Angel Kiss - Laura Jane Cassidy [51]
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My phone buzzed. It was such a rare occurrence in the caravan that it made me jump. The one bar of coverage that came and went must have decided to come back. It was a message from Emily, asking if I wanted to sleep at her house tonight, as a few of the girls from St Mary’s were staying over. Maybe I could talk to her about that photo of Nick. But I decided that dwelling on it would do no good whatsoever. Plus she would want to know the whole story about what had happened in the bedroom, and I couldn’t tell her that. I was excited about getting to know my new schoolmates, but wondered if Mum would let me sleep there. Ever since I’d disguised staying at Cian’s as an all-night birthday celebration at Hannah’s, Mum had been extremely wary of sleepovers.
‘Mum, can I stay over at Emily’s? It’s just the girls staying over. And her parents will be there and –’
‘No problem,’ said Mum. ‘You enjoy yourself.’
What? No request for Emily’s exact address? No demand to ring her parents to check everything was above board? Maybe now that I was nearly sixteen she had more faith in me.
I heard a car drive in and looked out the window. It wasn’t a car. It was a van. A familiar van. Now I knew why Mum was so happy to be rid of me for the night. Ew.
‘I’m not a taxi service,’ said Brigid, picking up the stick of glue and pasting another photograph on to the giant collage. Lydia flicked through one of the photo albums from the stack on the table, choosing the occasional picture that was worthy of inclusion in the collage to be displayed at Mary’s fiftieth birthday party. She was wearing an awesome pink mini-dress and bright red boots. Those colours really shouldn’t have worked together, but they did on Lydia.
‘Emily’s house is so far away,’ said Colin. ‘And it’s lashing rain.’
‘It’s drizzling,’ said Brigid. ‘Why do you always have to be so dramatic?’
‘I am not!’ said Colin, throwing his arms up in exasperation.
‘Look at this one!’ said Lydia, holding up a photograph of a couple kissing. The girl was wearing a yellow jacket with extreme shoulder pads and the guy was sporting some really severe sideburns.
‘Who’s that with Mary?’ asked Colin.
‘That’s Joe Clancy.’
‘No way!’ I said.
‘They used to go out,’ said Brigid. ‘Joe and Michael even had a fight over her out in the main street once. The entire village saw it.’
‘Maybe I should leave this one where it is,’ said Lydia, slotting the photograph back into the album.
Mary had been a pretty young woman, with rosy cheeks and long curly brown hair. If you ignored the dodgy fashion, she looked lovely in all the pictures.
‘Our mother always had a camera out,’ said Brigid. ‘There are probably more pictures of Mary here than in her own house.’
‘Right, enough with the trip down memory lane,’ said Colin. ‘We’re late.’
Brigid and Lydia pointed to the half-empty bottle of wine on the table. ‘We couldn’t drop you even if we wanted to,’ said Brigid.
Colin rolled his eyes and took out his phone.
‘I’ll see how Carla’s getting there,’ he said as he began scrolling through his phonebook. I didn’t know David’s sister was a friend of Emily’s – she seemed much younger. I really hoped Amanda wasn’t going too. She was so irritating.
‘Hey,’ said Colin, ‘any chance we could get a lift to Emily’s with you? OK, cool. Thanks! Bye!’ He hung up. ‘Her dad’s taking us,’ said Colin. ‘They’ll be here in ten minutes.’
Peter Mulvey was pretty much what I expected from a high-flying business executive. He drove a flashy car, wore an expensive suit and kept his designer sunglasses on even at dusk. I sat in the passenger seat in silence while Carla and Colin chatted loudly in the back. It turned out Carla was on Emily’s hockey team, and thankfully hadn’t brought Amanda along.
‘Mary was telling me that your back garden is in a bit of a state?’ said Peter, eventually making conversation. ‘I know a very good waste-removal company that could help you with that.’
‘I think my mum’s got it sorted, thanks,