‘She’s making friends,’ I’d said. ‘We’ve been here such a short time – it’s good for her to socialise.’
He sighed through his nose, the way he does, then frowned at the ceiling, as if the answer was etched up there. ‘No.’
‘Max,’ I said softly, ‘she’s sixteen years old. You have to let her out sometime. You don’t want her to turn into some basement-dwelling crackpot playing computer games all night, do you? What would people think?’
He didn’t reply, but kept staring at the ceiling. Finally, he said, ‘All right, fine. But she has to be home by eight thirty.’
I check the time again. Six thirty-one. I’m about to call Holly again when the front door opens and she walks out.
‘It’s a party, Kate,’ she snaps, throwing her bag on the backseat. ‘How can I possibly be late?’
‘Oh, okay. Bad mood, then.’
She sighs, closing her door. ‘Can we please go?’
I stare at her. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Nothing’s wrong. Just go.’
‘All right…’
We drive in silence for a few minutes. I steal glances at her. She has her feet propped up on the dashboard, looking out of the side window, her fingers trailing patterns on the glass.
‘You look nice,’ I say.
She snorts. ‘Yeah, right.’
‘Your hair looks nice,’ I say. Her outfit, well…not so much. It’s the same outfit she wears every day: black, baggy, pseudo-gangster clothes, high-top sneakers, and a loose hoodie that seems to swallow her whole.
‘Is that the new hoodie?’ I ask. I bought it for her just last week. Black, large, non-descript.
‘Yeah.’
I really wanted to take her shopping for some new clothes for the party. I even showed her a picture of a bright blue dress I thought would look gorgeous on her, and a velvet dress with buttons down the front, more toned-down, but still really pretty.
She frowned at it. I think she was tempted, but then she shook her head. ‘No, thanks.’
And that was that.
She turns abruptly. ‘Did you get the present for Scarlett?’
‘Yes.’
Scarlett is a few months older than Holly and turns seventeen today. Max isn’t crazy about Scarlett, which is no surprise, really. But Scarlett is a new friend – they all are, we’re only two months into the school year, and Holly is the new kid on the block.
Scarlett is also ‘the popular girl’, a little older, a little cooler, and whenever I see her at the shops outside school hours, she’s wearing a lot of makeup, crop tops, short skirts, and she has a ring in her belly button. Holly let slip that all the boys fancy her, which is no surprise. When Holly said that she, too, would like to get a ring in her belly button, Max said, ‘You do that, and I’ll kill you.’
Holly turned pale, so I laughed heartily, throwing my head back, and punched Max – lightly – on the shoulder to underscore the point. Maybe I even said, ‘You’re so funny!’
‘So what did you get her?’ Holly asks now.
I brighten. ‘I got her a shiny purple journal and a box of multicoloured gel pens. It’s very cute.’
She opens her eyes wide. ‘Are you kidding me?’
‘You’ll love it. It comes with stickers. Gold stars and?—’
She buries her face in her hands. ‘Oh my God. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life!’
