Girl Next Door - Alyssa Brugman [33]
But they all stuck to that story, even when they were by themselves, and it made me wonder if I remembered it wrong.
And how come nobody rang the boys' parents and made them go home? How come it's okay for the boys to kiss girls, but it's not okay for a girl to kiss boys?
Maybe I am a skank? Skanks probably don't know they're skanks unless someone tells them.
I've noticed that when I'm not with those girls from Finsbury I don't wonder whether I'm a skank in denial. It's kind of like that joke:
Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I go like this.
Well, don't go like that then.
So, by not hanging out with Tanner and Jasmina and their hangers-on I'm not going like that. Besides, after the whole 'vintage' call, it's clear they're not very sympathetic.
Usually when I'm worried that I'm going to think about it I stick my fingers in my ears and close my eyes and go 'lalalalala' until it goes away, but what reminded me of it this time is that when Dad came to pick me up from Tanner Hamrick-Gough's party he didn't really say anything. I was expecting a lecture, but instead we simply drove home in silence. He just seemed tired.
It makes me mad – madder – because I'd felt bad for him about that night. I'd felt guilty that he had to come and collect me and be humiliated in front of the other parents because his daughter was a skank.
I'd assumed that he was preoccupied with how badly the business was going and how he couldn't provide for his family, but now I wonder if he was already 'complicating' Heather on a regular basis and didn't really give a rat's about how many boys I was kissing, or how bad our financial situation was.
He was already planning his escape.
There's a moving van parked across our lawn. I'm happy, then angry, then scared, then happy again, and then I realise it's Annie's sofa bed being carried down the alleyway instead of ours and I'm angry again.
I head over to Declan's house so I can watch from his bedroom window and bitch about how Annie is abandoning us too.
Declan is reading the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, which he prints off the internet. I thought maybe having a chronic illness might make him back off a bit, but he seems more engrossed in death statistics than ever.
'She could have told me that she was moving,' I grumble.
'There were sixteen cases of the plague in the US last year.'
'She's running away.'
'Hansen's disease is on the rise. Hansen – H.' He flips through his medical encyclopedia. He finds the page, runs his finger down, and then his eyes widen. 'Leprosy! Hansen's disease is leprosy! Did you know there were one hundred and five cases of leprosy in the US in 2004?'
'In a population of three hundred million! The odds are pretty long, don't you think?' I sigh. 'I just think Annie could have said something. We might as well have leprosy the way people are falling over themselves to get away from us.'
Declan snaps his book shut. 'I didn't think you even liked her.'
I rest my chin on the heel of my hand and stare at the truck. The removalists are shutting the doors now. 'I don't! I don't care what Annie does. She's a bossy busybody. I just think it's polite to say something when you're leaving.'
'Jenna-Belle?' Declan interrupts.
'Stupid old biddy. I'm not going to miss her, so I don't even know why I'm cranky. I hope Mum watches Single White Female before she rents out the granny flat again.'
'Jenna-Belle!' Declan says again.
'What?' I say, turning around. Annie is standing in the doorway. She has my pinch pot in her hand. 'Oh. Hello,' I mumble.
Annie is kind enough to pretend she hasn't heard me. 'Your mother told me that I would need to look for a new place, and so I have,' she explains. Annie lays the pinch pot down on the doona cover. 'Do me a favour, will you? Don't ever sell this again. I've returned the finger painting to Willem.' She puts her hand on the top of my head. I