take him out onto the cliffs with me and show him a good time.’
I heard Mum come in from the garden. She was wiping her feet on the doormat in the kitchen.
‘Hello Nicolette,’ she called. ‘Haven’t seen you for a while. How are you?’
‘I’m fine thanks, Mrs Rozier. I’m just trying to persuade Cat to come to Vicky’s party tonight.’
‘Oh? I’d forgotten.’ Mum pulled off her gardening gloves. ‘Aren’t you going to go, Cathy? You hadn’t said anything.’
‘That’s because I’m not going. I’m not feeling great and, well, I’m not in the mood.’
Mum looked puzzled. ‘Well, if you’re sure.’
‘Boooo-ring!’ Nic cocked her head to one side and tried to look saccharine-sweet. ‘Oh well, if you change your mind I’m going over there now to help Vicky get ready.’
Mum nodded. ‘I’ll try and persuade her.’
But she didn’t. We didn’t say another word about it. Instead we had dinner on our laps in the sitting room. I watched Doctor Who whilst Mum read a library book, and I got the feeling she was glad to have me there. She told me things were ‘getting back to normal’ (and she’d bought Arctic Roll for dessert so I knew she meant it). Trouble is, I only pretended to have an early night just like she did, then I was up and out the back door, and crouched in a rhododendron bush by approximately 10 p.m. I’d already been past Vue du Lac five times and found no sign of Michael, so I was 99.99% sure he wasn’t back, but I had to go to Vicky’s house to check. The Senners’ house is at the end of Becquet Road. There’s a wide row of bushes facing their driveway so it was dead easy to hide.
There was such a lot of people, sitting out on the front lawn and crowding around the porch. I craned my neck to look for Michael but it was hard to see anything. Poor Vicky – her house was full to bursting. Inside, I could see right into the chaos in the kitchen, and all the lights were on upstairs. Nic was easy to spot in a sparkly mini-dress. She hung around the porch and nibbled at a plastic cup whilst flirting with Paul Kelley. Paul Kelley is two years above us at the Grammar and has spiky blond hair and these excellent trousers mostly made of zips. I wondered what Pete thought of him, but Pete was now with Nikki Guillemette. Everyone knew that.
The music was blaring out so I’m not surprised Mr Le Lacheur next door complained. Pete and Jason told him to get lost. Then some bikers turned up and there was a commotion. At this point I completely lost track of Nic and got cramp in my left toes. It was cold in that rhododendron bush. The next thing I knew, Dr and Mrs Senner had pulled up in their Volvo estate. A girl with half her head shaved was vomiting in their flowerbed. Mrs S. swore loudly. She then ran inside but Dr Senner couldn’t. His hand was frozen fast to the car door handle and he stared up at his house like it was an alien spaceship, and with all the house lights blazing it did look pretty alien. Greasy Caz Mitchell staggered up to him, drinking from a bottle of his homebrew. That’s when he exploded. Within a minute he was inside and shouting at everyone to ‘Get the hell out!’ The lights upstairs flickered and there was banging and thumping and the sound of smashing glass. People started spilling out into the front garden. I saw Isabelle and Shelley. Shelley had her hair back-combed and looked unbelievably stupid. They huddled together like convicts and I didn’t watch too closely where they went. I was still looking for Nic and Michael. But I only saw Vicky in the porch, crying.
I was a good way off from everyone and therefore thought I was safe, but then a group of lads including Jason and Pete came over. They were trying to get some distance from Dr Senner’s rabid ranting.
‘What’ll we do now?’ asked one of them.
‘Where you parked?’ asked another.
‘Up by the Military Cemetery.’
Then I heard Nic’s voice: ‘Did you see his face! Fucking loser! Fuck him if he thinks he can tell us what to do.’