The Kiss Off (9 page)

“Wait,” Mads yelled at me in the crowd and she bent down to the floor for a second. She came back up, squealing and jumping up and down. In her hand, she held a golden ticket – someone’s discarded yellow wrist band. She immediately fastened it around her wrist, licked her fingers and started scrubbing the black ink from the back of her hand. It wasn’t coming off, just smudging a little so she slid the wrist band onto her other wrist, looked at me and wiggled her eyebrows with a smile.

“It’s party time!”

We got to the bar and there was a small huddle of older people clasping their martinis and cocktails tightly.

“What can I get you?” The bartender asked.

“Oh, um-”

“I’ll have a Bacardi.” Mads said nonchalantly, flashing her wrist band. I stared at her, but she ignored me.

“What flavor?” The bartender asked. He didn’t even blink an eye.

Mads said “You choose for me” And then she winked. Winked!

I pinched her. “What are you doing?” I turned around, looking for Dev, but we seemed to have lost the boys.

I hissed in her ear as the bartender turned around to make her drink. “What about Dev?”

“What
about
Dev?” Mads asked. “Oh please, like I- like
he’d
even go there,” she said, motioning to the bartender. “Call the cops!” She turned back around and flashed him a toothy smile as she handed him her money and picked up her glass.

“Thanks,” she practically purred and stepped back from the bar and the crowd of people forming.

“I’ll have the same,” I told him, though I didn’t have anything to flash. Any second now he was going to want to see my hand or wrist and I’d be busted. But he didn’t ask, didn’t look. He just turned around and made another rum and raspberry for a minor. Score!

When I reached Mads, her drink was half gone.

“Hey – this is really yum!” she said.

I took a sip of my drink. Oh wow, yeah. It
was
good. “Yeah.”

We clinked glasses. I was going to enjoy this, because I didn’t think I was going to get away with it again. At least Mads had the wrist band. Dev appeared shortly after and wrapped his hands around her waist, and he was soon followed by Drew and Ravi. Handing her their money, Mads got them a couple of beers and we hit the dance floor. The bartender didn’t even seem to be looking for her wrist band anymore, so it appeared we had a direct line to alcohol, an unexpected bonus of the evening.

After a couple of drinks, Mads and the boys and I were feeling loose and were dancing like mental patients. Moshing to Madonna, and doing the sprinkler to LMFAO. We sang/screamed along to songs we knew, it was fun. We had a couple of random people join in, a couple of guys started dancing with us as we did the lawn mower and the shopping cart and that one guy was pretty badass at the robot, we were all cracking each other up. I never actually got their names. Hang on, that could have been what he said that time that I kept laughing and nodding at because I couldn’t hear him but I didn’t care.

I spotted something that stopped me dead in my tracks, but I really shouldn’t have been that surprised.

“What are they doing here?” I yelled into Mads’s ear, screwing up my eyes as they were assaulted by the sight of Nikki dancing, all up in Cam’s business, pressing herself so close to him that it looked like she was trying to merge them into one Cam-Nikki being. Canikki. His forehead was furrowed and he flinched when she threw her hair around and got him in the face, but he gave her a smile when she looked at him and kissed her back when she launched her mouth on his. Why did she have to do that?

“Dev told them about it. Cam wanted to come,” Mads yelled back at me. I looked at Dev. He was smiling at me as he watched me talk to his girlfriend so I forced a smile back. Stupid Dev.

I shook myself out, pretending it was a crazy dance move and got Canikki’s whole annoying presence out of my system, forgetting they even existed.

After a while I was sweating so much I was sure I had drained the last ounce of water through my skin, that I left the dance floor in search of some aqua. Chugging from a bottle I bought at the bar, I collapsed into a couch along the edge of the dance floor. It was so hot in here, there were so many people. I pulled off my leather jacket and lay it across my lap, airing out my tee shirt. I caught sight of the doorway, as more and more people flooded into the club. I smiled nice and wide, my stomach fluttering and all my insides jiggling as I caught sight of a few Academy of Lies tee shirts. Here for their favorite band playing my song, and Ty.

Ah, Ty. He did like me, didn’t he? I rubbed at my forearm unconsciously, lost in thought as someone sat beside me and tapped me on my sticky shoulder. Ew. Gross for them. Turning in my seat, I discovered it was Cam. Alone.

“You’ve been dancing up a storm.”

“Did you just get here?” I said, pretending I hadn’t even noticed.

“A little while ago, we were hanging at one of Nikki’s friends’ place first. You having fun?”

“Yeah, I am. What are you even doing here?”

“Dev invited me,” he said. “I didn’t even know you were going to be here.”

“Oh.”

“Actually that’s a lie,” he said. “I did know. Well, I kind of knew. I heard you talking to that guy the other day. At the bus stop, the one who wrote on your arm.”

Well I knew that. “What, you were spying on me?”

He rolled his eyes and looked away. “Don’t…”

“Don’t what, Cam?” I asked. “What is it you don’t want me to do?”
I don’t want to go away for a week and find you’ve hooked up with my friend
, I thought. Just as I opened my mouth to say it, he spoke again.

“Do we have to always be like this? Can’t we just have, I don’t know, a serious conversation? Can’t you be civil with me just this once?”

“Why should I?” I said.

“You know I didn’t mean to hurt you, I didn’t know I
would
hurt you. I’ve apologized already, what do you want from me?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. He was such a jackass. I didn’t give him an answer, but he seemed determined to get one.

“Well?” he said. “What do you want?”

“Nothing! Sorry!” I swigged some water.

“Okay. Well do you think we could act like adults for a change then?”

I didn’t know what to say to that so I just sat there pouting and calling him names under my breath which neither of us could hear over the music.

“About the song.”

“The song.”

“Yeah, you’re song. The Kiss Off. I’ve seen it, you know,” he said.

“I figured you might have.”

He nodded. “It’s good.”

I blinked and looked at him weirdly. He liked it? The song about what a cheating dirt bag he was?

“Don’t get me wrong – it’s cold. But it’s catchy, good rhythm, the lyrics are hardcore and I like them, you know, when I can forget they’re about me. I’m proud of you.” Then he let out a frustrated breath. “It’s all bullshit though, you know that right?”

“…
What
?” I said.

“The song. It’s not true.” I couldn’t believe he was saying this. I stood up to walk away, but he grabbed my wrist. “I didn’t cheat on you, Poppy,” he said. “And you know it.”

I shook him off and strode back onto the dance floor, swallowed up by the crowd.

A hand landed heavily on my shoulder, clearly Cam wasn’t finished and he was ready to lay into me some more.

I spun around and faced him. “What do you
want
?” But it wasn’t Cam, I found myself staring at a bemused-looking Vanya. “Oh, hey!” I said, giving her a hug. “Sorry!” She shook her head and shrugged, put an arm around my shoulders and her face next to mine. She pointed out a couple on the dance floor.

“Is that Mads?” she yelled into my ear. I squinted, trying to see her better in the darkness. It was. It was Mads, hips swaying, legs parted, just about grinding against her dance partner. And her partner wasn’t Dev.

“Is Dev here? What is she doing?”

I opened and closed my mouth a couple of times, but in the end, I simply grimaced and shrugged. I didn’t have an answer.

***

Chapter Nine

The music stopped and my ears rang and when I said something to Vanya, my voice sounded hollow. Everyone had stopped dancing, Mads stopped kissing the boy, blinking and squinting around her. Her eyes settled on me and I gave her a very clear
WTF
look. She turned to the guy who was still draped all over her, and pushed him off before stumbling through the crowd toward the couches. Van and I managed to squeeze through and go and hang with the boys. Dev was looking pissed off as he swigged his beer. He gave me a tight smile. I decided not to pry. He watched Mads go, and after a couple of seconds followed after her. Ooooh boy.

“Listen up listen up,” the DJ said, his voice reverberating around the room. The crowd closed in toward the stage. “Here we go, what you came here for, give it up for Academy of Liiiiiiieeeeees!”

The crowd screamed, cheered, hollered, clapped and all around went sick as the band walked on stage casually, oh so cool like performing to a full club so wasn’t a big deal. Ty strolled out toward the microphone at the front of the stage, his Gibson hung around his neck. He took a sip of water and gave the club a wave. The three other boys from the table at Luigi’s Pizza found their places on stage, the one with the long orange hair sat behind the drum kit, twirling his sticks as he waited and the other two stood behind the other microphones, one with a guitar and the other on the bass. Nothing was said, they just waved, looked at each other, the drummer counted them in and they started the show. Can I officially say, on the record and everything, that I am now officially an Academy of Lies fan girl. As of that moment, that first song. Their music was so hot, you could jump around and scream and carry on, I didn’t think I had the energy but the crowd was writhing and jumping and dancing and shouting along with the music and it was 100 per cent infectious. We danced like complete maniacs. Drew was head banging with me and Cam looked like he wanted to join in but Nikki was acting like she was too cool for it and was the only person not jumping and dancing in the whole crowd so she made him make out with her instead.

Anyway, they played heaps of songs, and then like half an hour into the show, my boy Ty, the lead singer of my new favorite band announced that they were singing a new song called ‘The Kiss Off’, which was written by Poppy Douglas.

“Where is she? Poppy, you out there?” he asked, shielding his eyes from the bright lights that lit up the stage. Everyone who knew me started cheering and pointing, Drew even ruffled my hair (so not cool when you’ve spent hours styling it, by the way.
Boys
.). I went bright red, but it was dark so it wasn’t like it really mattered. Plus I was wearing makeup so you probably couldn’t even see the blush staining my cheeks.

Ty gave me a big smile. “Poppy has her own YouTube channel with heaps of great tracks. PoppyLongStocking, people. You should check it out.” He had totally just pimped my channel to a roomful of people. Whoa. I was definitely checking my hits and comments tomorrow, this…everything…it was insane!

“Okay,” he continued. “Here it is, hope we do you proud.” And they launched straight into The Kiss Off Song.

It was freaking amazing.

I’d been proud of my dinky little acoustic version, but with all the instruments and the red head pounding the bass drum and that electric guitar solo that Ty threw in? I screamed and danced and was singing along to the chorus which people were laughing at – not laughing at me though, they were laughing at my lyrics because they were funny, and the way Ty and the other guys were singing it was so cheeky and cool!

That was the last song in the set, my heart was in my throat, and my whole body was swollen with happiness. That was
my
song. That was what my music could sound like.

Vanya hugged me tighter than anyone had hugged me ever before. “Not bad for angry writing, huh?”

I grinned and swayed a little on my feet as the room spun. Ravi grabbed me before I could hit the sticky floor.

“Whoa,” he said. “You alright?”

I nodded and put a hand to my forehead, closing my eyes but that made everything worse so I blinked them open again. “Maybe?”

“You gonna be sick?”

I shook my head and winced as everything whirled around. “Whoa…” I said.

“Come on,” Ravi said, putting my arm around his shoulders. “Let’s go outside and get you some fresh air.”

We weaved our way to the toilets and found the delivery entrance. I took a deep breath as the chill night air hit my skin. Already I was starting to feel better.

“You just sit down here,” he said, lowering me down onto the loading dock.

“I’m alright, Ravi,” I said. “I’m okay.”

“You sure?”

“Yep, the air’s nice.”

“I’ll go get you some water. Be back in a bit.” He disappeared back inside.