by Jacky Gray
When they finally got outside, they were surprised by the intense cold; the crowded church had got very warm. The younger kids ran ahead, and Kat’s mum asked if they would catch them up to make sure they crossed the road ok. Jude and Luke needed no further prompting, sprinting to reach them easily. Kat and Liam came panting up after them; Liv and Ray weren’t too far behind, giggling from the exertion.
Kat put her key in the door, only to have it burst open from inside as Liv’s mum welcomed them back. The smell of garlic whooshed out to meet them, causing groans of disapproval from the younger kids.
“Just in time,” she said brightly, “you lot can help me shift tables into the dining room.” When the food had all been laid out, she supervised the kids with Liv and Ray, getting the others organised filling plates of food for the oldies. Liam and Luke did a good double act tending the bar.
Kat’s gran and granddad were over from Ireland, and every time she went near, the old lady said something about her singing for them. Eventually, everyone had been served, leaving nowhere to hide. “There you are, Kat. I was just after telling Sheila you sing like a bird. I promised you’d give us a song or two.”
Luke’s aunt mouthed a silent “Sorry.”
As Kat flashed a “do I have to?” plea, Luke pitched in, making it worse. “Why don’t you do one from Annie with Jude and Liv? At least you wouldn’t be on your own.”
All three girls shot daggers at him, but too many people had heard and shouted encouragement. The trio did a few snatches of the songs they’d practised from Annie.
Kat’s gran wasn’t satisfied. “What about the show you were in, Bungy Marlowe or something? Sing us one of your solos from that.”
With a sigh, Kat did the first few verses of “Ordinary Fool.”
Jude’s mum could see she’d had enough and led the clapping. Then she turned to Liv. “Why don’t you give us some of your Tallulah? I know several people missed it, and I’m sure the rest of us would love to hear it again.”
9 Do I Have To?
With loud applause ringing in her ears, Liv found herself being shoved forward, in spite of her protests, and echo of Kat’s pleading look.
“C’mon Liv, I had to do it, you’re not going to get away with it.” Kat squeezed her arm.
The new red dress Liv wore made her feel a tiny bit vampy, but she needed a feather boa or something to help her get into character as she struggled to find the first note in her head. Kat obviously realised her plight, as she appeared with a humungous piece of fluffy tinsel, which she wrapped around Liv’s shoulders.
It was exactly what Liv needed as she began: “My name is Tallulah/My first rule of thumb ...”
Once she started, it got easier, and when Kat and Jude joined in the chorus she really began to get into the part, playing up to the men before focussing on Ray, who she teased to distraction. Without the music, it was harder to pace the song, but somehow, she managed to pull it off.
Amidst the applause, Liam shouted, “Bravo, Luscious Liv. You can be an Uptown Girl, too, if you like.”
Right on cue, Jude and Kat started singing the intro vocals to the song. Liam proved to have quite a good voice as he sang the lead, and soon everyone joined in. For one reason or another, they all seemed to know the first couple of verses. It led naturally into a very Celtic rendition of “Fairytale of New York,” with Liam and Kat doing a very credible version of the popular Pogue’s ditty.
After the second chorus, the younger ones timed out; Sinead and Megan grabbed their big sisters’ arms. “Come and play Twister with us, it’s no good with only three of us and the boys won’t play.” Kat and Jude were only too happy to escape the rigours of performance.
Megan’s friend, Dawn, was thrilled when Liv said, “Twister? I used to love playing that at your age,” and held out her hand to the girl who looked somewhat abandoned by her former playmates.
~*~
Liam had been tasked with making the punch, and went along with Luke’s restraint in keeping the alcohol level down. They reached the den with a couple of big jugs and some plastic glasses to be greeted by a fine spectacle of the girls in various contorted poses.
Liv spun the dial. “Right, Megan next. Left leg, red.”
“I knew you were going to say that,” the poor girl wailed. “Kat’s on the only red I can reach. I’m not double-jointed.”
“Will you lot get on with it? I’ll fall if I have to stay here much longer.” Dawn was balanced precariously on one leg and one hand.
“Sorry, sweetheart. You’re next. Right leg, yellow.”
“Thank goodness.” Dawn moved to a more comfortable position.
“You can’t do that; Megan hasn’t had her go yet.” Ray objected as he accepted a glass of punch.
“Look, if you want to have a go, get your shoes off, otherwise button it.” Liv turned into a power-crazed tyrant when she was in charge, but it didn’t stop the guys from shouting out misleading comments until the girls finally collapsed in a heap on the mat.
Ray leaned over to Liam and whispered. “This game’s got real possibilities.”
“Not compared to my games. Maybe I’ll add it for later.”
“I don’t see there being much of a later, it’s nearly eleven.” Obviously frustrated, Luke gestured to Jude.
Working sisterly magic, she persuaded Megan to take the younger girls upstairs. The others barely had time for a toast before the little ones came back with another plastic mat; this time snakes and ladders.
“Can’t you play it up in your bedroom?” Luke frowned.
“No, there’s no room.” Megan appealed to Jude. “Sinead’s toys are all over the floor.”
Sinead dug her heels in as only an obstinate little girl can. “They’s waiting for Santa. I can’t move them.”
Dawn pulled the equality card. “And anyway, the boys are here.”
Luke’s dad witnessed the tail end of this “death by pre-teen girl,” and Liam watched as he pulled his son aside, asking in a low voice if he could trust them not to get up to any mischief if they went next door.
“Mischief? Us?” Luke’s face was a comical cross between indignation and innocence. “We just want something a bit more grown-up than snakes and ladders.”
“As long as it doesn’t get too grown up. Remember we’re only a few yards away. Oh, and any mess, you clear it up yourself, ok?”
“Cheers Dad, you’re a superstar,” he punched him on the arm, and told the others discreetly so the younger ones didn’t suss what was going on.
Grabbing the punch jugs, Liam refilled them in the kitchen, this time with distinctly more wine and less fruit juice. Adding a tot of brandy, he warned the bottle: “Not too strong, just enough to make us a little more merry and hopefully a lot more sexy.” He pictured Kat dancing cheek to cheek with him.
But when he reached Luke’s living room, instead of soft lights and softer music, they’d cleared the floor and the three girls and Luke had all got either a hand or foot on a spot on the twister mat.
“Just in time. Stick that down and come and put your left hand on this blue spot,” Ray commanded, giving him a meaningful wink.
“But I thought we were going to start with dancing an’ stuff,” protested Liam as he obeyed Ray’s instructions.
“Later. Thought we’d have a game of twister to get us all warmed up.” Luke contrived a large wink at Liam, trying to gesture at the girls without their noticing.
“It’s no use complaining, Ray’s got his control-freak head on, we’ve all got to do as he says,” Liv was obviously getting impatient and Jude muttered something about kettles, pots and black.
Liam went along with it, wondering what the other two had cooked up. Within a few moments it became quite clear Ray had fixed the moves so the girls were forced into the most unnatural contortions.
Smart lad, this is good fun. Liam turned so his cheek rested on Kat’s chest. “Sorry about this,” he apologised to her with a grin.
“I’m sure y
ou are,” she giggled.
Luke’s next move resulted in his right leg being placed on a spot between Jude’s legs.
But what did Ray get out of this? He glanced over at Liv who’d just moved her left leg so her nicely toned behind was sticking out at Ray. Liam smiled. What an operator. Raunchy Ray.
As Liv lifted a hand to cover up her modesty, she spotted the other two in similarly compromising positions and the penny finally dropped.
“Ray Donelley, you’ve been setting this up deliberately. You’ve been fixing it so we ... so you ...” For once, she was speechless.
“I may have doctored one or two of the moves,” he admitted with a smile, “but do you hear anyone complaining?”
“That’s not the point.” She started to straighten but he pulled her off balance so she fell back onto him and he started tickling her.
Taking their cue from him, Luke and Liam started on the other two and soon they were a mass of writhing, giggling bodies.
Luke sobered up first. “Hey, we’d better stop this. If one of the parents comes in they’ll assume the worst.”
When the front door slammed a second later, Kat looked over at him as though he’d got some sort of weird powers. He grinned as he sauntered over to look for a suitable CD to put on.
When Kat’s mum came in with a plate of mince pies it was to a calm room with Luke and Liam dishing out glasses of punch while the girls packed away the twister mat. Her expression said she didn’t believe a word of it, and her eye twinkled as she said, “Thought you might like these while they’re fresh out of the oven.”
She handed over Kat’s shoebox reserved for all her favourite CDs, and turned to Luke, trying to do a straight face. “Your dad said you wouldn’t have any recent music, and asked me to remind you about keeping it down to a decent volume or he’ll be straight over.”
“Thank you, Mrs Flynn,” they chorused as she left, looking like she was still trying to suppress a smile.
10 Jeux Sans Frontières
(Games Without Frontiers)
Jude scanned the sheepish faces; only Liam seemed unaffected by the narrow escape.
“Fifteen minutes,” said Liam. “Wonder when the next check-up will be.”
“Hopefully that’ll be it if we keep the music down. She’ll report back that we were behaving ourselves.” Kat crossed her fingers.
“You think she didn’t guess exactly what was going on?” Jude grinned. “Did you see the way she tried hard not to smile?”
“Good thing she didn’t come in a couple of minutes earlier or that would have been the end of it.” Ray pretended to mop his brow.
“End of what? Exactly what do you lot think you’re going to be doing anyway?” asked Liv.
“As much as we can possibly get away with,” grinned Ray, and she gasped as his arm snaked out to haul her back onto his lap.
Luke sorted out the complicated music system and, right on cue, Liam switched off the main lights leaving a faint glow from the picture light as Katie Melua’s bedroom voice filled the room.
Jude was so engrossed with Luke’s superb seduction technique, she barely registered the giggles and whispering when Liam and Kat left the room. It came as a complete shock a while later when they burst back into the room, switching the main lights back on.
As the rest of them blinked at the glare, he said cheekily, “C’mon girls, put him down, you don’t know where he’s been.”
“What?” Luke’s tone bristled with outrage as he pulled his shirt back together, but not before treating the girls to a glimpse of his glorious pecs.
“Oh come on now, that’s quite enough of that. You didn’t think you were getting away without the exquisite torture of Liam’s totally terrific party games. Subtly modified for your delectation.”
“Do what? I thought you’d left the bag of props over at Kat’s house.” Ray’s glare suggested mild exasperation.
“I’ve thought of a way we can improvise.” He produced a bowl of fruit from behind his back.
“Oh, no. I’m stuffed.” Luke rubbed his belly. “Couldn’t eat another thing.”
“It’s not to eat, dummy. Now, for this first game we need two teams.” He’d obviously put a lot of thought into how to work the rules to minimise Ray’s disadvantage. The first game involved passing an orange down the lines using only their chins.
“No hands; that’s automatic disqualification. Now this time, when you get to the end, you have to juggle with three oranges or do five squats.”
“Squats? That sounds disgusting.”
“That’s, like, bunny hops to you, Kat. You forget you’re not dealing with sportswomen here, Liam.”
“Oh I don’t know, you all look pretty fit to me.”
When Luke’s Aunt Sheila turned up, she found Ray juggling oranges and Kat dropping the orange from under her chin, then squatting down to do bunny hops with the others shouting them on.
“Keep going Ray, it’s got to be six throws and catches without dropping.” Liam counted them down.
“Hello, guys. Don’t mind me.” Sheila addressed Luke directly. “Your dad broke the corkscrew, so he said to come and get his.”
“The man doesn’t know his own strength.”
“Ignore me; do carry on.”
“That’s it finished. Ray’s team won.” Liam held up Ray’s arm like a prizefighter. “Sorry, Kat, You were a bit too slow.”
“If Luke hadn’t kept dropping the orange ...”
“Now, now, it’s only a game.” Ray’s overly cheerful tone, obviously for Sheila’s benefit, sounded cringe-worthy fake. “What’s the next one, Liam? Do we get to stay in the same teams, this time?”
“I’ll leave you lot to it. Be good.” Sheila winked as she exited, tossing back, “And if you can’t be good, be careful.”
When she’d gone, Jude let out a muffled squeal. “Can you imagine if she’d come in when we were ...” She started turning red and Liam gave her a “what did I tell you” look.
“Ok, brain box.” Jude glowered at him. “When do you think the next check will be?”
“Dunno. I think it was a genuine crisis. I reckon we won’t see them ’til Pete’s bedtime.”
“Which was half an hour ago.” Luke grinned. “But Dad will be so caught up in the fun he won’t notice. He’ll end up carrying him home.”
“So let’s get on with the next game. I want you all standing in a circle. No, Liv next to Ray, Jude on the other side of him, then Luke.”
He produced a juicy-looking grape and explained the game’s object was for it to pass around the circle going from head to toe, under people’s clothing.
“What?” Ray pulled at the waistband of his figure-hugging jeans.
“Just the top layer; it doesn’t have to go down your boxers, unless the girls want it to.”
“What do you mean?” Luke looked hopeful.
“Oh didn’t I say? You’re not allowed to help while it goes through your clothes, that’s the job of the person next to you. So if you start, Ray, you have to pass this grape down Liv’s clothes from head to toe.”
Ray looked like he’d won the lottery. “Come here, dear. I think I’m gonna enjoy this one.” He pulled Liv toward him and dropped the grape down the front of her dress, moving it carefully until it reached her waist, when it dropped out.
“Sorry, you’ll have to start again. The rules are from head to toe, and he’s not supposed to touch it apart from at the neck and the toe.”
“But I’m wearing tights. You’re surely not suggesting ...? But he’ll never get it out at the bottom unless he wrecks them.” Liv couldn’t work it out.
“I’m not suggesting anything, merely reminding you of the rules.”
Ray cleverly kept the grape under her dress all the way down to her knee, then made a pocket with the material of her tights and rolled it down so he never touched the grape until it reached her toe.
“Bonus points for technique. Now you do it to me, Liv.”
She picked i
t up with a glint in her eye. “I’ve heard revenge is sweet.”
The others grinned as she made short work of his shirt, managing to tickle him under the arms in the process. Undoing the buckle on his belt, she gave a throaty chuckle and sang, “My name is Tallulah ...”
Liam squirmed and she slapped his behind. “Hold still or the grape will fall out and I’ll have to start all over again.”
“But ...”
“No buts. Jude, Kat give me a hand to hold him still.”
“Our pleasure,” they chorused.
“Help me, guys. You can’t let them do this to me.” Liam appealed to the lads who went into what had become a practised double-act routine.
“Seems to me like you’re getting exactly what you wanted.” Ray’s eyes had a go at innocence.
Luke’s did pure mischief. “Yeah, be careful what you wish for, you might just get it.”
“Anyway, we’d hate to spoil your party, especially after you put so much effort into it for our delectation.” Liv fluttered her eyelashes.
“And very delectable it is too. Can’t wait for my turn.” Luke grinned.
Finally, the girls got to the end, which involved removing his shoes and giving him a dose of exquisite torture as they tickled his feet.
“Ok, I give in. But at least I get a bit of revenge on you, Kat. Hey, Jock. Why don’t you speed things up and get another grape to do Jude with? This is taking longer than I thought and there’s an even better game after this one.”
“Can it get much better than this?” With a grin, Luke complied and the two of them were soon inventing their own techniques in pursuit of the grapes.
Ray obviously felt left out as he whispered to Liv to grab a bunch of grapes which he proceeded to feed to her by various means.
“I always fancied taking part in an orgy, and if this isn’t the closest thing to it, I don’t know what is.”
At the end, Liam assumed his games-master pose, holding three jumbo strands of tinsel. “Right, this should be ribbon, and it may tickle but, like I said earlier, circumstances are forcing us to compromise.”
