That's What Friends Are For

by Marcie Steele

  ‘Look, if there’s anything that –’

  ‘Mum, I’m fine!’

  ‘Okay, okay.’ Louise turned to go but stopped. ‘It’s just, if you ever want someone to talk to, I’m here for you. You do know that?’

  ‘Whatever.’

  Louise sighed and left the room. Not wanting to say anything about the letter until she knew the reason why she’d been called into the school, she let the matter drop for now.

  Once her mum had gone, Charley grabbed her phone and sent a message to Alex.

  CP: Are you there? I need to talk.

  She waited for a moment, hoping he would be able to reply. His response came back in seconds:

  AL: Yeah, here. What’s up?

  CP: I really hate going to school right now.

  AL: Still bad?

  CP: Yeah. If it wasn’t for those stupid rumours, me and Sophie would still be friends. Now she’s gone off with Angela Wilson, I have no one to talk to except you…

  Charley paused. She was going to type and you’re not always there when I need you, but realised that wasn’t his fault.

  CP: That’s why I haven’t been going to school, she said instead. I don’t feel like I belong there anymore.

  AL: Don’t say that.

  CP: It’s true. I don’t feel like I belong anywhere really. Mum doesn’t care about me. Everyone at school just wants to spread rumours about me or laugh at me and call me names. It’s horrible being on my own. At least when Sophie was around, I had someone to stick up for me. Now I have no one.

  AL: You have me to talk to. I know it’s not the same but I thought we were friends.

  CP: We are!

  AL: I have to go. Mum is calling me. Speak later, yeah? And remember, Charl, I like you. I like you a lot!

  Charley’s smile was faint as she typed goodbye.

  As soon as Sam arrived at work the next morning, shortly after ten, Louise followed her through to the back room to speak to her.

  ‘I’ve had a letter from the school,’ she said, ‘I have to go and see Charley’s form teacher. I’ve just rung up and he can see me this afternoon. Is it okay if I finish early tonight?’

  ‘Of course,’ nodded Sam. ‘Any idea what it’s about?’

  ‘Apparently she hasn’t turned up for a full week since January. Honestly, it’s like looking after a mini-me. How can I tell her off for something I used to do all the time?’

  ‘I remember it well,’ said Nicci. ‘I was jealous because you hardly ever went to school during your last year.’

  Louise grinned as she remembered too. ‘Mum was always having a go at me.’

  ‘But she only did it because she cared. Don’t you want Charley to get on in life and have a good education?’ asked Sam.

  ‘I suppose so.’ Louise sighed dramatically. ‘She’s clever enough to go to university if she put her mind to it. Not that I’d ever be able to afford the fees.’

  ‘She’s working here, though,’ said Sam. Charley had been working on the stall for the past three Saturdays. ‘That shows initiative, so I reckon she’ll provide for herself. I’ve enjoyed having her here, too. She’s quite the little worker.’

  ‘Then why isn’t she going to school?’ said Louise.

  ‘Have you asked her?’

  ‘I tried speaking to her last night but she said she was okay. And I didn’t want to push it until I’ve spoken to her teacher.’

  ‘I bet she misses Sophie,’ said Nicci. She was putting together an order for a woman who had left her a list while she did her shopping. She ran her pen through red pepper and mushrooms. ‘It seems strange not to see them together anymore. Charley looks lost without her. Did you ever find out what they’d rowed about?’

  ‘Nope.'

  ‘Do you ever talk to Charley and ask her stuff?’ asked Sam, holding a bag out for Nicci as she weighed out potatoes and slid them in. ‘You sound as if you don’t really know each other.’

  ‘We don’t.’ Louise sat down on a stool. ‘I just can’t seem to get through to her anymore. One minute, she was a sweet kid; the next a stroppy teenager. And now I have to go into school and face the teachers. Just the thought of that makes me feel like I’m the one in trouble.’ She shuddered. ‘Brings back bad memories.’

  ‘Oh, it’ll be something and nothing, you’ll see,’ Sam tried to soothe her fears. ‘There might be a valid explanation once you get there. Don’t be too quick to think it’s Charley.’

  ‘There you go again, trying to put the blame on me!’ Louise retorted. She got up to serve a new customer.

  ‘I wasn’t.’ Sam shook her head. ‘I’m just saying wait until you’ve been to see her teacher before ranting and raving about it.’

  ‘Yeah, right.’

  ‘Look, if it helps, I can call in on my way home from work. Give you a bit of moral support if you need it?’ Anything to stop me going home to be with Reece, Sam thought to herself.

  ‘Would you?’ Louise nodded. ‘Ta. It riles me to say, but she always listens to you.’

  ‘That’s because I’m not her mum.’

  Louise pouted. ‘I just think it’s because she can’t stand me.’

  ‘Well, there is that.’ Sam grinned. She ducked when Louise threw a satsuma at her.

  At the end of the day, Sam locked up the stall and made her way over to Louise’s house. After all the recent fallings out, she was looking forward to a couple of hours with Louise. They hadn’t had a good chat in ages, despite seeing each other every day on the stall. Maybe if Charley wasn’t sulking too much after Louise had spoken to her, they could all sit down together and have a laugh. And if it meant a couple of hours away from Reece and the tension in their home, she was all for it.

  ‘How did it go at the school?’ Sam asked as she shrugged off her coat in Louise’s hallway.

  ‘Flipping awful,’ Louise replied.

  ‘Oh dear. Where is she?’

  ‘In her room.’ Louise pointed to the ceiling. ‘And she can stay there as far as I’m concerned. I’ve just about had enough of her lip.’

  Sam sat down at the kitchen table as Louise banged crockery around while she made coffee. Then she turned back to Sam, fury etched across her face.

  ‘That teacher of hers accused me of neglecting her, can you believe that?’

  Sam could actually, but didn’t want to inflame Louise any further by saying so. ‘Did he give any reason why she was skipping days?’

  ‘He reckons she’s been unhappy for a couple of months now. That if I spent more time talking to her, and encouraging her to talk to me, then we might be able to get to the bottom of things. Patronising git.’ Louise added sugar to one mug and slammed down the lid of the container.

  ‘Did you tell him that she’d fallen out with Sophie?’

  ‘I didn’t get the chance. He told me! He said Charley has become withdrawn, not wanting to join in with any discussions, sitting in the class on her own – when she can be bothered to turn up – walking around on her own.’

  ‘That doesn’t sound like Charley,’ Sam commented, as a mug of coffee was put down in front of her with another bang.

  ‘He reckons she’s been the victim of a smear campaign. You know, a little ribbing and something called cyber bullying.’

  ‘You mean on Facebook and such?’

  Louise nodded. ‘And kids sending texts and these SnapChat things, and emails about her to everyone in her year.’ She sat down opposite Sam with a scrape of her chair across the flooring.

  Sam was shocked. ‘Do you know what it’s all about?’

  Louise shuffled in her seat. ‘He thinks it something to do with the boys teasing her about being a sleep around.’

  ‘But that’s absurd.’ Sam frowned. ‘Isn’t it?’

  ‘He thinks everyone is teasing her because – because of me.’

  ‘He said that?’ Sam was outraged for her friend. ‘I’d complain about it if I were you. He shouldn’t –’

  ‘Okay, he didn’t exactly say that but I knew what
he was getting at.’

  ‘Well,’ Sam chose her words carefully, ‘in a way, I probably agree.’

  ‘That’s not fair!’

  Sam raised her eyebrows. ‘What did you say in response?’

  ‘I told him that kids can be nasty when they want to be. And latching onto a clever girl at school is what they do. They try to bring them down to their level. It seems to me that someone was threatened by Charley and wanted to take her out of the equation.’

  ‘What did she say when you spoke to her?’

  ‘She called me a stupid tart.’

  ‘And what did you say to that?’

  ‘I didn’t say anything.’

  ‘You never addressed the fact that Charley was getting bullied at school?’ Sam shook her head.

  ‘No, I just grounded her.’ Louise folded her arms.

  ‘She’ll never confide in you if you lash out every time she gets upset!’

  ‘She shouldn’t have said that to me!’ Louise snapped. ‘I’m her mother.’

  ‘Louise! What kind of mother doesn’t have sympathy for a child who is getting bullied?’

  ‘She isn’t getting bullied. It’s just name calling. Besides, she should have some respect for me.’

  ‘Like you had for your mum, no doubt. She’s fifteen, not twenty-five.’

  ‘I knew you’d side with her.’ Louise put down her mug and folded her arms. ‘You always think you know better than me.’

  ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I don’t think that at all. I just see things from a different perspective. You and Charley are so alike, you’re bound to argue. But,’ Sam shrugged a shoulder, ‘she’s your daughter.’

  ‘Yes, she’s MY daughter,’ said Louise. ‘Mine – nothing at all to do with you.’

  Sam recoiled from the bitter edge of Louise’s voice. How had they come to be arguing already?

  ‘I wish I’d never come around tonight,’ Sam said, tired of hearing about other people’s problems.

  ‘So do I! You’re as bad as that teacher, practically accusing me of neglecting Charley and—’

  ‘I’ve done nothing of the sort. I merely said I think you should try and talk to her, get her to tell you what’s wrong and if you can’t get through to her, then I’ll try. She’s crying out for help by not going to school.’

  ‘She won’t get any help at all if she gets me into trouble.’

  ‘Oh, Louise.’ Sam wanted to reach across the table and slap some sense into her. ‘Why is everything about you?’

  ‘If you think you’d be so good at parenting, why don’t you take Charley for a couple of months and see how you get on with her then? See how cheeky she is, how rude she is.’

  ‘It’s part of being a teenager!’

  ‘Some of it is,’ Louise agreed. ‘But some of it is downright cheek. If I ask her to wear a blue T-shirt, she’ll wear a red one. If I ask her to come downstairs, she’ll sit in her room. If I ask her to run the hoover round or peg the washing out, she’s having a go before I’ve even finished the sentence. It’s not—’

  ‘You’re back to feeling sorry for yourself again,’ Sam interrupted, her patience being tested to the limit. ‘Why can’t you admit for once that you think you’ve failed Charley?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Firstly, you never told her who her father was.’ Sam looked directly at Louise. ‘Then, when you married Brian, she looked on him as a father figure but you couldn’t keep him. And now there’s Matt looking out for you, loving you, but you don’t appreciate him either.’

  Sam knew that some of her words had sunk in when Louise stood up, her face contorted with rage. But she knew she hadn’t heard the ones about Matt. She was too wound up by being criticised to hear her point.

  ‘You’re no better than me,’ Louise sneered. ‘Your husband left because you were messing around with another man.’

  ‘I told you that wasn’t true. And he’s back now so I don’t see your point.’

  ‘But you don’t want to be with him anymore.’ Louise thought back to their last conversation where she’d been comforting Sam after she’d burst into tears. ‘You must have slept with Dan. Reece would never leave you unless it was true; he worshipped the ground you walked on.’ She paused. ‘Lucky bitch.’

  Angry beyond words, Sam stood up too and they faced each other over the table.

  ‘Oh, I’m a lucky bitch, am I?’ she spat. ‘You have Charley. You have the only thing I’ve ever wanted, a child of my own. I’ve had to sit back and watch you ruin her life while I – we – while me and Reece watched on from the sidelines. It literally tore us apart because I couldn’t get pregnant.’

  Louise sat open-mouthed while Sam continued.

  ‘You had your chance at happiness but you blew it.’

  ‘I didn’t ask to get pregnant with Charley,’ Louise protested. ‘I was only eighteen. I had my whole life ahead of me until she came along and spoilt everything.’

  ‘I doubt that very much. You were quite capable of making a hash of it before you became pregnant. And I still can’t believe you wouldn’t tell me who her father is. Me! Of all people. I’m supposed to be your best friend.’

  ‘I haven’t told anyone. Ever.’

  ‘That’s because it was probably one of your Saturday night conquests. Everyone thinks it’s Rob Masters anyway.’

  ‘You really want to know who Charley’s father is?’ In temper, Louise opened a drawer, rummaged round in it until her hand clapsed onto a small mirror. She thrust it into Sam’s hands.

  ‘Look at it!’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Look at it and tell me what you see.’

  ‘Nothing but my own reflection.’

  ‘Exactly! Which is what I see every time I look at Charley.’

  Sam frowned. Why would Louise see her face whenever she looked at Charley? Suddenly the realisation dawned on her. Her hand covered her mouth and her eyes widened in disbelief.

  Martin.

  ‘Your dad was Charley’s father!’ said Louise, her voice breaking as she burst into tears.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ‘You slept with my dad?’ Sam whispered.

  Louise nodded slightly, still afraid to admit the truth. ‘Can’t you see? I’ve never told you before because I knew it would hurt you too much to find out the truth.’

  Sam didn’t know what to say. Could it be true? That Charley was in fact her half-sister? Quickly, she did the sums. Charley was sixteen soon. Louise was thirty-four, which meant that her dad would have been thirty-four too when they had slept together. It would have been a couple of months before he died.

  ‘Sit down, Sam,’ said Louise. ‘And I’ll explain it all.’

  Before she could, they heard a cry from the hall.

  ‘I HATE YOU!’

  ‘Charley!’ Louise and Sam spoke in unison, rushing out of the kitchen. When they reached the hall, they found Charley sitting at the top of the stairs, clutching her knees, looking very young, and very vulnerable.

  ‘I heard you!’ she yelled. ‘I heard every word.’

  Louise rushed up the stairs towards her but Charley ran to her room and slammed the door shut.

  ‘Please, let me explain!’ Louise went straight in and saw that Charley had thrown herself onto the bed.

  ‘You should have told me!’ Charley screamed.

  ‘You should have told me, too.’

  Louise turned round. Sam was standing in the doorway.

  ‘I couldn’t tell you.’ Louise began to cry as she looked from one to the other. ‘I thought I was doing the right thing – by both of you! I thought I was protecting you!’

  ‘No, you were protecting yourself,’ Sam said quietly.

  ‘I wasn’t!’

  ‘Yes, you were. By not telling me, you played on our friendship for years. You knew if I ever found out I wouldn’t want to know you anymore. You had no right to deceive me like that.’

  ‘I didn’t deceive you!’

  ‘It was all about you, once again
. You never think about anyone but yourself.’

  Louise shook her head. ‘You’re so wrong.’

  Sam pointed at Charley who was crying into her pillow. ‘No wonder that poor girl feels like she’s not wanted.’ Then she turned and walked away.

  ‘Sam! Wait!’ Louise rushed to the bedroom door.

  ‘You’ve never got close to her because you’ve always blamed her for your mistake!’ Sam took a few steps down. ‘She’s there as a constant reminder of what you did!’

  ‘It was a mistake!’ Louise covered her ears with her hands. ‘I didn’t mean for it to happen.’

  ‘Like I believe that.’ Sam glared up at her. ‘She’ll never forgive you for this, and neither will I.’

  ‘Sam!’ Louise shouted down, unsure whether to follow her friend or comfort her daughter. ‘Sam, please!’

  Sam retrieved her bag from the kitchen, swiped her coat from the banister and left the house with the slam of a door.

  At the top of the stairs, Louise dropped to her knees. ‘I was eighteen!’ She sobbed, bitterly. ‘I was eighteen.’ But no one was listening to her.

  * * *

  As soon as Louise left her room, Charley logged into Facebook to see if Alex was online to chat. Luckily, he was.

  CP: ‘I hate her. She says I was a mistake. How can she say that? So hurtful.’

  AL: ‘She doesn’t deserve you. I think you should teach her a lesson.’

  CP: ‘How?’

  AL: ‘Maybe you should go somewhere for the night, not tell her and let her worry.’

  CP: ‘I’m not sure what good that would do.’

  AL: ‘If she really cared about you, she would be concerned.’

  CP: ‘Maybe. But I don’t have anywhere to go.’

  AL: ‘My mum and dad have a static caravan near to the sea at Rhyl.’

  Euw, a caravan. Charley paused. That was her worst nightmare.

  AL: ‘Think about it. Just for one night.’

  CP: ‘I don’t know how to get to Rhyl. I don’t even know where it is.’

  AL: ‘I could show you. I could stay with you, if you like.’

  Charley stopped typing. She knew what Alex really meant was that they could sleep together in the caravan. A little tingle ran through her. She was ready, wasn’t she? This is what she wanted.