Friendship on Fire (6 page)

He looked totally confused but supportive. ‘Yeah sure. But no. Why?'

‘So what should a girl do if the guy is really rude? Should she ignore him or give him a chance to explain himself later? If there is a later?' I asked that way too quickly.

‘Wait wait wait. I need to have this in context. What's happened?' He gave me that
what have you done?
look.

‘Oh nothing. Just this guy …' My voice trailed off as I glanced up at him sheepishly.

‘If we're being secretive that's up to you. Just make sure you remember what you're worth.' He smiled at me before turning into his street.

Mum was driving me to work that night when she brought up the Easter thing again. Given my preoccupation, I hadn't given it much thought, but was still keen on the idea of hitting up the beach for a few days if I had the opportunity.

‘How badly do you want to go, Daisy?' Mum tried to read my face. ‘Is it life or death?'

‘No Mum. I don't care if I go or not. Why?' Now I tried to read her face.

‘It's just that, remember how I said yesterday we didn't have the money for a family trip? Well, we don't have the money for a ‘Daisy trip', either,' she said, looking apologetic. ‘Sorry, sweet.' I didn't realise things were so bad.

‘It's OK Mum. I'll tell Roman tomorrow and he'll understand,' I reassured her. ‘Seriously, you guys need to kick one of the boys out. They eat everything and never put money into the bills or food.' I was disappointed, but my parents came first and I would have other holiday chances.

She nodded and smiled. ‘Have a good shift. See you in four hours.' I kissed her on the cheek and walked into the golden arches, bracing myself for certain persecution.

As soon as the manager on shift saw me, he burst out laughing.

‘Nice one,' Tom said.

‘Not you, too,' I moaned, covering my hair with my hands.

He stopped me as I walked past him. ‘Hey, I have another job for you. Ronald is out getting cleaned and repainted. The kids will be sad if they can't cuddle him tonight. How would you like to be Ronald instead?' He grinned at me, eyes wide with amusement.

I pursed my lips.
Suck it up, Daisy,
I told myself sternly. And so the ranga
and
Ronald jokes rolled on all night.

Working at McDonald's was fun. It was hard work for not enough pay, but the time went fast and working with Shane when he was on shift with me was highly entertaining. He was one of the managers of the store, but not full time. He said once he only needed enough money for surfing, then takeaway after surfing. On this alone he could survive quite happily. I told him he needed to get a life. Shane told me I needed to get a boyfriend.

Tonight I ignored the pain from the hard cardboard cup trays and spent my time rewording witty sentences in my head ready for tomorrow's clash. Deep down, I was disappointed my life had come to this; humiliation in front of my peers, not to mention the effects of open confrontation with a stranger, but I would do what was necessary to preserve justice. I nodded to myself in approval and kept folding.

At 9 pm faithful Mum arrived to collect me. Twin Rocks was small enough that most important places were within fifteen to twenty minutes drive. That's what we loved about the place; a beach city without the rat race and traffic hassles.

At home I had a quick snack and climbed into bed with some music on. I slumped in exhaustion. Sometimes I hated having to work. It gave me enough pocket money for weekend activities and clothes shopping, but other than that it was a part of life I wasn't ready to acknowledge yet. Not to mention I seemed to get behind on my assignments after working most of the night.

I slept solidly and dreamt of fighting whole battalions of brown haired models until the sun rose to wake me for another day.

‘Hey, you.' I watched him turn back to look at me with complete superiority. ‘Don't you know it's against the law to trespass? I could report you for constantly being here without permission and harassing girls much younger than yourself.'

I raised my chin in defiance and folded my arms. Unnecessarily, I added, ‘And as school captain, it would be my pleasure to do so, to protect the integrity of the female students on this campus.'

He steadily met my gaze. Was that an eye roll I saw? Arrogant prick. First he snobs me off and then he has the nerve to act like I'm melodramatic.

‘Well now what's this about, angry little redhead?'

He looked amused, but miffed enough to be up for an argument. ‘Can't a brother drop his sister off at school in the mornings? Make sure she gets in safely?' Rude Boy folded his arms too.

I tried to ignore his brown arms.

Back up. His
sister.

The answer to all life's questions was finally here.

My heart leapt and I squashed it back. Behave.

He is rude. He is egotistical. He is completely disagreeable.

But.

This means he
technically
is available.

I shouldn't care. I didn't care. I hated him. Didn't I?

‘And if we're speaking of integrity, young lady, I saw your girlfriends watching you try to pick me up yesterday,' he said, almost playfully.

I flinched at the insinuation that I was trying to pick him up, but I let it slide. Would I have turned down the offer?

He added, ‘What do you think I am? Just a piece of meat you can throw around? I'm a person, you know. With feelings.'

I withered under the weight of his brown-eyed gaze. Was there a slight twinkle amidst the wall of arrogance?

I knew he was right. We had set him up and I should have known he could see the other girls behind me. I had come to tell him off but it was somewhat my fault in the first place.

I started to wring my hands together. ‘Fine, I know it was the wrong thing to do. It was a stupid dare and I was too proud to turn them down. Truce?' I glanced up at him, wanting to make things right.

His eyes softened and his voice became light. ‘Who am I kidding? I would have done the same thing if my mates had dared me.' He flashed a grin at me. ‘Look, how about we get these girls back?'

Before I could answer yes or no, he took out a scrap of paper and a pen and was writing his name and number on it. ‘Tell them we're going out on a date sometime. Rub it in. Whether we do or not is entirely up to you.'

He winked and walked off with a wave behind his head. My previous hate dissolving, I wanted to chase him and find out more about his enticing personality.

My hand burnt where he left the scrunched up piece of paper, heart nearly leaping out of my chest. I still didn't know his name. I looked down. ‘Nate.' Was that a model's name? A king's name? An actor's name? It was the sexiest name I'd ever heard, that's for sure. And a date? I couldn't tell the girls.

How could I not?

Every Wednesday at four-thirty Twin Rocks Soccer Club meets for training. Soccer happens to be the one thing Treston and I have in common. He is the captain of our side. He has been for a couple of years and the role suits his no nonsense, black and white personality. We have won cup matches in the past because of his determination to win and constantly improve.

Yes, soccer is something that we do together with no one else in our broader friendship group or family.

That is, until today.

Running around the oval, I noticed him detour off the field to meet someone new. The person was dressed from head to toe in designer soccer gear. I smirked to myself. Probably some rich kid trying to join our team. We had a full side and Treston wouldn't be stupid enough to allow someone else to march in and take away our hard earned field time.

My brother can be very stupid sometimes.

I nearly tripped over my feet when I realised who was running, gazelle-like, behind Treston to catch up with the team.

It was Nate. Dressed like a pro, running like a pro and probably handled a ball like a pro too. Was this guy good at everything? I searched his face to catch his eyes but I couldn't get his attention. He had given me his number today, so I was confident he would talk to me here. And excited.

We started stretching to prepare for our proper drills. After a half field scratch match, training was over before I knew it. We all had turns in goals, shooting at each other, and passing. Nate didn't say one word to me, nor did he acknowledge to Treston or the team that he knew me. In fact, it seemed like he was avoiding a direct gaze.

Was this some type of weird boy politics? I slammed the cones on top of each other, helped drag off the nets and threw the balls hard into the training bags. I didn't speak to Treston the whole way home and antisocially ate dinner in my room. It was unusual for me, but I avoided company for the rest of the night. Mum and Dad didn't say anything, but I bet they were wondering what on earth happened at soccer to put me in a mood like this.

Grabbing my towel, I headed to the bathroom to get ready for bed. Closer this time, I watched my own blue eyes give my body a thorough once over. I stood on my side, stared at my front, and tried to look at my back in the mirror. Was there something wrong with me? Was I not attractive enough for this super human guy? Why did he ignore me in public but give me his phone number in person?

The only thing that kept me from going insane was letting all my thoughts out in my diary while my iPod was in my ears. I was furiously scratching away at a page with my pen when Mum came in to say goodnight. I waited for the routine kiss on the ear.

She frowned at me and asked if I was feeling better.

‘I'm fine. Tired.' Slamming my diary shut, I murmured, ‘Turn the light off, please.'

I didn't want to be rude, but the rejection that burnt deep in my chest was unbearable.

When she left I tapped on my touch lamp and opened my bedside drawer. I found the special little piece of paper with Nate's number on it and let it fall gently into my bin.