Lula Does the Hula (12 page)

‘Don’t talk with your mouth full,’ I hissed.

‘Will you two be quiet!’ hissed Tam. ‘This is a meaningful moment.’

Alex and I considered the characters on screen.

‘Losers,’ was her verdict.

‘You got any more Maltesers?’ I asked hopefully.

‘Quiet!’ hushed Carrie. She was totally dry-eyed.

‘I can’t take any more of the grief!’ moaned Tam.

I dissolved into giggles, and so did Alex, but at last the
credits rolled up. We sat for a minute, slumped in our seats, exhausted by the emotional toil.

‘We’ve got to get Tatty out before anyone sees her nose,’ decided Alex suddenly.

I sighed, but she was right. We pulled on our jackets and swung through the front entrance, being careful on the old, cracked marble steps.

‘Let’s go for hot chocolate,’ suggested Tam. ‘I need to recover from that film.’

‘Let’s,’ I agreed. ‘I have a cunning plan to reel Jack back in.’

We got to Big Mama’s, which is a deli/café/tearoom kind of place, just before eleven. It stays open for a couple of hours after the cinema is done for the night so people can have a slice of something calorific and a cup of something calorific too.

I got to the front of the queue and promptly went as red as my nose. Which was still, like, really red. ‘Chocolate cake and hot chocolate, please,’ I asked the boy behind the counter.

‘Ha! No surprises there-a,’ said Gianni Caruso, pulling out the cake and a large knife.

I watched Gianni wield the knife aggressively, and swallowed.

‘You got lemon cake, Gianni?’ asked Alex. ‘Where’s Big Mama?’

‘Big Mama probably knew this girl was a-coming,’ said Gianni, pointing at me with the knife. He put the cake on a plate and spun it on to the counter in front of me before turning to the coffee machine.

‘Probably,’ agreed Carrie. ‘Is there any Victoria sponge left?’

‘For you, Alexi, there is the lemon cake. For Tamara’ – he gave her a sexy grin, and she blushed – ‘melt in the mouth mousse! You must have it! My treat-a.’ He kissed his fingertips to her. ‘For Carrie, no Victoria sponge. Sorry-a.’

‘What? But I can see –’

‘Instead, vanilla cream cake. Look here-a.’ He produced an amazing confection that made me a little weak at the knees, and there wasn’t even a crumb of chocolate on it.

‘Ooooooh,’ we all said. Gianni spun and whirled behind the counter, producing plates for all of us, and foamy mugs of hot chocolate. The girls saw the leather sofa at the back was finally free and went to claim it. I was the last to pay.

‘Thanks, Gianni,’ I said, pocketing my change.

‘Tallulah,’ he said, and winked. ‘This new boy of yours okay with the jinx, huh?’

‘Oh,’ I said. ‘There was never a jinx, Gianni. Just a bit of bad luck.’

‘You still carrying that around, though.’

I raised my eyebrows. ‘Why’d you say that?’

His forehead creased. ‘You no see in-a window?’

‘Pardon?’

Gianni nodded towards a small table for two tucked into the front window, behind the counter and away from the door.

My heart stopped.

Jack de Souza enjoying a frikking night out with bumly bumly bum bum JAZZ.

She was laughing, and bowing her head intimately towards him while licking chocolate mousse off a long-handled spoon.

I took a deep breath, my pulse going three hundred and four.

Gianni was looking at me expectantly.

‘Oh, that’s Jazz,’ I said airily. ‘She and Jack are running the news story on Emily Saunders. Can you believe it?’ I smiled proudly.

‘What,’ said Gianni, unimpressed. ‘Every night-a they go on-a and say no news.’

‘Pretty much,’ I admitted.

‘Why no one is freaking out-a?’ asked Gianni. ‘Huh? No offence-a, but they put students’ – he gestured with his head at Jack and Jazz – ‘on a beeg news story?’

I blew on my hot chocolate and took a sip. ‘To be honest,’ I said, ‘I think it’s because Emily has taken off before. You know? She generally turns up at her grandparents’ place over in Jersey, and her parents seem convinced that’s where
she’s headed. At least that’s what all her friends at school are saying to everyone now. And she took her phone, her purse, a bag, clothes with her. She must still have it otherwise it would have been found. Even so, the police are looking, apparently.’ I took another sip. ‘And Jack is a good news reporter,’ I said quietly. ‘If there was anything worth knowing, he’d find it out.’

We both turned and looked at the couple in the window.

‘Okay,’ said Gianni. He grabbed a bag of foil-wrapped chocolate coins from a bowl on the counter and tossed them to me. ‘Take-a these. You’re gonna need ’em. She’s a hot babe.’

I laughed, and it came out okay – just a
touch
hysterical. ‘Thanks, Gianni.’ He gave me a sympathetic look that made me want to do terrible violence. I picked up my hot chocolate, chocolate cake and chocolate coins and staggered over to the couch.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Tam straight away.

I looked at Alex. ‘
Your
cousin,’ I said with venom, ‘is enjoying a cosy soirée with
Jazz
! Over there in the corner!’

‘No!’ she said. ‘They didn’t see us come in?’

‘Too wrapped up in each other!’ I snapped, stabbing at my cake with my fork.

‘You’ve got to do something, Alex,’ said Carrie. ‘Right now.’

‘
Right
now!’ echoed Tam. Her mouth was so full I was surprised she could speak.

‘Okay, okay!’ huffed Alex. ‘Gimme a minute.’ She took an elegant sip from her mug. ‘Mmm, this is
ve-ery
good.’

‘Alex!’ we all hissed.

She took another sip. ‘Don’t rush me!’

‘I can see I’m going to have to take matters into my own hands,’ I said, standing up quickly. ‘Do I have chocolate anywhere?’

‘Top lip,’ said Carrie, showing me where.

I cleaned my face and strode to the front of the deli. I knew the girls would be listening to every word I said, and I felt a little disconcerted.

Jack was saying, ‘What about that old lady, Esme someone . . .’ when I approached their table.

‘Hi, guys!’ I said brightly.

‘Lula!’ said Jack with a delighted grin. ‘I hoped you’d come here after your movie! Sit down, sit down!’ He sprang up and looked around for another chair.

‘No, no, you carry on,’ I said breezily. ‘I’m with the girls. We saw your car outside, Jazz, and I thought it such a shame it got keyed all down the front.’

‘Keyed?’ Jazz looked stricken. ‘I don’t think so.’

‘I could be mistaken,’ I said with a thoughtful look on my face. ‘Only there was a bunch of kids out there –’

Jazz was already out of her chair. I’d never seen her move
so fast. She snatched her tiny bag up off the table. ‘Back in a minute,’ she said, and dashed out the door.

Jack sighed, still smiling at me.

‘What?’ I asked.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ he said, ‘even with your sobbing nose on.’

‘Omigod,’ I said, and covered my schnoz. ‘Is it still red?’

‘I’d better kiss you better,’ said Jack, pulling me into a hug.

‘You’re good at that,’ I said, lifting my face to his, feeling better already.

Alex, to put it simply, went nuts.

First of all Jazz came back and went on and on about how her car was absolutely fine, before I’d even got a peck on the lips. Jack made polite ‘oh, yeah?’ and ‘oh, good’ noises, but he was mostly staring at me and not letting me move away. I wasn’t complaining because my legs were so wobbly I was sure I’d fall down if he let go of me, and then when Jazz went to get an espresso refill and Jack finally put his beautiful lips to mine, then
theeere
was Alex.

‘What do you two think you’re doing?’ she whispered in a shrieky way. ‘Are you out of your minds? Why are you snogging in a
shop window
? Tatty? Tatty! I thought you didn’t want people talking about you any more! This will give them
something else
to talk about. Is that what you want? Hmm? Answer me!’

There was a rap on the window and I broke away from Jack. Pen and Fat Angus both stood on the pavement, arms crossed, heads on one side.

‘At least people can see he’s alive!’ I bleated. ‘That . . .’ My voice went small as I leaned to whisper in Alex’s ear. ‘That he’s still my boyfriend!’

‘What?’ asked Jack, still holding me to his chest. ‘Wha–’

‘Not good enough!’ replied Alex, her arms also crossed now.

I heaved a sigh, and looked regretfully at the boy in my arms. The romance was over. ‘Okay, Jack,’ I said. ‘You need to know about the latest outbreak of bird flu. It’s not official, but lots of people know –’

‘Wait!’ said Alex. ‘First things first.’ She looked round to see where Jazz was and spotted her still at the counter talking to Gianni. He was having to redo her espresso for some reason. ‘Cuz! What’s the story? Why are you spending all this time with Jazz?’

‘Alex . . .’ I warned.

‘No! No!’ said Alex, flapping her hand at me. ‘I don’t like the way you and Jazz are so insular with your work, Jack. You’ve been very offhand lately. We can all help, PLUS I’m a published journo too, you know!’

‘Hey!’ said Jack, looking worriedly at Alex. ‘I know you are! I’m not being offhand! You need to understand that Jazz – quite apart from being a great reporter – is sharing all her sources with me. She has connections everywhere.’

‘We’ve got better connections,’ said Alex. ‘Ditch her. I don’t like her.’

‘Now hang on a minute,’ said Jack, starting to look angry.

Pen was still outside, gesturing to Alex in a commanding way, so Alex gave Jack a last inscrutable look, turned on her heel and went outside to talk to my sister.

‘Geez,’ said Jack. ‘She does not get Jazz at all.’

Okaaaay
, I thought. Clearly the up-front approach was not going to work with Jack on the Jazz issue. Not one little bit.

‘Listen,’ I said desperately. ‘Alex is right about us knowing a lot of people around here. We’ve lived here sixteen years, you know!’ I laughed. Jack didn’t look convinced and my heart fell. No matter what he said, obviously some part of him really did see me and Alex and our friends as school kids, girls just playing at being grown-up.

I cleared my throat. ‘Did you know about the bird flu that’s hit the ducks and swans up on Cluny’s land?’ I asked.

‘Ohh,’ drawled Jazz’s voice behind me.

I turned to look at her.

‘You shouldn’t dabble in journalism, Talluley. I think we got it covered.’

‘Jazz,’ said Jack with a small frown. ‘I –’

Alex burst back into Big Mama’s with an ecstatic grin on her face. ‘Jack! Tatty! Fat Angus says Bludgeon’s got the results on the bird-flu testing!’

‘Well, I’ve got one better,’ lilted Jazz, one eyebrow raised. She took a tiny sip from her tiny cup. ‘The lab technician is meeting us at the Guilty Felon in five minutes.’

‘Yesss!’ said Jack. He pulled his jacket off the back of his chair and grinned at Alex. ‘Come on! Jazz’ll drive us!’ and
he dived out of the deli like Boodle the Poodle after a bone on a string.

Tam looked confused. ‘So . . . what, like, no one’s interested in covering the Emily Saunders story now?’

‘Tam, you
know
Emily’s parents think she’s en route to her grandparents,’ declared Alex. ‘She packed a bag and everything. End of! New story – let’s go!’

‘I’ll be driving
Jack
, not you lot,’ sneered Jazz as the deli door slammed shut behind Jack. ‘The Felon is strictly eighteens and over after 10 p.m. Juveniles are hardly welcome.’ She followed Jack and we watched her bleep her car open, but Jack didn’t get in.

‘Ha!’ said Alex. ‘He loves you more.’

We hurried outside. ‘If they can’t come in, then let’s just give the girls a lift home first, Jazz,’ Jack was saying in reply to Jazz. We joined him on the pavement, Alex beaming up at him. Carrie and Tam had followed us out to see what was going on.

‘I’d really love to, Jack,’ said Jazz, ‘but if we don’t meet the guy right now, we’re going to lose this lead. Do you want the story or not?’

Jack blew out a sigh.

‘Call me tomorrow,’ I said, and reached up to kiss him on the cheek, but he was already ducking down to get in the car. My cheeks flushed and I bit my lip.

Jazz laughed at me. Not breaking eye contact, she flicked
her luxuriant hair over her shoulder and got in the driver’s seat, smirking all the while.

Alex says Jack was trying to find the button to wind the window down. I dunno. What hurt was that he’d not thought to say goodbye before he’d left my side. A pulse of loud music burst from the stereo and Jazz pulled out with a squeal of her mag-wheeled tyres.

‘Well!’ exclaimed Tam, staring after them.

Carrie put her arm round me, and I squeezed her back, my breath all bottled with an emotion I didn’t want to think about.

‘She is such a b–’ started Alex.

‘Come on,’ I interrupted, my cheeks hot and prickly. ‘Let’s go eat cake. Lots of.’