Consumed (7 page)

“Pretty,” said Hayley, a sting of jealousy flowing through her. Normally she was the prettiest of the girls she hung around with. She wasn’t used to someone stealing the limelight from her.

“Very,” the mother agreed. “Suzanne’s pretty in her own right too,” Andrea continued. “Very clever girl.”

In the picture, Suzanne was clearly a pretty girl too, let down only by the fact she was standing next to Tammy who’d naturally attract the attention of people looking at the picture. Unlike Tammy, her hair was darker and her eyes, although appearing blue if you looked hard enough, clearly weren’t as bright as her sister’s.

“How many of you are there?” asked Charlotte.

“There’s six in the house,” she said. “The two boys, who you’ve already met, my two girls, Robert and myself. I’m sure they’ll be along any minute now. The sound of strangers in the house no doubt luring them from whatever they’re up to. Now, can I get you a drink whilst we wait for your friends to arrive? Lemonade?”

“Sure, that would be nice,” said Charlotte not wishing to appear rude.

“Three lemonades coming right up,” said Andrea. She turned back to the door just as Tammy and Suzanne made an appearance. “Ah, girls, come in...Meet our guests.”

“Who you talking to?” asked Tammy - her voice soft and delicate. Another sting of jealousy rushed through every fibre of Hayley as she realised Tammy really was the perfect girl. It didn’t help that they were close in age.

“Come in,” Andrea repeated herself, “don’t loiter in the doorway.”

The girls walked into the room and said hello. Hayley couldn’t fail to miss the look on Dan’s face when he spotted Tammy.

“Hi,” he offered his hand for a shake, “pleased to meet you. I’m Danny. Or Dan if you prefer.”

“Hi Dan if you prefer,” said Tammy. She wasn’t stupid. She knew the effect she had on men and already Hayley could see that she was the sort of girl to use it to her advantage.

“Hello,” said Charlotte.

“I’ll leave you all to get acquainted,” said Andrea. “Three lemonades coming right up.”

Andrea left the room.

“What brings you out here?” asked Suzanne. “We don’t normally get visitors.”

“So your mum tells us,” said Dan who had suddenly become sociable despite being so quiet earlier when it was just the girls and Andrea. “It’s a nice house you have, I’m surprised you don’t have more visitors,” he did a little laugh as though he had made a great joke. Never once did he remove his eyes from Tammy.

“We broke down,” said Hayley - clearly irritated that her boyfriend was attempting to flirt with these girls. “Your brothers found us.”

“Oh,” said Tammy in such a way it made it painfully obvious to everyone that she didn’t really care why they were there. She looked at Dan, “Did you want to look around the house?”

Before Dan could answer her, Andrea came back into the room with a tray of drinks. One for each of the guests and one for her and her daughters. Hayley let out a little sigh of relief. The last thing she wanted to do was go on a guided tour of the house with some bimbo.

“Here we go,” said Andrea. She set the tray down on another coffee table; this one was set in front of the settee where everyone was standing. “Please...Take a seat.”

Dan and Charlotte sat on the settee. Before Hayley could take her seat, Tammy took it, placing herself next to Dan much to Hayley’s annoyance - not that Dan noticed the fact she was clearly irritated. She turned around and sat on one of the other arm chairs whilst Suzanne sat on the last one, leaving her mother to stay standing.

“Hopefully your friends won’t be too long,” said Andrea. She walked over to the window, which overlooked the front garden, to keep an eye out.

“Are you staying for dinner?” asked Suzanne.

“I believe so - yes,” said Dan. Despite his best efforts to get out of the situation earlier, it didn’t seem to bother him as much now. Something else that Hayley noticed.

“Yummy,” sighed Tammy with a little laugh.

Hayley rolled her eyes.

CHAPTER SIX

Michael was sitting on the grass verge by the road - the opposite side to where the van had come to an untimely stand-still. He took a puff on his cigarette as he nodded acknowledgement to Joel who was approaching, having left Lara in the van.

“Alright?” he asked.

Joel didn’t say anything. He simply took a seat, on the grass, next to Joel.

“Sorry if I’ve been a prick today,” said Joel.

“You’re apologising today? What about all the other days you’re a prick?” asked Michael, a smile on his face.

“Just feel on edge...It’s strange being around Lara again,” Joel continued, ignoring Michael’s attempt at humour.

“Saw you two talking in the van and thought I’d leave you to it. What’s the story with you guys anyway?”

“I’m not sure. I think I still love her?”

“You think?”

“I do.”

“You dumped her, man,” Michael reminded him.

“Yeah, I know. Regretted it ever since.”

“You never said anything. Not to me or the other women you fucked since leaving Lara...”

“Yeah well that’ll be our secret. She doesn’t need to know about them. They didn’t mean anything,” Joel whispered. “Besides - what good would it have done talking about it? I only went with the other girls to try and get Lara out of my mind.”

“And how’d that work for you?”

“Whilst I fucked the other girls...It’s Lara’s face I was picturing,” said Joel.

Michael looked at him, unsure whether or not he was being serious. “Really? Because...The blonde you shacked up with on the first weekend of being single...She was hot. If I’d known you were going to waste her like that by picturing your ex...I’d have never let you go off with her.”

Joel laughed, “You let me?”

“Sure. I was toying with the idea of having her for myself but figured you could do with the pick me up.”

“Too generous.”

“What are friends for? Man, I can’t believe you were thinking about your ex the whole time. What a waste of that girl’s good looks.”

“Me and Lara - we had a connection,” said Joel. His eyes were fixed firmly on Lara, still in the van. She was looking out of the van so Joel only had a view of the back of her head but he didn’t care. He hoped she’d turn around and catch him looking. He hoped.

“You had a connection so you dumped her?” asked Michael.

“Well I didn’t know about the connection until after I didn’t have her.”

“So you should have called her.”

“And said what? She just said the same thing but what the fuck was I going to say to her? Sorry I dumped you via text but I’m a twat, fancy going back out again?”

“She said the same thing? You told her how you’re feeling?” asked Michael.

“That’s what we were talking about.”

“And how’d she take it?”

“Really well. We made up. Had a kiss. She rubbed my cock and told me she can’t wait to be alone with me as there’s a lot of angry make-up sex to be had.”

“Dude, score!” Michael offered up his hand for a childish ‘high-five’ moment.

“Mate, I’m taking the piss. How do you think she took it?”

“Not good then?”

“I’m sitting on a damp grass verge with you...”

“Point taken. So what did she say?”

“She needs to think?”

“Ooh,” Michael scrunched his face up - not a good sign.

“Ooh?”

“If a woman says she needs time to think or asks for space...It’s because she wants...Well...” Michael tried to explain.

“Time to think or some space?”

“Or cock. More precisely...The cocks of other men....”

“Lara isn’t like that.”

“Push comes to shove all women are like that.”

“Even Charlotte?”

Michael didn’t say anything. He liked to believe Charlotte was different from the other women and, in his mind, she was; something about her that he couldn’t quite put his finger on. In the early days of their friendship, he thought she gave off a different vibe because she was a lesbian. As time went on, he realised this wasn’t the case.

“I just think,” Joel continued, “she needs space because I let her down so badly. That won’t be hard to forget. Or forgive. And I don’t expect her to make it easy for me but...Hopefully, in time, we can get back to what we had.”

Michael didn’t say anything. He took another drag on his cigarette. As he exhaled the smoke, he threw the butt across the road.

“Nothing to say?” asked Joel.

“Me? Like what?”

“We’ve been friends for years. Just thought...Just thought you might have something to say or some advice or something...”

Michael shook his head, “I just hope it all works out for you,” he said. “You talk about anything else?”

Joel shook his head.

“Where the hell are they?” Michael asked. He looked past Joel, down the road in the direction he expected the tow-truck to appear.

“What are you not telling me?” Joel asked Michael. The sheepish look, Michael was desperately trying to hide, was too obvious for even a blind person to miss. “What is it?”

“What? Nothing,” said Michael doing his best to avoid eye contact.

“You’re lying. What is it? What? Tell me.”

“Nothing...”

“There’s nothing? We’ve been friends for years, more than I can remember, God only knows why. I know when you’re hiding something. It’s written all over your face!”

“I’m just tired...Like you were crabby because you’re tired...I guess I look...Look like I’m hiding something when I’m tired?”

“That’s bullshit! What is it?” Joel persisted.

“Nothing. Come on, if there was something, I’d tell you.”

“We were talking about Lara and you started to...That’s it!”

“What?” asked Michael, a flash of panic on his face.

“You don’t want me going back out with her,” said Joel, with a smug look on his face.

“Yes, yes...That’s it.”

“Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why don’t you want me going back out with her? You think it’s a mistake? You think I shouldn’t?” Joel continued.

“What? No. No, it’s not that at all...”

“It’s because he hit on me,” said Lara. Joel and Michael both jumped at the sound of her voice; neither of them had heard Lara approach them as they were so engrossed in their conversation - as well as keeping an eye out for the tow-truck.

“He...He what?” asked Joel.

“He hit on me,” Lara repeated. “The day you sent me that text message...”