Sugar Secrets…& Shocks

by Mel Sparke

  “Four-thirty they said their flight was at,” chipped in a guy whom Maya recognised as Gavin.

  As she listened into this snatch of conversation, she could still feel Sam’s eyes boring into her.

  “Four-thirty? Urgh… Still, Tunisia will be amazing,” said Alex. “Hey, Gavin, you remember Maya, don’t you?”

  Maya started to relax; Alex was taking control of the situation.

  “Yes, of course!” smiled Gavin and Maya started to relax even more.

  Even if she didn’t know him too well, at least Gavin’s smile seemed genuine, his eyes friendly behind his glasses. For a second, her eyes flickered over the smattering of grey hairs in his close-cropped hair and she wondered how old he was.

  “Drinks? Beer? Wine?” asked Gavin, looking enquiringly at Maya and Alex.

  “Beer would be good,” Alex replied.

  “I’ve only got bottles of beer. Do you want a glass?” Gavin checked.

  “No, a bottle’s fine,” Alex assured him.

  “Um, just an orange juice for me, please,” said Maya.

  “Do you want that in a glass or in a bottle?” Sam chipped in. “A baby bottle, that is! Ha ha!”

  “Hilarious, I don’t think!” Alex groaned good-naturedly, while Maya struggled to keep a civilised smile on her face.

  It looked like this was going to be the theme for the night - Sam coming up with rotten jokes about how young Maya was. Maybe this was revenge for not responding to his advances at Alex’s party.

  “Anyway, Sam,” said Alex, “you haven’t introduced us…” Alex inclined his head towards the very trendily dressed girl by Sam’s side. In her slinky halter-neck and expensive-looking combats, she looked like she’d just stepped off the set of a music video.

  “Right, yeah! This is Wendy!” said Sam, putting his arm around the slightly bored-looking girl.

  “Hi!” said Maya brightly, hoping Sam’s girlfriend was going to be an improvement on the guy she was going out with.

  “Hi,” drawled Wendy, taking a long drag on her cigarette.

  “So, it’s been months since we’ve seen each other, hasn’t it?” said Sam, punching Alex on the arm. “How are you, you old cradlesnatcher?”

  Maya winced.

  “Um, I’m fine,” nodded Alex, ignoring the barb. “Just busy with work, really. How about you?”

  “Yeah, working hard too,” shrugged Sam. “Bought some new wheels, though - a Porsche 911 Turbo, only one previous owner. She’s a beauty and a real babe magnet! Oh, no offence, Wendy!”

  His girlfriend rolled her eyes and blew smoke up into the air.

  “So, have you two been going out long?” asked Alex.

  “A while,” shrugged Sam. “Wendy works in the PR department at my company.”

  “Public relations?” said Maya, deciding to dive into the conversation instead of being a sitting target for more of Sam’s non-witty witticisms. “My friend Sonja’s interested in getting into that.”

  “Oh, yes?” said Wendy, perking up slightly.

  Maybe she feels as awkward as me, Maya decided, warming to her. Maybe she is just as nervous about the idea of meeting her boyfriend’s mates.

  “Yes,” nodded Maya. “She’s starting a course in it in September.”

  “Uh-huh?” nodded Wendy. “What line of work is she in at the moment?”

  “Urn… well, she isn’t,” Maya replied, suddenly stumbling over her words. “She’s, urn, at sixth form.”

  Wendy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Your friend’s still at school?” she grinned.

  “Hey, Wendy, didn’t you get what I was saying earlier?” Sam interrupted. “She’s still at school too. You must have just sat your O levels, haven’t you, Meera?”

  “Maya,” she corrected him, feeling her face flush. “And I’m studying for A levels, not GCSEs.”

  Not that it sounded much better. Nor did it stop Wendy staring at her incredulously, an amused smile playing at her lips.

  “So, what - you’re going out with your teacher?” she practically sniggered, pointing at Alex and Maya, the burning cigarette still clutched between her fingers.

  “No, no,” Alex barged in. “It’s not like that! I’m a photography lecturer and I do an evening class that Maya comes to…”

  “Hey, everyone!” Gavin suddenly announced, walking back in the room. “The food’s on its way. Louise says to sit at the table - she’s put place names down…”

  “Hope I’m sitting next to you, Maya,” Sam winked at her. “I want to get to know all about you. What your favourite boy band is; who your favourite Teletubby is; the names of all your dollies… ha ha ha - only kidding!”

  “Mmmm,” murmured Maya non-committally. She shot a look at Alex, but he’d missed Sam’s latest dig - Gavin was chatting to him as they all made their way over to the table.

  I don’t think I can handle this, fretted Maya inwardly, already fed up with all the juvenile jibes she’d received at the hands of Sam and his girlfriend. Please don’t make this get any worse!

  “God, sorry, I’ve taken ages, haven’t I?!” she heard a girl’s voice suddenly say. “Thanks for letting me use the phone in your bedroom, Louise, but I just didn’t expect it to go on for so long!”

  Maya turned and looked at the red-headed girl, with her spiky short crop.

  “Holly!” she heard Alex exclaim. “I didn’t know you were coming tonight!”

  “Well, don’t sound so pleased!” laughed the girl.

  All at once, Maya felt a chill run up her spine. Instantly, she realised that things had got worse. She’d never met this girl, but she definitely knew who she was.

  Only Alex’s ex - and the very girl who’d been trying to flirt with him behind Maya’s back not so very long ago.

  The food was easy; no strange cutlery or awkward shellfish to get in a muddle with, Maya was relieved to see.

  Well, out of everything that’s going wrong tonight, at least the food’s on my side, she thought bleakly to herself.

  On the other side of the table, Alex tried to give her an encouraging smile as Holly wrapped her arm around him and came to the end of some rambling anecdote about their time together.

  “…and Alex here, ever the perfect gentleman, just said, ‘You’ve had too much to drink tonight’, poured me into bed, kissed me on the forehead and left!”

  Everyone - except Maya and Sam’s bored-looking girlfriend - broke into gales of laughter. Maya couldn’t speak for Wendy, but listening to Alex’s ex talk like this wasn’t exactly her idea of a fun night out. Especially since Maya suspected that Holly was doing it deliberately, just to make her feel small.

  But Maya was already used to feeling left out. For the last half hour or so, the conversation batting around the table had all been to do with mutual friends of Alex, Louise, Gavin, Holly and Sam’s. It hadn’t been too riveting for her, sitting in silence and having to listen to tale upon tale about people she didn’t know, but it had - up until Holly’s latest topic - at least been better than the Sam’s badger-baiting treatment. And at least she wasn’t the only one to feel excluded: but now it seemed like Wendy had had enough.

  “So, Alex, do you still take photos as well as teach?” she asked him, steering the conversation somewhere new.

  Much as Maya didn’t like her, she was almost grateful to Wendy for changing the subject.

  “Oh, he still takes photos, don’t you?” Louise chipped in. “He took all the photos at our wedding.”

  Maya felt her face flush - she hadn’t realised Gavin and Louise were married; she’d just presumed they were boyfriend and girlfriend. She suddenly felt out of her depth again, but quickly told herself not to be so stupid.

  What difference does it make? she reasoned silently. They’re just people, whether they’re married or not. It shouldn’t freak me out.

  “Yeah, we should dig the album out later!” Gavin smiled. “Show everyone how gorgeous a bride you were!”

  “Well, yes - if they recognise me with
my long hair, before I got it all cut off!” Louise laughed, patting her angular bob.

  “I really like your hair!” said Maya, feeling as if it was time to try and contribute to the conversation again, even if her comment wasn’t exactly earth-shatteringly interesting.

  “Do you? Thanks!” Louise smiled at her.

  “You got it so right! That cut is so totally Louise Brooks!” Holly chipped in.

  Maya blinked. What did Holly mean? Brooks wasn’t Louise’s last name, she was sure. Then it dawned on her.

  “Louise Brooks?” Maya smiled questioningly. “Is that the new hairdresser in the Plaza? I was wondering if it’s worth trying out.”

  There were only six other people around the table, but it sounded like more as they all began laughing.

  “What?” she asked, feeling the blood rush to her face.

  “Louise Brooks was a silent movie star,” Alex explained, smiling over at her, once he’d got his breath back. “Look over there on the wall - that’s her, in an old movie poster. Louise and Gavin are big fans.”

  “Oh,” mumbled Maya, trying to shrug off her embarrassment.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Gavin said to her kindly. “It wasn’t like she was as famous as Charlie Chaplin or anything.”

  Maya felt instantly worse. It was like being patted on the head by your dad and being told not to cry because you’d dropped your ice-cream on the ground.

  “Hey, yeah - you can’t expect Maya to know stuff about the silent movies,” smarmy Sam cut in as he finished pouring himself more wine and started filling up everyone else’s glasses. “Remember, she’s still only allowed to watch films with a PG rating!”

  Maya felt incensed, but helpless. If it had been Matt or Ollie or even Billy teasing her, she could have slapped them down with a smart one-liner straightaway. But in front of Alex’s friends, somehow, she felt the last shreds of her confidence slip away. She looked over at Alex for help, but realised his attention was elsewhere - in fact, everyone’s was.

  For a second, while her head filled with helpless hatred for Sam, she’d missed something vital.

  “What?!” Alex was saying, a look of shock on his face.

  “Like I said,” grinned Louise, holding her hand over her glass to stop Sam pouring in any more, “I’d better not, in my condition…”

  Gavin shot his wife a loving look from his end of the table.

  “My God! You’re pregnant!” Holly exclaimed. “Well done, you two! Why did you wait till now to tell us?”

  “Well, we were going to save it till after dinner,” Louise explained, beaming with pride, “but with you trying to get me drunk, Sam…!”

  “Brilliant! Just brilliant news!” Maya heard Alex say as he leant over to hug Louise across the table. “And congratulations, Gavin mate!”

  “Well, it comes to us all, Alex!” Gavin smiled broadly. “The mortgages, the marriage, the kids…”

  “Well, if it’s a night for announcements,” Sam bellowed, a wicked grin on his face, “then I’m going to announce that me and Wendy aren’t going to have a baby - but we sure have fun with all the practising for it, if you see what I mean!! Ha ha haa!”

  The table erupted with giggles and shouts and congratulations and glasses clinking in toasts, all of which Maya smiled blankly at, feeling as disconnected as if she was sitting watching the whole event through glass.

  Mortgages, marriage, babies…! What would these people think if they knew that what’s stressing me out is listening to Holly tell stories about Alex putting her to bed? And whether or not I should sleep with him soon, Maya thought, her heart hammering unhappily. I’ve got nothing in common with Gavin or Louise or any of them!

  She gazed over at Alex, who was happily chattering away with everyone - and suddenly wondered if she had anything in common with him either.

  CHAPTER 20

  SHOCKWAVES

  Matt yawned, stretched and blinked.

  Shoving his hands behind his head, he did what he hadn’t done in a long, long time -actually looked at his bedroom, taking in the surroundings he’d lived in without noticing for years.

  Like every other room in the house, his mother had organised the decoration of this one. In fact, it had been one of the last things she’d done before she’d left for good. He’d come home from boarding school on holiday to find the walls papered with diagonal broad white and thin red and grey stripes, and a grey carpet to match, with flashes of red shot through it. There had been new white cabinets and cupboards too, as well as a big wooden toy box at the end of the bed.

  I must have been, what - eight? he pondered, realising that the only thing about the room that had changed since was his bedding - the duvet cover with a racing car had been replaced at one point by a plain grey cover. Not that he could remember when that had happened.

  Suddenly, a thought shot into his mind - the nineteen-year-old lad that he was didn’t really fit in this eight-year-old boy’s bedroom…

  But that still doesn’t give anyone the right to turf me out, without even consulting me first! he thought defiantly, swinging himself out of bed.

  Now wide awake this Saturday morning, he stomped around the room, pulling clean clothes out of his drawers.

  “It’s like Maya said the other day, I’ve got to get things sorted - tell it like it is!” he muttered to himself, buttoning up his jeans.

  Matt wished, for once, that he was more like his level-headed friend.

  Maya’s so cool, he thought, hauling his T-shirt over his head. She never stresses out about anything. Not like me!

  Maya hadn’t felt so muddled and miserable in a long, long time.

  “Look, Maya, look!” giggled Ravi, pointing at the cartoon explosion on the TV screen.

  The two of them were still in their pyjamas, huddled on the sofa watching Saturday morning programmes. Not that Maya was actually watching; she was too busy stressing out about all the things in her life that were bothering her -and stressing out about the fact that, for once, she wasn’t really sure how to handle any of them.

  For instance, Sunita. She could hear her sister’s voice as she chattered away, good as gold, with their mother in the kitchen. But Anna had told Maya all about the incident with Andy in the café, and Maya didn’t know whether to confront her sister about it, or ignore the whole thing.

  Then there was the whole photography club mess, with the bad feeling coming from Ashleigh and maybe some of the others too. Which of course led back to thoughts of Alex and the night before…

  “That was quite a laugh, wasn’t it?” he’d said to her on the way home.

  “Yes,” she’d replied, staring out of the taxi window so he couldn’t see from her face that she was lying.

  “Sam didn’t bug you too much, did he? With all his stupid joking around?” he’d asked, squeezing her hand.

  “No, not at all,” she’d lied again, squeezing his hand back.

  And now here she was, staring at a blaring TV screen, wondering why she’d lied to one of the people she loved most in the world.

  “‘Scuse me, Ravi!” she said suddenly, untangling herself from her brother, who was using her legs to lean on. “I’ve got to go…”

  “Go where?” frowned Ravi, without taking his eyes away from the cartoon.

  “Just got to go and see someone, that’s all,” she explained vaguely as she headed towards the hall.

  “See who?” Ravi called after her.

  “No one special!” she called back.

  Just the one person I need to talk to right now, she thought silently to herself.

  Matt stood staring at her, struggling to find the right words.

  “I’ve got something to tell you,” he blurted out agitatedly.

  “What?” she asked.

  “I’m - I’m definitely going back to Ibiza again. I made some calls and I’ve been offered another club in San Antonio.”

  “Well, whoop-de-doo…”

  It wasn’t the response he’d expected, but th
en he probably hadn’t phrased things right, even though he’d run through it plenty of times in the last ten minutes.

  “Well, I… I just wanted to tell you, that’s all!”

  “Great!” shrugged Cat, sitting up from the beach towel she was lying on in the garden and shielding her eyes from the sun with one hand. “But what’s the big deal? Didn’t you tell me as much when you were yelling at me last Sunday?”

  Matt was stumped. She was taking the wind right out of his sails. Since the late-night phone call he’d had the previous evening - from the promoter of the Zed bar, a couple of streets away from Espace - he’d been dying to break the news to both his father and Cat. He’d hoped… well, he didn’t know what exactly he’d hoped for. To make them feel guilty, he supposed.

  “Look,” said Cat, wiping some stray blades of grass off her leg and making her boobs jiggle precariously in her bikini top as a result, “is this some kind of I’ll show you!’ thing?”

  Damn! thought Matt, realising that was exactly what it was. The eight-year-old in him had wanted to say, “If you don’t want me around then I’ll just go - see how you like that!”

  And now it was backfiring. Cat wasn’t in the least bit impressed, and his dad would probably react just the same - glad to get Matt out of his hair.

  “Is this all about your stupid bedroom, Matt? The room that you know and I know you’re hardly ever in?” Cat asked him pointedly. “‘Cause if it is, then it’s time you just grew up. For God’s sake, it’s not like you’re getting turfed out!”

  “Yeah, well your mum’s practically said as much - she wants to take over the den too!”

  “Stop being so melodramatic! It was just a suggestion for something that your dad could do years down the line,” Cat sighed and rolled her eyes. “Nobody’s turfing you out without warning. It’s not like… like what Anna went through.”

  Anna didn’t speak about her past much, but one night in her flat, she and Cat had had a heart-to-heart and Cat had been shocked by the hardships her friend had gone through. Her story had made a deep impact on Cat and right now, by comparison, Matt seemed to be stressing out about very little.