‘Maisie!’
I toss the tub of roast potatoes back on the counter at Val’s screech and scuttle back into the café. A couple are gathering up their things, hooking shopping bags on to their wrists, and I assume Val wants me to clear their plates until she jabs a finger at Lily, who is squeezing between the tables, dodging over-full carrier bags spilling out into the limited space.
‘I’m going on my break.’ Val rummages in her pocket for a packet of cigarettes before giving me a pointed look. ‘Remember, I don’t pay you to socialise. She’s either a paying customer or she’s out. Got it?’
I resist the urge to salute my agreement and instead weave my way towards Lily. She’s wearing a polka-dotted apron over a mustard jumper and jeans, a nametag pinned on the left-hand side. Alongside her name, there’s the gold outline of a daisy, which means she’s working at the florist a couple of shops along the road from the café. It’s 1997, the year after the grotto photo.
‘I could murder a bacon butty.’ Lily flops into a seat at the vacated table and rummages in the pocket of her jeans, dumping a scrunched-up tissue and a handful of change on the table. ‘But maybe just a brew.’ She slides a couple of twenty pences, three fives and some coppers to one side before gathering the rest and shoving it back into her pocket. ‘Can you make it snappy? I’m gasping and Elle wants me back in the shop in ten minutes. She has to deliver a load of flowers for a wedding in Chadderton.’ She screws up her face. ‘Who the hell wants to get married less than a week before Christmas? Don’t they have enough stress in their life?’
I have to press my lips together to stop myself from bursting out laughing. If I had a mirror handy, I’d hold it up in front of Lily to show her exactly who is crazy enough to plan a wedding during the festive period.
‘What?’ Lily frowns at me, but I shake my head and start to gather the dirty plates and mugs from the table.
‘I just think it’s romantic, that’s all.’
‘Don’t talk to me about romance.’ Lily drops her face into her hands with a groan. ‘I ended up sleeping with Mal again last night.’
Mal? Which one was he? Lily has a lot of exes; she flung herself from disastrous relationship to disastrous relationship until she settled down with ‘the one’, so it’s hard to keep track.
‘Why did you sleep with him if you’re not keen?’ I don’t remember who this Mal dude was, but Lily’s hardly radiating joy at their hook-up.
Lily shrugs. ‘Why not? He’s pretty fit, if you ignore the bad breath and sovereign ring.’ She groans again and looks up at me with wide, pleading eyes. ‘God, Maisie, what’s wrong with me?’
‘How long have you got, mate?’
Lily nudges me with her foot and crosses her arms in a huff, despite the smile creeping over her face. ‘Bring me my brew, you cheeky cow.’
Val’s out in the yard at the back of the café, leaning against the wheelie bin as she sucks greedily on a cigarette. Nudging the door so it’s half-closed, I sneak a couple of pre-cooked rashers of bacon from the fridge and warm them up on the hob, shuddering at the rankness that was Val’s Café.
‘I’ve only got enough for the brew,’ Lily says as I place a bacon sandwich and a cup of tea in front of her, but I put a finger to my lip, my eyes darting behind me to check Val is still out of sight. ‘Gotcha.’ Lily taps her nose before grabbing the sandwich and sinking her teeth into it.
It’s dark by the time my shift ends. I’ve been on my feet all day and I want nothing more than to go home and sink into a hot bubble bath, but Lily has other ideas. She’s waiting for me outside the café, her spotty apron replaced by a thick parka (though she hasn’t bothered to fasten it, despite the bitter cold) and she’s carrying a bulky plastic carrier bag.
‘The Star.’ Lily grabs my arm and starts to tug me along the road. ‘Jonas is meeting us there. Jessica’s visiting her gran so he’s allowed to come out to play.’
I have fond memories of the Star Inn, a pub on the outskirts of the town centre which was frequented mostly by underage students. Lively nights out, laughter, bad karaoke, snogging in the beer garden. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to enjoy myself with such abandonment. There was no worrying about hangovers back then (they were present, but easily defeated with paracetamol and a Hollyoaks omnibus), no clock-watching to make sure you’re back in time to relieve the babysitter, and if I ran out of money it didn’t really matter because I had no bills to pay.
‘I’m starving.’ Lily places a hand on her stomach and grimaces. ‘That bacon butty seems like forever ago. One of the customers gave me a mint humbug earlier, but I need proper nourishment. A packet of salt and vinegar will go down nicely.’
The mum in me wants to step in and point out that crisps aren’t ‘proper nourishment’ – they aren’t nourishment at all – but I have to remind myself that I’m a seventeen-year-old girl who wouldn’t know one end of a stick of celery from the other. Crisps and biscuits were a major staple of my diet in 1997.
‘I thought you were skint.’ I remember the meagre coins dropping onto the table at Val’s this afternoon. Lily only just managed to scrape enough together for a cup of tea – how is she planning on funding a night in the pub, with snacks?
‘I am.’ She reaches into her pocket and produces a ten-pence piece on a sea of coppers. ‘But who needs money when you look like this?’ Lily releases her grip on my arm so she can hold her arms out wide. She grins at me, to show she’s only kidding. ‘Jonas got paid today. He said he’d buy me a couple of pints. I’ll return the favour tomorrow. Anyway, it’s his fault I’m so skint. And yours.’
‘How come?’
Lily threads her arm back through mine and lifts the carrier bag in her other hand. ‘Early Christmas present.’
I rack my brain to recollect what was in that bag back in 1997, but I come up with a blank.
‘You can say thank you with a pint.’ Lily nudges me, to show she’s kidding, but I’m not sure she is.
We hear the Star Inn before we see it; Noddy Holder is yelling about it being Christmas as we turn the corner, and I can practically feel the beat of the festive song pulsing through the pavement and into my aching feet. I don’t know what I’m blasted with first as Lily swings the door open – the increased volume of Noddy’s seasonal joy, the heat from the pub full of already drunk revellers, or the choking fug of cigarette smoke filling the air. There’s a greyness to the room, and I want to reach out to part the cloud of smoke as we edge our way into the pub.
‘There he is.’ Lily has to yell over the din as she points across the room, towards the blazing gas fire where Jonas is hunched over a pint. We can’t see his face from here, but there’s no missing that messy mop of hair and the worn leather jacket.
‘Hello, stranger.’ Lily flops down onto the stool opposite Jonas and grabs his pint, taking a quick swig before swiping at her mouth with the back of her hand.
‘Pint, is it?’ Jonas stands up and indicates I should take his stool – the pub is so packed, there isn’t another free one in sight – before he zig-zags his way to the bar.
‘Oh, man.’ Lily thumps her forehead lightly with a fist. ‘I forgot about the crisps.’
‘I’ll go.’ Tucking the stool under the table and instructing Lily to guard it with her life, I make my way to the bar. It’s heaving, but I somehow manage to sidestep and shuffle my way towards Jonas, who’s toying with the frayed metallic strips of a ‘Merry Christmas’ banner taped to the front of the bar while he waits his turn.
‘Lily wants crisps.’
‘And she sent you?’ Jonas shakes his head, but the corners of his mouth are twitching. ‘Typical.’
‘I offered.’ I don’t know how long I’ll be spending in 1997 and I want to enjoy every moment I have with Jonas before we go back to being virtual strangers in the present day, even if that means standing at the bar for an eternity while the barmaid flirts with a group of lads at the other end.
‘You know you’d have ended up playing
the Golden Wonder messenger even if you hadn’t offered? That’s Lily’s way.’ Jonas makes a fist, jutting out his pinkie and making it wriggle up and down. ‘She has everybody wrapped around her little finger.’
‘She’s a character, that’s for sure.’
Jonas nods. ‘Life would be pretty dull without Lily in it. I can’t even imagine it.’
I feel as though I’ve been punched in the stomach, but I manage to smile as I murmur my agreement. Jonas can’t imagine a life without Lily in it, but he’ll be able to cut me out of his life without a backwards glance.
SEVENTEEN
Lily isn’t alone when we finally return with the drinks and crisps. We waited so long at the bar, it wouldn’t surprise me if Christmas and the New Year had been and gone.
‘Look who’s bumped into us.’ Lily catches my eye and winks at me before turning back to Aaron, who’s nabbed the stool from under the table. ‘You were just telling me how you broke up with your girlfriend?’ She’s adopted a gentle tone, but when Lily catches my eye again, there’s a definite glint that tells me she’s in Cilla Black mode. I decide to make my escape before she starts thinking about buying a new hat.
‘I’m going to look for a chair.’
‘Sorry, have this one back.’ Aaron half-stands, but I decline the offer and Jonas joins me as we hunt out a couple of stools from elsewhere. It isn’t an easy task; the pub is jammed, with customers seemingly taking up every seat. Even the pool table is being used as a makeshift pew, and I count a dozen teenage boys jiggling about as they sing along to the Teletubbies, which is now blaring from the jukebox. The best I can come up with is a stool that’s been abandoned by the men’s loo because it has one leg two inches shorter than the others.
‘Where’d you find that?’ I place the stool down carefully between Lily’s fully functioning stool and the stripy deckchair Jonas is lounging in. It wobbles but settles on its good legs.
‘Derek brought it out from the back for me.’ Jonas eyes the wounded stool. ‘Do you want to swap?’ He attempts to wriggle free from the deckchair, but it has a tight grip of him and he doesn’t manage to get much traction.
‘Here, have this one.’ Aaron picks up his stool and moves it towards me, swapping it for the wonky one. I feel a stab of guilt that Aaron has ended up with the worst seat, but I push it away. My feet are throbbing after a day of working at Val’s – I deserve a tiny bit of comfort.
‘You’re such a gentleman,’ Lily tells Aaron through a mouthful of salt and vinegar crisps. ‘I can’t believe that girl dumped you.’ She reaches into the packet and pulls out a fistful of crisps. ‘Hey, do you know what? Maisie’s single too.’
I try to catch her eye, so I can give her a severe look, but she refuses to glance my way.
‘What happened to that guy you were seeing? Wayne, wasn’t it?’
Lily’s hand pauses, the crisps suspended between the packet and her wide open gob. ‘How do you know about Wayne?’
‘Maisie told me about him a few weeks ago.’
Lily catches my eye now, but it’s only briefly and I don’t have the chance to darken my expression. ‘When did you two meet up?’
‘We didn’t, not really.’ I pick up my pint and take a sip, grimacing at the taste. Lager is revolting. Why did I ever drink the stuff? ‘We ran into each other at the library. Some of us actually study, you know.’ I shoot a pointed look at Lily, but if she notices, she doesn’t react.
‘And you got chatting? That’s nice.’ She raises her eyebrows at me before shoving the crisps into her mouth, keeping eye contact with me as she slowly crunches them.
‘So you and Wayne split up?’ Aaron’s stool wobbles but he steadies himself by clutching the edge of the table. ‘That’s a shame. You seemed to really like him.’
I had. I’d liked him a lot. For a while I’d thought he was my first love, until I realised what love actually was, which wasn’t a relationship based on a shared psychology class and quick fumbles when his mum was out of the house.
‘He cheated on her.’ Lily leans across the table, not even bothering to lower her voice as she spills my personal information. ‘With Evie Lane.’ Lily’s lip curls as she reaches for another handful of crisps. ‘What a skank. She’s been with everybody from sixth form. Apart from Jonas, because he has better standards and he’s totally in love with Jessica.’ Lily tilts her head to one side as she observes Aaron across the table. ‘Didn’t you get off with Evie while we were at school?’
Aaron barks out a laugh. ‘You can’t judge a guy on who he got off with at school. That was, like, three years ago. I’m different now. More mature.’
‘So you wouldn’t cheat on Maisie with Evie Lane?’
I try to kick Lily under the table, but the carrier bag she’s tucked under there blocks my target.
‘Absolutely not.’ Aaron picks up his pint and drains it. ‘And on that note, I have to get going. I need to get some scran before I start my shift. I’m just glass collecting at Akita’s and the money’s shit, but I’m saving for uni.’ He quirks an eyebrow at Lily. ‘See? I’m way more mature now. I’m thinking about the future and everything.’ Lifting his hand in farewell, he starts to back away. ‘See you around.’
Lily waits a nanosecond before she leans towards me. ‘You two would be perfect together.’
I shake my head. My lips are twitching, but I manage to keep a neutral expression despite the ludicrous suggestion. ‘There is no way Aaron and I will ever get together. Trust me.’
Lily rolls her eyes as she licks the salt and vinegar flavour from her fingers. ‘Oi, Jonas, what’s that thing about protesting too much?’
‘Present time!’ Lily claps her hands together, the grin on her face achingly wide. It’s been a couple of pints since Aaron left and Lily seems to have forgotten all about him, which is a relief. She’s reaching under the table for the carrier bag, which she produces with an even wider grin. ‘Maisie first.’ She reaches into the bag and wrestles with the first item, which she eventually manages to wriggle free. ‘Ta dah!’ She holds the black jumper up by the arms, displaying the motif on the front. Snoopy, clad in a Santa hat, is peeping through a wreath decorated with garish red and yellow baubles.
‘I’ve got one for all of us.’ Lily reaches into the bag and produces another jumper. This one is also black, but instead of a festive Snoopy it has a red and green zig-zag pattern on the front with rows of snowflakes in between. She hands the jumper to Jonas before revealing a third jumper. ‘Let’s go and put them on. It’ll be a laugh.’ Lily almost topples her stool in her eagerness, but I’m a little more restrained as I rise reluctantly from my seat. The jumper is hideous, and although these days we could get away with it in an ironic sort of way, back in the 1990s it would have been a big no-no. Still, I don’t want to rain on Lily’s parade, so I follow her to the ladies and shut myself into a cubicle so I can swap my stripy Sweater Shop jumper (which is ugly in its own way) for the Snoopy one.
‘What do you think?’ Lily does a twirl as I emerge from my cubicle, showing off the Minnie Mouse Christmas jumper she’s bought for herself. ‘Proper wacky, right?’
‘That’s one word for it.’ Taking a deep breath, I tug on the door handle and return to the pub. I’m expecting odd looks or snide comments, but everybody is either too drunk to notice the awful jumpers or they just don’t care. It feels quite liberating actually, being free to wander around in a ridiculous jumper without judgement.
‘You haven’t put it on.’ Lily grabs Jonas’s festive jumper, which has been stowed underneath his deckchair, and waggles it at him.
Jonas shakes his head and makes a ‘pfft’ sound. ‘I don’t think so.’
‘Come on, Mr Grumpy, it’ll be fun.’ Lily dances the jumper in front of Jonas’s face, but he bats it away. ‘Fine. Be miserable.’ Lily flops down on a stool in a huff, not realising it’s the wonky one, and almost topples over, only saving herself by grasping onto the neighbouring Christmas tree. The tree lists precariously but manages
to stay upright, though it does shed a few decorations onto the carpet.
‘So you can smile, then.’ Lily narrows her eyes at Jonas as she switches seats, testing it for sturdiness with her hand before she commits.
‘I wasn’t smiling.’ Jonas presses his lips together, clearly struggling to keep the mirth from his face.
‘Good, because that wasn’t funny. I could have died.’
‘By falling off a low stool?’ Jonas snorts. ‘I think the worst that would happened would be a sore arse and a bruised ego.’
‘Thanks for the sympathy, mate.’ Lily folds her arms across her chest and thrusts her chin to the right, so she’s glaring towards the Christmas tree rather than at Jonas. She lasts approximately three seconds before she rounds on him again. ‘Come on, you moody bellend. Just put the jumper on. For me, your bezzie mate.’ Lily thrusts the jumper at Jonas but he bats it away again.
‘No way. Not happening.’
‘But it was a gift.’ Lily’s bottom lip starts to protrude. ‘You’re being very ungrateful. Maisie’s wearing hers.’
‘It’s actually quite fun.’ I pull at my jumper, so Snoopy looks up at me. ‘And if I can look like an idiot, you can too.’ I pick up the jumper and take a step towards the deckchair.
‘You’re hardly selling the idea to me.’ Jonas holds up a hand as I loom closer. ‘And if you take one more step towards me with that monstrosity, I’ll strangle you with a piece of tinsel.’
‘Jonas Brown.’ Lily’s tone is low, her eyes ominously dark, and she plants her hands on her hips. ‘Stop being a misery guts and put the jumper on.’ She lunges at him suddenly, one hand gripping the hem of his T-shirt while the other reaches out towards me, flapping to encourage me towards the deckchair. ‘Help me get this off and then we can put the jumper on.’
The 12 Christmases of You & Me Page 11
