Friendship on Fire

by Danielle Weiler

  My head still thumped dully, though not as much as yesterday. I was definitely feeling better. I had a new hurdle though; my throat hurt and my body ached, not only the place on my head where the ball embarrassingly hit me.

  ‘Yep, I’m up. Thanks.’

  ‘You have a visitor,’ she informed me.

  I nearly jumped out of my doona. ‘Who?’

  ‘Roman,’ she said casually.

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘Says he’s here to walk with you to school. Do you want me to tell him to go?’ Her frown surprised me.

  ‘No, um, tell him I’ll be a minute.’

  ‘Dad’s already telling him what happened yesterday. He’ll be entertained for a good while so you have time to get ready.’ She grinned at me, and I rolled my eyes.

  ‘Yay. So he can laugh at me as well, you mean.’

  ‘We weren’t laughing at you,’ Mum smiled. ‘You were unlucky.’

  ‘Doesn’t matter how you dress it up, Mum …’ I started, and grabbed my towel. I looked down at myself. I was in my pyjamas. Now, I remembered going to bed still in my soccer uniform. Who had undressed me?

  I heard Dad’s animated voice and Roman’s polite laugh as I headed into the bathroom to shower for school.

  Mum had some breakfast ready for me after I was dressed in my uniform. Wrapping a light scarf around my neck, I grabbed the toast and moved to the living room. Roman was standing near the window and his eyes lit up when he saw me.

  ‘Hello little soccer pro,’ he said cheerfully.

  ‘Shut up. Let’s go,’ I snapped, but he knew I wasn’t mad.

  ‘So what really happened?’ I bet he couldn’t wait to hear this headline story: Retarded girl can’t pin her wild hair down after beach date and gets concussion from a soft soccer ball.

  ‘It’s embarrassing, Roman,’ I complained.

  ‘No it’s not. It’s only me.’ His coaxing blue eyes were hard to ignore.

  ‘I know. That’s half the problem.’ Quietly, more to myself than him.

  ‘So you got hit by the ball. Were you not watching?’ His cheek twitched with a growing smile.

  ‘I was trying to see. My stupid salty hair was in the way,’ I said sookily. ‘I didn’t get a chance to shower after the beach, so my hair was wild. I couldn’t move in time.’

  Roman smirked but couldn’t hold it in. His laughter boomed into the street and I punched him in the arm.

  ‘That’s classic. I wish I’d been there. Maybe I should be using my time on Sundays more wisely.’

  I folded my arms. ‘I’m not saying anymore about it then.’

  He kept laughing. ‘Fine. So what were you doing at the beach?’

  ‘Looking at shipwrecks and swimming. What do normal people do at the beach?’

  My throat was aching so badly.

  ‘All right. Who with?’

  ‘Who do you think?’

  ‘Oh. Him.’ His eyes met the pavement and his feet started dragging.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘Guess I should have assumed that one,’ he said quietly.

  I gave him a sidelong glance.

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Well who else would you be with? You two are joined at the hip.’

  Defensiveness rose up in my chest. ‘So what if we are? I get time to see my friends still. Look at Saturday night.’

  ‘Of course. Forget I brought it up.’

  He looked in the other direction, so all I could see was the back of his head as he shuffled next to me.

  ‘I will. Why did you want to walk with me this morning? Just to have a go at me?’ I demanded.

  ‘No. I thought it would be a nice surprise.’ His hands moved to slip into his pockets.

  ‘It was, until all your questions started.’

  ‘Daisy, chill. Ignore me. You take things so seriously.’

  ‘Yeah, because I don’t like to be out of your favour. So when you criticise me it makes me think I’m not good enough for you.’

  ‘That’s silly.’ He frowned, confusion in his eyes.

  ‘It’s how I feel,’ I retorted.

  ‘Fair enough,’ he shrugged. ‘But I don’t mean to. Here. Have a redskin. That toast looked nasty.’

  I made an effort to lighten up. Just because I was feeling sick and sensitive it didn’t mean I had to take it out on him. ‘Yeah it was a bit. Thanks. Great breakfast food right here,’ I said, holding up the redskin and taking a deep breath.

  Skye and Bree almost clothes-lined me on the way into maths. They hogged the path so much that I had to go between them, where they could both shove me easily.

  ‘How’s the head, loser?’ Skye asked and Bree laughed. How did they know about yesterday? I ignored them, so they continued. ‘Maybe you need some glasses, ranga? It might improve your already pathetic look.’

  I shrugged and glared at Skye defiantly. ‘Whatever. I get to play with hot boys who carry me off the field when I’m hurt. What do you get?’

  They stopped and looked at each other, confused.

  In class, the announcement on the board unhappily said: ‘Trig Maths Test. Pencils and Calculators only. 45 minutes.’ I’d clean forgotten about the maths test today.

  I relaxed. In all honesty, I was going to fail anyway, whether I studied or not. Ultimately, I’d rather have fun with my short life and get kicked in the head with a ball, than spend it stressing over another maths test.

  At lunchtime, Nate sent me an unexpected text:

  Please tell me you haven’t made plans tonight already. I want you from six onwards.

  Smiling to myself, I responded:

  I’m busy with my other ten boyfriends, sorry.

  Ouch. So I’ll come past at five-thirty? ?

  Definitely.

  He had clearly taken this whole ‘dating properly’ thing very seriously. It must be costing him a fortune to keep up with paying for all our dinners and fuel driving us to the beach. It wasn’t like I didn’t know where the money came from, but he wouldn’t let me pay for anything.

  I resisted the sudden thought that popped into my head, challenging me with the idea that he was buying me through his fancy courtship. There’s nothing wrong with dating a girl properly, I said back to that thought. I deserve it, don’t I?

  Even I couldn’t have guessed what Nate had planned for us. After my driving lesson, which went extremely well — Terry only rolled his eyes at me once, when I squealed at a seagull committing suicide on the road before my very eyes — I had a quick dinner before getting dressed to go out with Nate. What kind of occasion was it? Was it jeans-worthy? Or pretty-dress-worthy? Shorts? He needed to give me more information than simply a time.

  So for us to be sitting in a movie theatre in the dark and me still not knowing what we were watching or essentially doing , was very frustrating. Nate grinned. The previews rolled, which wasn’t particularly strange in itself, but they were from a different culture. It was in English, though. They showed ‘normal’ Hollywood storylines. What was so different about these previews and why didn’t I recognise them?

  Then I realised. The film started with distinct, high pitched music. Nate laughed at the look on my face when it clicked what he’d done.

  Squeezing my knee, he whispered in my ear, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be over in about four hours. Get comfortable. Maybe you should have brought your cute little pyjamas with you.’

  I gasped. ‘That was you.’

  ‘Of course not. Your dad wouldn’t let me anywhere near you. I tried to watch, though.’ He grinned wickedly.

  ‘Oh shush,’ I said, smiling back.

  Bollywood. Like he’d threatened. It was romantic. It was creative. It was going to kill me.

  Even the men in these movies danced. The whiny notes grated up my spine, but the mixture of storylines was hilarious. I punched Nate’s leg.

  ‘Hey, you know what to do if you get bored,’ he whispered. In the unpredictability of the cinema lights, Nate’s lips and eyes were
to die for. I leant in to kiss him and he turned his head away deliberately.

  ‘None of that. I’m trying to watch a movie here.’

  I ripped the M&M’s out of his hand and sighed.

  My throat hated me. It growled like an angry lion on steroids. Each swallow made my back cringe in grim anticipation, and my head pounded worse than the concussion ever had. I wasn’t going anywhere. I called Mum on her mobile from my bed.

  ‘I’m dying.’

  ‘Where are you?’ she asked, confused.

  ‘In bed. I’m not going to school. I’m dying,’ I repeated.

  ‘Can’t we talk about this face to face?’

  ‘Aren’t you listening? I’m dying. And contagious. So if you don’t want to die, I suggest you stay well away from me, mother dear.’

  Mum laughed. ‘Right. I’ll tell the others not to disturb you.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  That was Tuesday.

  My nose joined the party on Wednesday and I honked half the Southern Ocean out of it within a day. The edges of it were red, swollen and nearly cracking with constant rubbing.

  How wretched, lonely, and miserable was I. No amount of daytime TV could console me, no amount of reduced-sugar ice cream I found in the freezer could make me feel better, and Nate wasn’t checking his phone at school.

  I’d caught Rachael’s bug that had kept her out of action for a whole school week. The worst part was, I didn’t have anyone to wag school with me. Study was certainly out of the question. So was savoury binge eating; I couldn’t have tasted the food if I tried. No point wasting it. So I spent the whole day in bed, pouting.

  By Thursday I felt more human, but my body introduced another friend. The cough. The evil cough racked through my body while I tried to sleep, eat and think. The ice cream eating didn’t particularly help it and I spent most of the day being a cackling witch in my pyjamas, feeling utterly unsexy.

  Sympathy text messages helped. They showed me that I still had friends in my time of quarantine, but no one visited me nonetheless. I felt like a leper.

  I thought I could possibly make it to school on Friday, if only with the intention of helping to finalise the stupid toga party at James’ house. Where was I supposed to get a sheet from? Mum wouldn’t be over the moon if I stole one from her linen cupboard. If Roman was endorsing the party, he could find me one.

  ell this is awkward.’

  Nate stated the obvious as he, Roman and I looked at each other on the kerb of one of the busiest intersections in Twin Rocks. Our triangle stance was almost funny, if not honestly embarrassing.

  ‘I don’t believe we’ve officially met,’ Roman said, eyeing Nate coolly.

  ‘No, we haven’t, have we? Nate.’ He put his hand out confidently.

  Roman flexed his arm, too, and shook Nate’s firmly. ‘Roman.’

  Nate smiled at him arrogantly. ‘So you are. I’ve heard plenty about you.’

  ‘And you. Not all good.’ Roman squared his shoulders and his blue eyes held a stare I’d never seen him use on anyone before, especially not me.

  Nate flicked his eyes at me but kept his cool. ‘Looks like we’re all walking to school together, then. Charming,’ he said and put his arm around my waist possessively. And too tight.

  Roman saw this and studied us carefully, which Nate would surely have known he would do. An uncomfortable feeling stirred in the pit of my stomach. We had a good fifteen-minute walk before we hit my school and I felt immense pressure to ensure that our conversation stayed light-hearted and inoffensive. Pigs might fly.

  The boys puffed up their chests and started on each other, not wasting any time. Whoever won this verbal wrestling contest decided their larger pants size at the end. There was nothing I could do to stop it.

  ‘How’s Daddy’s car?’ Roman asked, faking interest.

  ‘Great. What have you got?’ Nate must have been aware that Roman didn’t have the kind of money his parents did.

  Nor had I for that matter.

  ‘Whatever I have I’m pretty sure my parents didn’t hand it to me on a silver platter,’ Roman replied casually.

  ‘Nice one,’ Nate nodded to himself.

  ‘I bet life is hard for you, being a rich Grammar boy,’ Roman said sarcastically.

  ‘I have opportunities,’ Nate replied coolly.

  ‘I believe in creating your own opportunities,’ Roman countered, not looking at Nate.

  ‘Definitely. How do you think I got Daisy?’ Nate said smugly. He squeezed my hand, almost in triumph, but I didn’t feel the same way he did.

  ‘Do you really want me to answer that?’ Roman murmured, almost to himself.

  ‘Go on then.’

  Nate’s subtle challenge vexed Roman. I could see it the way his eyes tightened around the edges, but he kept his head.

  ‘There appears to be something about you, I suppose, but I’m possibly a little blind as to what it might be. I’d prefer not to speak for Daisy anyhow, it’s not gentlemanly.’

  ‘I wouldn’t want you to stretch yourself too far the other way. Being a gentleman is hard work,’ Nate said, testing a look at Roman.

  I walked between them, trying to guide each of their eyes with mine, pleading for them to behave. Roman was clenching his jaw. He was wrestling with his next comment, for my sake.

  ‘You’d know all about ‘the other way’, wouldn’t you?’ Roman finally said, and I held my breath with anxiety.

  ‘Ahh. I see you have been dabbling in gossip. Have the rumours reached even you? Should I be flattered, Daisy?’

  I scowled.

  ‘I can’t imagine they would have come out of thin air,’ Roman commented tightly.

  Gossip. It was coming out too quickly for me to clarify specific details.

  ‘Of course they could have. And they have,’ Nate added for effect.

  Roman was choosing how far to take his argument when I took my own opportunity to interject.

  ‘Guys, is this really necessary?’ I pleaded, looking from one to the other. ‘I’ve only just got over being sick. I can’t cope with this right now. And to be honest, it’s kind of pathetic.’

  ‘Stay out of it,’ they both responded at once, then looked surprised and annoyed that they had the same thought at the same time.

  I smothered a smile. I was irritated at the same time; I didn’t see why it had to be so difficult to be civil to each other, especially when they were practically strangers. Hadn’t they been brought up to be polite to strangers?

  They were behaving like small children, arguing over a toy.

  ‘Can’t we all be friends?’ I begged.

  They shook their heads. What else could I do? If they were going to be stubborn, I had to leave it up to them. I’d done everything I could.

  Our school gate looming on the horizon couldn’t come sooner. I walked quicker, hoping we would get there faster.

  ‘At least I have a job,’ Roman snapped finally. I kept walking faster.

  ‘Bet you wouldn’t if you didn’t have to,’ Nate spat back, his eyes turning a glassy black.

  ‘Yeah, I would. I don’t like bludging off anyone. A real man makes his own money.’ Roman’s eyes had darkened too, their usual spark replaced by hard resentment.

  Nate clenched his jaw. Turning to me, he said, ‘I’ve had enough of this. What great friends you have, Daisy.’

  ‘I could say the same for you,’ Roman said quietly.

  ‘Have a good day, babe. I’ll be thinking of you. See you soon.’

  Running his hand down to my backside, Nate leaned in to give me a lingering kiss, extra passionate because Roman was there. I pushed his chest away after a while, dizzy headed but cross at his macho show of claiming me.

  ‘Bye,’ I waved and Nate walked down the path whistling with his hands in his pockets.

  As soon as Nate was out of earshot, I flew at Roman. ‘What the hell was that about? You two were as bad as Skye and me. Don’t ever tell me off again for sticking up for myself with her. N
o matter what you tell me, boys are just as bad as girls. Worse.’

  Roman stuck out his chin stubbornly. ‘Yeah well he’s an arrogant jerk. He deserved everything I gave him. The only problem is that you can’t see it.’

  I glowered at him. ‘He’s not like that, it’s only a front. He’s nice to me. He cares about me.’

  Roman smirked. ‘He takes you out to expensive restaurants and lets you drive his flash cars, you mean. Is that the kind of guy you hold out for, Daisy?’ His disapproval bore down on me.

  ‘What’s so wrong with that? Don’t hold it against him because his Dad is rich. He didn’t choose this life.’

  ‘True. He makes other choices that affect other people in his life, though. You hear the gossip that comes from Addison Grammar about what the boys get up to there. James hears it all the time from his cousins and then tells me. His friends are feral, Dais.’

  His eyes dared me to question him. My neck stiffened. Were these rumours new?

  ‘What have you heard? And what have they got to do with me?’ I demanded, head pounding in my ears.

  ‘Oh come on. Can’t you guess?’ Roman’s head tilted at me in disbelief.

  My temper rose. ‘Clearly I can’t, because I’m stupid. Why don’t you spell it out for me?’

  Roman folded his arms. ‘If I must. Drink driving, not to mention dangerous driving, sleeping around with any girls they can get and petty theft. These boys aren’t as innocent as they’re cracked up to be. Have you met any of his friends?’

  I opened my mouth to argue, but realised I hadn’t.

  ‘Not yet,’ I snapped.

  Roman continued. ‘I didn’t want to tell you because I thought you’d be smart enough to figure it out for yourself by now. But you’re not getting it. Instead, you’re getting in deeper with him and I can’t see why.’

  He stared straight ahead, trying to control his frustration. My voice turned low and menacing.

  ‘I don’t have to explain myself to you Roman Taylor. If Nate says these rumours aren’t true, I believe him.’