Skin Deep (12 page)

I shook my head. ‘Nothing to do with him. Please let go. I want to go home.’

‘Not until you tell me what happened.’ He patted at my face with the cuff of his sleeve, mopping some tears up. ‘Come on, someone’s upset you and I want to know.’

‘I can’t . . .’

‘Yes, you can,’ he said firmly, ‘and you’re going to.’

I started to cry again. How could I tell him
that
?

He cupped my face in his hands . . . he cupped my face . . . ‘You tell me right now! Don’t look like that. Just tell me – go on, spit it out.’

You’re touching my face.

‘Jenna!’

‘A boy in there . . .’

‘Yes?’

‘He was talking to me, then he took me outside and . . .’

‘And?’

‘He kissed me.’

‘That’s not all he did. What did he do?’

My face crumpled. ‘Put his hands up my . . . my . . .’

He put his arms round me again. ‘All right, don’t cry. I get it. What then?’

‘I pushed him off and I went back in. Then I heard him talking to his friends, telling them about it. I-I can’t tell you the rest.’

‘Course you can. Was he saying it was more than it was?’

‘Yes.’

‘Dickhead.’ He rubbed my back for a moment, then pulled away. ‘What’re you not telling me?’

He wouldn’t stop asking questions and I ran out of words except the truth. ‘He did it for a bet. For twenty pounds. Because I’m . . . I’m . . .’

Ryan held me at arm’s length. ‘What? He did
what
? What’s his name?’

‘Ed. Why?’

‘What colour shirt is he wearing?’

‘Blue and white check. Ryan, what –’

‘Wait here. Have you got a coat inside?’

‘No . . .’

‘Wait – I’ll be back in a minute.’

He jogged off to the clubhouse. As he got near, a girl’s shrill voice shouted, ‘Ryan, what’re you doing? Come back here. Don’t you ignore me!’

I took my shoes off and ran down the grass. When I sneaked round the side of the building, I could see the girl in the white dress grab at his arm, but he shook her off. He vaulted over the rail on the veranda. A few girls squealed and got out of his way.

I crept closer.

He walked up to a group of boys with a figure wearing a blue and white checked shirt in the centre. ‘Are you Ed?’

The boys moved and I saw Ed nod. ‘Yeah, why?’

Ryan’s fist smashed into his face and Ed hit the floor with a crash.

Fucking pondlife.
Sometimes there aren’t words enough to say how you feel and only a smack in the mouth will do.

He’d gone down like a pro boxer had hit him.

Quite proud of that.

The other lads stared at me, too shocked to react.

‘Whichever of you dicks gave him the twenty quid, you were robbed. He never got near her. She blew him out and laughed in his face.’

I bent over the kid on the ground and he cringed away. ‘Tosser!’

‘What’s going on here?’ The guy Sadie pointed out earlier, the one who crashed the car, came out. ‘Who’s he?’

‘He just floored Ed,’ one of the lads said.

‘What? And you lot stood there and let him?’

They shuffled and glanced at each other. One stepped closer to Carlisle and muttered something at him that I couldn’t catch. Carlisle looked back at me and curled his lip like he was the big man. He gave Ed a hand to pull him to his feet.

Yeah, you’re something, you are. Real special.
I looked him up and down like he did me. ‘Fuck you,’ I said, giving him the finger, and turned to vault back over the rail.

I heard a scuffle behind me.

‘Steve, leave it. He’s going. Probation, remember?’

‘No, who the fuck does he think he is?’

I cleared the rail and walked away. Sadie grabbed at my arm again as I went to pick my coat up from the bench. ‘Don’t you dare walk out on me,’ she shrieked before I had a chance to explain anything. I caught a glimpse of Jenna’s face peeking round the corner at us.

‘I’m taking her home. You’ve got mates here. Hang out with them.’

‘Are you mental? I mean, look at her, for Christ’s sake. You are not leaving me to take
that
home!’

I spun round and she shrank back. ‘You selfish bitch!’

‘Fine, screw you then!’ she yelled, backing away. ‘But you go and that’s it. You’re dumped. You are so dumped!’

‘So? Am I crying?’

Carlisle came up now, followed by a few of his mates. ‘You’re not going anywhere. I want a word with you. I’ve just been hearing all about you, pikey.’

Sadie had a big mouth, I realised. Of course she’d bragged – she was that type.

He swaggered up to me, his back-up waiting a few metres away. Sadie retreated behind them to watch. ‘I get the impression, pikey, that you think you can stroll into our club and insult one of us and we’ll let you. But I’m here to tell you, you piece of shit, that you’re wrong.’

‘Oh yeah? But you’re not bothered about what one of you did to deserve it?’ I folded my arms. He was bigger than me and he had his mates, but my temper was still spiked from what Jenna had told me.

‘No. He’s drunk. Being one of the lads. He didn’t know she’d find out and what’s it got to do with you anyway?’

‘She’s a friend.’ Well, not exactly, but she did help me clean up that time and I reckoned she was all right.

He laughed. ‘And does her dad know that? Have you met him? He’d be really interested in you. Having a piece of traveller trash on his doorstep and hanging around with his precious little pet.’
Thanks, Sadie
. ‘I bet the police will be interested to know about you squatting there too. No one will sleep safe in their beds once they know there’s a gyppo nearby.’

Here we go again. Always the same. Do you know how many times I’ve met you in different places?
I put my best bored face on. ‘Are you going to blag on all night or is there a point to this?’

That threw him. Obviously I wasn’t supposed to answer back. I was supposed to be intimidated. ‘You stay out of our way because if you mess with any of us again, I’ll make so much trouble for you . . . .’

‘If your mates don’t upset mine then I won’t need to mess with you, will I?’

He took a few steps closer and shoved me hard on the shoulder. ‘That little bitch deserves all she gets, stirring her dad up to get the village against me. So what if Ed did it for a bet? She’s lucky somebody normal will go near her. I wouldn’t do it no matter how much you paid me.’

The surge of anger swept through me so fast it left me shaking. Jenna was hearing all this. ‘You’re some piece of work, you are. You think you can make trouble for me – ever stopped to think how much I could make for you? I know people who’d take you apart if I asked them to.’

He took a step back. He hadn’t thought of that and I must be bluffing well enough to fool him. ‘I don’t know what you see in that bitch,’ he snarled. ‘Or have you got some sick thing for shagging ugly –’

He didn’t get to finish because I dived on top of him and took him down.

I only got a couple of punches in before he fought back and flipped me off him. He was stronger than me and the first time his fist collided with my jaw was like being hit by a train. The pain seared up the side of my face and blinded me so I didn’t see the next punch coming. His knuckles smacked into my cheek, smashing my head to the side.

Gotta get up or he’s gonna destroy me.

I could hear his mates egging him on, eager to help if he needed them.

‘Not so mouthy now, are you?’ he said with a laugh as he brought his fist down towards my face again.

But I saw the blow coming this time and twisted. His knuckles missed and crashed into the gravel instead. Punching the ground hurt, and I saw the pain flash across his face so I added to it and whacked him in the mouth with my own fist.

I hit him hard enough to knock him clean off me and his mates roared with anger as they piled towards me.

‘Lads! Pack this in! No more!’ a voice bellowed behind them.

Carlisle scrambled up, clutching his face and spitting blood from a split lip.

A man pushed through Carlisle’s mates and put himself between us. He grabbed Carlisle and pinned his arms. ‘Let it go. You can’t afford more trouble.’

He was a big guy – looked like a rugby player too – and Carlisle knew him because he stopped struggling to get to me.

The man turned to look at me. ‘You, get out of here. Now. Before I call the police and have you removed.’ The rest of the lads were standing back and letting him deal with it so I guessed the club must have put him in charge tonight. Time to exit. As I got up, Carlisle snarled at me over his shoulder, ‘If I see you again, you’re dead.’

I thought about flipping him the finger again, but I remembered Jenna, left waiting on her own, so I gave it up and walked off just slowly enough to piss them all off.

‘Let’s go,’ Ryan said.
I winced as gravel cut into my bare feet and he waited for me to put my shoes back on. He ruffled my hair. ‘You saw all that, didn’t you?’

‘Yes,’ I said quietly. I wasn’t sure what I felt after seeing him act in that way. Was I a bit afraid of him now? Maybe.

He sighed. ‘I told you to stay put.’

‘Sorry.’ My voice came out even quieter, almost a whisper.

‘I’m not mad at you,’ he said, bending his head to see my face. ‘Did I scare you? I’m sorry if I did.’

‘Where are we going?’

He laughed. ‘No idea. We’ll decide when we get to the road. How are you supposed to be getting home?’ He sounded almost like the boy who’d fallen off his bike again. Almost, but not quite.

‘My friend’s dad’s picking me up at eleven. I can’t go home earlier or Mum and Dad’ll know something’s up and I can’t face explaining.’

He squeezed my shoulders. ‘Let’s go and get a coffee then and wait it out. Oh, and we missed the buffet!’ He rummaged in his pocket. ‘Yup, got enough to buy you a burger.’

‘I’ve ruined your night.’

‘No, you haven’t. It wasn’t that good there.’

‘But your girlfriend?’

‘She’s not my girlfriend.’

I lapsed into silence, not sure how to respond to that.

‘There’s a burger place down the street. There?’

‘OK.’

He ruffled my hair again and I realised was still shaking.

Jenna was on the phone when I got back with the food.
‘No, I’m fine. I’m with a friend . . . Having coffee. We’re only ten minutes away. I’ll talk to you later . . . Yes, I’ll call you. Oh, I don’t know. Half an hour – we’ll sort it out then.’ She snapped the phone shut. ‘My friend Beth. She noticed I’d gone.’

‘Here – burger, fries, coffee, donut.’ I sat down opposite her. ‘Is she the one you’re going home with?’

Jenna nibbled a chip unenthusiastically. ‘Um, to be honest I don’t really want to talk to her at the moment. I heard her saying stuff about me to her boyfriend.’

‘Yeah?’

‘She said things I wish she hadn’t. About how I’ve changed and how I don’t talk to people any more and . . .’ She put the chip down half-eaten.

‘Is it true?’

Her lips trembled and she pressed them together. ‘I guess.’

I peeled the foil lid back from the ketchup tub and picked up her discarded chip. I blobbed some ketchup on the end and I wafted the chip towards her mouth. ‘Open!’

She looked at me like I was crazy. ‘No.’

‘Open or I’ll do aeroplanes.’

She almost smiled. ‘You’ll do what?’

‘Aeroplanes. Didn’t your mum ever do that when you wouldn’t eat?’

‘No.’

‘You never had to eat tofu, that’s why.’ I zoomed the chip around in the air. ‘Rrrrrrmmm, rrrmmm, corner to the left, loop the loop . . . and . . . coming into land.’ I popped it into her mouth. ‘Now have I got to do that with every one or are you going to eat them?’

She swallowed the chip and picked up another. ‘I’m not three, you know.’

‘Whatever.’ I bit into my burger. ‘Oh, that is
so
good!’

‘Huh – and I get told I don’t get out much.’

‘Yeah, well, I’m vegan.’

‘Er, right.’ Her eyebrows shot up. ‘Lapsed, right?’

‘Very. Oh God, this is better than sex!’

She giggled. ‘I wouldn’t let that girl hear you saying that.’ Her smile faded. ‘She looked really pissed off. She will forgive you, won’t she?’

I scoffed the rest of the burger down. ‘I doubt it. And even if she does, who says I’m interested?’