Verity (9 page)

“What’s up?” Tammie said when we met up in the halway before our next class.

“Nothing.”

“Yeah. That’s obvious. Come on, spil.” She put her hands on her hips and refused to move.

“I don’t know. I thought... I suppose I thought Nathan might like me or something. But he was just using me. I feel stupid now.” She frowned. “There’s something a bit weird about those two, Perdy, I’m teling you. The more I see them, the more I dislike them.”

“What, even Amelia?”

“Especialy Amelia. I don’t know why you’re bothering with them at al, to be honest.”

I couldn’t hide my surprise. “Since when have you not liked them?”

“Ah, always. She’s a total weirdo, Per. I dunno why you can’t see it. As for him, don’t waste your time. He’s probably another Hannigan in the making. Hurry up, we’l be late.”

I folowed her, stunned by her remarks. She had been as sweet as pie to Amelia for weeks. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen how she realy felt.

After school, Tammie headed into town with her sister, while Joey stayed back for an advanced class. I walked to the bus stop with Amelia, surprised by how fond of her I was already. It felt like she was a long lost friend; she was so easy to be around compared to Tammie, who was always being negative about something or someone.

“Perdy, I’ve been wondering if you’d like to come to dinner at my house this weekend. Before you start, I’ve already said it to my family.” Amelia gave me her puppy dog eyes look.

I would have said yes, but I didn’t want to be around her brother. I couldn’t say that, so I was wiling to pretend everything was cool between Tammie and Amelia.

“Actualy, I was going to ask you over to my place,” I said. “Dad’s working late this weekend, so I thought maybe you and Tammie and Joey could come over. I realy don’t want to be left on my own with those two at the moment.”

She was about to speak when Nathan appeared beside her. He had a habit of seemingly emerging out of nowhere. I gave him one scornful glance, and then made a point of ignoring him completely. Amelia carried on talking as if nothing was wrong, but I couldn’t bear him next to me. I said goodbye to her and her alone.

“Aren’t you getting the bus with us?” she asked.

“Nah, I’d rather walk today. I’l cal you later about this weekend.”

I walked away, feeling a bit guilty for being so cold but knowing it had to be done. I couldn’t stand next to someone who disliked me enough to use me when nobody else was around. The worst bit was I stil liked him. Between the dreams and how I felt when we touched, one look from him was enough to make my stomach do a somersault. It was maddening. I had to keep away from that boy, for my own sake.

I was so annoyed that I almost didn’t notice the woman standing across from the school in the exact same spot the red-haired man had been in. I wouldn’t have paid any attention at al only it was beginning to seem a bit strange how al of these strangers were hanging around the school for no apparent reason.

She had long blonde hair that she almost hid behind, but I could stil tel she was staring directly over at Nathan and Amelia who appeared to be in the middle of a hushed argument. I couldn’t help watching the woman, wondering if they knew her, but she tensed up and looked directly at me. Even at that distance, I could feel the ice cold glare she aimed at me. I shuddered and kept moving, wondering what the hel her problem was.

Once again, I spent too much of my time thinking about Nathan Evans. I re-lived every time he spoke to me, looked at me, anything. I replayed conversations in my head to try and figure out if I was reading into them wrong. A part of me felt as though he liked me back. Another part of me thought he was playing a cruel game with me. He had acted realy strangely about my dreams, almost as though he was admitting some shared experience with me. It was hard to tel for sure what exactly he had been trying to say in the art room.

Maybe he was just one of those boys who flirted with everyone, who liked to charm random girls but had no real interest in them. Yet al those little things I experienced seemed to affect him too. I couldn’t let go of the idea that there was something I didn’t know about him, and that one thing would explain the rest. Or maybe I was even more pathetic than everyone assumed.

That weekend, Dad agreed to let me have my friends over and left Gran in charge. He had been making more of an effort, so I hugged him before he left for work. He wasn’t the most tactile person in the world, but he hugged me back just as tightly, his way of clearing the air.

Joey, Tammie and Amelia al turned up on Saturday afternoon. Gran went upstairs to give us a bit of space. Joey and Tammie decided to walk back to her house and look for a DVD to watch because nothing in my house was good enough, apparently.

Amelia and I shared some chocolate while we waited, content to flick through music stations until a song we both liked came on. From the corner of my eye, I could see her glance at me, twitching her foot incessantly. Finaly I gave up and turned to face her.

“Okay, spit it out already.”

She started to deny it, but thought better of it and nodded.

“Alright, sorry, I know it’s none of my business, but what’s the deal with you and my brother? You seemed to be getting on okay, and then yesterday you blanked him completely. Plus, I got the feeling you were avoiding getting the bus or coming to my house because of him. Did you have a row? Or do you just not like him?” The look accompanying the last question plainly said that wasn’t possible.

“There is no deal,” I said, sounding as grumpy as I felt. “Besides, I can’t talk to you about your brother.”

“Of course you can! Who better to talk to than me?”

I wanted to blurt out everything in my head, but not to his sister; there was something gross about it. Worse stil, there was always the chance she might think I made friends with her to get to him. Finaly I settled for shaking my head. “Just can’t talk about it.”

“But you like him, right?” she asked in a funny tone of voice, as if it was realy important or something. I stared at her, wondering if I was that obvious. “You
do
like him.”

“I can’t talk about that stuff with you, Amelia,” I said again.

She smiled, making me doubt she saw things the way I did. “It’s okay Perdita. You can always talk to me. So, what did he do now?”

“He didn’t do anything. Just leave it.”

“I’m going to ask him if you don’t tel me, so you might as wel.”

My mouth gaped open. The idea of her teling Nathan I was upset with him made me queasy. He would know I liked him, and that I was mad because I was jealous.

“You’re so bloody pigheaded,” I said, practicaly growling at her. “Alright. I had a little bit of a crush on him, and I felt like... I don’t know, I felt like he was leading me on a little bit, so I don’t want to be around him anymore. That is al. End of story.” I turned back to the television.

“But, how did he lead you on? What did he do? He can’t lead you on if he likes you too.”

I might have realy pitied her if she wasn’t annoying me so much. “Look, Amelia. I don’t know what the story is with you; you seem to realy want me and your brother to like each other, and that’s sweet and al, but it isn’t going to happen.”

“But Perdita, you’re meant to be. It’s not because I want it, it’s destiny. You like him, and he likes you.” I snorted. “Destiny? God, what are you like? Look. He doesn’t like me, okay? He was a little bit flirty toward me, so I thought he might, but then he spent about half an hour yesterday with his back turned to me to chat up Abbi Mitchel, so no, he doesn’t like me. And now I don’t like him. Let’s just stop now.” Her eyes grew wide with surprise. “That’s not possible. I know for a fact he doesn’t like Abbi Mitchel. He told me so.”

“Wel, maybe he lied. You’re his sister, why would he tel you things like that anyway? If he did like me, which he doesn’t, then he would have said something, there’s nothing stopping him.”

“There is!” She gestured wildly.

“Like what?” My heart raced; could there realy be a reason?

“He’s....” She faltered. “He’s a coward.”

I shrugged, disappointed with the answer. “Who cares anyway, it’s none of our business.”

“I care! It’s important! It’s very, very important!”

I giggled, even though I was stil annoyed. “Important?”

“Perdita, seriously! Please be honest with me for a minute, and I swear I’l leave it alone. Promise.” I nodded, wiling to do anything to shut her up. Plus, I wanted to know why she was getting so agitated.

“Do you like him in a normal boy girl way, or does it feel way more intense than that, like almost unnatural? Almost as if you already knew him or something? Like you’ve been waiting for him.”

My cheeks flushed a deep red. No way was I answering that one truthfuly. It sounded even weirder when someone else said it aloud. She knew exactly what I was feeling.

I cleared my throat. “Normal way.”

To my surprise, she sat back in her seat with a huge grin on her face. “You’re such a bad liar. I know for sure now.
I
know you’l end up together and that’s what matters.”

She sounded so convinced that I almost believed her. But if Nathan liked me then surely he would have told me. He was confident and popular, so nothing could stop him—unless he was ashamed of me. My face burned at the likelihood of that thought. I was more than a little relieved when Gran came downstairs until Tammie and Joey returned empty-handed.

“I couldn’t find anything, sorry. Nothing new anyway,” Tammie said.

“Not unless you wanted to see The Notebook...
again
,” Joey grumbled under his breath.

“So what’l we do now?” Amelia asked.

“Cinema?” Joey looked hopeful.

“You three go on, no chance of Dad letting me go.” It wouldn’t be the first time I’d missed out on something because of my Dad’s rules.

Tammie and Joey exchanged guilty looks. I could tel they were trying to decide how long they could say no for before they went anyway, without seeming rude.

“Perdita, go,” Gran said, puling me aside.

“You know I can’t.”

“I’l take responsibility for it if he finds out. He won’t ever know, but if he does, I’l take al the blame, I promise. If you go soon, then you’l be back before he finishes work. You deserve a little leeway. Go. Enjoy yourself.”

I hesitated. I wanted to go out, but I was afraid of breaking the tentative trust between my Dad and me. When the others encouraged me, I caved and agreed. He might never find out anyway. After al, he stil didn’t know I ditched a couple of classes at school.

We looked in the papers to see what films were on that night. There was a choice between a soppy romance and a ful on action thriler. We outvoted Tammie’s romance by three to one. Action was definitely needed.

At the cinema, we wandered around the foyer to pass time, munching popcorn and sipping drinks out of oversized cups. Tammie groaned loudly, grabbing our attention.

“What’s wrong?” Joey asked.

“Look who’s here.” She pointed toward the doors. A whole gang of people from our year filed in, among them Dawn, Aaron and even Nathan. I glared at Amelia, but she shrugged.

“I swear, I didn’t know they would be here.”

“Should we just go?” I said.

“Eh, no,” Tammie said. “We already paid for our tickets. Besides, they’re al in pairs, they must be going to the other film. Lucky I was outvoted after al.” That was a smal relief. I wouldn’t have been able to relax if they had been behind us throwing popcorn and smart comments our way. I tried to quel the twinge of jealousy at seeing Nathan paired up with another girl. I prayed they wouldn’t see us, but of course, they spotted us almost straight away. A sneer puled up the corners of Dawn’s mouth. She made sure we were looking at her before she put her arm around Nathan’s waist.

Amelia gave a little snort and stood up. I prayed she was just going to the bathroom, but she walked straight over to Nathan.

“Oh, God, don’t look,” I hissed at Joey and Tammie. Of course they both looked over at Amelia, so I couldn’t even pretend I was talking to them if anyone looked at
us
.

Nathan seemed surprised to see her and folowed her over to the rest of us. I pretended I didn’t see him at al. Childish but effective. Until he said my name, twice.

“Hi,” I said reluctantly.

“I didn’t know you were coming out tonight,” he said to nobody in particular.

“Last minute decision.” Tammie tried to keep a straight face, but I caught the faux-sweet smile she sent in Dawn’s direction.

“Yeah, we’re going to see the action one,” Joey added, oblivious to the awkward tension in the air.

“Realy?” Aaron joined us. “They’re making us see that lame chick flick. Here, Nathan, why don’t we go with these instead? Let the girls see their chick flick without us getting forced into it.”

“No!” I said, a little too loudly. “I just meant... that they couldn’t ditch the girls is al.”

“Oh, so it’s like a date then?” Tammie piped up slyly.

Aaron laughed. “Nah, they just won the vote this time.” He slapped his palm against Nathan’s shoulder. “Come on bud, we’l be bored stiff in there. At least, this way, we get to see what we want and stil get the benefits after.”

I felt like throwing up. Benefits? Nathan shrugged. “You can’t just invite yourself along, Aaron.”

“You go watch the chick-flick then. Joey doesn’t mind if I tag along, do ya, Joey? I’l sit in between these two ladies,” he said, gesturing toward Amelia and me with a creepy leer. We glanced at each other in mock horror behind his back.

“Maybe I’l tag along too then,” Nathan said.

They went to get tickets and break the news to their friends. The other boys seemed disgusted they hadn’t thought of the idea first, but they had already bought their tickets to the other film. It was almost worth sitting beside Aaron in the dark to see the look on Dawn’s face. I couldn’t help giggling.

“She’s absolutely raging!” I whispered to Tammie. Tammie grinned, anything that pissed off Dawn made her happy.

“Pity you and Amelia wouldn’t go out with Nathan and Aaron, that would realy sicken her,” she whispered back. I gave her a filthy look in return.