela’s eyes lit up now that there was
nothing stopping her from getting her claws on her man. She paused
as she caught sight of me, tilting her head in wonder. I gave a
small smile.

“Tic Tac?” she said. I flinched. So much for
our bathroom bonding, at least her predictable behavior made it
easy for me to hate her. “What are you doing in here?”

Toby saved me from answering. “I’m just
dropping Tess and Sean home.”

“Sean?” Angela’s eyes squinted into the
interior thinking she might have overlooked him the first time. How
anyone could overlook Sean’s six-foot-three stature, I couldn’t be
sure.

“He’s inside, do you want to grab him for me?
I don’t want to leave the car.”

Her smile didn’t quite reach her eyes. “Sure
thing, babe, I know the law doesn’t look too kindly on people
leaving kids in cars.” She looked pointedly at me and laughed at
her own joke.

Before she went, she pulled Toby into a
full-on kiss, her eyes on me, laying claim on her man. Finally she
pushed him away and zig-zagged through the crowd.

Well, that was awkward.

At least she didn’t call me out and try to
claw my face off, but the night was still young. We just sat in
silence. I could tell Toby was embarrassed by public displays of
affection. It was always Angela pawing at him, and although he
looked at her affectionately and smiled, you would never see Toby
getting all gooey. I was thankful for small mercies because I
didn’t think I could stomach that. Sean stepped through the front
door, sauntering his way across the gravel with a pot glass of beer
in hand.

He came around to my passenger side to get
in.

“You can’t take that with you,” I said.

“It’s for my collection, don’t tell Chris.”
He put a finger to his lips and climbed in, his giant frame filling
the inner cabin. I scooted over to the middle, and he leaned on me,
spilling a bit of beer on himself. It was at this point I realised
I was pushed right up against Toby, his bare arm burning against
mine. I gave him an apologetic smile, even though I was not in the
least bit sorry.

Toby whispered to me, “I think we better get
him home first, if he passes out we’ll have no hope.”

“Agreed.” I muttered and tried to push Sean
away from crushing me.

“Hey lookie, it’s my girlfriend.” Sean put
his arm around me. “What’s for tea, honey? Are all the house chores
done?”

“One: in your dreams, and two: it’s the
1990’s, not the1950’s, you sexist pig.”

I felt the vibration of Toby’s laughter
through his arm as we both watched Sean’s brows rise in
surprise.

“Tess, will you marry me?” Toby laughed.

I blushed, not knowing what to say, when a
familiar cackle sounded from across the drive. Angela had stumbled
over in the garden. Her equally drunk friend tried to help her up,
but she was too busy laughing.

“Wow, someone’s drunker then me. Impressive.”
Sean threw back another mouthful of what looked like flat, warm
beer.

Angela hauled herself up and spotted us
again.

“Heeeeyyyyy, where are you going?”

“I’m just going to drop –”

“You can’t go.” Angela pouted, glanced around
her and then cupped her hands around her mouth. “Chris is going to
do a lock-in.” She whispered in a loud, obnoxious way, as if she
was privy to this amazing secret. As I looked over her dishevelled
state, I knew Chris wouldn’t let her stay; she was a loud, messy
drunk and Chris wouldn’t have that time bomb in his pub. Lock-ins
were risky enough. All hush-hush as the beer continued to flow past
their 12 o’clock licence. It could mean big trouble for Chris and
his uncle if they were found out.

I prayed that my little cozy refuge, pressed
up against Toby, wouldn’t be spoiled if Angela convinced him to
stay with her. But he didn’t budge.

“Stay here, Ang. I’ll come and get you after
I drop them home.”

Her eyes cut daggers at Sean and me, like he
had chosen us over her. Which he kind of had.

She shrugged. “If I’m here, I’m here.”

“Don’t be like that, I won’t be long.”

She flicked her hair and walked off in a
huff. What a child. I could stress and blush, and ask all the
stupid naive questions in the world, and I still would look more
mature than Angela Vickers every time. Toby stared after Angela
with a deep scowl; he resonated such anger, I was sure he wouldn’t
go after her. His jaw pulsed as he tightly clenched the steering
wheel.

“She’ll be alright, she’s got her friends.
She’ll be here when you get back.” I tried to pacify him like the
idiot I was.

She’s a freakin’ idiot!

“Yeah,” Toby said as he started up the
engine. He slung his arm over the seatback to check his back view.
“I’m not coming back.”

Life could be worse than being wedged
between the Onslow Boys in Toby’s ute.

Sean suggested we go for a drive, and from
the moment we had left Angela back at the Onslow, a new-found
awkwardness had settled over the three of us. Toby’s solemn silence
was thick and heavy; I couldn’t see his face, but I could feel the
tension in his body where it was pressed against mine. I stole a
quick sideways glance at Sean who could only respond with a
helpless shrug.

Regardless of the change in mood, I was glad
we were churning into the darkness; the last thing I wanted was for
Toby to have a sudden hit of remorse and head back to the Onslow to
pick Angela up for a make-up session … yeah, I didn’t want to think
of that.

The possibility of turning around became
bleaker as we drove further and further away from the hotel,
veering onto McLean’s Bridge en route to Perry. My heart spiked
with panic; maybe Toby took going for a drive as a male bonding
thing? I didn’t want to go home yet! Sure I had desperately wanted
to earlier, but now? Pressed next to Toby, feeling the warmth of
his skin against mine; I never wanted to go home.

I listened to the rhythmic hum of wheels
along the stretch of the never-ending concrete bridge that
connected me to my impending doom. Home.

Be cool, Tess, be cool!

Then Toby sped past the turnoff to my street
and kept driving up the winding road into the dense bushland. I
tried not to smile too wide as relief flooded through me. He
continued passed the Rose Café, leading deeper and deeper into the
Perry Ranges, veering down the Point turnoff.

We were heading to the Point?

We climbed higher and higher. Toby laughed
for the first time when he noticed that I was making a funny jaw
movement to force my ears to pop.

“There’s chewy in the glove box.” He motioned
with a head tilt.

I leaned across Sean who was like a brick
wall; he lifted his arms to maneuver out of my way a bit, allowing
me access to the glove box. The inside of the ute cabin was
claustrophobic, pressed in between Sean and Toby – but don’t get me
wrong, I wasn’t complaining! The glove box light momentarily
highlighted a bemused smirk on Sean’s face, as if he was loving
every minute of me lying awkwardly across his lap. Was the chewy
worth that smug look? Yeah, I decided, it kind of was, as I
accidentally on purpose elbowed him in the side as I straightened
back into my seat.

“Ugh! Christ, Tess.” Sean clasped his
side.

“Oops, sorry!” I offered sweetly, unwrapping
and popping a piece of gum in my mouth. Toby took a piece from the
pack.

The close proximity of the cabin wasn’t the
only thing that caused a swirling giddiness in my stomach. I had
never been to the Point at night. Come to think of it, I had only
been there a handful of times during the day.

Once was with my Uncle Bernie who loved to go
bird watching (yeah, that had been a riveting afternoon), so much
so that my mum promised she would never subject me to it again. The
other time was for a Grade Six field trip to replant trees after a
bush fire swept through the ranges.

The Point was a popular haunt for young
rebellious delinquents who were looking to hang out. I knew this
because I had witnessed plenty a young couples stopping off at the
cafe in the early hours of the morning. Their kiss-swollen lips,
dishevelled hair and creased clothing. Oh, how I secretly envied
them.

Unofficially, the Point was the designated
playground for the eighteen-plus crowd, mainly because, thanks to
the steep incline, you could only access it via car. Adam, Ellie
and I had attempted it once by bike, but the winding ranges were
far too steep for our little peddling legs; it didn’t take long for
us to breathlessly voice,
“You know what? We can totally wait
’til we’re older”.

The shadows of bushland passed by in a blur;
I tried not to imagine what my parents would think. Me, travelling
to the Point with two twenty-two year olds; I quickly shook the
thought from my mind. No time for guilt tonight. It took us about
ten minutes to make it to the final turnoff, abandoning the bitumen
and winding up the rough dirt track that seemed much steeper at
night. Up and up we crawled, not seeing more than a metre or so in
front of us. The canopy of trees cast an eerie blackness, and as I
looked out at the dense scrubland, I thought it would be the
perfect place to bury a body. Had Toby and Sean not been debating
the hard-hitting topics like chickens being the greatest of all of
God’s creatures, I might have been a little bit nervous.

“Chickens?” Sean said in disbelief. “What
about echidnas? They’re so tough you could run over one in your
car, and it would still be alright.”

Toby chewed thoughtfully on his gum for a
long moment. “Yeah, echidnas are pretty cool.” He nodded.

Yep, pretty thought-provoking stuff. I
stifled my smirk, and my thoughts switched momentarily to Ellie. I
wondered where she was right now. A part of me knew I should have
stayed with her, but if I had, I certainly wouldn’t be pressed up
against Toby, mere metres from the Point. Instead, I would be
playing lookout for Ellie and her new fling; God only knows what
kind of company I would be keeping.

The track evened out at the very top of the
climb. It was so dark it felt like we could have easily driven off
the edge of the earth for all we knew, but like everything with
Toby, he maneuvered his way up the track with great care.

The Point was a mass clearing on top of one
of the highest parts in the Perry Ranges. Sheer rock boulders
sloped downwards into the abyss of darkness that ended with the
distant twinkle of the town lights of Onslow. A derelict, boxy,
wooden shack sat to the right of the clearing that had once been
the fire observation tower. Over on the left of the clearing stood
two ugly pylon towers, servicing as some beacon of technology. They
were fenced off but it still didn’t prevent adrenalin junkies
scaling them and climbing the pylons on drunken dares. Miraculously
no one had plummeted to their death, yet. At least, not that I’d
heard of.

And sure enough, tonight we were not the
first car to crunch up the gravel track to the Point. Three other
vehicles were parked in a circle and a crowd of people perched on
bonnets. As we edged closer, Toby sounded the horn and wound his
window down. He pulled over to where Ringer stood, cigarette in one
hand, can of Jim Beam in the other.

“Well, if it isn’t the Onslow Boys. What
brings you to this neck of the woods?” Ringer took a long draw of
his ciggie, past his smirking lips.

“We’re out of options, we have partied it and
pubbed it,” Sean said.

“And now your here parkin’ it?” Ringer
laughed.

“Not with you bunch of pervs.” Toby
smiled.

Ringer looked at me as if seeing me for the
first time.

“McGee!! What you doing stowing away with
these bums?”