A Story of Now (26 page)

Claire giggles, impressed. “That is kind of genius.”

Tasya nods. “It was. Mia had it completely worked out. She even suggested an exchange for manual labour, offering to work in their garden or wash their car in return for safe passage,” Tasya adds. “And then they wrote this very nice note back to John and I saying Mia was welcome to use their yard as a thoroughfare and saying what a polite little girl she was. We, of course, had no idea what they were talking about.”

Mia shrugs. “I figured I’d wait and see what they said first, before I pitched it to Mum and Dad. I thought they’d be more likely to say yes then.”

“And how could we not?” Tasya says to Claire. “We were so impressed at our child’s astonishing initiative. And highly amused, of course.”

“And it meant you didn’t have to spend all your time listening to me beg for you to walk me around the block,” Mia adds.

“What would you have done if they still didn’t let you?” Claire asks, because
her
mother probably still would have said no just on the basis that
she
didn’t think of the idea.

Tasya chuckles. “Probably created some sort of PowerPoint presentation explaining the pros and cons of letting her go on her own. With interactive maps. She wouldn’t have given up. Anyway,” Tasya slaps her hands on her knees and gets up, “enough of my distractions. What did I come up here for, anyway? I swear it wasn’t just to share embarrassing stories about my daughter—although I thoroughly enjoyed it,” she adds. She leans on the desk and taps her fingers on her lip, thinking. “Oh, that’s right. Mia, I spoke to your grandmother Rosa today, and she wants you to call her before your exams start.”

Mia nods and grits her teeth. “Exams.” She sighs.

Claire watches as she immediately begins to frown, just that one word setting her off again.

Tasya wearily shakes her head as if she’s used to this level of anxiety from Mia. “You’ll be fine. You’ve worked hard.”

Mia doesn’t even respond. She is too busy backsliding into her quiet panic. After watching her shift in and out of this escalating terror for the last few days, Claire sees what Pete meant when he mentioned Mia and her attack of crazy, because her pre-exam nerves are kind of extreme.

Tasya turns to Claire, her brow furrowed. “Do you get this anxious over your exams, Claire?” She tips her head toward Mia, who is now chewing her lip, brows knitted. She stares into the middle distance and ignores them.

Claire shakes her head. “I get nervous, but nothing like this. Yes, your daughter is nuts.”

Tasya laughs, but Mia doesn’t even register. “She’ll do well. She always does,” Tasya says. “But it doesn’t stop her jitters.” She takes one more affectionate look at Mia and trudges slowly out the room, one hand on her hip. “I’ll see you two later for dinner.”

“Okay. Thank you, Tasya,” Claire says. She turns her attention back to Mia.

Mia chews at her lip, trapped somewhere in the mire of her inner high-achiever panic.

“Hey, Mia,” Claire calls out to her, louder than she needs to.

Mia jumps a little. “What?”

Claire taps her pen on her leg. “Breathe,” she tells her. “Don’t. Forget. To. Breathe.”

Mia looks at her, her blank stare slowly shifting into a rueful smile.

“It going to be okay,” Claire assures her.

Mia frowns. “How come you’re allowed to say that and I’m not?”

“Because,” Claire says airily. “Just because. So breathe.”

Obediently Mia takes in a deep breath, sighs it out, and returns to the page in front of her.

CHAPTER 33

Nina passes around the bag of leftover muffins Robbie brought from work. “How is everyone doing? Y’all freaking out?”

Claire groans and leans back on her hands in the grass. “I never want to see my French group again after this exam. Bunch of freaking uptight nut jobs.” She spent her entire morning watching as they argued about the way one guy pronounced a word. As the other two argued around him, he sat there, bright red, and too weak to stick up for himself. Claire stared out the window and waited for it to end.

They’re sitting on the university lawn, surrounded by anxious students hunched over their books and clutching flashcards and coffee. They’ve all met up for a sly hour, to perform a small farewell of sorts before they march off into their different exams and final assessments. Except for Nina, of course, who claims she’s about to march into total social abandonment for the next week or two.

Claire rolls onto her side on the shady stretch of grass and looks at Mia. She’s staring intently at a sheath of photocopies covered in different coloured highlighter marks and notes in lead pencil.

“Hey, Mia?” she calls and grins slyly. “How are
you
doing?”

Mia shakes her head. “I have no idea.”

Claire smirks. Good to see nothing has changed since she left Mia’s place. Claire looks over at Pete. He grins and nods as if he knows exactly what she’s thinking.

Claire hasn’t seen Mia since she left to go home on Wednesday morning. It’s Sunday now, the last day before the two-week exam period starts. Claire is first up, with her French group conversation exam tomorrow, and then her solo one the day after. Victorian Novels is in the second week. Mia has her first three clustered at the end of the week, and Robbie’s essay is due on Tuesday. Claire spent her lunch going over it in the café with him. Just as she expected, it’s a good essay. His points are clear, and he backed them up. His work just needed some shuffling and a proper conclusion—easy fixes.

“Hey, when’s your final exhibition, Robbie?” Nina asks.

“The weekend exams finish. Then a friend from class is having a party after. She lives right near the gallery. We should all go and celebrate being finished.”

“Not quite over for us,” Pete says. “Mia and I have our postgrad interviews the week after.”

Mia holds out her hand, palm extended in his general direction. “You wouldn’t believe how much I don’t want to think about that right now.”

Pete laughs. “Sorry.”

Robbie smirks, takes the lid off his coffee cup, and drains the last drops of it onto the grass. He flattens the cup in his hand and sighs. “God, I wish we were all rich and could go away on some exotic, totally debauched holiday when this is all over.”

“Oh, that sounds amazing,” Nina says and sighs. “I don’t even have exams, but I’m doing shifts for everyone who does have them.”

“It would be good.” Claire rolls onto her stomach and yawns. All she wants after exams is to lie around and not do a thing. And she’d really love to do it someplace far from her mother.

“We could do something,” Nina says. “Go away somewhere. Camping, maybe?”

“Camping?” Claire wrinkles her nose. That does not sound relaxing.

“But it would be cheap.”

Robbie shakes his head violently. “I’m terrified of snakes.”

Claire holds up her hands. “Who isn’t terrified of snakes?”

“That guy in that documentary who loved them,” Nina says. “And he ended up getting poisoned by one.”

“See?” Robbie flops back onto the grass. “Not going camping.”

“A friend of mine found one in his tent once, when he was camping by the coast,” Nina adds.

“What if you rented, like, a cabin, something sturdier than a tent, that snakes can’t get in?” Pete suggests.

“That’d be better than camping,” Robbie concedes.

“Uh-huh,” Claire chimes in, although she doesn’t even know if she likes camping since she’s never done it. She’s willing to bet she doesn’t, though. All her nature time has been spent at the holiday house, where there is the great outdoors, but there is also a hot shower and all the necessary white goods when she’s ready to leave it behind. “Oh my God.” She sits up. Of course. The holiday house.

“What?” Nina asks, breaking a muffin in half. She holds out the other half to Claire.

Claire absently takes it. She pulls out a chunk of chocolate chip and pops it in her mouth, mulling over the idea. She wonders how likely it would be for her parents to let them have it. “We could go up to the lake.”

“We could,” Robbie says slowly. “If we knew what the hell you were talking about.”

“My family has a holiday house.”

“Really?” Robbie raises his eyebrows. “Well, aren’t you the landed gentry, missy?”

Claire ignores him, breaks off another piece of muffin, and stuffs it in her mouth. “I’d have to see when my parents are using it, but if they aren’t they might let us if we promise not to break anything. They let Cam have it a couple of years ago for a birthday trip.”

“Awesome.” Nina claps her hands. “Can I pretty please come even though I didn’t do exams?”

“Of course, stupid.”

Nina grins and raises her fist in the air. “Yes!”

“And can I bring Eli?” Robbie asks.

Claire shrugs. “Sure.”

She looks over at Mia. “Hey, Mia?”

“What?” she says absently as she pushes up her glasses and continues to stare at the page in her lap.

“Did you actually listen to any of that?”

She looks up, blinking. “Um, no.” She smiles apologetically.

“Listen, space cadet.” Robbie throws a piece of muffin at her. “We’re going to see if Claire’s parents will let her use their holiday house after we’ve finished school. Up for a post-traumatic holiday?”

Mia nods. She turns to Pete. “Definitely. We could go up after our interviews?”

“Oh hey.” Pete raises his hands and blushes slightly. “I’m not sure I’m invited.”

Mia looks over at Claire.

“Of course you are,” Claire tells him. “You should come.” And she means it too. She likes Pete. He’s nice, and he’s chilled and not annoying.

“Thanks.” He smiles at her and turns back to Mia. “I could drive us up after.”

“So, what?” Robbie says as he counts them off. “Us five and Eli?”

Claire nods. “That’s probably enough, though. My parents are more likely to say yes if it’s just a small group.”

“Oh my God, yes!” Robbie sighs dramatically. “Light at the end of the tunnel! This is going to be amazing.”

“Amazing,” Nina chimes in and flops down next to Robbie on the grass.

It will be
, Claire thinks, chewing her lip, as long as she can get her parents to agree.

CHAPTER 34

Claire decides to send a message rather than call. She doesn’t want to bother Mia if she’s studying. She texts,
So, how did it go? First two down
…

The moment she puts her phone back down on the bed, it starts ringing. She looks at the name, smiles, and answers it. “Hey.”

“Hi!” Mia sounds breathless, as though she’s in a hurry.

“So?”

“Okay, I think I answered everything. I just don’t know how well.”

“Oh, you killed it.” Claire pushes her book off her lap, slides down the bed, and lies against the pillows.

“I doubt it,” Mia mumbles. “And now I feel really bad. You already had two exams, and I didn’t message you or call.”

“So what? Let’s be real here, Mia. I do okay, and the result is I pass French and my group doesn’t hate me. You do well, and you get into medicine or forensics. So, you know, I’m not exactly offended, okay?”

“Still,” she mutters.

“Seriously, I don’t care. Besides, you’ve probably been too busy rocking back and forth in a corner to think about anything else.”

“Oh shut up,” Mia says. But she laughs. “I think even Blue is a bit dark at me because I haven’t been taking him for his usual walks this week.”

“Are you going to be completely catatonic by the end of next week?”

“Possibly. You might want to call and check in every now and then.”

Claire can hear the smile in Mia’s voice, so she teases, “Make sure you get over it before we go away. There’s no attic to lock you in at the holiday house.”

“I’ll do my best. Have you asked your parents yet?”

“Not yet. It’s all about timing, Mia. Oh yeah, and actually laying eyes on them. Where are you going right now, anyway? You sound like you’re running a marathon.”

“Going to meet Pete at the library. Last-minute anatomy session.”

“You know, that sounds vaguely dirty when you say it like that. Geek dirty, but still kinda dirty.”

Mia laughs. “It’s really, really not.”

“I know. Anyway,” Claire sighs, “I better get back to it. I’m working nights at the bar this weekend, so I’ll only have the days to study.”

“When is your last exam?”

“Tuesday morning.”

“I’ll call you after.”

“You don’t have to. Really.”

“So?” Mia tells her. “I’ll still call you.”

“Whatever, Mia. Remember to breathe.” She hangs up before Mia can answer.

* * *

It actually feels good to be back at the bar.

Even if it’s not her idea of a perfect Friday, it beats the hell out of another night in her room, trapped in endless study. Or there’s the option of watching Cam fall asleep on the sofa while they take in whatever crappy movie she let him pick just because he’s an invalid.

It feels good to be doing something mindlessly physical, too, after the mental slog of revision. She studied so much her brain is resisting all new knowledge. It’s nice just to be out in the world again, even if it is only the shambolic, drunken little world of the bar. For once, the customers aren’t annoying her much, and Nina is slavishly grateful for her company after a week without her friends.

“Hey, there.”

The voice comes out of nowhere, but it’s familiar.

Claire looks up from the beer tap. It’s him, Guitar Boy, from the drunken night of the borrowed bed. He leans against the bar, his arms folded on the surface, smiling. His light-brown hair is wavier than she remembers, but that grin and those cheekbones are the same. “If it isn’t the girl who used my bed and then never answered my calls.”

“Uh, yeah, sorry, busy.” She puts the beer in front of the girl who ordered it and takes her money. The girl smiles as she hands her the note, a smile that says she’s been listening and wonders how the hell Claire’s going to get out of this. Claire ignores her and returns her change.

“Yeah, right.” He takes his arms from the bar. “Busy.”

She is about to shrug and walk away, whatever-ing it, but then she turns back. He doesn’t really deserve that kind of brush off. He was kind of cool on that awful hungover morning. Especially considering she apparently invited herself into his bed and then told him not to touch her the minute she got in it. Not her classiest behaviour, that’s for sure.