by C.J Duggan
Chapter Twenty
I was in Toby's car. Again!
We drove around the streets of Onslow with the windows wound down, the summer breeze blowing my hair.
Jos? Feliciano was on the radio crooning out his version of 'California Dreaming' and I thought I would die from happiness. I looked at Toby's profile as we pulled up to the only set of lights in the whole town, and he tapped his fingers on the steering wheel.
He caught me watching him. "What?" he smirked.
The breeze had been cool on my skin but now we had stopped, the warmth in the air came back to me.
I looked at him, really looked at him. The glow of the streetlights behind him ? I didn't know what to say. My gaze flicked to the bow of his lips, and I quickly glanced away.
I looked at my hands that fidgeted in my lap. "So you're not mad at me anymore?"
Before he could respond a sounding horn blasted from behind us. The lights had changed, rocking Toby into motion. As we moved our way forward and back into the present, my phone rang and Adam flashed up on the screen.
"Hello?"
"Are you a ghost speaking from the afterlife?"
Toby threw me a questioning look. I mouthed 'Adam', then realised maybe he was still trying to decipher what I had just said to him. Something I regretted as soon as the words left my mouth, that's what. I was after affirmation, the kind only insecure teenage girls would ask for, and that was the last thing I wanted to come across as.
I rolled my eyes. "That's right! And I am going to haunt you for the rest of your days."
"You hadn't checked in so I thought I would ? what's that noise?"
"I'm hitchhiking."
There was a moment's silence on the phone, and then he twigged.
"Toby found you!"
"Yes, you dibber dobber."
"Hey, don't blame me, when I said you had walked home he basically accosted me and then high-tailed it after you. I said if I knew you, you would stop at the Caltex for junk food."
"Oh, you think you know me, huh? Well, it so happens I didn't buy a thing."
Condom! Condom! Condom!
"Nothing from a certain vending machine?" His voice was teasing. I nearly dropped my mobile switching to the other ear away from Toby. Damn him! We had been friends for too long.
"No!" I said a little too high-pitched.
Adam chuckled on the end of the phone. "You so did! And you can't even blame it on Ellie this time."
"I'm hanging up now."
"Oh, hang on a minute." There were muffled voices followed by scratching and static.
"Tess?" Sean's voice came on the line. "Can you please put Toby on?"
"Oh, um, he's driving. Hang on a sec, I'll put you on loud speaker."
"Tooooobyyyyyyyyy, Toooooooobyyyyyyy," sing-songed through the phone like a nightmare.
"Can you come and pick me up? Old buddy, old mate, old pal ? what do you say?"
Toby sighed and gave me a bored look.
"Do you mind?" he asked.
A destination to delay me from getting out of this car, hell no.
"Fine by me."
"Be back there in five." Toby worked to turn the car.
I was just about to hang up when Adam's voice echoed through the loud speaker.
"Tess? Okay, so where were we before we were so rudely interrupted? Oh that's right, you went and got yourself a co?" I hung up the phone with lightning speed and threw it on the dashboard.
Toby did a double take. "Everything okay?"
You mean apart from forgetting to turn off the loud speaker and nearly having my best friend reveal that I was packing heat? Apart from that, fine!
I texted Adam a very brief 'SHUT UP!' message and then placed my phone on silent. If Toby wondered what Adam was talking about, he didn't let on. Maybe I bought myself a Cosmo mag or something. That could work.
We pulled into the Onslow car park, which was nothing more than a big circular space of gravel out the front of the hotel. There were people everywhere, loitering, most intoxicated after a big session. We couldn't see Sean, and neither of us really wanted to get out of the car.
Near the front entrance a fight broke out; there was a lot of pushing and shoving before their mates held back the two obviously hammered guys.
We wound up the windows at this point and waited for our package to be delivered.
We both jumped as a sound thudded against Toby's window.
"Toby!" A muffled sound with a smattering of condensation as Angela pressed herself drunkenly against the glass that she then proceeded to kiss.
This could not be happening.
"I missed yooooouuu?" she crooned. Toby unwound the window, and Angela's eyes lit up now that there was nothing stopping her from getting her claws on her man. She paused as she caught sight of me, tilting her head in wonder. I gave a small smile.
"Tic Tac?" she said. I flinched. So much for our bathroom bonding, at least her predictable behavior made it easy for me to hate her. "What are you doing in here?"
Toby saved me from answering. "I'm just dropping Tess and Sean home."
"Sean?" Angela's eyes squinted into the interior thinking she might have overlooked him the first time. How anyone could overlook Sean's six-foot-three stature, I couldn't be sure.
"He's inside, do you want to grab him for me? I don't want to leave the car."
Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes. "Sure thing, babe, I know the law doesn't look too kindly on people leaving kids in cars." She looked pointedly at me and laughed at her own joke.
Before she went, she pulled Toby into a full-on kiss, her eyes on me, laying claim on her man. Finally she pushed him away and zig-zagged through the crowd.
Well, that was awkward.
At least she didn't call me out and try to claw my face off, but the night was still young. We just sat in silence. I could tell Toby was embarrassed by public displays of affection. It was always Angela pawing at him, and although he looked at her affectionately and smiled, you would never see Toby getting all gooey. I was thankful for small mercies because I didn't think I could stomach that. Sean stepped through the front door, sauntering his way across the gravel with a pot glass of beer in hand.
He came around to my passenger side to get in.
"You can't take that with you," I said.
"It's for my collection, don't tell Chris." He put a finger to his lips and climbed in, his giant frame filling the inner cabin. I scooted over to the middle, and he leaned on me, spilling a bit of beer on himself. It was at this point I realised I was pushed right up against Toby, his bare arm burning against mine. I gave him an apologetic smile, even though I was not in the least bit sorry.
Toby whispered to me, "I think we better get him home first, if he passes out we'll have no hope."
"Agreed." I muttered and tried to push Sean away from crushing me.
"Hey lookie, it's my girlfriend." Sean put his arm around me. "What's for tea, honey? Are all the house chores done?"
"One: in your dreams, and two: it's the 1990's, not the1950's, you sexist pig."
I felt the vibration of Toby's laughter through his arm as we both watched Sean's brows rise in surprise.
"Tess, will you marry me?" Toby laughed.
I blushed, not knowing what to say, when a familiar cackle sounded from across the drive. Angela had stumbled over in the garden. Her equally drunk friend tried to help her up, but she was too busy laughing.
"Wow, someone's drunker then me. Impressive." Sean threw back another mouthful of what looked like flat, warm beer.
Angela hauled herself up and spotted us again.
"Heeeeyyyyy, where are you going?"
"I'm just going to drop -"
"You can't go." Angela pouted, glanced around her and then cupped her hands around her mouth. "Chris is going to do a lock-in." She whispered in a loud, obnoxious way, as if she was privy to this amazing secret. As I looked over her dishevelled state, I knew Chris wouldn't let her stay; she was
a loud, messy drunk and Chris wouldn't have that time bomb in his pub. Lock-ins were risky enough. All hush-hush as the beer continued to flow past their 12 o'clock licence. It could mean big trouble for Chris and his uncle if they were found out.
I prayed that my little cozy refuge, pressed up against Toby, wouldn't be spoiled if Angela convinced him to stay with her. But he didn't budge.
"Stay here, Ang. I'll come and get you after I drop them home."
Her eyes cut daggers at Sean and me, like he had chosen us over her. Which he kind of had.
She shrugged. "If I'm here, I'm here."
"Don't be like that, I won't be long."
She flicked her hair and walked off in a huff. What a child. I could stress and blush, and ask all the stupid naive questions in the world, and I still would look more mature than Angela Vickers every time. Toby stared after Angela with a deep scowl; he resonated such anger, I was sure he wouldn't go after her. His jaw pulsed as he tightly clenched the steering wheel.
"She'll be alright, she's got her friends. She'll be here when you get back." I tried to pacify him like the idiot I was.
She's a freakin' idiot!
"Yeah," Toby said as he started up the engine. He slung his arm over the seatback to check his back view. "I'm not coming back."
