Chapter 16 #2
‘And besides,’ Jolly said, slinging his arm around my shoulder, ‘we thought you might need cheering up. You were a right little storm cloud in the last week of term.’ He gave my arm a squeeze and I felt something unclench in my stomach.
I knew then that he hadn’t said a word to anyone about my Crits.
‘Also, it’s nice to be out in the country,’ Victoria said.
‘Yes,’ Stefano agreed.
‘Fucking awful journey though,’ Jolly added, kneeling down and sliding a bottle of apricot wine from the back of Grandma’s cupboard. ‘V can’t drive for shit.’
‘Ha ha. You can get the train back then.’
‘I misspoke. Victoria is an excellent driver. It was those bollards really, they shouldn’t have got in her way.’
The four of them laughed.
‘What’s going on?’ Grandma said nervously, appearing in the doorway. Her hair was all fluffy on one side and she was cradling the cat. ‘Shannon, what’s happening?’
‘Grandma, I—’
Jolly swept in front of me. ‘Hello, so sorry to barge in like this. It’s Mary, isn’t it?’ He gave her a warm smile and scratched Marx under the chin. ‘I’m Jolly, and this is Victoria, Obi and Stefano.’
‘We’re Shannon’s friends from university,’ Victoria added, jumping down from the counter.
I glanced around at them, at their beaming faces. Shannon’s friends.
‘Shannon, you didn’t say anything to me about this, did you?’
I shrugged, at a loss for words. ‘It was a surprise.’
‘Well,’ she said, the confusion thawing from her features. ‘Shannon’s friends.’ Her face lit up. ‘Where are my manners?’ She dropped Marx to the floor. ‘Does anyone fancy a brew?’
‘I’m on it,’ Obi said, lifting the kettle from the hob.
‘Or something to eat?’ Grandma went to the counter and began rummaging in the cupboard.
‘We’ve got crisps. Does anyone want a bag of crisps?
Or a sandwich. I can make up some sandwiches.
We’ve got After Eights in here somewhere too.
And biscuits. In fact, I think I’ve got some of those nice M some New Year’s concert, a roomful of partygoers having the time of their lives.
We talked aimlessly for a short while, but the conversation soon turned to school.
‘Tiff got her tits out in the individual dance assessment!’
‘Stefano, you’re so full of shit,’ Jolly said, laughing.
‘I’m telling you, she 100 per cent did. I was her scribe. Frida congratulated her on it in her Crits.’
‘They actually congratulated her?’ I asked, reaching for another biscuit.
‘Yeah, they said it was really brave and moving and that she expressed herself authentically with beauty and grace, or some bullshit like that. Malcolm was practically salivating.’
‘Well, watch out then, fellas,’ Victoria said, laughing, ‘cos next term I’m getting the girls out.’
‘Hmm. Titties. An interesting development. Do you think I’d get better grades if I slung my knob out?’ Jolly asked.
‘I doubt Malcolm would be as amenable to that,’ Obi answered.
We all laughed.
‘Speaking of Malcolm,’ Jolly continued, ‘in my Crits, the old coot told me I was camper than ten tent pegs and grass.’
‘Jeez.’ Obi shook his head.
Victoria laughed incredulously. ‘Oh, come on. I’m pretty sure they’re not allowed to say stuff like that.’
‘Ask Lola, she was my scribe. Anyway, allowed or not, that’s what he said.’
‘Yeah, they can say what they want,’ Obi added. ‘Casper told me I needed to soften my accent if I wanted to be taken seriously. He said my voice was intimidating and that I should try to think a bit more like an upper-class gentleman.’
‘Ugh’ – Jolly rolled his eyes – ‘they’re so fucking tone-deaf.’
‘What’s tone-deaf about that?’ Victoria said. ‘They’re just trying to expand your casting.’
‘What’s tone-deaf?’ Obi repeated. ‘Come on, V. They might as well have said, can you try being a bit less black?’
Victoria frowned. ‘Oh, well, I suppose you could take it that way, yes.’
‘And Frida said she still didn’t think I could play straight,’ Jolly added, draining his glass.
‘Straight people are boring to play anyway,’ Victoria said.
‘Believe me, I’m going to be playing straight fucking ingénues for the next ten years.
But that’s the way things are.’ She smiled at Jolly.
‘I’m actually jealous of you. I wish I got to play gay people.
You’re just so much more’ – she thought for a moment – ‘interesting.’
‘Well, thank you. I’ll pass on your kind words at the next big meeting,’ Jolly replied sarcastically.
Victoria bristled. ‘I’m just saying.’
‘I know. I’m only joking.’ He tipped more champagne into his glass. ‘I don’t care. Fuck them. Queers before careers.’
‘I was Hettie’s scribe,’ Obi said. ‘They told her she had about as much grace as a baby rhino.’
‘Oh, bless her,’ Jolly said. ‘The poor girl’s one Ryvita away from developing an eating disorder as it is.’
‘How was your Crits, Shannon?’ Victoria asked, turning her attention on me.
‘It was – erm.’ I racked my brain for an answer. ‘They said – they said—’
‘They said,’ Jolly cut in, ‘that she had some things to work on, like all of us, but that generally things were moving in the right direction. Potential, isn’t that right, Shan?’
I nodded and bit my lip. Don’t cry – don’t cry.
‘Anyway, why do we have to talk about school all the time?’ Jolly added. ‘We’re more interesting than that, aren’t we? Obi, talk to me. Tell me about your life. How was your Christmas?’
Obi shrugged. ‘It was OK. The usual. Church with my mum, then food at my auntie’s. Everyone was there, the whole family. Lots of my little cousins running around, you know, same as last year and the one before that, and the one before that. Nice though.’
‘You’re so lucky. My family’s a bin fire. There’s always some fucking drama. I got into an awful argument with my brother on Christmas Eve,’ Victoria said, shaking her head.
‘Which one?’
‘Lawrence. It’s the same every year. It’s like he’s this little’ – she scrunched up her nose – ‘this little fucking ringleader who gets my other brothers on side and convinces them to bully me. They’re grown men, for God’s sake, but it’s like they become kids—’
‘Ah, they’re just messing around,’ Stefano said.
‘And then I tell my mum they’re all ganging up on me, and she says I’m old enough to fight my own battles, which I am, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just a bit mad when you’ve got three older brothers holding you down or attacking you with cushions, and their literal girlfriends and wives are sitting there watching the whole thing like it’s a big fucking laugh and not doing a thing to stop them.
’ Victoria gestured at Jolly and me. ‘You guys don’t know how lucky you are, being an only child. ’
Jolly raised his glass. ‘Hear, hear.’
‘I’m not an only child,’ I said.
Everyone looked at me.
‘What do you mean?’ Victoria said, frowning.
I swallowed. They were all staring at me, waiting for an answer. ‘Yeah, erm’ – I cleared my throat – ‘I have a sister – had a sister. She died when I was a kid.’
There was a pause.
Victoria sank against the sofa cushions. ‘Shit.’
‘Oh my God, Shannon. That’s so sad,’ Jolly said.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Obi added.
‘It’s OK. It was a long time ago.’
‘God. What, like, happened?’ Victoria said. ‘If you don’t mind me asking, that is.’
‘Erm.’ I looked at the ceiling. ‘Well, we – me and my parents – don’t really know. We were living at a different house, and in the garden there was a pond . . .’
‘Oh God,’ Jolly whispered.
‘And yeah, one day she was playing in the garden and – we still don’t know how it happened – she tripped over, cracked her head or something, and the next minute she was, well, she was face down in the water.
I don’t really remember it though. I don’t remember much before it all happened actually – about her, or anything really. ’
The room was silent.
‘Sorry,’ I laughed half-heartedly, ‘mood-killer.’
‘No, no.’ Victoria smiled softly. ‘Not at all, babe.’
‘Yeah, no, it’s fine,’ Jolly added.
‘Thanks for telling us,’ Obi said.
‘Yeah,’ Stefano agreed. ‘Thanks for sharing.’
I shrugged. ‘It’s fine. It is what it is.’ Another uncomfortable silence followed. I settled my gaze on the convector’s amber rods. ‘These things happen.’