Chapter Twenty-One
‘Erm, Mel, I’m not sure this is drying,’ I tell her as I prod my stomach and examine my finger.
‘It will,’ Mel insists. ‘We all just have to keep very still until it does.’
I am currently at Angie’s house and Mel has just given all three of us spray tans, only it doesn’t appear to be drying – or developing, so that’s a plus at least.
‘How long does it take to develop?’ Angie asks.
‘Fucked if I know,’ Mel replies. ‘Hopefully before we reach the pub.’
Tonight – you’ve guessed it – we’re all going to the pub. And I mean all of us. Me, Mel, Angie, Si and Adam.
As we stand around in our paper underwear – that doesn’t actually seem to be covering anything – Tim bursts through the door without knocking.
‘Babe, what time…’ his voice trails off as he realises we are all basically naked and his tongue hangs out of his mouth like a dog.
I grab a towel to cover myself but Mel and Angie don’t even flinch.
‘What’s up, babe?’ Angie asks him.
‘What time are you going?’ he eventually asks.
‘As soon as we’re ready,’ she replies.
‘But when will you be ready?’ Tim asks Angie as he stares at me.
‘We’ll be ready when we’re ready,’ Angie snaps. ‘Get out.’
Tim leaves as instructed but it’s me that Angie gives the dirty look to – like I was asking him to perve over me.
‘I don’t understand why the tan isn’t developing,’ Mel says as she reads the instructions again. ‘I did everything I was supposed to. I think. Maybe I didn’t mix it right. I think maybe I forgot to put in the stuff that makes the tan happen, I think we’re just covered in moisturiser.’
I rub at the skin on my chest – it does just feel like moisturiser, but it’s not soaking in at all.
‘Well, we’re going to be late,’ Angie says coolly, still clearly a bit pissed off at me for something I didn’t do. ‘We’ll have to go and try this again another time.’
‘Sorry, Leah,’ Mel tells me. ‘I really wanted to make you look hot for your love triangle.’
I snort.
‘Don’t worry about it,’ I insist with a smile. ‘You’re doing a great job. Let’s go have fun.’
‘Yeah okay,’ Mel says with a sigh, giving me a very naked, very slippery hug. ‘Let’s go get wasted.’
Not what I said but, well, why not, eh?