The One and Only (2 page)

‘Ryan.’ The girl’s eyes were wide. The hiss of the fire and the low murmur of people chatting filled the silence.

Then Ryan stepped forward. With characteristic swagger he wrapped his arms around the girl and hugged her.

‘Hey, where’ve you been, Hayley?’ he said, twisting round to wink at me over the girl’s shoulder. ‘You just dropped off the face of the earth.’

The girl pulled away from him, making an obvious effort not to smile. ‘Actually
you’re
the one who dropped off the face of the earth. After that party in February.’

‘Oh, right.’ Ryan looked sheepish. ‘Sorry.’ He gave her what I knew was his most charming grin. ‘I must have been mad,’ he said.

Hayley rolled her eyes. ‘Yeah, right. I heard you started going out with some girl – Chloe somebody?’

It all fell into place.

‘You were at our party,’ I said. ‘
That’s
where I remember seeing you.’

Leaving with Ryan and him snogging your face off at the end of our road.

Ryan and Hayley both turned to me.

‘D’you remember Luke from then?’ Ryan said. ‘Chloe’s his sister.’

Hayley stared at me.

‘Hey, d’you wanna come with us down the Burger Bar?’ Ryan said.

I watched Hayley. I really didn’t care whether she came or not.

You see, Eve? I only care about you.

Hayley’s face fell. ‘I can’t. I’m with my parents and my sister. We’re going out for dinner at this really expensive restaurant. It’s a great place, but . . .’ She tailed off.

Ryan shrugged. ‘No problem.’

Hayley hesitated. ‘Maybe another time though.’ She glanced at me, then back to Ryan. ‘You know? Let me know if there’s a good party on or whatever, yeah? Um . . . have you still got my number?’

Ryan grinned at her. ‘Here.’ He handed her his mobile. ‘Put it in my phone. Next time I hear of a “good party” I’ll call you.’

Hayley blushed as she punched in her number. She said goodbye quickly and scampered away.

As we wandered over to where our friends were standing, Ryan started writing a text. I peered over his shoulder. He was calling up Hayley’s number.

‘What are you doing?’ I said. ‘You can’t call her straight away. In fact, you can’t call her at all. What about Chloe?’

Ryan grinned at me. ‘I’m just forwarding her number to you, you idiot. That’s why she gave it to me.’

I stared at him. ‘
What?
’

‘Lu- uke, man.’ Ryan rolled his eyes. ‘Didn’t you see the way she looked at you? You should ask her out. One date’s not going to hurt anyone.’

As he strolled away from me, my mobile beeped. I checked the text. There was Hayley’s number next to a message from Ryan.

TLKS A LOT BUT FIT BDY. CALL HER.

We had an OK time at the Burger Bar – then Ryan went off to meet Chloe and the other guys disappeared with their girlfriends or went to crash a party.

I decided to go home early.

I knew I wouldn’t call Hayley. Don’t get me wrong, she was pretty – and I’m not made of stone. If there’d been some way of getting off with her without having to speak to her first, I’d probably have been tempted. Especially now, after what Eve had said. But I couldn’t face the idea of talking to her. Of having to go on some date and pretend to be interested in her and her life.

Ryan hadn’t understood at all, especially when I told him about Eve. I got the distinct impression he thought I’d been dumped and should react by going out with as many girls as possible.

‘Best way to pick yourself up, Luke,’ he said, ‘is to go out and have some fun.’

I shook my head. It struck me that Ryan and I were total opposites. He loved flirting with girls. He would go to a party and chat up everyone there – but he always somehow ended up with Chloe. Whereas, if I couldn’t have Eve I cared far less about who I ended up with, I just didn’t want to have to do all that exhausting talking first.

‘Maybe you could warm them up for me, then pass them on,’ I’d said, only half joking.

Does that sound mean? Maybe it was. But it was all – only – because of Eve. If she’d been there I would have talked to her, listened to her, waited as long as she wanted for the chance to hold her and kiss her and . . .

Oh God.

I let myself in at our front door and headed up the stairs to my room. I could hear Mum yelling in the kitchen.
Bloody hell.
Were she and Chloe
ever
going to stop shouting at each other?

I stopped, halfway up the stairs. Chloe wasn’t here. Ryan had been going off to meet her.

‘Of
course
everything’s going to change.’ Mum sounded like she was crying.

The kitchen door crashed open and Matt stormed across the hall below me.

‘I don’t see why it has to,’ he shouted.

Matt’s my mum’s boyfriend, the father of her soon-to-be-born baby. They haven’t been together that long – about ten months. And he doesn’t live with us, thank God.

He wormed his way into Mum’s life after my dad died in January.

He was Dad’s best friend.

I hate him.

Mum’s voice echoed plaintively out from the kitchen. ‘Please, Matty. Please.’

Matt looked back as he opened the front door. He caught sight of me on the stairs. ‘It’s just a baby,’ he shouted, glaring straight at me. ‘I don’t see why kids have to take over your life.’

I stuck a finger up at him. He made a face, then walked out, slamming the door shut behind him.

Mum emerged from the kitchen in tears. She looked up and saw me.

‘Oh, Luke, I’m sorry you had to hear that.’ She tried to smile. ‘I don’t know why he gets so angry.’

I walked back downstairs, my head pulsing with fury.

Stupid bastard. How dare he upset her like that.

I put my arms round Mum and hugged her. She hugged me back, then wiped her eyes.

‘He’s just got so impatient with me recently. All I’m trying to do is help him prepare for . . . for the baby coming. But he acts as if me getting pregnant has somehow made me a completely different person.’ She sighed. ‘D’you think I’ve changed, Luke?’

I shrugged, feeling awkward. I hate it when Mum wants to talk about stuff like that. In fact, she
had
changed massively in the past few months. For a start it took her ages to do anything or walk anywhere. And she looked completely different too. All fat-faced. Fat everywhere, really. I knew it was just the baby – but it was weird seeing it.

‘A bit, maybe. I dunno, Mum.’ I turned back to the stairs, wondering how many more middle-aged women in tears I was going to have to deal with tonight. Immediately I felt guilty.

I turned back. ‘You OK, Mum?’

I desperately wanted her to say yes, that she was fine. I glanced up the stairs towards my room – where I could close the door and shut out everything else . . . where I could play music and think about Eve.

‘Course I’m OK.’ She smiled. ‘I just miss your dad.’

We looked at each other.

‘Me too,’ I said.

I did miss him. Especially now, without Eve.

‘I’m going to call Trisha,’ Mum said. ‘See if she can come round.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Good idea.’

Trisha was Mum’s friend. Her best friend really. They hadn’t known each other that long. Mum had met her at some ante-natal clinic. Trisha was pregnant too. She was divorced, with a three-year-old daughter. She and Mum really hit it off. They were always getting together, giggling over, like, one glass of wine, telling themselves how naughty they were to be drinking at all.

I liked Trisha. She treated me like a grown-up, which was more than any of Mum’s other friends ever had. Mum had fallen out with most of them when she started seeing Matt. They all said it was too soon after Dad died. Then when she got pregnant it was the final straw. I overheard a couple of them talking once, saying Mum was like a teenager – really irresponsible.

That pissed me off. Why does everyone think teenagers are automatically irresponsible? I mean, it wasn’t like I’d got
my
girlfriend pregnant.

Yeah right, Luke. Get real. You weren’t even having sex.

I gritted my teeth and carried on walking up the stairs.

Several weeks passed. The weather got colder. Mum got fatter. Matt came round less and less. And Ryan kept nagging me to call Hayley.

‘Eve’s going to be away for a whole year,’ he kept saying. ‘You can’t live like a frigging monk.’

Even Chloe joined in.

‘I think you’re being a bit of an idiot,’ she said. ‘Even if Eve still wants to go out with you when she’s back, I’m sure she’d understand you going on a date. I mean, she wouldn’t expect you to stay in
all
the time.’

I shrugged. I’d been round to see Eve’s mum a couple of times since Bonfire Night. She’d said Eve had sounded happier since she’d decided to accept staying on for the whole year. She also said Eve kept insisting I should forget her. Get on with my life.

There was no way I could know if she was telling the truth. No way I could know what Eve really felt.

It was horrible.

Then, at the beginning of the final week of term, in the middle of a freezing cold, dark December, Chloe dropped a bombshell that put Eve out of my head for almost an entire evening.

‘I’m moving out,’ she said.

We were eating tea together. It was one of the few occasions Mum had managed to get the three of us to sit round the table this year. Usually Chloe just came and went as she pleased. So I’d been surprised when she’d joined us. Now I saw why.

‘What are you talking about?’ Mum snapped.

I chewed slowly on a mouthful of lasagne.

‘I’ve got a job,’ Chloe said nonchalantly. ‘In a shop in town. Starts on Sunday. So I’m leaving school. And I’m moving into this house-share in South London. It’s this girl’s parents’ house. They own lots of places – rent them out. But because it’s her, the rent’s dead cheap.’

Mum’s mouth dropped open. ‘What about school? You can’t just leave home like this. It’s—’

‘Perfectly legal,’ Chloe smirked. ‘I’m seventeen. I can do what I like.’

‘No you can’t.’ Mum thumped the table. Her face was bright red. ‘Chloe, this is so typical. You cannot just—’

‘Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do!’ Chloe shouted.

I stood up and took my plate up to my room.

I could hear their voices all the way up the stairs and through the walls and door of my bedroom. I sat down on the bed. There was no point Mum yelling like that. I knew from experience that Chloe was going to do whatever she wanted. Nothing and no one would stop her. Well. Maybe one person might.

A few minutes later I heard Chloe stomp up the stairs. I darted out onto the landing and caught her as she was going into her room.

‘Does Ryan know?’

‘Of course.’ Chloe tried to shut her door. I pushed my foot against it, forcing it open.

Chloe swore at me.

‘Doesn’t he mind?’ I said. ‘If you’re on the other side of London you won’t see each other so much.’

I’d mind, if it was us, Eve. I’d mind.

‘Piss off, Luke. No, he doesn’t mind. He thinks it’ll be great for me.’

I stared at her. Then I moved my foot out of the way and she slammed the door shut in my face.

I talked to Ryan about it the next day at school. He was as relaxed about the idea of Chloe moving away as she had been.

‘It makes sense, Luke. She hates school. And you know your mum does her head in. Anyway, we’ll still see each other at weekends.’

I didn’t understand them. How could they not mind the idea of being more apart? Mum wasn’t bothered about that, of course. She just kept going on about Chloe throwing away her education.

‘She should be going to university, Luke,’ she kept saying. ‘She’s so bright. She got great GCSE grades. She’s just wasting her talents.’

But Mum might as well have saved her breath. Chloe had everything planned and nothing was going to stand in her way. She decided to move out the day after term ended – a Saturday. She and Ryan and loads of our friends were going out to this new club in town the night before.

‘You gotta come, Luke,’ Ryan told me. ‘It’s a new place. It’ll be a whole new experience.’

And it was. Though not exactly in the way Ryan meant.

Our fake ID worked like a charm. The club was heaving. The music was great. The atmosphere was buzzing. Everyone was in a good mood. Even I was enjoying myself.

I was standing at the bar, watching Chloe and some of her friends dancing in their sexy club gear. They were taking the piss out of the group of girls next to them . . . copying their moves. The other girls hadn’t even noticed. I laughed as Chloe waved her arms above her head and made a silly face.

Despite her moods and the way she was always arguing with Mum, I was going to miss her. Ryan wandered over and stood beside me, watching them too.

‘Are you really cool with her going?’ I shouted over the music.

Ryan smiled into his beer. ‘Course I am. It’s what she’s gotta do. Anyway, we’ve talked about it. We decided it was the right time to take a break anyway.’

‘Take a break?’ I stared at him. How could he sound so laid back? ‘You mean split up?’

‘Not exactly. More like just saying we could see other people too.’

‘See other people?’ I said.

Ryan grinned. ‘Is there an echo in here? Look, Luke, I know you’re all heavy about Eve and stuff, but it’s not like that for everyone. Chloe and I’ve decided. We’re both too special not to share round a bit.’

His grin deepened.

I shrugged and turned back to watch Chloe and her friends.

Whatever, Ryan. Whatever works for you.

A few moments later a high-pitched, girly squeal sounded over the top of the music. I turned to see Ryan flinging his arms round a girl with a mass of red, curly hair. The bonfire girl. In high heels and an extremely tight dress.

‘Hayley, you made it,’ Ryan shouted.

Hayley disentangled herself, checking the little glittery clips in her hair were still in place. She smiled shyly across at me. ‘Hi,’ she said.

‘Hi.’ I glanced at Ryan.