Junk - Melvin Burgess [37]
‘You’re not going to leave him like that, are you?’ I begged, wiping my eyes.
‘I think he looks great,’ said Gemma. I could see Tar tensing up and clenching his teeth and trying to convince himself he wanted to look like that. He was like one of the things you see on a postcard for tourists. Of course Gemma was just teasing. She clipped him down and toned down the dye. He still looked ridiculous though.
I was dreading the party. So far Gemma had been in the house most of the time, but once Gemma found the Chapel she was raring for it. Fortunately she didn’t have any money but she spent the next week trying to find some casual job as a waitress or something. She didn’t have any luck, thank God.
Meanwhile I was working on Richard. He was reluctant to do anything but – it was just so obvious. I mean, Tar was one thing. Even he should have been at home with his family, except that his family was so awful it was impossible. But Gemma… I didn’t want the responsibility and I didn’t want to have to watch what she was doing to Tar. And let’s face it – I didn’t particularly want to have her around in the first place.
We had it out with her the night before the party. I more or less had to do it all on my own. I was barely speaking to Jerry by this point. And Richard pissed me off. He’s quick enough to take the lead if it’s anti-authority, but when it comes down to being responsible, he just sits in the corner looking miserable.
She knew exactly what was coming.
It was fair. A week’s notice, if you like – give her time to get used to the idea. She’d had her fun, she could stay for the party. But after that…
It wasn’t fair on us. She was only fourteen and it wasn’t as though she was being knocked around like Tar was. All right, her parents were obviously making life unnecessarily hard for her.
‘Unnecessarily hard? I can’t do anything…’ she whined.
But running away from her problems wasn’t going to solve them. Basically, it was time for her to start arranging to go home after the housewarming party.
I expected a scene, of course. And we got one. Tar sat there looking miserable. Gemma was furious. It really made me sympathise with her parents. If it wasn’t what she wanted, here, now, then and tomorrow, it was unbearable. We were doing it as nicely as we could. She’d stayed two weeks already. I even offered to speak to her parents myself but she refused to give me their telephone number.
‘I wouldn’t trust you with a roll of toilet paper,’ she sneered. Which was really unfair. We’d done everything we could for her, but for Christ’s sake! It was highly illegal. We’d fed her, hidden her, everything. But that didn’t give us any right to suggest anything. Not to Gemma.
I tried approaching Tar afterwards, to try and get him to talk some sense into her. He could see the point. He was uncomfortable with the fact that he’d encouraged her to come but he really didn’t want her to go. I tried to get her number out of him, but he was too loyal.
‘Don’t ask me that,’ he said. I didn’t press it.
Well. What more could we do?
I think Richard was feeling guilty about giving her her marching orders. He went around afterwards arranging for her to have a good time at the party but he made a big mistake in my opinion. He came in one teatime beaming all over his face and announced that he’d invited a few people their own age round.
‘Who?’ I asked.
‘Oh, you know,’ he said, grinning like a cat at the air. ‘That bunch on City Road…’
A vivid picture of a girl in a net and a boy with no front teeth came flashing into my mind.
‘The ones you introduced me to…?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Richard!’
‘What?’
I just glared. I couldn’t believe it. That bloke had no alarm bells.
‘Have you ever looked into their eyes?’
‘Why?’
Of course, Richard never looked anyone in the face.
I didn’t know what those kids were on, but they were on something. I certainly didn’t