Sugar Secrets…& Conflict

by Mel Sparke

  “Sure. I was on my way over there anyway. Thanks for letting me know, Vera!”

  “That’s all right, dear!” Vera called after Cat as she left the launderette.

  Bouncing across the road in her double-decker Buffalos, Cat’s mind was racing. Vera wasn’t the only one who thought of Anna as a bit of a saviour – she’d helped Cat out of a bad patch not so long ago, giving her lots of advice and support in the aftermath of an assault Cat had been through.

  Anna’s always the one doling out advice, thought Cat, speeding towards the café. But if she’s in need of some help, I’m here to give it…

  “Poor Ollie,” muttered Cat as Anna came back over to the counter with an empty tray in her hand.

  “Thanks, Cat!” said the flustered-looking waitress, checking her order pad and pulling down two clean cups from the shelf.

  “No – I didn’t mean it like that, Anna! I just meant I can see how disappointed he must be. He must feel like he’s letting the other lads down too,” Cat tried to explain herself.

  Vera had been right – it did seem as if Anna had been looking for a friend to listen. Taking advantage of Ollie being away for an early lunchbreak, it hadn’t taken Cat long to push Anna to tell all, even if it was a disjointed story, with Anna dashing back and forth to serve customers all the while.

  Anna suddenly stopped what she was doing and sighed. “That’s the problem – I can see it from Ollie’s point of view too and it makes me feel awful. But what can I do? And what hurts most of all is that Ollie can’t seem to see it from my side at all…”

  A ping from the back kitchen alerted Anna to the fact that a customer’s baked potato was ready and she vanished for a second to collect it from Dorothy, who was beavering away with the lunchtime cooking.

  Cat swivelled on her stool and drummed her perfectly painted nails on the countertop. Something was going to have to be done to sort things out between her two friends. But what?

  If Maya wasn’t chained up at home, she’d sort them out, thought Cat, who was always in awe of Maya’s negotiating skills.

  Anna reappeared through the kitchen doorway carrying a steaming baked potato and beans at the exact same moment as a solution zapped into Cat’s mind.

  “Got it!” squealed Cat, practically jumping off her stool.

  “Er, that’s nice,” said Anna dubiously as she moved round the counter. “I’ll just drop this off then you can tell me what it is you’ve got.”

  “No, hold on!” said Cat excitedly, grabbing at Anna’s arm so that the beans slid menacingly towards the edge of the plate. “Listen – this’ll work! OIlie gets to go to his competition; you two make up—”

  “Cat!” Anna exclaimed, straightening the plate and glancing over in the direction of the customer to check he hadn’t noticed how close his lunch had come to slopping on the lino. “What are you on about?”

  “Me, Anna! I’m your way out!” Cat grinned. “I’m your new waitress! Well, for next Saturday, anyway!”

  It wasn’t Cat’s fault this time – at least not directly.

  Anna was struggling so hard not to laugh out loud that she didn’t even realise that her hand was shaking, sending baked beans splattering to the floor.

  CHAPTER 14

  MAKING THINGS WORSE

  “Do I get the feeling you’re not getting up off of there for the rest of the night?”

  Anna had just about enough energy left after a hectic Saturday shift to raise her eyes towards her boyfriend. She felt as if her whole exhausted body was melting into the sofa.

  “I’ll take that as a yes,” said Matt, plonking a cup of Anna’s favourite herbal tea down on the coffee table. “Is there something I can do to make you feel better? Tell you a couple of my best jokes maybe? OK, here goes. What’s brown and sticky?”

  “A stick. You’ve told me all your jokes, Matt,” Anna mumbled wearily.

  “Right. No jokes. What if I massage your back? Will that make you feel better?”

  Matt was surprised at Anna’s sudden blast of giggles.

  “A massage?” laughed Anna. “You’re rubbish at that sort of thing. It’s like being prodded in the shoulder blades with a bunch of frozen carrots.”

  “I’m not that bad!” Matt protested, flopping down on the floor beside the sofa.

  Anna was great at massages; she had a book on shiatsu massage and Matt was a more than willing guinea pig for her to practise on. She’d tried a couple of times to show him how to have a go himself on her own back and neck, but it felt more like being held in a Vulcan death grip than anything remotely relaxing.

  “Sorry, Matt, I don’t mean to be ungrateful. Thanks for the thought,” said Anna, reaching across and stroking his cheek. “But what’s going on today? What is it with people offering to do things that they’re completely rubbish at?”

  “You mean like Cat offering to help you in the café next Saturday?”

  “Uh-huh,” muttered Anna, leaning over for her herbal tea.

  “But I don’t get it – why is it such a terrible idea?”

  “Matt, think about it. For one thing, she’d start whimpering the minute she chipped a nail and, more important, have you known Cat to have a job ever?”

  Matt shook his head.

  “But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give her a try, Anna. After all, Nick’s giving me a go in the record shop and I’ve never done that kind of thing before.”

  “But that’s totally different! For a start, you know about music; I wouldn’t trust Cat round a kitchen in a million years. And the record shop only gets about three customers a month. I couldn’t have Cat mucking things up on our busiest day of the week!”

  “Still, I’m sure she’d be on her best behaviour and try really hard…”

  “You’re being very persuasive, Matt,” said Anna with a knowing smile. “Is this ‘cause you want Ollie to get the time off? Still on his side more than mine?”

  He knew she was only teasing him, but Matt didn’t know how to respond. Yes, he wanted the band to go forward into the finals – after all, the whole competition thing had been his idea – but right now, he wasn’t sure how he felt about Ollie. Sonja’s vindictive outburst on Thursday night had sent him reeling. Was all that down to Ollie bitching to her about Anna? Matt couldn’t be sure.

  “Course I’m on your side! We go out together. That’s part of the rules, isn’t it?” Matt blustered.

  “Well, you must be about the only person,” said Anna wistfully, blowing at the hot liquid in her cup to cool it down. “I’ve hardly seen any of the others in the café in the last few days… It’s like they’re showing their support for Ollie by staying away.”

  “Nah, that’s not true,” said Matt matter-of-factly, although he wasn’t sure of any such thing.

  “You think?” said Anna dubiously. “Well, explain this then – on my break today, I ran round to the stationer’s on the High Street and I saw Sonja on the other side of the road. So I waved at her and I’m sure she saw me, but it was as if she pretended she hadn’t!”

  “Well, she probably didn’t see you. She’s blind as a bat, that Son.”

  Anna stared at Matt, who looked fidgety. She knew as well as he did that there was nothing wrong with Sonja’s eyesight. Like so much else about her physically, it was perfect.

  “She hasn’t said anything to you, has she?” Anna quizzed her boyfriend. “About all this business with Ollie?”

  “No!” snorted Matt, laughing a little too loudly.

  He wasn’t too hot on keeping secrets, but Matt couldn’t see what good it would do to tell Anna what Sonja’s attitude towards her was right now – it would just upset her too much.

  And, deep down. Matt suspected he knew exactly why Sonja had taken against Anna so easily – and he wasn’t about to tell Anna that either. It was due, he was sure, to the fact that Anna hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic about her big brother Owen and her friend Sonja moving in together come September. It wasn’t that Anna was being morali
stic, Matt knew, it was just that she thought they were rushing things

  “I think they’re brilliant together, Son and Owen,” Anna had confided in him one night. “But why can’t Sonja just think about getting a student flat-share when she moves up north and take it slowly? Why do they have to move in together so quickly? It could spoil everything between them…”

  Matt had shrugged and agreed that his girlfriend had a point, but it was hard for him to listen to that and then hear Sonja’s comments on the subject. “What is it with Anna, Matt? Kerry and everyone seem really excited for me and Owen, but I just get the feeling that Anna doesn’t approve of us moving in together,” Sonja had told him at The Loud’s gig at the Railway Tavern one night a couple of weeks previously. “She’s hardly said anything about it to me. Does she think I’m going to lead her beloved brother astray?”

  “Don’t be stupid!” Matt had laughed at her, trying to dispel the idea from his friend’s head.

  Right now. Matt felt sick with keeping in secrets. More than anything, he wished all the tension and bad vibes would just disappear and they could all get back to normal.

  “Are you OK? You look a bit funny,” asked Anna.

  “Yeah… I’m – I’m just thinking that you probably don’t have the energy to come along and keep me company at this gig I’m doing tonight.”

  Well done – good cover-up! he praised himself.

  At the same time, even though it was just an excuse, he was disappointed that he’d have to go on his own to DJ at tonight’s engagement party. He vaguely knew the guy whose party it was and had been looking forward to showing Anna off.

  “Sorry, Matt – after the week I’ve had, the most energetic thing I can bear to do tonight is press ‘play’ on my video. I just fancy sticking on those old Friends tapes Kerry lent me and having a laugh.”

  Poor Anna, thought Matt as he bent over and kissed her forehead. She hasn’t had much of a laugh the last few days – and certainly not with her ‘friends’…

  “Well, phone him, if you think it’ll help!”

  “I dunno…” shrugged Ollie, leaning his bum against the seat of his Vespa, which was parked outside Kerry’s house.

  “Come on, Ollie! It can’t do any harm!”

  Kerry looked at him pleadingly, her arms folded across her chest as the chilly evening breeze brushed over her bare arms.

  “I suppose. I mean, Matt’s closest to Anna just now. He’ll be able to help, won’t he? Put in a word for me and that?”

  “Of course!” Kerry assured him.

  She was starting to get desperate – she’d encourage Ollie to do anything if it helped improve the situation between him and Anna. At the moment it seemed to be getting worse and threatening to spread out and divide everyone in the crowd, if Sonja and Joe were anything to go by.

  From what Ollie’s said, thought Kerry, attempting to smile positively at her troubled boyfriend, it just sounds like Joe’s trying to play fair. But there’s no telling Ollie that, not while he’s in this martyrish mood, after having to drop out of the competition.

  Sonja was a different matter – she genuinely seemed to be outraged at the unfairness of what had happened. Kerry was totally taken aback at how angry her best friend had seemed about the whole situation. But then, like her cousin Cat, Sonja could be pretty hot-headed when she wanted to.

  And then Sonja’s got that weird idea that Anna’s against her and Owen living together, Kerry suddenly realised. That’s what could really be making her mad at Anna…

  “You’re right. I’ll phone Matt when I get home – I’ll have time before I have to help down in the bar and that way I should catch him before he goes off to that party he’s DJing at tonight.”

  Kerry shivered and not just with the cold.

  “Hey, Kez,” said OIlie gently, sensing her mood and reaching out to give her a hug. “I know you’re upset and I feel rotten too. But it’ll all get sorted out…”

  At that moment, with her arms wrapped around his neck, there was no way Kerry could see what OIlie was doing behind her back…

  OIlie put his hand on the white-tiled wall and let the full force of the power-shower pummel him.

  How did everything get this complicated! he wondered, blinking as the water coursed into his eyes.

  Phoning Matt just now hadn’t helped at all. Keeping his fingers crossed when he’d been hugging Kerry obviously hadn’t worked either.

  “Hey, Matt – where are you?” he’d said, hearing the muffled roar of traffic in the earpiece.

  “I’m just outside Central Sounds. I’ve had to hire an amp from them for this gig I’m doing tonight.”

  Matt sounded a bit distant, thought Ollie. Loyalty to Anna, he supposed. Still, he and Matt were great mates, so it was worth a try…

  “Yeah, I remembered you were working tonight. Uh, Matt – I was kind of hoping for a favour.”

  “Oh, yeah?”

  “You don’t think you could, well, have a word with Anna, could you? See if you could persuade her to give me time off just this once? I was thinking, maybe I could work a couple of hours in the morning before we go up to the city or—”

  “Ollie, can I ask you something?” interrupted Matt.

  “Um, sure…”

  “Did you bad-mouth Anna to Sonja?”

  “What? No! What are you on about?”

  “It’s just that Sonja gave me a bit of an earful on Thursday. Seemed like she thought Anna was the Wicked Witch of the West or something for screwing up your chances at this competition.”

  “What? Well, she didn’t hear it from me like that! I mean, Kez probably filled her in on what was going on, but it’s not as if Kez would put it like that…”

  Ollie knew he was waffling, but what Matt had told him had really thrown him. What was Sonja playing at? She maybe sympathised with him, but she wasn’t helping his cause by bitching to Matt about his own girlfriend.

  “I’ll have to go, Ol – I’m late,” Matt had concluded their conversation in a flat voice.

  So does that mean he believed me about Sonja? Ollie wondered, not even noticing that the water had begun to run cooler. Well, one thing’s for sure – he’s definitely not going to help me out with persuading Anna…

  Ollie yanked the pressure control round and switched the shower off.

  Suddenly the huge wave of disappointment that had been threatening to engulf him all week burst over him and Ollie thumped hard on the tiles with the side of his fist, letting out a stream of swear words into the bargain.

  “This could have been it! This competition could have been the start of everything for the band!” he grumbled aloud once the worst of his frustration had ebbed away.

  Then he stopped dead, only dimly aware of the throbbing pain shooting through the hand that had been hammering on the wall.

  “Sorry, Anna,” he said with an edge of defiance in his voice, “but I can’t miss out on this, whatever you say, whatever happens. There’s no way I can give up on my one big chance…”

  CHAPTER 15

  ANNA’S SMASHING TIME

  Anna stared down at the cover of the book on the table and tapped it thoughtfully with her index finger.

  She looked again at the page she’d been studying last night: 20 Ways To Make A Bad Situation Better said the heading above a long list of points. Anna had dug out the book – Improve Your Life Today – from a pile of similarly titled paperbacks that were crammed on her small bookshelf.

  3. Start a new week with a fresh approach… 11. Do something nice for someone: it’ll make you feel good… 18. Take a chance on someone – you could be surprised… 20. Tell yourself you’re going to have a good day and you will…

  Grabbing her hairbrush from the table, Anna brushed her long, straight brown hair back into a ponytail while rereading the four points that had struck home with her.

  “Right,” she announced aloud, rolling a towelling hairband off her wrist and securing her hair. “Monday it is, so let’s have a fresh sta
rt!”

  Glancing over into the small mirror on the wall, she practised her cheeriest smile.

  “I am going to have a good day!” Anna said determinedly, hoping she wasn’t telling herself a big fat lie.

  “All right, Anna?” said Ollie, coming through from the kitchen, where he’d let himself in through the back door.

  “Yes, good thanks, Ollie,” Anna smiled as she opened up the café and welcomed the first two customers of the day.

  Well, maybe it is going to be a better day, she mused, scribbling down the orders for egg and bacon breakfasts. Ollie looks and sounds pretty cheery! And he’s going to sound a lot more cheery when he hears what I’ve got to say…

  “And no tomatoes. I told that big bloke who works in here last time and I still got tomatoes. And don’t make the eggs too runny. And make it a strong tea – none of your usual weak stuff. And get me another fork – this one looks dirty.”

  Anna smiled brightly at the fussy customer – nothing was going to dampen her spirits today. She’d had enough gloom and doom to last her a year. Enough was enough.

  “Certainly.” she beamed and made her way towards the kitchen.

  Swooping behind the counter, she couldn’t help smiling to herself.

  ll. Do something nice for someone: it’ll make you feel good… she said to herself. Well, here goes!

  “Was that the ‘no tomatoes, no runny eggs, no manners’ bloke I heard there?” Ollie grinned at her, grabbing the order out of her outstretched hand.

  “Yes – he hasn’t been in for a while, has he?” laughed Anna. Instantly, she slapped her hand across her mouth in case she’d been too loud – but a quick peek back through the doorway into the café showed that the man was too busy yakking to his mate to hear.

  “Tell you what – you should ask him if he likes music.”

  Anna watched as Ollie slapped some bacon under the grill and wondered what he was on about.