The Boys of Summer (29 page)

“Good morning!” I said, giving him a kiss on
the top of his head.

“Who are you and what have you done with our
daughter?”

I rolled my eyes and opened the fridge. I was
absolutely ravenous.

“Going somewhere?” Mum looked alarmed; my
early rising had deeply unsettled their routine.

I shrugged grabbing the milk. “Work.”

“Honey, it’s 7am, you don’t have work for
another five hours.”

Yes, five long, hideous hours. I couldn’t
wait to see Ellie to tell her what had happened last night. I had
thought of messaging or emailing her, but I wanted to see her
reaction in person.

Five long hours away also meant hours without
seeing Toby.

“What’s wrong with being organised?” I threw
back.

“Nothing, it’s just …” She floundered to
think of something. Poor souls, I thought, first a summertime job,
then helping them at the shop and now rising with the sun; it was
all too much.

“What time did you get home?” Dad asked over
his paper.

Uh-oh. If I told them, it wouldn’t take them
long to calculate just how little sleep I’d had and then they’d get
all kinds of suspicions as to what had made their daughter so
chipper this morning.

“Oh, not too late, you know how I love my
beauty sleep.”

He nodded and turned back to his paper,
accepting it.

Boom! That’s how it’s done. Bullet dodged …
for now.

***

Ellie sat opposite me in the restaurant,
before we officially started our shift. She had just listened
intently to my play by play of the night’s events: from the
encounter behind the DJ station, to
the kiss
, to Toby’s
disappearance. I retold it beautifully, played it out to full
dramatic effect.

Not once did she interrupt me or look shocked
or even happy for me. Instead, she listened with a pained
expression on her face and an uncharacteristic silence.

Quite frankly, it wasn’t the reaction I had
expected.

I fidgeted in my seat. “What? What is
it?”

“Nothing.” She couldn’t even bring herself to
look at me as she smoothed out invisible creases in her black
apron.

I frowned. I didn’t get it. Last night, she
had been my own personal cheer squad, told me to seek out Toby
because she had inside information that went in my favour. What had
changed?

“Nothing?” I repeated. “Well, THAT’S
crap!”

Ellie sighed and finally spoke. “I just don’t
…” She broke off as if picking her words carefully.

“You just don’t what?” My patience was
wearing thin. “Out with it.”

She gave me a sad smile. “I just don’t … I
don’t want you to do what I do.”

I crossed my arms defensively. “And what’s
that exactly?”

Ellie shifted in her chair. “I don’t want you
to jump in the deep end with him. Hold back a little.”

“That’s not what you were chanting last
night.”

“I know, but take it from someone who
knows.”

“Knows what?” I said. “Has Stan said
something?”

“No! No I don’t even think he knows anything.
We haven’t even talked about last night.”

Didn’t surprise me, I seriously doubted they
could speak much with their tongues in each other’s mouths all the
time.

Ellie grabbed for my hand and gave it a
squeeze. “Just don’t let yourself be the rebound girl.”

“The rebound girl?”

“Tess,” she continued carefully, “he only
just broke up with Angela after dating for
over a year
.”

I took a deep, calming breath. I didn’t want
to hear this.

“Just don’t expect too much, okay? Just take
a step back.”

I pulled my hand away and pushed my seat
back. It gave an ear-piercing scrape against the polished
floorboards.

“Noted,” I said, “thanks for the pep talk.” I
got up to walk towards the kitchen. If I didn’t move now, I would
say something I would regret.

“Tess, wait.” Ellie caught my arm, jolting me
to a stop. “I’m sorry, that’s great, I mean really great. I’m
excited for you. I just don’t want you to get hurt, that’s
all.”

“You mean you just don’t want me to have a
life,” I bit out.

Hurt flashed across Ellie’s face. “That’s not
true.”

“Isn’t it? Well, maybe if you’d thought
outside your little world for one moment, you could have saved me
from making such a huge mistake.”

I spun back around towards the kitchen, tears
threatening to overflow from my eyes. She wasn’t allowed to see
them, she wasn’t. This time she let me go; she didn’t call out.
This time she didn’t say a word.

I had wanted Ellie to squeal and hug me and
help me with my next outfit to dazzle Toby in, to keep me filled in
on the Onslow Boys’ next social event. But as we worked together in
silence for the whole shift, I knew it wouldn’t happen. As much as
I fought against it, Ellie’s words rang in my ears and fed into my
paranoia. Why did he kiss me and then just leave? Maybe he wasn’t
into it. No, no he was definitely into it. A myriad of thoughts
crowded my overworked mind; it was a full-time job pushing my
doubts aside. As if that wasn’t bad enough, my heart all but
stopped when I heard the front door screech open and familiar
laughter filled the front bar. I found an excuse to go to my bag
behind the door so I could peer inside at the boys as they pulled
up their bar stools.

Sean, Stan and Ringer looked over the
menu.

No Toby.

I loitered a little longer and eavesdropped
on their conversation.

“Where’s young Tobias?” Chris asked, handing
over their drinks.

I pressed myself against the wall, hanging
onto every word, and peeked through the crack in the restaurant
divider.

“I dare say he is probably facedown in a
world of pain right about now,” Sean said with an evil smile.

“He was pretty wasted,” Chris laughed.

“‘Coronas are the devil’s brew’, I believe he
said?” added Ringer.

They all shuddered and laughed. “I doubt
we’ll even see him today. Serves him right.”

Their conversation shifted to lunch, and I
made my way back to the restaurant before Chris saw me. He hadn’t
seemed that drunk to me, but what did I know? ‘Devil’s brew’ and
‘wasted’ ran through my head as I pictured Toby at home, feeling
sick and sorry for himself and the stupid things he’d done the
night before. Like kissing the rebound girl.

I felt sick. I told Ellie as I passed her
that the boys were in the bar and made my way, once again, to the
refuge of the ladies’ toilets.

***

I managed to hold it together. I tried not to
think too deeply about all my fears about kissing Toby and the way
he’d up and left like that, with no warning. I felt exhausted. I
just wanted to go home and crash into oblivion before the stress
and agony of the dinner shift. I wanted to avoid Ellie’s eyes that
would no doubt reflect a silent ‘I told you so’.

When I finally made it home between shifts,
scuffing my feet as I trudged towards the driveway, I froze. My
bike was propped up under the carport, sparkling, shiny and fixed.
I wondered if my lack of sleep was making me hallucinate.

My heart threatened to beat out of my chest;
I ran up the drive and clasped the handles. Yep, it was real. I
dashed inside but the house was empty.

“Damn it!”

I frantically dialed the shop number and
heard my mum’s usual spiel after the second ring.

“Good afternoon, Rose Café, Jenny
speaking.”

“Mum!”

“Oh, hi honey, how was work?”

“Just awesome, hey listen, my bike?”

“Oh yes, sorry, I meant to put it in the
garage but I was running late.”

“When did it get dropped off?”

“Not long after you left for work, just five
minutes later, and you could have ridden it there. You could have
finally used your new helmet.”

I cringed away from the receiver.

“Who dropped it off?” My voice seemed smaller
now.

“Matthew Morrison, himself, did. I was late
for work because of it, got caught up chatting to him. He’s such a
lovely man, isn’t he? And a real fan of my pies, so he’s definitely
in the will.”

A coldness settled over me. Toby’s dad
dropped it off? Toby had gotten his dad to return my bike instead
of him. That clinched it. He was avoiding me. The bike was fixed,
so that was that. He didn’t need to see me anymore. Hot tears
welled in my eyes. I was so
stupid
.

I tried not to sound too different on the
phone; Mum could sniff out unhappiness like a bloodhound.

“Cool, thanks, Mum. I better go.”

“You can ride your bike to work tonight,” Mum
said, sounding excited.

“Yeah.” I tried to match her enthusiasm.
“Yay!”

The phone clicked as she hung up, and I
listened to the silence of the empty house. The realisation swept
over me.

I was the rebound girl.

I was so tempted to call in sick, to avoid
the rest of the weekend and everyone in it altogether.

But Chris could have eyed the beer in my hand
last night, combined it with my silence during lunch service, and
it wouldn’t take him long to conclude that I wasn’t sick, I was
hungover. He’d give me the sack for that, I just knew it. It was a
tempting thought, to be honest. Maybe if I broke my arm, I would be
sent away to my nan’s house in the city for the rest of the summer.
Not that I had a nan in the city, but still. I needed Adam. He
could have cheered me up, especially in lieu of Ellie’s and my
heated debate at lunch.

After a catnap, I showered and had a quick
bite to eat. Although I felt human again, I didn’t feel much better
until I started getting ready for work. In the process, my
self-pity morphed into determined resilience as I stared hard into
the mirror.

I opted for a cute little top and skirt. If I
was going to face an audience, I was at least going to do so
looking hot.

As I walked into the bar that afternoon, I
had on my best happy-go-lucky face and flashed the customers a
winning smile and false confidence that had everyone fooled. Mostly
everyone knew me by now, and I was always greeted with either a
‘Tess!’ or ‘McGee!’.

Days of Tic Tac Tess were light years away. I
couldn’t believe that used to be my biggest problem: a stupid
nickname by an immature boy.

I hung my bag up behind the door. Ellie’s bag
was already there. I was still mad at her, but it would take far
more energy to keep up the silent treatment than to be civil. She
couldn’t rain on my parade anymore, because I simply wouldn’t
confide in her about my love life. I knew that would hurt far more
than the silent treatment, even though, in its own way, it was kind
of the same thing.

Ellie was still on edge around me as if she
wasn’t wholly buying the act, and I knew that if anyone could see
through it, it would be her.

Rosanna, Amy and Melba seemed to suspect
something was amiss though I chatted animatedly to them about all
sorts of things. Maybe too animatedly. I was over-the-top bubbly
with the customers, and I even caught Chris giving me a confused
frown. After a few hours, my face ached from all the smiling, and I
was exhausted. How could Ellie stand this all the time? Being a
wallflower conserved so much more energy. I let my smile slip for a
breather as I gathered some cutlery for a table. Beside me, Ellie
reached for some silverware for her table.

“Toby’s here,” she whispered.

And when I met her eyes, she smiled a small
smile and then whisked herself away.

Oh shit.

I had no intentions of running to the
poolroom, or even crossing his path at all if I could help it. Even
though I had completely resented Ellie’s advice, I knew there was
something to it. I already felt like a big enough idiot.

When Chris asked me to deliver a meal into
the poolroom, I paused so long he thought I hadn’t heard. I had
heard alright. Even though the order of a single bowl of chips
didn’t have ‘Onslow Boys’ written on it, it didn’t have to; to me,
the poolroom was a no-go zone. Enemy territory. I had to woman up.
The last thing I would do was get Ellie to run the meal for me, so
instead I ran fingers through my hair, straightened my clothes,
took a deep breath and grabbed the meal.

It felt like every step I took was in slow
motion. The achy melody of Portishead echoed from the poolroom as I
dodged traffic in the front bar on my way. All of a sudden, I
wasn’t paranoid about dropping the plate or spilling the contents,
I was just hoping that Toby might have been in the men’s room when
I delivered the meal.

No such luck; I spotted him through the
alcove, laughing at some bad shot that passed from his opposition.
He leaned casually against the windowsill, pool cue in one hand,
beer in the other. He didn’t look hungover to me, I thought. As I
paused, watching on just beyond the doorway, his eyes flicked up
and met mine just as he was about to take a shot.

My breath hitched at the acknowledgement; the
first time since last night. The contact was broken when Sean
heckled him to hurry up and take his shot. He did, making the white
ball rebound on the cushion and pot the wrong ball.

“Oooooh, two shots, son!”

The poolroom filled with cheers and
exclamations of shock at the rare occasion Toby made a mistake on
the pool table. The boys pounded him with back slaps and ruffled
his hair. He shook them off with a smile. My face felt on fire;
he’d lost concentration because of me.

I hurried into the poolroom, trying not to
draw attention to myself while they were all preoccupied.

It was then that I looked at the order. ‘Bowl
of chips’ with an angry face next to it, in Ellie's handwriting.
Then I realised why, as a group of Angela Vickers’ friends sat
around a barrel on stools, pursing their lips in disdain as they
sat in the corner feeling superior.

Awesome, I thought. Icing on the cake of a
brilliant day.