by S R Silcox
During the speeches, Jo had pointed out a few times when I was huffing, which was pretty much every time Mum or Scott Fisher said something I obviously thought was BS. She’d dug me in the ribs and told me to be quiet and once, she told me to just get over it. I hadn’t even realised that I was scowling until she threatened to ‘kiss it right off’, which would’ve made me laugh a few months ago, but not now.
I know the fight about the development is over, and that it’s going ahead no matter what, but it still annoys me that they’re all taking Scott’s word that the construction isn’t going to impact on the turtles that are nesting on the island.
By seven o’clock, we’re so busy with pizza orders, I don’t have time to think about it anymore. There are people everywhere. Matt and Ben are tag-teaming on the pizza ovens and the prep tables and Jo and Sam are run off their feet getting the pizzas out. Gloria and I have two lines going for orders; only giving people a choice of meatlovers, ham and pineapple, plain cheese or vego has made ordering easier. Of course, not everyone is happy with the choices. Mrs McNamara made a bit of a fuss because she didn’t like any of the standard toppings and in the end, Jo took her over to Matt, who was making the pizzas up, so she could create her own.
Mum waves to me over people’s heads as if nothing is wrong and behind her, Dad makes a face that I guess is supposed to mean ‘please don’t be mean to your mother’. I get the hint, and by the time they make it to the front of the line, I’m too tired to fight.
Mum says, “It’s good to see you, Brooks.”
“A meatlovers and a ham and pineapple?” I reply.
“Yes, actually. Is Pete’s place okay?”
“It’s fine, Mum. Do you want any drinks?”
“You’re getting along with Ben okay?” she asks, completely ignoring my attempt to move her on.
“We’re fine.”
“I’m so glad he’s there. Ben was always the more mature of your cousins. Of course, it helps he’s one of the oldest.”
“Mum!”
“What?”
“Drinks?”
“Oh. Just a bottle of water,” Mum says. “And can you make sure there’s no onion on that meatlovers? Your dad’s been getting indigestion.”
I resist the urge to roll my eyes. “There’s no onion on the meatlovers, Mum.”
“Okay, good.”
“Anything else?”
“No, thank you.”
I finish writing up the order docket, rip off the number at the bottom and hand it to Mum. “Shouldn’t be too long.”
She takes the number and as I look behind her to the next person in line, she says, “Brooks, we need to talk.”
“Not now, Mum. I’m busy.”
She looks at me and purses her lips. She leans toward me and just loud enough for me to hear asks, “Just, I have to ask. That fraccas earlier, you didn’t have anything to—”
I cut her off. “You think I organised a protest? Jesus, Mum.” I shake my head. “I need to take more orders. Can you go wait for your pizza?”
She looks like she doesn’t believe me, but rather than argue, she lifts her head higher and says, loud enough for the people around her to hear, “Thank you, darling. I’ll see you later.”
I ignore her and take the next order. When I look up again, I see that Riley’s standing in my line, a couple of people back from the front. It throws me a little. I mean, I thought she might be here because this is her dad’s thing, but I’m still not sure what I’m going to say to her. I mean, I have no idea whether Scott’s told her about C.R.A.G or not, and if he has, what she even thinks about it. I guess I’m about to find out. I serve the next couple of people and then Riley steps up. She’s smiling, which I guess is a good sign.
“Hey, Brooks,” she says.
“Hey, Riley. Good to see you.” All of a sudden, my palms have gone sweaty. I wipe them on my shorts.
“You too,” Riley says. “Busy night?”
“Yeah. What can I get you?”
Riley’s face goes blank. “Oh. I hadn’t really decided.”
“You got in line without deciding what you want?”
“I thought I’d know by the time I got up here.” She pulls a face. “Sorry.”
I can see people shifting in the line behind Riley and as much as I want to stand here and keep talking to her I say, “That’s okay. How about I surprise you?”
“Really?”
“Yeah How hard can it be. There’s only really three choices, right? Unless you’ve turned vegetarian in the last few years.”
Riley laughs. “No. I haven’t. Not that my mother didn’t try.”
“Really?” I couldn’t imagine Riley, lover of hamburgers (or she was when I used to know her) not being able to eat meat.
“Yeah,” Riley says. “Don’t ask.”
“Right, so that rules one of the choices out at least. And if I remember correctly, you don’t like pineapple.”
Riley nods. “Still true.”
“We’re down to two choices then.” I write up the ticket. “One surprise pizza coming up.”
“How much?” Riley asks.
“Nothing.”
“You’re giving me a freebie?” Riley asks, eyebrows raised.
I laugh. “No. Your dad’s paid for all of this. Everyone’s pizza is free tonight.”
“Oh.” She looks disappointed.
“I would give you a freebie anyway, if you had to pay,” I say quickly.
Riley gives me a half smile. She tucks the money she was holding into her pocket. “I might catch you later then.”
“Yeah,” I reply. I watch as she wanders off and realise too late that she’s not taken her number. “Hey, Riley,” I call. She turns and I hold up the number. “You need this to get your pizza.”
She laughs and pushes her way back through the crowd. “Thanks. Sorry.”
“No problems. I hope you like it.”
“I’m sure I will.” She smiles and heads off.
Not long after, when the crowd has finally thinned out, Jo appears beside me, presents me with a bottle of Fanta and a pizza box and says, “Ben’s made you a cheese pizza. Go and take a break. I’ll help Gloria out.”
“Thanks.” I take the drink and pizza, silently cursing the she knows me so well to get me what she did, and head out to the picnic table around the back. Just talking to Riley after so long has given me a bit of a buzz. I hope she sticks around a bit longer so I can talk to her some more.
Nine
Riley
“Hey, it’s Riley. Right?”
I turn to see who’s talking to me. It’s the guy who served me at the surf shop this morning. “Yeah. Hi,” I reply.
“Hi. I’m Reece,” he says, smiling at me. “I served you today at the surf shop.”
I smile back politely. “I remember.”
“Waiting for your pizza?” Reece asks.
“Yep.” When you live in a city, you tend to forget how overly friendly small town people can be. Reece is obviously no exception.
“What did you get?” he asks.
“I don’t know,” I reply.
“You don’t know?”
“Brooks ordered it for me.” I’m hoping my short answers will make him go away.
“Brooks did? Do you know Brooks?”
He seems surprised.
“We used to hang out when we were kids.”
“Oh. She never mentioned that. So you’ve been to Roper’s before?”
“I used to come up here when I was a kid. My dad lives here.”
“Oh? Who’s your dad?”
“Scott Fisher,” I reply. He’s obviously not a local if he doesn’t know I’m related to the infamous Scott Fisher.
Reece shifts on his feet. “Scott Fisher’s your dad?”
“Yeah. Why?” It’s the second time tonight I’ve had the feeling someone doesn’t like him.
“Oh. Nothing,” Reece says. “So, how long have you known Brooks then?”
I shrug.
“Since we were five maybe.”
“Oh, really? That long?”
I just nod. I look over to the counter where Brooks was taking orders, but she’s gone.
“You’re practically a local then, huh?” He smiles at me, but I don’t smile back. “So you’ll know about the Saturday night bonfires then.”
“I guess.”
“Well, there’s one on tonight, if you’re interested.”
I turn to face him. “I doubt my father would let me go. He’s pretty protective, you know?”
“Right,” Reece says. He looks back over the crowd of people inside the cafe, obviously checking where Dad is.
Thankfully my number is called out before he can ask any more questions. “That’s me,” I say. “Catch you later.”
After I get my pizza, I scan the crowd and spot Dad and Julie talking to a couple of official looking men in suits, who look out of place amongst the locals, who are mostly wearing short-sleeved shirts and shorts. Jason’s sitting at a table nearby with some boys who look like they’re around his age, all of them hunched over a handheld game. I decide to get some fresh air, so I head outside to see if there are any tables free to eat by myself. They all look full, and I wonder whether the old picnic table is still around the back of the Hut. No-one except the staff would know about it, so I head through the marquee down the side of the shop.
When I round the corner, I spot Brooks sitting by herself. I stand for a minute, not sure if I should go over, and then Brooks spots me.
“Riley?”
“Hey, Brooks.”
“Hey,” she says. “Did you see what I got you?”
I look down at my pizza box. “No. Not yet.” Brooks pats the seat beside her and I go over and sit down. I open the box and peer inside. “A ham and cheese?”
Brooks grins. “Yep. You don’t like all that meat on the meatlover’s right? So I got you ham without the pineapple. And extra cheese.” She grins.
“I thought you could only order what was on the menu tonight?”
“I put my initials on the bottom so the boys would know the order was from me so they’d make up exactly what I said.”
I smile and pick up a slice. “Thanks.”
“No problems.”
We both eat our pizzas in silence for a bit, and I can’t help looking over at Brooks every now and then. It feels familiar to be sitting beside her again, but also strange.
“How’d you end up out here?” Brooks asks eventually.
“It got a bit too loud in there, and I needed some fresh air.”
“Your dad won’t miss you?”
I shrug. “Not really. He’s busy schmoozing.”
“Yeah,” Brooks says. “These council things are always boring.”
“You’ve been to one before?”
Brooks nods. “When your mother’s the Deputy Mayor, you’re kind of expected to go.”
“Right,” I say. “I also think that guy from your work, Reece, was trying to hit on me.”
Brooks snorts. “Really?”
“Yeah. When I was waiting for my pizza. He just came up to me and started talking to me, like he knew me.”
Brooks shakes her head. “Well, you can’t blame him.”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Riles. Look how you’ve turned out. You were cute when you were a kid, but now you’re all grown up. I’m sure boys just throw themselves at you.”
Brooks’ face is in shadow so I can’t really tell if she’s joking. I think she is, so I whack her on the arm. It feels like we’ve slipped straight back to old times. I didn’t realise how much I needed that until right now.
Brooks laughs. “It’s been a long time, huh?”
I nod. “Yeah. It has. So how have you been?”
“Me? I’m good. How about you?”
I don’t know if she’s asking in general terms, or about Mum’s death, so I opt for the reply everyone expects. “I’m okay.”
“Did you find what you were looking for this morning?” she asks.
“What do you mean?”
“At the shop,” Brooks says. “Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you. Reece keeps us busy.”
I wave her off. “Oh. Sure. No problem. And yeah, I bought some new togs and stuff.”
“That’s good,” Brooks says.
“Yeah,” I reply. “I needed new ones.”
There’s an awkward silence and then when Brooks turns back to her pizza, the light from the shop glints off her eye. “You got your eyebrow ring then?” I ask, looking for something, anything, to keep Brooks talking. I never realised how much I missed talking to her.
Brooks touches her finger to her eyebrow. “Yeah. Hurt like hell, too.” She smiles.
“What did your mum say?”
“You don’t want to know.” Brooks laughs. “But that argument was nothing compared to what she did when she found out about the tattoo.”
“You got a tattoo? When?”
“Last year. One of Ben’s mates is a tattoo artist just starting out. He did it for me for nothing for my birthday.”
Before I realise what I’m saying, I blurt out, “Can I see it?”
Brooks laughs. “I’m not sure whether I want to show you or not.”
“Oh. I didn’t mean… If it’s not somewhere you can show me that’s okay.” God, how embarrassing. What if it’s on her boob or her butt or something?
“It’s hard to see in this light,” Brooks explains.
I hope Brooks can’t see my face in this light so she won’t notice how red I’ve gone. “That’s okay. You can show me some other time.”
I take a bite of my pizza, mainly to stop myself from saying anything else stupid.
“So how’s it going being back here?” Brooks asks.
“It’s okay,” I say around chewing my pizza.
“You’re dad must be happy you’re back up here. I mean, not under the circumstances, obviously.” She scrunches up her nose and shakes her head. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay,” I shrug. I think about Brooks’ question. Is Dad happy I’m back? He hasn’t said anything to me really. “I don’t know what Dad thinks about me being here,” I say. “I haven’t seen him much since I got here.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. He’s got his big glamping project to keep him busy.”
“Right,” Brooks says.
“And he’s got me staying out in the guest house, which totally sucks.”
“Why does that suck? You have your own space. I would be so happy if my parents had a guest house for me to stay in. Although it doesn’t really matter since I’m not living there anymore.” Brooks rolls up a slice of her pizza and bites into it. She hasn’t changed at all.
“You’re not at home?”
Brooks finishes eating her pizza and wipes her hand across her mouth. “Nope. I’m staying with Ben at Uncle Pete’s.”
“Oh? Why?”
Brooks shrugs. “I just needed some space. Mum and I had some pretty major arguments over your dad’s development.”
This surprises me. “You don’t like it?”
Brooks sighs and looks like she’s trying to think of a good answer. Before she can reply, someone calls her name. She turns to see who it is. “Hey, Ben. What’s up?”
“Sorry to interrupt,” he says. “We’ve just taken final orders. Can you come give us a hand to start clearing up?”
Brooks checks her watch. “Shit. Have we been out here that long?”
“Gloria came out here earlier and saw you were busy, and she didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Sorry,” Brooks says.
Ben shrugs. “That’s okay. We had it covered.”
“Thanks. Hey, have you met Riley?”
“Nope.” He sticks out his hand and I shake it.
“Hi,” I say, and look at Brooks for an explanation.
“Ben’s my cousin. He moved up here last year.”
“This is your friend from when you were a kid,” Ben says
. “Nice to finally meet you, Riley. Brooks has told me heaps about you.”
“Has she?”
He laughs. “Not really. She keeps her life BB pretty secret.”
“BB?” I ask.
“Before Ben,” Ben explains.
Brooks slaps at him. “Don’t be so embarrassing.”
“So are you coming to help out? The sooner we can get everything finalised and then packed up the sooner we can get to the bonfire. Hey,” he says turning to me. “You should totally come.”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’d have to ask Dad. I think he wants us to spend some time together after the meeting finishes.”
“You don’t have to come,” Brooks says. “But it would be great to catch up. If you’re up to it.”
“I’ll find out,” I reply.
Brooks stands up. “We’ll be an hour or so cleaning up and then we’ll head home to get changed. We should be down there by nine. It’s straight down in front of the Lion’s Park, where we used to have them. Be great if you can make it.”
She smiles, and even though she’s changed a lot, she still has the same goofy grin she used to have permanently on her face when we were kids. I can’t help but smile back “Okay, sure. I’ll see how I go.” I watch as she heads off with Ben. I can’t hear what she’s saying to him, but she shoves him and he throws back his head and laughs. Brooks looks back and waves, and I wave back. Dad did tell me I could come and go as I please I guess, and spending some time catching up with Brooks isn’t the worst thing I could think of to be doing tonight.
Ten
Brooks
I have to admit, when Jason arrived at the bonfire without Riley, I was a little disappointed, but I guess she wants to spend time with her dad. Which is understandable really. She hasn’t seen him in a long time. Jo sits down beside me and hands me a can of soft drink.
I take the drink from her and as I bring it up to my mouth I take a sniff, just to make sure she hasn’t added any alcohol. She doesn’t notice, thankfully, and it seems to be okay, so I take a drink. “Thanks.”
“No problem.”
She’s sitting a little too close to me for comfort but if I move, she’ll get the shits so I just sit there with her invading my space, hoping that my lack of interaction with her will make her go away. It doesn’t.
