The Front (28 page)

       
‘Aw, please!’ Elaine begged. ‘Go on – you can trust me!’

       
Lee didn’t see why he shouldn’t tell her – she was his girlfriend, after all. He shouldn’t be keeping secrets from her. But rather than incur Mal’s wrath, he waited for his permission.

       
‘Go on, then,’ Mal laughed. ‘I know you’re dying to tell someone. Might as well be her.’

       
‘Okay . . .’ Lee started. ‘I’ll tell you, but first you’ve got to promise not to breathe a word to no one!’

       
‘Promise!’ Elaine said. ‘Cross me heart and hope to die!’

       
‘All right. Well, you know Pasha  . . .?’

‘Suzie? You awake, doll?’ Mal whispered, creeping into the bedroom a little while later.

       
Suzie didn’t answer. She felt the bed dip as he sat down to take his clothes off, and wondered bitterly why he’d bothered putting them back on in the first place.

       
‘You didn’t half give me a heart attack when you walked in back there,’ Mal went on, still whispering. ‘Here, she’s a right dirty whore, that friend of yours, ain’t she?’

       
Suzie ground her teeth silently.

       
‘I didn’t wanna do it, you know,’ he went on, his voice taking on the whining edge he always used to elicit her sympathy. ‘I don’t even know how it happened. I mean, one minute we’re just sitting there watching them films, and the next she’s all over me. I couldn’t stop her. She was like – I don’t know – it was like the coke gave her super-strength, or something. And with me being so out of it, I didn’t know what was happening till it was too late, like. Suzie . . .? You listening?’

       
Suzie had clamped her eyes tight shut. She didn’t want to hear his excuses. She’d seen who’d been on top. He’d have a lot of creeping to do before she forgave him for this – if she ever did. Right now, she didn’t know if that was possible.

16

Suzie pretended to be sleeping when Mal woke up the next morning, and it worked. He looked at her, then crept out, closing the door softly behind him. She heard him waking Lee and Elaine up. Then, ten minutes later, they all left. She stayed in bed for a few more minutes in case he came back. When he didn’t, she pushed the quilt aside and got up.

       
Going through to the living room, she groaned when she saw the state of the place, and wrinkled her nose in disgust at the sour, sweaty smell hanging over the room like a cloud. The evidence of their betrayal still littered the room. From the mess of videos strewn across the floor, to the heaps of sweet-wrappers, empty cigarette boxes and ripped-up Rizla packets spilling off the table – right down to the disturbed cushions on the couch and chairs. And Elaine had forgotten her tights – they were draped sluttishly across the back of the couch.

       
With a tight-lipped scowl, Suzie snatched them up and marched into the kitchen, holding them at arm’s length away from her. Hurling them into the bin, she went to the sink and scrubbed her hands with disinfectant. She didn’t want a single flake of Elaine’s skin contaminating her – or any other part of her disgusting anatomy, for that matter!

       
Going back into the living room, she threw all the windows open to clear the smell, then whirlwinded her way through the room, scouring and disinfecting every visible surface, brushing and hoovering both the carpet and the furniture. And she didn’t stop until she felt she’d completely eradicated Elaine’s presence. When she had finished, she made herself a cup of tea, sat down, lit herself a cigarette and tried to put her thoughts into some kind of order.

       
They must have thought they were so smart, sending Elaine in to calm the waters last night. But they were very wrong if they thought it had worked. She’d put up with everything Mal had done to her so far, but no more! She’d even blamed herself for winding him up. And why? Because despite it all, she’d really believed he loved her – that one day things would change. How stupid was that?

       
But everyone had their limit, and she’d reached hers. Let them walk around thinking stupid Suzie would forgive and forget. She’d show them. It might take time, but she would make them pay!

Mal and Lee arrived back at one that afternoon. By then, Suzie had calmed down enough to act as though nothing had happened.

       
‘All right, Sooze?’ Lee shuffled his feet, unable to meet her gaze.

       
‘I’m fine, thanks,’ she said, laughing inside at his obvious embarrassment. ‘Why? Don’t I look it?’

       
‘No, you look great,’ he said. ‘I was just asking, like – you know . . .’ His voice trailed off.

       
‘You look a bit pale yourself,’ she said, peering at him closely, making him squirm. ‘You’re not coming down with something, are you?’

       
‘No, I don’t think so,’ he said, sitting down. ‘I feel okay.’

       
‘Do you?’ she said. ‘That’s good. Sleep well, did you?’

       
He blushed. ‘Um, yeah, thanks. The couch is dead comfy.’

       
‘How about you, Mal?’ she asked, smiling sweetly at him. ‘You sleep all right? I didn’t hear you come to bed.’

       
‘Er, yeah, fine,’ Mal said, looking everywhere but at her. ‘Do you want a brew? I’m just making one.’

       
‘That’d be nice,’ she said, sitting down and lighting herself a cigarette. Her hands were shaking, but she was glad she was making the others uncomfortable.

       
‘I think I’ll have a bath,’ she said when Mal came back with her coffee. ‘I’m feeling a bit grimy. Don’t know why – I haven’t really done anything.’

       
‘You want me to run it for you?’ Mal asked.

       
‘No, it’s okay,’ she said, getting up. ‘I’ll do it.’

       
‘Want me to wash your back?’ he said, a small, hopeful grin on his face.

       
‘No, thanks,’ she said. ‘I can manage.’

       
Lee breathed a loud sigh of relief when she left the room. ‘She’s acting weird, mate.’

       
‘You reckon?’ Mal said, thinking the same thing himself.

       
‘Too right,’ Lee said. ‘Can’t say I blame her, but it’s freaking me out. She was being dead cold when you was in the kitchen – like she hates me, or something. You don’t think she blames me, do you?’

       
‘I hope so,’ Mal said.

       
Lee was upset by this. He liked Suzie and didn’t want her to think he was a cunt just because Mal couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. ‘It wasn’t all my fault,’ he muttered.

       
‘Yeah, it was,’ Mal hissed. ‘If you hadn’t got Sam to go for them stupid films, none of this would have happened.’

       
‘I never told you to shag Elaine!’ Lee hissed back. ‘Fucking hell, man! She ain’t even your bird.’

       
‘Didn’t hear you objecting last night!’ Mal snapped.

       
Lee looked down sulkily. In truth, he’d been so wasted last night, he wouldn’t have cared who shagged her. Still, it wouldn’t happen again if it caused this much trouble.

       
‘You reckon she’ll be all right?’ he asked a few minutes later.

       
Mal nodded. ‘Yeah, she’ll be fine. I’ll just buy her a few nice things to soften her up. She’ll be sorted.’

       
‘I hope so,’ Lee said. ‘I don’t like it when she’s like this. Anyhow, your brews are shit. Hers are dead nice.’

       
‘Tell me about it,’ Mal laughed.

       
‘I thought you wasn’t bothered,’ Lee sniped. ‘So how come you’re creeping round her?’

       
Mal’s pride stepped up a notch. ‘It’s not that I’m bothered so much,’ he said. ‘It’s just, well, you know what birds are like. They take the huff about something and you can’t get a fuck out of ’em for days. You have to play the game to get ’em back on side, innit?’

       
Lee thought about it and nodded. ‘I’d forgotten all that shit. Pauline used to hold out for weeks at a time. Makes you feel like your bollocks are busting.’

       
‘Exactly,’ said Mal. ‘So that’s why we do it, innit? To stop ourselves getting fucked up. So I ain’t creeping, I’m looking after me health.’

       
‘You’re a right clever cunt, you,’ Lee said admiringly.

       
‘I know.’ Mal grinned. ‘You watch, mate. She’ll be right as rain in a couple of days. Now get a spliff built, I’m gasping!’

Suzie had just got out of the bath when Elaine turned up – carrying several bin bags packed full of her clothes and personal effects.

       
‘All right, Sooze,’ she said when Suzie opened the door. ‘Jeezus! I thought I’d never get here without dropping the bleedin’ lot!’ She manoeuvred her load into the hall with difficulty. ‘I had to stop twice to tie ’em back up again!’

       
‘What is it?’ Suzie asked, stepping back as Elaine dropped the bags unceremoniously at her feet.

       
‘Me stuff,’ Elaine said, shaking her hands to relieve the cramps. ‘Left Tommy, haven’t I? ’Bout time I dumped the pleb, wasn’t it? He’s a loser. Never gonna get nowhere, him.’

       
‘So where will you go?’ asked Suzie, leading her into the living room.

       
‘I’m moving in with Lee!’ Elaine declared.

       
Lee was sitting on the couch, putting a roach into another spliff. He looked up at this, shocked. ‘You what?’ he squawked. ‘Moving in with me?’

       
‘Yeah!’ she laughed, rushing across and dropping herself down onto his knees, nearly squashing the spliff. ‘You are me fella! Where else would I go? Don’t you want me to, or something?’

       
‘No, it’s not that,’ he said, pulling the bent smoke clear. ‘I just wasn’t expecting it, like.’

       
‘That’s sorted, then,’ she said, planting a noisy kiss on his cheek and snatching the spliff from his fingers. ‘Giz a light.’

       
Mal laughed and threw her a lighter. ‘I hope you like cleaning up, ’cos his flat’s a right manky hole!’

       
‘We’ll chuck it all out and buy new,’ Elaine said. ‘Spend a bit of that money we’ve got lying around doing nothing!’

       
‘You what?’ Lee spluttered. ‘That’s mine, that!’

       
‘And what’s yours is mine, now we’re living together!’ said Elaine sternly. ‘So . . .’ She slipped off his knee and looked around at them. ‘We gonna celebrate, or what?’

       
Lee frowned, more than a bit pissed off about the ‘what’s yours is mine’ business. But then he thought about the advantages of living with a bird again. Hot cooked food on the table every night . . . clean socks and scrods whenever he needed them . . . pussy on tap – no more solitary wanking! Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, after all.

       
Grinning, he turned to Mal. ‘Better give us a bag of Charlie . . . Get the show on the road!’

       
‘Fuck off!’ Mal said. ‘I ain’t giving you nowt. You’ll pay for it!’

       
‘That’s what I meant,’ Lee said. ‘Mind you, though, you
could
give it me if you want – sort of a moving-in-together present!’

       
‘Sort your menk out!’ Mal snorted. ‘You ain’t getting nothing free off me! What d’y’ think I am? A bleedin’ charity? Flash the cash, matey!’ He held his hand out.

       
Grumbling, Lee took a hundred from his wad and handed it across. Mal snatched it and went to the bedroom to get the gear.

       
‘So tell me again about what happened with you and Pasha?’ Elaine said to Lee when he’d gone. ‘Did you really blow his face off?’

       
Suzie almost choked when she heard this. If Lee had spilled the beans, Mal would kill him!

       
Just then, Mal came back. ‘What you talking about?’ he asked.

       
‘Lee’s just gonna tell me about him and Pasha again,’ Elaine said admiringly. ‘Gawd, I can hardly believe it was my fella what done it! Wait till Tommy gets wind of this!’

       
Suzie looked at Mal, wide-eyed. Surely he wasn’t going to let Elaine run around opening her big mouth? They’d all be done for if she did.

       
‘Oh, no, you don’t!’ Mal said, giving Elaine a dark look. ‘You don’t tell
no one
! I thought I made that clear last night?’

       
‘I know,’ said Elaine. ‘But I don’t mean just anyone. I’d only tell Tommy. He wouldn’t say nowt!’

       
‘I thought you said he was a pleb?’ Suzie asked quietly. ‘A loser, you said.’

       
‘Fuck Tommy!’ Mal said vehemently. ‘You ain’t with him no more, so you don’t tell him nothing, right?’

       
‘Yeah,’ Lee said, snatching his spliff back. ‘You’re with me now, so you’d better not go nowhere near fucking Tommy again!’

       
Elaine giggled. ‘Are you jealous?’

       
‘Nah,’ he said sulkily. ‘It just ain’t right, my bird hanging about with her ex, that’s all.’

       
‘Ah, you don’t have to worry about him,’ Elaine said.

       
‘And you’d better make sure it stays that way,’ Mal warned her quietly. ‘ ’Cos I’m telling you now, if I find out you’re fucking around behind Lee’s back, I’ll sort you out myself. Got that?’

       
Elaine looked at him adoringly. She could certainly see why Suzie liked him so much. He was a proper man! If she had her way, Suzie would be out on her arse and she’d be moving in! Fuck skanky Lee and his little excuse for a dick! As soon as his dosh was spent, she was dumping him and making a move on Mal.