Avalon Expandable Heart: The Wild Heart Series

by Shantelle McKinnon

  I cross my arms over my chest like you see priests do and say out loud “Be pregnant my child.” Holding on to the warm steel of the crush I bend down and bestow the beast with a kiss.

  Still chuckling I turn to Avalon with an I’m being crazy for you, you better like it face.

  Instead of her gazing at me with that hot little grin, I’m rewarded with the view of the three amigos pissing themselves laughing. On the ground. About five minutes later, Flea croaks out four little words.

  “That was the bull.”

  JUST GO WITH IT

  Avalon

  “It’s a date, Av.” Jaime pokes me in the side causing me to stifle a grunt from the pain. I flick his poky hand away with a droll look.

  “I think Av kind of wants it to be a date,” Ruth teases, as I give her a sideways glance. I turn to run my gaze across everyone as they are positioned along the trestle table thing D set up at the markets. They are all staring at me trying desperately to hide huge grins.

  “Yeaahahhhh because dates mean kissing,” Tina fans herself. “And who in their right mind wouldn’t want to kiss that hunk?”

  D chuckles and bumps me gently with her shoulder.

  “Ah, most people that value their lives,” Wade rolls his eyes. “So actually, that means everyone in their right minds wouldn’t.”

  “It’s not a date, it’s dinner.” I hedge, wondering if I do want it to be a date because if it were a date, it would mean something, wouldn’t it? And I do want it to mean something. I just don’t want to be kissing a guy and it not mean something. I know he’s hung around and helped, but that’s something friends do too. There’ll be no more kissing until I know.

  “Text him and ask, woman.” Wade chucks a tenner on the table. “I’ll bet it’s a date.”

  “Righto,” I pull out my phone then pause looking blankly at the screen. “What do I write?”

  “Is tonight a date?” Ruth laughs.

  My mouth pulls down, thinking that that may just make him wonder what he should answer. As I’m terribly inexperienced in this, I cave. I want to know.

  Umm Noah? -(A)

  Tina giggles as she peers over my shoulder, bouncing up and down. “She just wrote, ‘Umm Noah?’” Everyone ribs me. If it wasn’t for the fact my stomach’s lining feels as if its sides are being scraped out with a rusty spoon, and my kidney feels the size of a grapefruit I would be having the best day. I love hanging with these guys, plus Outlaw allowed Noah and I to brush him without staggering off (either he was too buggered or decided to tolerate our presence because we fed him while we did it - but still) and the minis accepted carrots without getting ready to do the bolt before the carrots actually reached their mouths.

  I’m pretty good at ignoring pain, but period pain just makes me want to throw a sausage in my pants and grow a real beard to fool nature for the few days it tortures me. I hate them, they hurt so much. Combine that with whatever damage I’ve got going on in my side; I’m having to really work on being a happy camper.

  D had noticed earlier and even though I downplayed it she dosed me up with some Panadol, it took the edge off at least... for a while.

  My phone whistles. Get it over with, come on. Tease me some more about the bull. -N

  I grin thinking of how that just made Harry and Flea’s day. I’ve only mentioned to D that he talked, she didn’t seem surprised.

  “What happened with the bull?” Wade reads the message.

  “I can give you the experience firsthand when you drop me back at Harry’s if you want,” I elbow him. Funnily enough, he backs right off. I blow out a breath that cools my forehead.

  I’ll save that for when it’s needed ;) I’ll probably start that convo like this. You can either do blah blah or I’ll bring up the bull episode. My family is big on blackmail :) It’s in my blood, I will not apologise. About tonight... is it like a date? -A

  I stare at the message, not sure whether to send it. I thought it was just plain old dinner until I mentioned it to the gang here. They went straight into what was I wearing, how I was going to do my hair... all this stuff that freaked me out. Only D didn’t say anything.

  As I was lost in my own world, I hear the sound of a message getting sent. My eyes widen, Tina makes a strangled noise from the other side of the table.

  “What?” She gestures innocently. “You wouldn’t have sent it otherwise. You should be thanking me.”

  “I’ll thank you, alright, I’d say that I could repay that in full by letting you ride Cherokee on Tuesday arvo, huh?”

  She backs away with her hands up. Two down, I smile.

  My phone whistles again and everyone crowds around me. My heart is beating a little bit faster and I feel a tad nervous.

  YES -n

  Ruth and Tina scream and jump around then turn to me. “See? What are you going to wear?” How they say this in perfect unison is beyond me.

  I shrug. “What I normally wear.” There’s no way in hell I’m wearing any hoity-toity get up.

  “Avalon, it’s your first ever date,” D says quietly. “You should remember it.”

  I scratch the back of my neck hating to defy D for some reason, then I realise something. “It’s not my first date. Our first date was this morning. There you go! All’s good. I’m free to wear this.”

  Everyone, except D groans. She just chuckles and moves to the end to serve a customer.

  My phone whistles again.

  I wish you would have to resort to blackmail to get me to do something you asked- N

  Huh?

  “Av’s got a boyfriend,” Ruth teases me in a sing-song voice as Lucy walks back from looking around the Markets.

  “I think it’s sweet,” Lucy winks at me. “So, you guys are official now?”

  “How do you know if...” I falter, I’m not sure what to ask here. I try again to make sense of this from what I know but it’s a shallow pool. Official sounds a bit final. Don’t I want final, though?

  And then I hear the little Nathan in my head pretty much going off his rocker shouting things like, ‘You’re coming back, Lonster, even if I have to drag you behind my horse,’ ‘Don’t get attached, Avalon!’

  “Know what?” Lucy queries. “If you’re going out going out?”

  “We are going out to dinner,” I mumble, trying to fold a shirt back the way D had it before a customer mucked it up all while shutting the mini Nathan up.

  “No, going out, like boyfriend-girlfriend,” Tina adds, taking the shirt from my hands and folding it professionally. “Is that what you were trying to ask?”

  “I guess,” I look at them waiting. They look at Jaime and Wade.

  “Well, you’re the guys. Tell her!” Ruth points at them.

  Wade looks at Jaime who just raises his eyebrows. Wade sighs. “Generally, I guess you confirm it by asking. Like, I dunno, ‘Hey, you want to go out with me?’ That type of thing.”

  “Did he ask that?” Lucy asks me.

  I shake my head, “At first he said if I go out with him tonight, he’ll kiss the cow, then he said we’ll be grabbing dinner. He texted something after he left about wanting to ask me two questions while we were at dinner though.”

  The girls jump around again. “It’s so on the cards!”

  My phone rings and I look down hoping to see either Noah or Seth’s name. Instead, it seems my Barbie possessed mother has remembered my presence in the world. The pain in my side worsens as I tense and inhale deeply. The Panadol has worn off.

  I wonder whether I should answer it and then I toss up the fact that maybe she knows what’s going on with Seth. Her oncoming rant might clue me up.

  “Hello, Samantha,” I say trying to keep the ready to fire up out of my voice.

  “Hello, my beautiful, unruly spitfire,” she chirps. My face contorts. What the?

  “Are you drunk?” I ask her, moving away from the others.

  “Please, Avalon, apart from the fact that alcohol causes wrinkles and kills brain cells, can’t a mother ring h
er daughter and sound happy?”

  “Not in my world without causing undue worry,” I answer wondering what the hell has come over her.

  “Where are you?” she practically hums.

  “Not at home.” The blandness in my tone causes Wade’s head to snap in my direction. I floff him away with my hand a roll of my eyes.

  “Anyway. Best news, Avalon. I ran into my high school best friend. Tonya. I’m over the moon. She married this pro surfer and they have just relocated back here from Hawaii. She has a daughter your age and an older son who is rocketing up in the surfing world.”

  “Yay. Good for them,” I fake cheer in her pause, happy that she has forgotten our arrangement in light of this new friend development.

  “Avalon, I know you haven’t been sleeping at Seth’s,” all too soon, Av, I think. All too soon. I wait for the poison arrow to be loaded and fired. “... or going to school... much. I’m happy to overlook those as well as not bothering you to attend school for the rest of the term if you come to dinner tomorrow night with me to meet them.”

  Whoa now. Here’s the thing, I know my mum, these people have to be pretty bloody important for her to forgo pushing a relationship with Seth or torturing me with school. But if they are significant why would she want me there? Who and why and what? The questions thud around in my head.

  “What’s the catch?” I drawl, picturing her preening in front of the mirror.

  She titters. “Silly baby, there’s no catch. Well, I guess, there is one slight favour I shall ask of you though in return for the whole Seth and school freedom thing.”

  “Here we go,” I breathe out through my nose. If I resembled anyone or anything right now, it would be Outlaw. Scorn is written in every line of my body.

  “It’s that you dress like you always do.”

  “What?” I blurt out.

  “Avalon, be you. Don’t brush your hair, smell like leather and cow sweat. Come with dust plastering your face and dirt caked under your fingernails. Ride your terrible horse there for all I care, just basically be your hostile, devil child self. I know you can do that.”

  My mind is working feverishly. “Amber is not terrible,” I growl harking up. “Is this some crap go at reverse psychology? That I will rock up in a dress with curled hair and makeup? That I will act like we are best buddies? Dad tried that once, the whole reverse thing about Frank, it didn’t work for him and if it didn’t work for him, mate, there’s no way in hell it’s gonna work for you.”

  She laughs again. Snickers. Says something under her breath about still being in the running and plans.

  “Are you high on laughing gas or something?” I frown, knowing the lure of freedom from school has made me decide I’m already going to this shindig. It’s dinner, I made it through Seth’s one, I’ll make it through this. I can work the farm and horses all day this way. The pros far outweigh the cons.

  “No Avalon, I’m just happy, is that such a bad thing?”

  “That remains to be seen when your happiness involves me and people that most likely I will not like,” I pick at some beads hanging in a shop.

  “Avalon, make your decision. If you come, I’ll pull you out of school, if not... it’s school every day for the whole day.”

  I know I’m going but why? What the hell is she up to? Mum is slipperier than melted plastic.

  My throat rumbles with a grumbly sound, a cross between a groan and a full-on snarl. “You know I will with that offer. But I’ll get there myself. Text me the details. Have you seen Seth?” I ask her.

  “Yes,” she scoffs. “Don’t worry about him, he’s small fry. We are swimming with the big fish now, baby. See you tomorrow and remember come however you want. Just be damned sure to bring that hellish attitude you have.”

  The phone indicates she’s hung up. I just stare at it; I wish Nathan were here now. I haven’t read his texts yet because he will know the second I reply that I like someone and if he tells Dad, I’m not sure what will happen to Noah, but it won’t be good.

  “You alright Av?” D touches me on the shoulder.

  “That was Mum,” I say hoping that will sum it up. D waits patiently, her features soft and nonjudgmental. “She has asked me to come to dinner tomorrow with her to meet her old high school mates. If I do, I don’t have to go to school again.”

  D looks quizzical. “I know that you’d like that, but it seems a lopsided deal; dinner for no school.”

  “Exactly.” I gaze at her wishing the answers would appear on her forehead. “Throw in that she wants me to be me. I quote ‘hellish and a downright devil child’, I don’t know what the hell I’m getting roped in to. Iffy, D. Iffy.”

  “Do these friends have a son?” D asks thoughtfully.

  “Yeah,” my mind starts to follow D’s train of thought. “But why would she ask me to be... well me?”

  D chuckles and shakes her head a bit, “Let’s look around while we talk. We both haven’t had a chance yet, and maybe we’ll see something you think is okay for tonight.”

  “Okay,” I walk next to her. Right now, I need to make a choice, I can let Mum wreck my day, or I can just go with it. Tackle it when I’m there. I choose; tackle it when I’m there. “It seems like you sold a lot of shirts?”

  D whirls, excitement written all over her. “Oh Av, I’ve sold way more than I ever expected to sell in my life. I’m so happy, I feel that for the first time I’m walking the path of my dreams. Thank you so much.”

  She hugs me and I grind my teeth, fighting to keep my breath from hissing out between their gaps as her arms fold around my ribs. I hug her back, “D, you had what it took all along, you only needed someone to with a spare second to wipe your windscreen clean so you could see your road.”

  She pulls back, “Not many people are willing to use their spare cloths or even take a second on other people’s dirty windscreens, Av.”

  I see something between the throngs of shoppers that catches my interest.

  “Oh my! Look at that,” I point, my mind already picturing what I could do with it.

  D follows my finger with a frown, “Oh Av, you wouldn’t.”

  “Please,” I roll my eyes and drag her through to the store finding a whole lot more than I bargained for. It’s a costume shop, apart from the angel costume that had caught my eye there are heaps of other things like witches, zombies, Indians - which I’m definitely buying for Nathan and me- fairies and adult XXX ones that are garish and horrible and very sparse.

  I’m excited, so’s the owner when I start piling costumes on the counter.

  “Av, why are you buying a zombie one?” D laughs.

  “Oh D, the possibilities. Let’s just say there’s going to be some screams when I get home. Dad will think I’ve been experimented on! Although,” I finger the hideous mask. “I better get Nathan to hide all the guns first.”

  “And the angel one?” D is running her fingers down the soft feathers on the Angel wings. The owner comes over and raves on about this being used in a movie, I pull it down and add it to the pile.

  “We have this old friend Henry. He lost his wife to cancer last year and his son to suicide. He’s always tells me I’m like a real-life angel, so I thought I might wear this and make him a funny Christmas card. Like I’m dressed as an angel but doing something really... bad lol. He’s such a sweetie and it’s dry as a dead dingo’s donger on his property right now. So, if I can give him something to smile about this will be worth buying,” I touch the feathers now, thinking of Henry’s stories of Angels.

  He loves them, he’s got lots of pictures and statues. He collects yarns about people that have seen them, and he retells them like it was him that experienced it. He’s a great storyteller. Any sheep that he finds that are sick and recover are due to ‘angel intervention’, even the act of paying a bill.

  “That’s really sweet, Av,” D touches me on the shoulder. Poor Henry, I hope he’s coping alright with the drought.

  “Are you going to buy both the Indian co
stumes?” The owner asks with raised eyebrows when I drop the male and female versions on the pile.

  “Yup, and have you got any cowboy ones?”

  D is laughing and pulling things out from the racks now, showing me.

  “I need a wheelbarrow,” I grin when I throw a Santa, an elf and a headless horseman costume on my buying pile.

  “Oh, look Av, this one would be good for you!” D pulls out a long green dress.

  “Ah,” I manage not having an idea why any part of a green dress would ever be ‘good’ for me.

  “It’s Merida’s dress from ‘Brave’.” She gestures with her hands. I still don’t know. If Dell hasn’t watched it, I haven’t either. “She fires arrows from her horse?”

  “In a dress?”

  D looks like she really likes the thing, so I pluck it from her hands and throw it on the growing pile. I’ll watch the movie before deciding if I’ll ever pull it out, or maybe I’ll dare Nathan to wear it to a rodeo or something. That’s more like it.

  “I better stop there, Wade will have a coronary about fitting all this in his car,” I smile. The owner begins to work it all out when I think of something.

  “Has Amanda been okay with you at school?” I turn to watch D’s reaction closely. She doesn’t flinch.

  “She’s been keeping her distance, the others have been great too,” then I see something change.

  “What did you just think of?” I raise my eyebrow.

  D lets a long breath loose, “Av, I think you should just let it go now because it doesn’t mean anything. I’ve let all my grudges go, it’s no good to hurt my own self by keeping them.”