Inevitable (6 page)

What must he
think of us?

“
No, Maddie. You
have
to go,” my mum ordered when I said I wasn’t
comfortable leaving her to go to school. I’d not learned a damn
thing the past few days, too busy worrying about what state I’d
find her in when I got home. “The other day was a slip up. I drank
too much that’s all. It was my own stupid fault. I promise to
behave myself from now on.” I didn’t know whether I believed her
but I was so eager to get to school, I agreed.

“
If you’re sure?
”

“
Absolutely. You know this is what I want for you, sweetie
pie.”

“
Well, I’ll be home a little late. I’m going shopping with a
friend to buy a new phone. That way you can call whenever you need
me.”

“
That isn’t necessary. You need to quit worrying about me,
Maddie. This is
your
time now. But I’m glad you’ve made a friend already. I told
you everyone would love you.”

I’d hardly call one person
‘everyone’.

“
Okay, well I’m going to go wait outside for Blaine.”
I
grabbed my
backpack from the plastic table and leant over my mum who was sat
on the manky brown sofa to kiss her forehead. “Love you,
Mum.”

“
Love you too, gorgeous girl.”

I
’d
been feeling a little uncomfortable around Blaine – especially in a
space as enclosed as his tiny sports car. We hadn’t spoken about my
mum’s ‘episode’ – he never asked, so I never offered. After pulling
away from my house Blaine turned on the stereo without warning me
using the hidden buttons on the back of his steering wheel. I
almost crapped myself when the Bee Gee’s ‘Jive Talkin’’ (honest to
god!) unexpectedly started blasting into my ears. His lips turned
up into a crooked smirk and he turned it down until it was just a
gentle hum in the background.

“
You could crack a smile. It doesn’t hurt I swear,” Blaine
said. God he could be an irritating twat at times.

“
Fuck off,” I uttered petulantly. I wasn’t being serious. We’d
had many of these ‘fake’ little tiffs over the last few days. They
were kind of fun.

“
You
fuck off!”

“
That’s no way to talk to a lady.”

“
You ain’t no lady.”

“
Are you calling me a man?” I feigned an insulted
gasp.

“
Well you’ve got balls that’s for sure.” He took his eyes
off the road just long enough to wink at me. Christ he was gorgeous
when he did that. Who am I kidding – he was gorgeous all the bloody
time.

Before I could
throw him my comeback we were at school.

The day passed fairly quickly without
too
many insults from my
not-so-hospitable schoolmates. I rolled my eyes when the last bell
blared. Ugh. It was time to go shopping. I hated shopping. It was
so…
girly.

After Lori pulled up in the shopping centre car
park I stepped out
between a shimmering silver Jaguar and a metallic black Mercedes
and started to panic. Places like this were not built for people
like me, and as Lori dragged me by the hand into the bustling
plaza, peppered with designer stores and designer people I
ransacked my brain for a feasible excuse to leave.

Although
the purpose of the trip was to buy a phone, Lori insisted we hit
the clothes shops too. Mum gave me one hundred pounds to exchange
from her ill-gotten stash and with that, I was pretty sure I
wouldn’t be able to afford the cardboard tags let alone any clothes
that might be attached to them.

“
Clothes or cell first?” Lori asked with a noticeable bounce in
her step as she turned to face me.

“
Mobile, sorry, cell…
phone
, whatever you call it,” I replied in a fluster,
deciding this option would give me longer to conjure my escape
plan. Christ this country is going to take some getting used to.
Lori chuckled at me – a typical bubbly-blonde giggle that in theory
should annoy the fuck out of me. But it didn’t, Lori was too sweet
to annoy anybody.

After a quick stop in a shop boasting a currency exchange
counter, Lori dragged me into the shop she got
her
phone from. Then she pulled out her
iPhone and started babbling on about how fantastic it was and
explaining all it’s high-tech features in unnecessary
detail.

“
I swear no other cell can compete. You
have
to have one, Maddie. Here, let’s go
talk to this guy about it,” she enthused whilst pulling me towards
a large oblong service desk cluttered with cardboard cut outs in
the shapes of various phone models. My heart sank.

The moment we
walked in my eyes wandered the myriad of glass shelves lining the
walls in search of something cheap and cheerful. Whatever happened
next I was in for a royal embarrassment. I could either let Lori
continue her pointless mission to try and lure me into the
expensive world of the iPhone and then look like a total twat when
I produced my measly one hundred and fifty dollars at the till. Or
I could tell her now that her handbag is probably worth more than
my house and I will never be able to afford anything she owns.

Here goes
nothing.

“
Lori I need to talk to you,” I said, cocking my head over to
the quieter end of the shop. My cheeks burned as I made my way over
to the window out of earshot from the cluster of patrons and staff
crowding the counter. I heard Lori’s crippling pink heels clicking
daintily behind me.

“
Everything okay?” she asked, placing her tiny tanned hand on
my shoulder.

I didn’t
want to believe Lori would want nothing to do with me when she
found out I was so obviously out of her league; so distant from the
elite, albeit nasty, girls she was used to. But the reality was I
had only known her for a few days so I genuinely had no idea how
this conversation would go. In all honesty I wouldn’t blame her if
she ran (or took a limousine) to the hills. I already felt bad that
she had to put up with the constant mocks from her so-called
friends for allowing herself to be seen with the ‘British chick in
the ridiculous sweater’.

“
I’m skint, Lori,” I admitted shamefully.

“
You’re
what?
” Oh yeah… new country, new vocabulary.

“
I’m broke
. My mum and me… we’re not like you. We’ve got nothing.
Blaine’s family are paying for my school… I’m not there because I
come from the same life as you and your friends. I’m…” I trailed
off, covering my shamed face with my hand. Lori pulled it away and
held it between both of hers.

“
I’m sorry, Maddie. I just didn’t think.”

“
It’s no big deal. Not to me anyway. It’s always been that way
for us, I don’t know anything else. But, well, I understand if you
don’t want to hang out with me anymore…”

“
What the hell kind of person do you think I am?” she
blared, taking me aback until I saw her face melt into a smile. “I
don’t give a crap if you have money or not, Maddie. You’re one of
the few people who doesn’t look at me like I’m a total retard. So
in my book, that makes you one of my best friends.” Lori winked at
me and squeezed my hand.

“
Well, I can safely say you are my
only
friend, Lori. And right now, I couldn’t
ask for a better one.” Her cheeks burned brighter than the shade of
blush she was wearing and she smiled up at me, fluttering her
lashes.

“
Right, enough mushy shit,” she said, “let’s find you a
cell.”

I had to
credit Lori for the enthusiasm she threw into the low-end phones. I
planned to pick up the cheapest and run (after paying for it of
course) but Lori dragged the salesman over and had us comparing at
least eight different models. I (well, Lori) eventually decided on
a bog standard phone that calls, texts and takes photos. Apparently
I could have gotten a smartphone for free if I’d taken out a
thirty-dollar per month contract, which wasn’t particularly out of
my budget but it would have to wait until I had a bank account set
up.

For now,
I was more than happy with my cheap and cheerful fifty-five dollar
phone.

Driving to Lori’s after calling my mum to remind her I was
going ice-skating (after Lori reminded
me
), I was grateful that she didn’t push the
clothes shopping subject. She actually offered to buy me something
to wear for some guy called Wayne’s party a week on Saturday night
(which I reluctantly agreed to go to after listening to Lori beg
for what seemed like ten hours), but I absolutely refused to allow
it. Sensing I may have offended her a little I said yes to her
second proposal of raiding her older sister’s wardrobe. Tammy was a
size six which Lori assumed would roughly match my UK size eight
body. Also, she was away at university so seemingly wouldn’t miss
anything I borrowed.

I tucked my new phone back in its box after messing with it
on the way and climbed out of the car.
Lori’s house was as grand and
magnificent as Blaine’s. She too had massive iron gates and you
needed a code to get them to open. Sometimes it felt like I was
living in a movie. Blaine, Lori and no doubt everyone else at
school trotted about their daily lives as if all this opulence
was…
normal
. It amazed me how different two people’s perceptions of
normal could be. For me it was scratching down the sides of the
sofa to find enough loose change for a taxi, washing my own
clothes, making my own dinner…

For them it
was all flash cars and housemaids. I seriously wondered if Lori
even knew how to flip the switch of a kettle all by herself.

After an
hour-long catwalk show through Tammy’s walk-in wardrobe I finally
settled on a black dress and silver belt ensemble for the party a
week on Saturday. Lori said I looked ‘hot’. I thought I looked…
okay. But before that particular dreaded event I had another to get
through first.

Ice-
skating.

Ugh.

The only
thing I could think of when I climbed out of Lori’s car at the ice
rink was how glad I was I wasn’t wearing white pants, because there
would inevitably be some shit pooling in them the second I stepped
onto the ice.

I tapped my feet against the plush red carpet
to the beat of
Pink’s ‘Trouble’ which was blasting from the ceiling speakers, as
we waited in line to exchange our shoes for some skates. When our
turn came around I faced my first hurdle of the night when a skinny
man with thick glasses and severe acne asked me what size I
wanted.

“
Oh,” was all I could say. Sizes were all different over
here and I had no idea what a UK size five translated to. He looked
at me like I was an imbecile.

As if she
understood my plight Lori glanced down at me feet.

“
She’ll take a seven,” she said to the man whose answering
expression read something along the lines of ‘shouldn’t you be
getting her back to the institution?’ Glowering at him, I handed
him my white pumps and he thumped two skates on the
counter.

Amazingly the skates were a perfect fit and I flashed Lori
a grateful smile before attempting to stand.
Shit
. If it hadn’t have been for the
large pillar beside me I would have face planted the bench in
front.

There’s this show back home called Dancing On Ice where
Torvill
and
Dean teach a bunch of z-list celebrities to figure skate. Watching
the odd episode of that was the closest I’d ever been to an ice
rink. Stepping on the ice was going to be…
interesting.

My belly rolled when we neared the ice and I took a minute
leaning against the waist high enclosure whilst I tried to swallow
back the threat of vomit. I stared in awe as people twirled along
the ice, tiny flakes of it flying through the air as their skates
scraped through it.
The cold air whipped my face immediately. It was comforting
– almost like I was back home.

“
Come on. Stop being a baby,” Lori said, taking my hand and
pulling me forward. I could do this, I told myself. Except I
totally couldn’t. “I won’t let go of you I promise.”

Huffing, I
nodded and followed Lori’s lead.

She
stepped onto the rink effortlessly – as if it were no slippier than
the carpet we’d just walked – or stumbled in my case – across.
Tentatively I raised my right foot and lowered it cautiously onto
the ice. Hmm. The surface was hard… yet soft at the same time.
Cautiously I lifted my other foot onto it and straightaway I was
moving without even trying. Most likely because Lori was pulling
me.

“
See… it’s not that hard is it?” Lori beamed.

“
It’s too early to tell,” I retorted.

Lori pulled me slowly around the edges of the rink. I had
one hand gripped to hers so tightly she must have been in pain and
the other hovering over the top of the enclosure the whole way
round. We did two excruciatingly long laps and I declined several
times when she asked if I was ready to ‘go it alone’.
It was when we were
beginning our third lap I caught sight of a wistful look in her
eyes as she watched people whizzing by us – laughing, twirling,
having fun…