Junk - Melvin Burgess [2]
‘It’s only rolls and cheese. They’d have missed anything else,’ apologised Barry.
‘Didn’t you get any butter?’ complained Gemma.
‘No. But I got some pickle…’ Barry handed over a pot from his coat pocket.
‘Branston. Brilliant!’ Gemma began tearing up the rolls and chunks of cheese. Barry had forgotten a knife; she had to spread the pickle with her finger.
Barry watched Tar’s face by the torchlight. ‘Christ! He really laid into you this time, didn’t he?’
‘Looks like a bowl of rotten fruit, doesn’t it?’ said Gemma. ‘Not that you’d want to eat it…’
They laughed.
‘You haven’t been turning the light on, by the way, have you?’ asked Barry anxiously. ‘Only…’
‘We said we wouldn’t, didn’t we?’ demanded Gemma.
‘… only they might see it through the cracks in the garage door.’
‘I told you…’
‘All right.’
Gemma stuffed a roll leaking pickle into her mouth. ‘Wan won?’ she asked Tar thickly.
‘Yeah, please…’ he beamed.
There was a pause while Gemma pulled another roll in half.
‘When are you going?’ Barry wanted to know.
‘Tomorrow,’ said Tar.
‘Got everything?’
Tar leaned over the front seat and patted his rucksack. It wasn’t that full.
Barry nodded. He watched Tar eating for a second and then he blurted out, ‘But what about your mum?’
Tar looked stricken.
Gemma glared. ‘His mum’s gonna be all right. She’ll probably clear off herself once Tar’s gone. She’s only been staying because of him anyway; she’s said that thousands of times, hasn’t she?’
Tar nodded slowly, like a tormented tortoise. Gemma glared at Barry and mouthed, ‘Shut up!’
‘Right.’ Barry nodded energetically. ‘Best thing you could do for her, clear off. She won’t have anything to tie her to the old bastard then.’
‘That’s what I’m hoping,’ said Tar.
It got very cold in the garage later on. Gemma and Tar snuggled up together and wrapped the blankets around them. They kissed. Gemma didn’t stop him when his hand glided under her top, but when she felt his hand sliding down her tummy she slapped his fingers lightly.
‘Naughty,’ she said.
‘Why not?’ asked Tar in surprise.
‘Not here…’
She didn’t mind him touching her there. But she was worried about spending the night together…
‘I just don’t want it to go any further.’
‘You might never see me again after tonight,’ said Tar cunningly.
Gemma shook her head.
‘It won’t go any further, then.’
‘All right.’
Chapter Two
Gemma
My parents are incompetent. They haven’t got a clue. They think being a parent is like being an engineer or something – you do this, you do that, and this is the result you get at the other end.
Someone ought to give parents lessons before they allow them to breed.
That night in the garage, we never did anything. I mean, I wanted to sleep with him. It would have been a nice way to say goodbye, and poor Tar could’ve done with a nice goodbye, really. That’s to say, if I’d done it before, it would have been a nice way to say goodbye, but I don’t know if the first time is the right way to say goodbye. But I might have done it anyway – for me, for him. It wasn’t for either of us I didn’t.
I only didn’t do it for my parents. I wanted to be able to say, Look… this was my boyfriend. He was in some really nasty trouble, he was really upset, he was hurt, he’d been beat up by his dad for the nth time, he was running away and I spent the night with him because he needed some company.
And I think he might be in love with me.
But there was no sex, we never did that. It was just… being close.
Is that human or what?
The only thing I regret is that I put my dad before Tar. I won’t make that mistake twice.
When I got home the next day, all hell broke loose.
My dad was wagging up and down the room. ‘There must be limits… there must be rules!’
Mum was sitting on the edge of the chair with no lips trying not to cry.
‘We all have to follow the rules, Gemma. When I forbid something I expect you to obey me…’
I tried to smile at my mum but she looked the other way.
Then he came out with this real beauty. Listen to this: ‘Her reputation is a girl’s greatest