Read Friendship on Fire Online

Authors: Danielle Weiler

Tags: #Young Adult Fiction

Friendship on Fire (17 page)

BOOK: Friendship on Fire
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Recounting my driving lessons to Dad always made him laugh. I caught him red-handed when I got home, pottering around the back yard, planning a gazebo.

‘Have you told Mum about this?' I asked slyly.

He jumped and spun around. ‘Daisy. Thank God it's only you. Tell Mum about what?' he asked innocently.

‘I can see your drawings. You want to make a gazebo out here. I think it will look good,' I encouraged.

‘Me too. I'd love to have it ready by her birthday. Keep it to yourself. Between us,' he winked.

‘Whatever, Dad. Hey, I didn't kill myself on The Hill this arvo,' I beamed.

‘Well that's always a good thing. Did you roll back at all? That's the hard part to master,' he chuckled.

‘A little, but I fixed it straight away and I went up instead of down. Yay.'

‘You'll get it one day, trust me,' he said, and scribbled something out on his plans. ‘Too big … darn it … oh hey, ask your boyfriend to come to family dinner on Friday. He can get to know us, officially.' His eyes gleamed.

I tried not to show alarm. ‘I'll ask him. We're not technically official yet, though, Dad. It's only been a few days … but I'll tell you when we are.'

‘What kind of a society is this? You kiss before you know where you're going. Disgraceful. We never would have got away with such nonchalance in my day.'

Being diplomatic like I'd heard my parents before, I said, ‘We are busy people. It will happen when it's ready to happen.' 
When Nate is ready to ask me out, more like it.

‘Good. I can sort him out if you want,' Dad offered, suddenly standing straighter and looking strong.

‘It's OK, I've got it. Thanks anyway,' I kissed him on the cheek and went inside.

I had written all of ten words on my English resit essay when my phone beeped. I ignored it, at first, but my curiosity got the better of me. My brain weaved in and out of ‘English essay', to ‘who could that SMS be from?'

With a sigh, I got up and grabbed my phone. Excitement entered my veins as I saw the first two words.

Hi Babe. What you doing? Thinking of you xx 

Nate called me babe. My heart flipped upside down. My  fingers flew like lightning across the keypad; so desperate to reply that I made heaps of typos.

‘Damn it,' I whispered.

I spent double the time going back through the SMS and fixing all my mistakes. I was so impatient with myself at the possibility that he would lose interest waiting for my reply.

Hi. Just fixing up my English essay like a geek. Had a pretty full on day at school. Thought of you lots today — you are very distracting. How was your day? Can't wait to see you soon x

I pressed send and sat back down at my computer to keep going on my essay. Every few seconds I would check my phone to see if I somehow missed the sound of a reply message. Three minutes seemed like forever to wait to hear from Nate again.

What can I say? I'm glad I have that effect on you. You are one hard girl to forget; I couldn't get any work done this arvo. My day was fine. Thinking of your kisses right now.

Oh my goodness. My head spun and I had to take very deep breaths.

Stop … I'm trying to study. You will keep me up all night if you start talking like that. Go away :) 

And back to the essay.

He waited about six minutes and thirty seconds to reply (yes I was counting) and I jumped when my phone vibrated on the computer desk.

This isn't good,
I told myself.
Stop acting like a freak. It's
only a message.

Don't tempt me. Fine, I'll go away. Too bad for you — you won't get that picture message I was planning to send next. Oh well.

I bit my lip and wrote back.

I'm still here.

The bastard made me wait for ten minutes until I got a picture message. With shaky hands I pressed open and almost gasped at his good looks. Nate had a natural, easy smile, that made me want to ditch my homework and run to his house to hang with him. Was that bare skin on his shoulders?

I stared at every feature of Nate's face that I could see, zooming in until it went blurry. I wanted to make it my wall-paper on my phone but didn't want my friends to see it; they would pay me out to no end if they got hold of my phone. Instead, I made a special folder to put all the pictures of him. I hoped it would get very full, and soon.

Nice.

… was all I replied.

You're so not getting out of it that easy. Your turn. 

Fair's fair.

I mulled over this for a few minutes. What would I send? I wasn't one for self-portraits; I would probably laugh at myself and not be able to send it to him.

Nup. You've gotta wait to see me in the flesh. Haha.

Hopefully my bluff would work.

Oh. Is that how it's going to be? No more pics for you then ;)

Far out. He got me again. He was good at this.

It took me fifteen minutes to get a picture of my face that I was remotely happy with. I tried all different angles but would sigh in disgust every time I saw them. I even tried to take a picture while looking in the mirror, so I could see my facial expression and hopefully get it right. I had my reading glasses on and a thick cotton headband, trying not to look cheesy.

I pressed send and waited for him to dump me over SMS for sending him a crappy photo. A few minutes later he replied.

It's about time. You look like a little boho with the headband but it suits you. My gorgeous ranga with glasses. Mwah.

Blushing crimson, I thanked my lucky stars no one else was in the room with me. This was so embarrassing. And it was getting late.

Thanks. Gotta go. Some of us have work to do. Sweet dreams :-)

I didn't mind SMS conversations. He wrote back.

U2. See ya tomorrow x

I buried my phone under my mattress and got back to writing. I had my reputation to recover.

hat comes to fifteen dollars sixty, thank you. How would you like to pay for that?' I asked two customers, a cute old couple, at work on my Tuesday night shift.

I was sorting out their EFTPOS payment when I saw familiar brown hair out of the corner of my eye. I ignored it, not wanting to be rude to the customers, and also not wanting to pander to my hallucinations.

‘Have a great night,' I said in my professional voice, and served the order off the screen. Looking up ready to serve the next customer, I saw Nate standing in front of me with one long stemmed rose and a small box of chocolates.

‘Surprise,' he whispered, as he passed the goodies over the counter to me.

I was speechless with delight. It hadn't occurred to me while sulking today that he might arrive on the doorstep of my work and surprise me. I wanted to jump over the counter and launch myself at him. Pash him on Ronald's bench. Take him away and never go back to work. Reality was different.

‘How sweet,' I smiled at him, genuinely happy that he made all this effort. ‘Thanks.'

The other girls on front counter were staring at Nate; possibly wondering why he had come to see me. My manager was grinning from the production bin area and other boys out the back stopped working and watched. It wasn't every day I had a guy bring me flowers and choccies to work. And so it was, in front of everyone, that Nate embarrassed me. Horribly.

His voice was a tad loud to be personal. ‘So, this is really where you work? Wow Dais, I thought you were better than this.'

My cheeks burned hot, my peripheral vision checked for any negative reactions from the workers around me. A couple of the girls smirked. His opinion made me feel small.

‘Excuse me?' I whispered back.

‘I'm joking,' he said, thinking that smiling at me with boyish charm would make it better.

‘But you weren't, were you? You do think McDonald's is beneath me,' I accused, trying not to lose control of my temper.

‘Well … maybe.'

‘You know what Nate? It's good, honest work. And I learn so many skills from the variety of things I do here. One of those is people skills. Where do you learn your people skills?'

‘Dais, come on. People can hear you now,' Nate said, eyes shifting around him.

‘Let them hear. My brother works here, too,' I continued. ‘Are you going to tell him he has a crap job? Not everyone has rich parents they can sponge off, you know.'

My temper had won again. I'd offended him. He put his hands in his jeans pockets. Surely he would leave now and it would all be over.

Instead, he appeared like he was trying to hide a smile. ‘Settle down, kitten,' he whispered. ‘Maccas isn't the most glamorous job, but I wanted to get a rise out of you. Relax. And enough of the personal digs, yeah?'

Scowling at him, I read his face for what seemed like five minutes. Finally, I backed down. ‘Sorry. In my book, everyone has an important job, whether it's scrubbing public toilets or being an astronaut. It's all relative.'

‘Yes, ma'am,' he said, reaching over to kiss my nose.

‘Nate …' I shifted my weight from one leg to the other.

‘OK, OK. I get it. No more patronising. I'll be good. So, are you glad to see me?' He tried to lighten me up.

‘I was, ‘til you opened your mouth. I'll only get a fifteen-minute break. If I get one at all, after your show.'

I stalked out the back to ask my manager's permission. He was more good-natured than he should have been considering Nate's form earlier. He left me with a comment that sounded something like, ‘lucky to be getting some action, not like the rest of us.'

I clocked off, put on my jacket and went out to meet Nate. He was sitting on Ronald's knee. Arms folded, I witnessed Nate whispering romantically to Ronald, ‘I've gotta go. She's here now. But I won't forget you. I'll be back for you.' Ronald's fixed face smiled back at him.

I couldn't help but smile. We went for a short walk and sat on a bench. The neon lights of Video Ezy and Red Rooster shone on his white t-shirt, and he had blue streaks across his face contrasting the darkness.

‘I've made a decision,' he announced, pulling me under his arm.

‘Oh yeah?' I said, trying not to sound uneasy.

‘Yep. I've decided we need to get to know each other better. Really well. So we don't have any more misunderstandings,' he said.

‘How are we going to do that?'

‘Leave it up to me. It'll be fun. I realise things have moved quite fast so I want to back up and find out more about you. Starting from what your middle name is?'

His smile disarmed me. I found it hard to remember his question.

‘My what? Oh, middle name. Um. Don't laugh. Renae,' I said shyly.

‘That's a nice name. What's there to be shy about with a name like Renae? At least yours isn't Frederick.'

He gauged my reaction. I held my breath. It was too funny. I didn't want to offend him after he'd affirmed my middle name. I felt like a puffer fish.

It came out like a giant smirk. I howled with laughter while he tried to feign anger. It didn't work either. I laughed louder.

‘Now that I'm thoroughly embarrassed, tell me something else about yourself. What's your favourite colour?' he asked, playing with a strand of my hair that had escaped out of my work bun.

‘Pink,' I said immediately. ‘You wouldn't see me dead wearing pink with hair this colour, mind you, but I do honestly love pink. I don't get much time to wear anything other than school uniform, and this,' I pouted, tugging on my work uniform. ‘What about you?'

‘Definitely black. Black suits everything. When will you dye your hair back? Or will you let it grow out?' he asked, studying my head.

‘Dunno yet. Maybe I'll do it for your birthday or something, if you're lucky,' I teased.

Nate's eyes rose toward the sky and he began murmuring to himself. Rather than accusing him of going nuts, I waited for him to give me his attention again.

His eyes lit up and he smiled at me. ‘That means I've got roughly three months until I see you as a hot blonde. I can do that,' he nodded to himself.

I laughed. ‘Maybe I'll surprise you earlier. Walk up to you and kiss you in the middle of a street. You probably wouldn't recognise me.'

‘You're right, I probably wouldn't. I don't think I'd be complaining if a hot blonde came up to kiss me, no matter who it was,' he gave a dangerous, crooked smile. I scowled at him.

‘I'm joking Daisy. Chill. I'd recognise your lips anywhere,' he said smoothly.

I let it slide, rolling my eyes.

‘I'll show you a picture of me as a blonde.' I got my phone out of my pocket and found a photo of Rach and me from the summer holidays. ‘See what you think,' I said, handing him the phone.

He whistled low and long. I smiled shyly. He kissed me quickly. ‘Nice, babe. I'll still have you as a ranga for the time being. You'll do.'

‘Gee thanks. So full of compliments tonight. Look, I've gotta go back to work. Before I do, Dad asked if you'd like to come to dinner with the family on Friday night. It's sort of a ritual,' I said, almost apologetically.

Nate appeared awkward for a few seconds before plastering a smile on his face. ‘No problem. I can do that.'

‘See you tomorrow night at soccer, yeah?'

‘Sure will. Farewell, Daisy Renae. And be prepared for proper dating from now on.' He kissed my hand like a seventeenth century gentleman caller.

I laughed, but fell for it.

‘Farewell, Nathaniel Frederick. Haha
.
Thanks for the visit.'

He gave me a quick kiss goodbye and I went back inside to finish my shift. My co-workers gave me a few funny looks. I knew it wouldn't be the last time my relationship with Nate would spark interest with the people around me.

BOOK: Friendship on Fire
2.8Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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