told Nic not to talk shit, but she replied that talking shit was better than smelling of it.
He sneered brilliantly. ‘You just can’t help yourself, can you?’
Nic laughed. ‘No, Michael, and neither can you from what I’ve seen.’
She ran a finger down his arm, which I didn’t like one bit. Then I noticed her bare knee pressing against his thigh. Nic always leaned in too close to people when she talked to them, like she was telling them a secret.
With a flick of her hair she turned back to me.
‘Shouldn’t you be with Pagey? He’s getting the idea you’re avoiding him.’ Her eyes jumped to Michael. ‘Don’t you hate that, Michael, when girls flirt with you just to make their boyfriends jealous? It’s not nice to feel used.’
Michael smiled, but not with his eyes. ‘Those girls are slags, if you ask me.’
‘I wouldn’t ask you, though,’ Nic shook out her hair. ‘You don’t know much about it from what I’ve seen. And if you’re going to let Cat down, at least do it gently.’
Michael told Nic to fuck off and die.
She shrugged. ‘You don’t know what you’re missing. Cat’s already a hit with the older man so you two have something in common.’
Michael curled his lip gorgeously. ‘You are such a fucking bitch.’ And with that, he walked away.
I pretended that I needed the loo but I was really going after Michael. I didn’t entirely understand what had just gone on. But then I got lost down a dark corridor, and realised that I did need the loo after all. I was standing by the back door that led into the garden. I’d drunk too much Curaçao plus Baileys plus Cider and they were doing the ‘okey-kokey’ in my stomach. So I stumbled outside, hoping the fresh air would do me good and there might also be a flowerbed to vomit in. I wandered down a little gravel path and lay down on the grass. I looked up at the stars and did my best yogic breathing. Then, after twenty-or-so breaths, I realised I wasn’t alone. Jason was standing over me. Jason is quite worrying, by the way. He has big fishy eyes and pubic-curly hair, and the story is he bit off his own finger when he was nine.
‘What are you doing?’
I told him nothing and that I wanted to be alone.
He crouched down next to me. ‘But you’re crying.’
I told him I was allergic to daffodils (which was a lie).
‘Girls always cry when they’re drunk. I reckon they only get drunk so’s they can cry.’
I told Jason he was ridiculous, although I wonder if he’s right.
He sat down next to me.
‘Want a smoke?’
I shook my head. He carried on sitting there, whilst I did yogic breathing. I’d counted to sixty before he asked:
‘Is it true you’re shagging a teacher?’
Of course I denied it, and Jason looked more fishy/creepy.
‘It’s just what I heard. You know what this island’s like, stuff gets around, girls, too.’
‘Well, it’s rubbish,’ I replied.
I looked at Jason and he looked at me. He obviously misunderstood what that look meant because he tried to kiss me and stick his hand up my skirt. (Boys are just disgusting.) Unfortunately I was more drunk than I thought, so it took a few minutes for me to work out what was happening. I pushed him off and called him a Pig.
‘Je-sus! Pagey was right. You are all talk. What the fuck is wrong with you?’
A lot of things are wrong with me (that should be obvious by now), but I wasn’t going to explain everything to Jason Guille. I also didn’t need to, since at that precise moment Michael and Pete had come stumbling out into the garden.
With the splitting of a nano-second Michael saw me on the grass and said ‘What the—’ He couldn’t say anything else because Pete grabbed him from behind and got him in a headlock.
‘You say that again. Say what you said back there and tell me how much you like this!’
I knew Michael needed my help.
‘Get off him!’ I yelled, jumping up.
I think, in retrospect, girls shouldn’t get involved in boys’ fights. I’d also like to point out that when you see fights on TV or have them described in novels, they’re nothing like the real-life version. Just by trying to describe a fight you slow it down with words, and string it out to make it more dramatic. And if it’s on TV there’s lots of different camera angles plus music. That