Dismissed (16 page)

Lizzie almost broke down again right there. But instead, she looked around the lower level to see if she could find Taylor. There was no sign of her.

Lizzie went back upstairs and searched the upper level. It was crowded, but not crowded enough that she wouldn’t be able to spot the three girls she came with.

They weren’t there either.

Were they in the bathroom? Lizzie went back to the bathroom and peeked inside.

Nope.

Where could they have gotten to? The boat wasn’t
that
big. She did one last check, examining the small smoking area at the back of the boat, followed by the captain’s quarters. She then returned to the cloak room.

‘I can’t find my friends,’ she told the woman.

‘Was it two blondes and a brunette?’

‘Yes!’

‘They got off when the boat docked before.’

‘What?’

‘We have a quick stop scheduled during each cruise for anyone who needs to leave in an emergency.’

Lizzie wished she had been aware of this fact, because she certainly would have taken advantage of the facility.

‘Did they say they had an emergency?’

‘I dunno. I suppose. I’m not responsible for that bit.’

‘Well, can I get my purse back now?’

‘What colour is it?’

‘The same colour as this dress,’ she explained.

The woman went back to a shelf behind the counter and looked around.

‘Is this it?’ she asked, holding it up.

‘Yes! Thank you.’

‘Sorry hon. You’ll have to wait until we get back to port before I can give it to you.’

‘What? Why?’

‘You’ll need to fill out a form with the office. We can’t go handing out stuff without tokens willy-nilly. We have to be mindful of security.’

‘For God’s sake! Please! It’s my eighteenth birthday and I’ve been ditched by all the girls I came here with, and I didn’t even want to come on this freaking cruise in the first place!’

‘Look, I do feel for you, but I could lose my job if I don’t follow protocol. Why don’t you go upstairs, enjoy some food, and before you know it, you’ll be back on land.’

Lizzie held back a scream. ‘Thanks for your help,’ she said sarcastically, and stomped off.

CHAPTER 19

It was a very long evening, made even longer by the bureaucratic red tape Lizzie had to go through back at the office when they returned to the pier.

By the time she got everything sorted out, it was after eleven thirty. She grabbed her phone out of her purse and saw that she had three missed calls from Gabe. He’d also texted several times with increasingly worried messages.

The last one read
Where are you? Call me please!

That was half an hour ago.

She quickly phoned, but it went to messages.

‘Hey Gabe, it’s me. Sorry, it’s been a stupid night. Taylor stole my phone and then ditched me. I’m only just back at Eagle Street now, but I think I might go home if that’s OK. We can hang out tomorrow. I’ll call you in the morning. Again, I’m so sorry.’

She hung up and wondered where he was. Could he still be out somewhere and not have heard the phone? Maybe he’d given up on her and gone home to bed.

Well, that was exactly what Lizzie felt like doing. She was done with Taylor, Cara and Heather. And poor Zoe. Lizzie would be calling her first thing tomorrow too to apologise.

She trudged up the stairs and towards the cab rank. She hung her head as she walked. What a crappy eighteenth. If this was what adulthood was going to be like, the adults could keep it.

She was so absorbed in her own misery that she didn’t notice someone coming in the other direction, almost ploughing right into her.

‘Sorry,’ she mumbled, and stepped to one side.

‘Lizzie?’

Lizzie’s head shot up. ‘Mr Thomas?’

He laughed. ‘You can call me Brandon outside of school hours.’

She was so surprised to see him out of context that she forgot she was kind of mad at him. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Catching the city cat home. I’ve just been out with some friends.’

‘Oh, right. Isn’t it a bit early to be heading home?’

‘I’m going hiking on the Sunshine Coast tomorrow, so I want to make sure I’m not too tired. What are you doing? Hey, isn’t it your birthday today?’

Lizzie stared at him, stunned. ‘Yes! I can’t believe you remembered!’

‘I was, um, going through some school paperwork the other night and it reminded me,’ he said awkwardly.

Lizzie smiled. ‘Well that’s really sweet. It partially makes up for this total fuck-up of a night. Which you are actually a little bit responsible for.’

‘Me? What do you mean?’

Lizzie sighed. ‘It doesn’t matter.’

‘It
does
matter.’ He looked at his watch. ‘I have exactly twenty-four minutes. You want to talk while I wait for the city cat?’

‘Yeah, OK.’

Lizzie turned around and walked back down the stairs with him. They stopped at the bottom step and sat facing the river.

‘So tell me what I did to ruin your birthday.’

‘You told Jason about Taylor thinking she was pregnant.’

‘Ah. Right. Yes, of course.’

‘How come he said something now? You found out weeks ago.’

‘Well I didn’t mention the pregnancy at first. I thought I could try and reason with him about how dangerous it was for me to have a student at my place all the time. And he promised that he had already stopped seeing her, so I naively believed him. Then tonight I heard him talking to her on the phone, so when he hung up, I confronted him and we argued. I may have accidentally said something like
what if she’s pregnant?
And Jason went nuts, demanding to know why I would say something like that. I was so mad that I didn’t answer when he asked if it was true.’

‘Oh Brandon. That was kind of dumb.’

‘It didn’t occur to me until afterwards that it might get you in trouble. I’m so sorry.’

‘It’s OK. Taylor’s been a complete nightmare lately anyway. Do you want to know what she made me do tonight for my birthday?’

‘Let me guess. She made you go to one of those life art classes where you paint a nude model?’

‘That’s kind of an obscure thing to say. But it’s actually close.’

‘No! Really?’

‘She booked us an evening on Abs Afloat.’

Brandon cracked up. ‘I should have guessed.’

‘It was awful.’ She then explained the events of the cruise.

‘Oh God, Lizzie. I can’t imagine a worse way to spend your birthday. I do apologise for my part in ruining it.’

He looked at his watch again.

‘Hang on a second.’ He jumped up and bolted up the stairs.

‘What are you doing?’

‘You’ll see. Wait right there!’

Lizzie sat there, confused. What was he doing?

The minutes ticked by and she worried that he wouldn’t be back in time to catch his city cat.

Just as she was about to give up and leave, he returned, puffing.

‘What was that all about?’ she asked.

‘Here. Happy birthday.’ He handed her a chocolate muffin with a single lit candle in the top.

Lizzie felt her eyes welling up. ‘Thank you,’ she whispered.

‘I’m sorry it’s not fancier. The only place open was the 7-Eleven.’

‘It’s perfect,’ she said, tears threatening to spill over.

‘I’m not finished yet.’ He cleared his throat and began to sing
Happy Birthday
. It was the most melodic rendition Lizzie had ever heard. How did he make such an ordinary song sound so romantic?

Was it possible that…? She couldn’t even finish the thought.

The city cat glided up to the jetty, and Brandon looked at it regretfully.

‘I have to go. But I hope the rest of your weekend is better than tonight.’

Lizzie leaned over and gave him a hug. Brandon seemed to freeze for a moment before he hugged her back. When he pulled away, Lizzie thought she heard him let out a small sigh.

‘I’ll see you Monday,’ he said softly, and jogged away.

Lizzie blew out the candle on her muffin and made a wish.

But it probably wouldn’t come true.

***

Lizzie tried calling and texting Taylor on Sunday, but she wouldn’t answer. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to be friends with her anymore, but she didn’t want her to be mad. And she wanted to explain that she hadn’t actively gone and told Brandon about the pregnancy scare.

She couldn’t even get in touch with Zoe. Lizzie hoped that she didn’t think she’d ditched her on purpose.

The only person who seemed to give her the time of day was Gabe. He showed up at ten that morning and stayed for a late breakfast. Lizzie made him blueberry pancakes.

After she regaled him with the events of the evening, minus running into Brandon, Gabe shook his head.

‘That sucks, Lizzie. I’m sorry, but Taylor is a freaking bitch. Please never talk to her again.’

‘I don’t think I will. So what happened with you last night?’

‘Oh, I hung around in the Brunswick Street Mall for an hour waiting for you and then went home to bed. I must have put my phone on silent out of habit, otherwise I would have heard your call. Sorry babe.’

‘No,
I’m
sorry. That would have been annoying, waiting around the Valley all that time.’

‘It’s OK. Now that I know what happened, I’m not upset. Well, only at Taylor. Anyway, how can we make today amazing? Maybe go to Mount Coot-tha? Or see a Gold Class movie?’

‘Oh that’s lovely, but we don’t have to go all out.’

‘That’s not going all out. Going all out would be taking you to Sydney for the weekend and staying at the Marriott at Circular Quay. Which I may or may not be organising for our one year anniversary.’

‘Really?’

‘I was thinking about it.’

‘That’s crazy!’

‘It’s not
that
crazy.’

‘It’s pretty over the top.’

‘Well, we don’t have to. But I thought it might be nice.’

‘Thank you for being such a great boyfriend. Most of the time,’ she said, teasing.

‘I try,’ he said, winking. ‘Please tell me that yesterday morning was fun at least.’

‘It was alright. Dad gave me a card promising to pay for flights if I want to travel overseas next year.’

‘Oh wow. That’s great. Is that something you want to do?’

‘I haven’t decided yet. But maybe. Are your parents still on at you to go to the States?’

‘Yes,’ he said glumly. ‘But I’m not going to.’

‘I don’t want to be the only thing stopping you.’

‘It’s not just you, even though I admit you’re a big consideration. But all my friends are here as well. And it’s the principle of the thing. I want to be able to make my own decisions.’

‘If I was the only reason, then you should probably go.’

He looked at her, hurt. ‘You don’t think we can make it past the end of the year?’

‘Of course we could. But if there’s any part of you that wants to go overseas, it’s totally fine. Everything works out the way it should.’

‘I don’t want to leave, Lizzie. I told you, I want to stay here and do stand-up.’

‘I think they have stand-up in the States.’

‘Ha ha. Yes, I know they have stand-up in the States, but I don’t want to go straight into competing with people in New York or LA. That’d be a really tough gig.’

‘I have faith that you’d make it.’

‘Lizzie, you are so optimistic. But I love you for it.’

‘Do you think it’s weird that I haven’t met your parents yet?’

‘No. I never introduce anyone if I can help it.’

‘Why not?’

‘They’re not very nice.’

‘That’s a strange thing to say about your own parents.’

‘Well they’re not. Dad is a grumpy closet alcoholic, and Mum is all about image. You can’t have a conversation with her that even remotely involves feelings or anything serious. Between the two of them, it’s a pretty horrible family to live in. My Aunt Gayle is the only one who keeps me sane, and she’s overseas at the moment, otherwise I’d take you to visit her.’

‘Surely your parents want you to be happy?’

‘Nope. It’s definitely about showing off with them. Even in my freaking love life…’ he stopped himself, realising what he’d just said.

‘What do you mean? What have your parents said about your love life?’

‘Nothing. They just want me to end up with someone they think is suitable.’

‘You should introduce me! They’ll see that I’m suitable.’

‘It’s not that, Lizzie. You are perfect. But I don’t want to talk about it anymore.’

‘You can’t say something like that and then just cut the conversation short. Why won’t they think I’m suitable?’ Then it dawned on her.

‘It’s because it’s just my dad and I, and we’re not rich, isn’t it?’

‘Lizzie, that’s my parents, not me. I don’t care about money.’

‘So have they got someone else lined up for you?’

‘Don’t be silly. We shouldn’t be talking like this on today of all days. Let’s just enjoy ourselves. Anyway, as soon as I turn eighteen I can ditch my parents and not have to answer to any of their crap again.’

Lizzie was quiet. She knew that was probably a lie, but she didn’t want to stir things up any further. She was too exhausted after last night. Not to mention she was feeling a tiny bit guilty about her chat with Brandon.

‘OK,’ she said brightly. ‘How about a walk in the Botanical Gardens?’

‘Great,’ he beamed. ‘I’ll call Jacques.’