Tessa in Love (10 page)

‘They’re like stills from a film of everything we did,’ I said. ‘They’re incredible.’

‘It was the day that was incredible,’ Wolfie said. ‘I just tried to take home as much of it as I could.’

‘Thank you,’ I said, looking into his gorgeous brown eyes. ‘I wish I had a record exactly like this of every day I’ve spent with you.’

‘Otherwise you’ll forget?’ he teased.

‘Never,’ I said. ‘But I love this, and I love you. You’re really
good
as well, you know?’

‘You . . . well, it sounds cheesy, but you sort of inspire me,’ Wolfie said. ‘I didn’t really know what I was doing until I met you. Do you really think they’re not terrible?’

‘Well, you might want to rethink the picture of the weird laughing girl. . .’

‘You’re beautiful,’ Wolfie said, and when I put my hands in front of my face, because I knew it wasn’t true, he gently moved them out of the way and kissed me. ‘You’re the most beautiful thing in the book.’

My mum knocked on the door to chuck him out at about ten. She came in and sat with us for a bit and thanked him for cooking dinner and told him he could come and do it again any time.

‘Men who cook,’ she said to me when Wolfie had gone, ‘are worth keeping around.’

‘I’m glad you approve,’ I said.

‘He’s nice to you,’ Mum said. ‘He appreciates you. That’s really all that counts.’

I gave her a big hug.

N
ot everything was working out so well. Wolfie wouldn’t go to Becca’s party. ‘Sorry, Tess,’ he told me, over the phone. ‘I’m watching the football with Chunk on Saturday.’

‘Football?’
I said. ‘But
that’ll finish quite early, won’t it? And isn’t it on every week?’

‘It’s the quarter-finals, so it’s really important, and I’ve got a pre-arranged thing with Chunk – we’re going to hang out afterwards,’ Wolfie said. ‘I’d love to go with you, Tess, but you’re going with Matty anyway, aren’t you?’

‘Well, Matty and I thought we all might sort of hang out as a couple of couples,’ I said. ‘Her and Lee and you and me.’

‘Me and Lee Kelly?’ Wolfie said. ‘Can you really see that happening?’

‘Can’t you just. . .’

‘He’s a jerk, Tess,’ Wolfie said. ‘We both know it. I like Matty, but life’s too short to make small talk with her jerk boyfriend. Look, you go, have a nice time with Matty, answer the jerk back when he starts being a jerk and make me proud of you . . . then come back and tell me about it. We’ll spend Sunday together, and you can celebrate with me – or console me – about the match.’

I’m just worried that Matty and I are losing touch with each other, and I thought if we started . . .’

‘Tess, Lee Kelly and I are not going to start liking each other just because we like you two girls. You’ll have a good time without me.’

‘But Matty’ll be there with Lee and I’ll be like a gooseberry again.’

‘Then come and watch the football with me. You might end up liking it.’

‘No. I’ve told Matty I’m going, so I’m going. Anyway, my mum’s giving us a lift home – her parents won’t take her both ways.’

‘You’ll have fun,’ he said. I was sort of annoyed and didn’t know whether I should come out and say it, as he obviously couldn’t pick it up from my tone. I was also embarrassed about what I’d have to tell Matty. Her boyfriend would support her, mine was putting a football match ahead of a really important party. Maybe she was right – maybe I did do too much to please Wolfie.

‘I’d have more fun with you there,’ I said.

‘Well, I’d have more fun with you if you change your mind and come and watch the footie with us.’

‘You know I won’t,’ I said, feeling tired. ‘Are you ...’ I trailed off.

‘What?’

‘Well, do you feel like we’ve been spending too much time together?’

No,’ Wolfie said. ‘I’m crazy about you, Tess.’ He said it quickly and quite quietly, so I worried it was just something he felt he had to say, and I couldn’t say anything back for a second. ‘My dad’s home,’ he explained. ‘I don’t think he’s listening, but...’

‘Why don’t you get a mobile, then you can talk in your room?’ I said. ‘They’re this hot new invention, maybe you’ve heard of them?’

‘Yeah, I’ve heard of them,’ he said, sounding more amused, more like his usual self. ‘You know I don’t like the idea of them, no one knows for sure what effect the pylons are having on the environment.’

‘Can’t you use my pylon?’ I suggested. ‘I’m pretty sure they won’t put up a new one just for you.’ Wolfie laughed, but I was still frustrated and feeling a bit insecure. I felt sure other girls’ boyfriends were less hard work.

Matty didn’t seem too bothered when I told her, although I apologised again on the night of the party.

‘Well actually, I don’t know if Lee’s coming now,’ she whispered, as we got into her mum’s car. She sat in the front and I was in the back, so I couldn’t ask her any more about it until we were there, although I really wanted to know what was up. Her mum talked to me about GCSEs and said Matty wasn’t doing enough work, and Matty sighed and looked out the window. She was wearing a high-necked shirt that I knew she’d be taking off as soon as she was out of the car. Matty often went out wearing two outfits.

‘She spends too much time on the Internet,’ Matty’s mum said. ‘I suppose she’s in those chat rooms.’

‘Mum! I’m right here!’ Matty said. ‘And no one goes in chat rooms. I talk to Tessa about work, and there are loads of specimen essays and things about the courses we’re doing.’

‘Is that true, Tessa?’ Matty’s mum asked me, shouting so I could hear her in the back, although I could hear her fine before.

‘Yes!’ I shouted back. Matty and I did sometimes pop into chat rooms, but we just did it to have a laugh, and to argue about silly things with people who had no idea who we were.

Becca let us in, looking pretty and a little bit tipsy, and I hoped Matty’s mum couldn’t tell from her car. She showed us to the big bowl of punch, and Matty, as I’d predicted, bundled her high-necked shirt with our bags, and reappeared wearing a beautiful green silk halter-neck that set off her shiny red bob amazingly. She was absolutely gorgeous. Wolfie made me feel pretty, in the way he looked at me, and by telling me I was, and just by being my boyfriend, and I had begun to feel more confident about everything since I’d known him, but when Matty was looking her best, I just had to stand back and admire her. It seemed wasted on Lee, who did show up, late, looking surly. He didn’t compliment her; he just sat around, asking her to get him beer. My plan had been to look for the best in him tonight and tell Wolfie all about it when we met the next day, saying that
Matty’s
boyfriend skipped the football to make her happy, and was really lovely to her. But the plan was going to have to change. Matty and Lee started bickering, without embarrassment, and without even seeming to care whether I was there, so I thought the best thing to do was to go and circulate.

Becca was singing karaoke by this time, which was really funny, and I started chatting to Jim Fisk, of tree-carving fame.

‘She still arguing with him?’ Jim asked me.

‘Matty? Oh, did you see them?’ I said. ‘Yes, I don’t know what it’s about.’

‘So how are you, these days?’ Jim said. ‘I haven’t seen much of you since I moved. We take too many different classes, too. I hear you’re a proper loved-up hippie now. I-love-nature, I-love-wolves . . .’

I laughed. ‘I’m having a good time,’ I said.

‘I heard about you saving the Wood,’ Jim said. ‘I thought the thing you wrote for the paper was really good.’

‘Thanks,’ I told him. ‘You’re really sweet. Lots of people were sort of laughing at me, you know? I talked about fairies and stuff . . . ’

‘You could tell you meant it to be funny. And it was,’ Jim said. I could see why I had once fancied Jim -he was lovely. But I’d moved on, and I didn’t feel anything like that for him any more. I really was in love with Wolfie.

About an hour after he’d come, Lee went. He slammed the door, and Matty came in to find me.

‘Shall we go?’ she said. Her eyes looked strained and pink, and I could tell she was close to tears.

‘Are you ready now?’ I asked her. I wanted to give her a hug. But whenever anyone felt sorry for me it was guaranteed to make me cry and I didn’t think Matty would want to cry in front of everyone, so I didn’t ask her what had happened with Lee. I thought it would be

better to wait till we were safely out of the party. ‘I can call my mum.’

‘Well . . . I’m just going to tidy myself up,’ Matty said, and she headed for the stairs, where there’d been a small queue for the loo all night. I didn’t know whether to follow her, thought about it for a bit, then told Jim I’d better see how she was. He nodded. I couldn’t find her, and went back to the living room, where Becca was now doing a kind of dance routine to an old S Club number. I suddenly realised Matty had been taking ages and ages, and I knew I had to look for her again. Finally, I tracked her down in Becca’s mum’s bedroom, where she was sitting in the corner snogging a boy called Pete.

This was bad. This was really bad.

I got straight out and shut the door, because what else could I do? But my heart was thumping. For one thing, she was cheating on Lee, which was mega serious. For another, Pete, the boy she was snogging, was cheating on his girlfriend Kim, who wasn’t there, but who was very scary indeed. If this got out, Matty would be in big trouble. I had to stop it before anyone else discovered them. I knocked on the door.

‘Matty,’ I said. ‘I called my mum and she’s on her way.’ It wasn’t true, but I could do it any time soon. There was silence from behind the door. I leaned against

the wall and waited. Jim walked past and asked me if I was OK. I fudged things and said I was just waiting for Matty.

‘She’s in there?’ he said. ‘But didn’t Lee go? Is he back?’

‘Er . . . I don’t know where she is,’ I said. ‘I’m just waiting here because it’s nice and cool.’

‘OK,’ Jim said. He looked as if he didn’t believe me, and he looked sad again. I thought he had been hoping her argument with Lee might give him the chance to comfort her.

Eventually Matty came out. She was drunk and smelled of smoke.

‘Have you been
smoking?’
I said.

‘Just one,’ Matty said.

‘But you hate fags. God, are you drunk?’ I said. ‘You look really drunk. You’re pink and . . .’

‘Hardly. Look, Tessa, are you my
mother
?’

‘Matty, what the hell are you doing? Have you been in there with Pete? What about Lee? Where did he go?’

Matty started crying incredibly loudly and slumped down on the carpet.

‘Matty, honey, what’s happened?’

‘He’s dumped me. He said he’d met someone else and been out with her a few times, but he still loved me and he was trying to choose between us. I went mental and he said, “Thanks, you’ve made my mind up for me”.’

‘Oh my God! What an absolute
arse
!’

‘Yes,’ Matty said, and then cried a lot more. I stroked her hair. Pete came out, looking nervous, and then slipped off downstairs.

‘Lee’s a total idiot,’ I said, pretending not to have noticed Pete. ‘Look, my mum’s not coming yet. Come and sit with me in the kitchen, and we’ll make some coffee and you can . . .’

‘Tessa, I’m so unhappy,’ Matty sobbed. ‘I love him so much.’

‘Well, what were you doing snogging Pete?’ I said.

‘Did you see us?’ Matty said. ‘It’s OK. He’s not going out with Kim any more. He said they broke up. That’s why she’s not here.’

‘Well, let’s hope that’s true,’ I said. ‘You don’t fancy Pete, do you?’

‘No, I want Lee back,’ Matty answered, crying harder again. ‘I just want to go back to where we were.’

I wanted them to go back to where they’d once been, too. When they first started seeing each other, Matty and Lee had seemed like the perfect couple to me, and to everyone else. He was so cool and good-looking; she was so pretty and brilliant; and, when he asked her out, we were both excited and happy. Matty had shown me some of his e-mails, and he said all the right things, and when they were out together, they really
fit
. He could be really charming and it was hard not to be swept away by his confidence. But recently, I’d been more worried about her – I think because I was less in awe of him now. I winced sometimes at some of the things he said, and the way she tried too hard to keep him happy. So I didn’t want her to take him back, because it would never have been the same as the way they’d been at the start. Basically, he wasn’t good enough for her. Matty, I think, was in too deep to see him for what he was. When you get your heart broken, you don’t think straight – you just want to stop the hurt. Having everything go back to where it was seemed like the simplest way to do that. I sort of wanted to shake some sense into her, but I put my arm around her instead until she’d stopped crying, and then we fixed her face and called my mum. The party was still noisy with other people laughing and singing, but now it seemed like the most horrible place on earth.