Keeping Up Appearances

by Elizabeth Stevens

  Until I saw who was waiting for me when Mark pulled up to the house after collecting me from the airport. Xander sat on our front steps with Doug.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Mark muttered.

  My heart went into hiding and I felt butterflies in my stomach. “Dunno.”

  Mark continued grumbling to himself as he grabbed my duffel out of the boot and marched straight passed Xander into the house. I was slightly slower in making my way over to him as he stood up.

  “Hey,” I said slowly.

  “Hey.” He grinned down at me and something about amazing wandered through my brain.

  “Oh. Here.” Xander lifted his hand and I saw a wilted daisy in it, a smile on his face that suggested he was very proud of himself. “Welcome home.”

  “Uh, thanks,” I replied, trying not to smile as I took the flower from him. We just looked at each other for a while (but, my brain kept a tight leash on my heart) until I had to break it. “So, did you want to come in?”

  Xander was practically vibrating with pent up energy. “Oh, I can’t. Gotta get my shit and get to practice. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t die in a fiery plane crash!”

  “What is up with you and Mum and plane crashes?” I wondered.

  “She and Zach know these things, Doll,” he answered like he was an expert on the matter as he tapped the side of his nose and winked.

  And, yeah, I might have spent most of the last week calling him Zach after I told him Mum thought that was his name for a while. Needless to say, Greg thought it was hilarious. I was with Greg on that one.

  I nodded. “Sure they do. Right, so I’ll talk to you later?”

  He smiled warmly. “Sure. Maybe we can hang out tomorrow?”

  I shook my head. “Maybe.”

  “Tease.”

  “Douche.”

  He blew me a kiss and waltzed off down the path with a laugh.

  “French, huh?” Mark asked as I closed the front door behind me and Doug.

  I jumped and looked at him. “French. Yeah.”

  Mark looked me over and I think I got away with lying to him again.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Miranda was rifling in my wardrobe when Mark popped his head into my room, obviously just back from his game – which meant I could expect a message from Xander any minute, no doubt.

  “We should have bought shoes,” she called and Mark frowned in that direction. Miranda emerged, blowing hair off her face. “I should have asked about… Oh, hi,” she said as she saw Mark.

  “There is a Bow in your room, Doll,” Mark said as though it was an infestation I wasn’t aware of and he wasn’t sure what to do with.

  I pressed my lips together to stop myself from laughing at the shocked and intrigued way he was staring at Miranda. I swear, I would have said he’d never seen a member of the female species before the way he was looking at her.

  Miranda rallied like a damn pro as she waved at him, her cheeks only flushing a little. “Miranda. Definite Bow. Yep.” I had to say, I did love the unapologetic pride she had in who she was and the way she could just get over what people thought about her; I really wanted to be more like her.

  “Uh, Mark.” He nodded.

  “I remember.” Miranda’s face got a slight touch more pink about it.

  “Okay, introductions have been made. What can we do you for?” I asked my brother.

  He shook his head and looked at me. Then he frowned. “That new?”

  I looked down at the outfit the girls had talked me into buying on our girls’ day. We didn’t have to leave for a little while, but Miranda and I were doing a pre-party fashion show just to make sure I was going to wear the best thing.

  “Yeah. Like it?”

  Mark’s face went an adorable mix of awkward and exasperated. “You look…” He wrinkled his nose. “Okay. You look nice.”

  “But?” I sniggered.

  “You just don’t look very…you.”

  I looked down again. “In a bad way or a good way?”

  Mark shrugged. “Neither. Just… It’s different.”

  I nodded. “Okay.” We all stood in a bit of an awkward silence for a moment, then I asked him, “Did you want something?”

  He blinked. “Yeah. Did you want me to drop you off tonight?”

  I looked to Miranda. She looked like she was trying and failing to keep her eyes off Mark. I tried very hard not to smile when I looked back to Mark and saw the feeling was apparently mutual. I just couldn’t tell what either of them were thinking – I could have found my brother dating my new friend or he thought she was going to murder us in our unsuspecting sleep.

  “Thanks. That’d be good, yeah.”

  Mark nodded, gave Miranda a small smile and headed out. Miranda looked back to me and we both burst into laughter. Only, I didn’t really know what we were laughing about. I just knew I liked laughing with Miranda.

  “Okay, so shoes?” I asked her, as I tried to get my breath back.

  Miranda jumped like she’d only just remembered the whole point of her coming over early and nodded. “Right. Shoes. I mean, you’re lucky Xand’s tall. So, we can pick anything. How are you with heels?”

  “Terrible.”

  Miranda shot me a grin as she disappeared into my wardrobe again. I was quite happy to just let her pick whatever she thought was going to work, as I’d told her the day before when she’d hinted she’d quite like to get ready together. I wasn’t really expecting the huge bag of makeup and hair styling things that had arrived on the doorstep with her, though. But, she hadn’t expected to use any of it on me, so I was feeling more comfortable with it.

  “How terrible is terrible?”

  I snorted. “Uh, they’ll be off within maybe a half hour?”

  “Is that all heels, or are wedges good?”

  “Do I have wedges?” I asked, thinking it wasn’t a good sign if I had stuff in there I’d forgotten about.

  Miranda pulled a pair out; they were chunky black bootie sort of things that had to have been an old pair of Mum’s. She held them up with raised eyebrows. The longer I didn’t say anything, the more energetically teasing her eyebrows got, until I finally laughed and nodded.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll try them.”

  I pushed myself off the bed and took them from her and realised that I wasn’t sure I’d ever had this sort of relaxed hang out with Nancy. I couldn’t remember a single time I felt completely comfortable just trying on a bunch of clothes and dancing around my room like an idiot with another human being in there with me. I’d been quite happy to watch Nancy do exactly this, but Miranda actively encouraged me to get up and dance with her. And, she even got excited about the Vengabus. I didn’t feel any weirdness or like I should just sit down again because I wasn’t doing it quite right, and I didn’t actually care if I wasn’t doing it right because Miranda didn’t seem to care either.

  It was the weirdest sensation and I finally let myself believe that Miranda wasn’t just lulling me into a false sense of security. She’d actually become a proper friend who I felt like I could trust with anything. Well, almost anything; I wasn’t exactly about to tell her that I was only fake dating her king but maybe might quite like him.

  We spent the next hour and half singing and dancing and laughing so hard that Mark actually thought there was something wrong with us. But, he still drove us to the party, keeping his mouth shut even though I saw him look at us in the rear-view mirror in concern a couple of times as we giggled.

  We pulled up to the house and I heard Mark sigh, but it sounded more like he was reminiscing than anything else. Miranda hopped out and I leant into the front seat and smiled at my brother.

  “Memories?” I teased.

  Mark snorted. “Less than is probably ideal. Dan Walker always threw the best parties.”

  “Yeah, well seems his little sister learnt a thing or two.”

  “Sabrina, was it?”


  I nodded. “Yep.”

  Before the Bows were the Bows, their group’s Supreme Leader had been Rachel’s older sister Dee, who’d been good friends with Sabrina’s older brother, Dan. There were a ton of Walker kids and the responsibility to host The Winter Party was passed down the line almost reverently – there had been a mock-ceremony last time and everything. When Maple Ridge was out of Walkers, I felt a little sorry for the party scene.

  “Right, pep talk. Behave, don’t drink too much, don’t do anything I’d do, and certainly nothing I wouldn’t do–”

  “Yeah, all right Mr Stark,” I sniggered.

  He threw me a smile. “I’m serious, Doll. You might have done a bunch of Bow parties before, but you were never a Bow bef–”

  “Hey, whoa! Not a Bow!”

  He nodded. “Okay. Amendment. You weren’t hanging out with Bows before. You think our lot can party hard…?”

  “Marco, it’s not like I haven’t seen them in action. I’ll be sensible, ‘kay?”

  He nodded again. “Okay.”

  “Besides ‘our lot’ got a lot softer after your year left.”

  Which was true. In Mark’s time, Jason’s group (Mark’s at the time) had been able to give Dee Harris’ group a run for their unnecessary riches. Now? No way in hell. The Bows would wipe the floor with the… Daniel had called them idJits, hadn’t he?

  Mark snorted. “I’ll bet. How are you getting home?”

  I shrugged. “Dunno. I think I’ve got a ride.” I wasn’t going to tell him that Xander had mentioned getting me home. “But, I’ll text you?”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be around.”

  “Cool.” I leant through the seats to kiss his cheek and shuffled over to the door.

  Just before I got out, he spoke again. “Doll?”

  “Yeah?” I asked, half out of the car.

  “That Miranda chick seems okay.”

  I grinned. “You say that because you think she’s cute.”

  I saw his smile before he turned away. “The two things can be unrelated, Dolly.”

  I flushed warm, knowing he would have hated admitting anything nice about a Bow.

  I got out of the car and saw Miranda was waiting for me with a questioning smile. I answered it as I waved to Mark.

  “Did he have terribly scathing things to say about me?” she joked with a smile.

  “Quite the opposite actually.”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” I answered as I let her take my elbow. The interest she’d had obviously didn’t extend far enough to ask me what sort of things.

  “Okay, you ready to make your grand entrance?”

  I nodded. “Go on then.”

  Our ‘grand entrance’ was a lot more low-key than Miranda had seemed to expect it to be, but I was quite happy with that.

  As usual for The Bow Party of the Year, the place was packed, the music was loud, the lights were low, and it was hot despite the chill in the air outside. This year the theme was 90s, so people were dressed accordingly and I’d heard Sabrina talking for weeks about the playlist for it; I didn’t recognise the current song, but I liked it.

  “Is Xand here yet?” Miranda asked, her lips close to my ear to be heard over the noise.

  I had a very surreal moment where I realised I was the one who was expected to know best what the King of the Bows was up to. It was made even weirder as I saw some of my old friends huddled across the room –idJits, I tried out the term again.

  The fact that the Bows and the idJits were at the same party – let alone a Bow party – was a matter of course, despite the ingrained hate there. Parties at Maple Ridge were one of those things that basically had an open invitation and you just ignored the people you hated if you decided to go. Jason, Nancy and I had still boycotted them sometimes under principal just because we could. In hindsight, I doubted the Bows even noticed.

  Nigel turned and saw me. My automatic reaction was to smile at him as I used to. But his eyes slid to Miranda, still attached to my arm and now waving enthusiastically at someone, and he glared.

  I cleared my throat and looked at whoever Miranda was waving at and all my discomfort was gone as I saw Xander sort of dance-walking over to us as he mouthed along to the song – something about no scrubs? I laughed as Miranda let me go to let Xander wrap me up and hug me tightly. He dipped his nose to my neck and told myself I didn’t get goose bumps.

  “Hey,” he said, pulling away to look at me, then grinning at Miranda.

  “Hey,” I answered. “You started on those tequila suicides already?”

  He broke into that split-second grin that made my heart flutter happily. “Without you? Never, Doll.”

  I shook my head at him, but didn’t get a chance to respond as Daniel had jumped on his back with a shout.

  “Duuude! Anna’s dancing on the fucking table!” he yelled and Xander grinned.

  “Dan, on the other hand…” Xander winked at me.

  “What, man?” Daniel asked, sliding off Xander’s back and eyeballing me.

  “Tequila suicides,” Xander explained and Daniel threw his arms in the air.

  “YES!”

  He grabbed Miranda’s hand and tugged her after him. I watched them, smiling at Daniel’s enthusiasm and wondering how much more he needed to drink that night. As I was still watching them, I felt Xander’s hand on my waist as he stepped closer to me and I looked back to him as I registered the song had changed to something slower. He started swaying us gently as he stared at me

  “What?” I asked.

  “You’re taller.”

  I smiled as I looked down. “Yeah. Rand insisted I try them.”

  “You taking orders from a Bow now?” he teased.

  “No. I happened to agree with her.”

  His fingers trailed along the space of naked skin between my top and skirt, making goose bumps flare to life across my skin and my stomach flutter.

  “And, this?”

  I looked up at him and cocked my head in question. “You don’t like it?”

  He shook his head with a small smile. “Oh, I like it. You look amazing.” He dropped his forehead to mine as our hips swayed together. “But, I’m quite fond of those pyjama pants of yours, too.”

  I laughed. “Those pyjama pants aren’t exactly party clothes.”

  Xander shrugged as his hand splayed on my back and we drew closer together. “Who cares if you’re comfortable?”

  I smiled. “I’m not uncomfortable like this.”

  He nodded. “Good. I’d hate to think you dressed up for me.”

  I looked down at him in his oversize flannel shirt and the bright yellow shirt tied around his waist with the baggy white t-shirt and even baggier jeans. “Well, at least it’s obvious you didn’t dress up for me.”

  “Is it?” he asked and I looked up at him quickly.

  “Did you?”

  He gave me that nonchalant shrug. “If I did, is it working?”

  I lay my head on his shoulder as I giggled and wrapped my arms behind his neck. “Yeah, Xand, it’s working.”

  “Sweet.”

  He kissed my temple and I looked up at him with a smile. I reached up and kissed him. His arms tightened around me and mine seemed to think it was a pretty decent idea to reciprocate.

  When the song changed to something a little more upbeat and I finally I recognised it, I looked at him with my mouth open in mock-surprise.

  “What?” he asked.

  “It’s your song,” I told him.

  He looked at me in confusion until the words ‘Mr Vain’, where he laughed roughly. “That it is, babe.”

  He took my hand and spun me around, making me laugh. He pulled my back to his front as we danced together and I didn’t care if people were looking, I didn’t care about keeping up appearances, I didn’t care about anything else except us in that moment. And us in that moment had a very real tinge of amazing about it.

&n
bsp; “You want a drink?” he asked me when the song was finished.

  I spun back to face him. “We are not doing tequila suicides,” I warned him.

  “Not tonight, no.”

  I blinked. “I seriously thought that argument would be longer.”

  He grinned. “Nah, I’m Sober Salvador tonight.” I frowned at him in confusion. “Our designated driver?”

  “You call your designated driver Sober Salvador?” I giggled and he wrapped me up tighter, knowing I was teasing him.

  “Yes, thank you. Brings a touch of class to it, don’t you think.”

  “Well, we both know you need all the class you can get.”

  “Oi!” he chuckled, lifting my feet off the floor for a moment. “I’m proper classy.”

  “Yeah, no.” I paused and looked at his head. “You should have a sombrero.”

  “What?”

  “For Sober Salvador.”

  He shook his head with a wry grin. “Do you think a sombrero would suit me?”

  “It can’t hurt, surely,” I teased.

  He laughed as he took my hand and led me through the crowd. I hadn’t paid close attention to anything much beside him, but I did a double-take as light flashed over something. And no, I wasn’t wrong. I froze and Xander looked back at me.

  “What?” he called over the music. “You okay?”

  All I could do was nod as I pointed at the thing on Anna’s skirt as she was apparently still dancing on the table – Daniel on the other side of the table was completely thrilled.

  “Xander, what is that?” I yelled back and he came back to look at it.

  “What’s what?” he said in my ear.

  I grabbed it and pointed it towards him. Anna ignored me as she kept dancing and I ignored the fact I half hand my hand up her skirt as I barely kept a hold on it. I pointed at the button with my other hand.

  “Team Bowdeen?” I asked him and I saw him smirk.

  “That’s not half bad.”

  “Xander!” I snapped.

  He shrugged, looking at me in that totally innocent way he had. “What?” I glared harder and his smile almost broke through. “It’s brilliant.”