Three Words: A Novella Collection (14 page)

On the
Saturday night in question, the gang had assembled at Tara’s house.
Her parents’ had a massive mansion in City Beach with a rumpus room
that led out onto the tennis court, pool house and Olympic-sized
pool. They were also less strict with their supervision, which
meant everyone liked going to Tara’s best of all. Tara’s parents
didn’t mind that the kids sat around in the dark with the door
shut, lighting bits of incense they’d bought at the markets or
sipping from illicit bottles of wine stolen from their parents’
wine stash. They’d said on numerous occasions that it was
preferable to the kids hanging out in the street, or being down at
the park getting into trouble. At least, in Tara’s rumpus room,
they could keep a bit of an eye out.

The gang just
finished swimming and everyone had dried off when Tara announced
she was bored. Tara was often bored. Coming from a wealthy family
didn’t mean she had more things to do.

“
What can we do?” she asked.

Michael, who’d
finished sharing a stubby of beer with Kyle, piped up, waggling his
empty bottle in the air. “Let’s play Spin The Bottle.”

Maggie Maloney
rolled her eyes. Kyle did his best to look disinterested and Tara
looked at Michael like he’d lost his mind.

“
Seriously, you are so High School,” Tara said, but everyone
knew she was already planning to make the bottle stop in front of
him. Tara had been dying to pash on Michael for ages. He just
wouldn’t seem to get the hint.

“
But we are in High School,” Michael pointed out. “People
expect us to act stupid.”

“
I’ll play,” said Jessica. She hadn’t given up on
Nate.

“
What about you guys?” Michael asked, aiming his question at
Georgie and Nate.

Nate shrugged
like he didn’t care and Georgie looked at the floor. She knew she’d
been more clammed up more than a limpet on a rock since the movies
but, seriously, she had so many things going on in her head and
Nate was no help at all. Most of the time she wanted to murder him.
Last week, when he told her how nice her hair looked, she’d poked
him in the arm so hard with a pencil, she’d left a bit of lead
behind and it’d gotten infected. He’d had to get a tetanus shot,
which he’d not been impressed about at all.

Everyone sat
in a circle and Michael placed the bottle in the middle. “Seeing as
it was my idea, I get to go first,” he said, looking pointedly at
Tara.

Taking the
bottle between his fingers he spun it on the carpet. The emerald
colored glass came to a slow halt in front of Tara who muttered,
“If you think I’m letting those manky lips of yours near me, you’ve
got another thing coming, Michael Hemming.” Which was code for,
‘get over here right now and give me my prize’.

The group
watched with interest as Michael crawled across the carpet,
stopping in front of Tara. His face was very close to hers. His
eyes were glittering with teenage desire. “You sure about that,
Tara? I mean, rules are rules. And the rules of this game say I
have to kiss you.”

Tara gave an
exaggerated groan. “Oh, alright.”

And with that,
Michael proceeded to see how far down her throat he could stick his
tongue. Georgie watched on flabbergasted. How could they kiss for
so long without drawing breath? It had to be bad for your brain to
be oxygen deprived for so long. Not that that would affect either
of them.

“
Get a room, you two,” Kyle joked. He’d been timing the couple
on his watch before calling ‘time out’ after five
minutes.

Behind Tara’s
back, Michael gave him the finger.

Then it was
Kyle’s turn. After declaring openly the previous week that all
girls stank, he couldn’t go back on his word by enjoying the kiss,
so when the bottle stopped in front of Maggie Maloney, he crawled
across the floor and pecked her on the cheek. Then, looking very
sheepish, he scuttled back to his spot, his face redder than a
tourist who’d spent a week at the beach without sun block.

“
Lightweight,” said Michael, who’d just come up for air.
“Let’s see if Adams can do any better.”

Nate swallowed
and took a swig of beer from his bottle. He wiped his mouth on the
back of his hand and lazily sauntered to the center of the circle.
“Hope you girls are ready,” he joked. Then, he picked up the bottle
and gave it a hefty twist.

From the other
side of the circle, Georgie watched the bottle’s progress without
breathing. The air was trapped so far down her throat it felt like
a balloon was lodged there, one pop and she’d be dead. God, she had
to stop this. She couldn’t let Nate get with another girl. It
wouldn’t be right.

The slower the
bottle rotated the more upset Georgie became. She didn’t want Nate
to kiss anyone else; she wanted him to kiss her. She’d always
wanted that, it was just that, when they were at the movies that
day, she’d felt pressured and not quite ready. She gazed across the
circle, hoping to catch his eye, hoping he’d say he’d changed his
mind and wanted to pull out but he didn’t. His face was intent on
that bottle and where it would stop. The only sign he gave that he
might not be as cool as he portrayed was the tapping of his toe
against the carpet. Nate always tapped when he was nervous.

When the
bottle stopped, its neck was pointing to Jessica. Moving as if to
his death, Nate began the slow crawl to Jessica’s side.

Georgie was
distraught. She’d been willing the bottle to stop anywhere but
there. Everyone knew how much Jessica crushed on Nate. Once he got
close to her, she’d wrap him in those boobs of hers and he’d be
lost forever.

But what could
she do? If she jumped up to save him, she’d look stupid in front of
her friends and they’d all know her true feelings. Her and Nate
been friends for so long, nobody would believe it if she suddenly
stood up and declared she loved him. Not after the pencil thing.
They’d think she was an idiot.

Nate had
reached Jessica. She was preening and giggling and showing off like
she’d won first prize in a beauty contest. “Oh Nate. I always knew
we were meant to be together,” she simpered, as she licked her lips
and adjusted her clothing to give him a better view. “It’s fate….
Nate — Fate. Get it?”

I’ll give her
fate, Georgie thought. It’ll hit her right between the eyes when I
throw that bottle at her head.

Nate was
puckering up. Jessica had her hands on his chest, pulling him
towards her by the scruff of his t-shirt. Georgie’s hands were
clenched in fists. It was either that or rip every hair from
Jessica’s perfect little head.

“
Stop!”

Oh no, had
that come out of her mouth? Georgie looked around hoping that it
hadn’t, or if it had that nobody had heard, but judging by the way
everyone was gawping at her, she’d obviously said it. And rather
loudly at that.

“
What’s wrong?” Jessica asked, which was a load of old twaddle
because she knew very well what was wrong. She was about to play
tonsil hockey with Nate. Georgie’s Nate. It was
unthinkable.

Stumbling to
her feet and tripping over the cords from the Play Station as she
went, Georgie ran through the open doors and around the side of the
pool. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she gasped for air between
sobs. She leant her head against the wall of the pool house as she
tried to squeeze the tears away. What had she done? She’d never be
able to face them now, not when everyone had seen her making a
spectacle of herself.

“
Georgie?”

Nate’s soft
hand was on her cheek. His face leaned close, studying the pitiful
look in her eyes. “Are you okay?”

Georgie
wrenched her head away. “What do you think?”

She didn’t
mean it to sound horrid but seriously, she was balling her eyes out
in the middle of someone’s backyard, in front of her entire social
group. Couldn’t he have come up with something better than
that?

“
I didn’t kiss her.”

Georgie turned
to face Nate. He looked very serious, more serious than she’d ever
seen him. Well, except for the time they got called in to see the
Principal after they got caught putting cling wrap on the toilet
seats on April Fools’ Day. He knew his dad would throw a
mental.

“
Why?”

“
I didn’t want to. I want to kiss you. I’ve always wanted to
kiss you. I think you’re the prettiest girl in the
world.”

Nate put a
thumb to Georgie’s tears, smearing them away. He offered her a
sleeve on which to blow her nose but she declined, because it took
friendship to a level of grossness even she wasn’t comfortable
with. Instead, she gave a loud sniff and a limp smile as he wound
his arms around her waist and drew her to him.

“
You made a bit of a scene back there,” he said.

“
I’ll never be able to face them again. Everyone will laugh at
me.”

“
I won’t laugh. And who cares what they think? Kyle still has
his
Mighty Max
’s in a line on the shelf in his room and
Michael’s mum makes him wear a singlet under his school shirt in
winter. We’ve all got our thing.”

“
And my thing is behaving like a fool?”

Nate gave a
smile. “You’re not a fool. Nobody thinks that and if they did, I’d
punch them out.”

“
That’s very chivalrous.”

“
I’m just that kinda guy.” Nate wound his arms tighter.
Georgie could feel his heart hammering in his chest. Or was it
hers? No, hers was in her throat.

“
Why won’t you let me kiss you? Don’t you like me?”

“
I love you, Nate. You’re my best friend but if we kiss
everything will change. We’ll be, like, going out. We might end up
hating each other. Lots of people end up hating each
other.”

“
I could never hate you,” he said.

“
You don’t know that.”

“
Yes, I do. We love each other, we always have. Besides, I
know you want me. You looked like you were going to thump Jessica
with the Play Station controls.”

“
I was actually going for the bottle. More damage,” Georgie
confessed.

“
So you admit it? You were jealous!”

Pulling back,
Georgie gasped in mock horror. “I was not! I was saving you. If you
got stuck in her boobs, you’d suffocate. You don’t even like her.
How you could kiss someone you don’t even like is beyond me.”

“
Maybe I do like her. Maybe all this time I’ve been putting on
an act?”

Anger swelled
in Georgie’s chest. “You don’t like her. I know you don’t. You like
me. Just the same as I like you.”

And to prove
it, she reached up on her tiptoes, took Nate’s face between her
hands and pressed her mouth to his. The shock of her action took
them both by surprise.

“
Are you sure about this?” Nate asked, trying to pull away and
finding the nape of her neck instead.

“
Surer than anything,” Georgie replied, though thought was
becoming increasingly difficult with his lips racing over her
skin.

Nate held
Georgie tight and twisting her around, leant her against the wall
of the pool house, his body covering hers with such pressure, she
could barely get air into her lungs. His lips descended on her, his
tongue searched deep inside her mouth until it met with hers. He
kissed her and kissed her and Georgie wound her arms around his
neck and kissed him back.

“
Nate. Stop for a second,” she gasped, as his hands slid up
and down her sides in mad abandon.

A loud groan
vibrated on the skin of her earlobe. “
What
?”

“
Promise me this isn’t going to change anything.”

Nate stopped.
“Nothing will ever change. It’s always gonna be you and me,
Georgie. Just now it’ll be in a different way.”

Chapter 7

Glancing down
at her watch and hurriedly handing some cash to the taxi driver,
Georgie stepped out of the car, realizing she’d arrived at the dock
with only seconds to spare. Her afternoon with Nate had put her
seriously behind but she didn’t mind. It had been worth every
minute to see him again.

The rest of
the group was already onboard, the boys wearing eye-patches and
pirate hats and the girls, bandanas and golden-hooped earrings. A
number of clichéd pirate terms were being bandied about as plastic
cutlasses were brandished in the air and schooners of ale clinked,
which only meant one thing: it was going to be one of
those
parties.

“
You’re late,” Tara chided, handing Georgie a red bandana with
a skull and crossbones printed on the front, and an extremely long
plastic sword. Georgie looped the bandana round her hair and tied
it in a knot. She shoved the sword into her belt and adjusted her
peasant top. She felt like Keira Knightly, only slightly fatter and
hugely more ridiculous.

“
No, I’m not. The boat’s still here.”

Tara shook her
head and directed Georgie up the gangplank and onto the deck.
“Always with the smart comments. You’ll never change, Birdie.”

“
That’s why you like me. Now where’s the bar? I’m dying for a
drink and I have some news to tell you. After you tell me why we’re
all dressed as pirates for a coming home party, that
is.”

“
Oh, like, duh, it’s
International Talk Like a Pirate
Day
. We’re killing two birds with one stone.”

Tara pointed
to a spot at the stern of the ship and the girls made their way
towards it. Despite the fact that this was a private booking, Tara
had managed to fill the back end of the huge ship with people.
Georgie had never laid eyes on half of them, but that was nothing
new. Tara collected friends like Imelda Marcos had collected shoes.
And any number of them could have been Jim, her boyfriend’s,
mates.