Me Myself Milly (10 page)

The party wasn’t too bad at first. We played some frisbee on the sand with a load of other people, which was good because you don’t have to talk to anyone when you’re
playing frisbee due to the fact that you have to stand miles apart. But then the food was ready and the boys from the village came over and sat with us. They were drinking lager and they gave me
and Lily cans. I wanted to tell Lily not to drink hers, but I knew she’d never forgive me if I said it in front of them. Lily had told them we were sixteen and they seemed to believe her. I
took a sip out of mine but it tasted vile so I put it on a rock and hoped no one would notice. Lily was slugging hers back and talking to Alec, which left me with Sam. The sun had gone down and it
was getting cold. I made the mistake of shivering and Sam saw it as an invitation to put his arm round me. I suggested we played some more frisbee but Sam ignored me. He smelled of lager and
sausages. I decided I hated Lily.

When it got dark Lily and Alec moved away. I wanted to follow them but I knew how pathetic that would look. Sam tried to put his hand up my jumper. He hadn’t even tried to kiss me. I
don’t know much about these things but I would have thought a hand up the jumper came after a kiss. I hit his hand away and stood up. I was really panicked now; I couldn’t see Lily
anywhere. The light from the fire only travelled so far. Why hadn’t I brought a torch? Sam gave up on me and moved away to join the others.

There were some sand dunes between the beach and the road and I decided to go and hide in them until Lily came back. I’d just climbed the first dune when I heard voices over to the
left. I froze. Then I realised that one of the voices belonged to Lily. I stood uncertainly for a while wondering what to do. I didn’t want to go back to the fire where I didn’t know
anybody but I couldn’t stand around within earshot of Lily and Alec without letting them know I was there because that would be like I was spying on them. I decided the best thing to do was
to go and tell Lily that I wanted to go home.

But the voices had stopped and I had trouble locating the dip where I knew Lily and Alec must be. Which was why I nearly fell over them. They were lying in the sand and the first thing that
struck me was that Lily didn’t have her top on and her white bra was practically the only thing I could see in the dark. I must have accidentally kicked Alec when I came to an abrupt halt,
otherwise I don’t think either of them would have realised I was there because they were too preoccupied.

He broke off long enough to turn round and say something in Welsh which I was pretty sure meant that I should go away. Then Lily saw me.

‘For God’s sake, Milly, go away!’ she hissed.

‘Yeah,’ said Alec. ‘Either go away or come and join in.’

Lily laughed. I clenched my fists. I was trembling. I wanted to turn and run but I couldn’t.

‘You do know she’s only thirteen?’ My voice came out way louder than I’d intended.

Alec sat up. ‘You said you were sixteen.’

‘I am,’ said Lily. ‘She’s lying.’

‘I’m not. I should know, she’s my twin sister and I’m only thirteen. You could end up with a sex offender’s record.’

Alec swore and stood up. Lily grabbed his trouser leg. ‘Come on,’ she said to him, ‘just ignore her and she’ll go away.’

‘Forget it!’ said Alec and he stormed away into the darkness.

Lily grabbed her top and pulled it back on. I didn’t need to see her face to know that she was furious.

‘God, Milly! You’re such a retard!’ and that was the last thing she said to me for three whole days.

Early on Saturday morning I sat at the top of the stairs listening in to Devlin and his mum. I had to climb over a load of stuff to get up there. When Jeanie locked the door at
the top, Mum started to use the stairs to store things on, like a set of giant shelves. There were books stacked up the side, a basket of washing, a heap of files and letters and some random
objects like a cheese grater, a packet of fly papers and a clock which was waiting for a new battery. Anyhow, I managed to clear a path and I settled on the top stair with my ear pressed to the
door.

‘Are you going to go to the basketball club?’ That was Mrs Wade.

‘I don’t know. I haven’t decided yet. Basketball’s not really my thing, you know that. Why can’t there be a baseball club?’

‘I know, honey, I’m sorry.’ There was a short pause. ‘You could always try something new: soccer or cricket or rugby, even.’

‘Rugby?’

‘It’s sort of like football, except here they call soccer “football”. I don’t know. When we’ve got Sky Sports installed you could watch the television and
find out.’

The reason I was listening in to the conversation was that
How to Make Friends
said,
Find out what the other person likes and strike up a conversation on that subject.
So I thought
this would be a good shortcut to finding out what interested Devlin because he wasn’t exactly the most talkative person. Now I knew he was into baseball, but that was no good because I knew
nothing about baseball except it’s a bit like rounders and you wear a big glove.

‘What are you doing?’ Lily was peering up at me through the banisters.

I made mad, shushing mimes at her.

‘You total perv. You’re stalking the new boy!’

‘I am not,’ I hissed at her.

‘You are too. You’re not in love with him, are you? Please tell me you haven’t got a gigantic crush on him.’

‘You’re a fine one to talk. You were doing this last night!’

‘That was different.’

‘Go away!’

‘Weirdo,’ said Lily, but she went away. She’d already dismissed Devlin as a loser, which was fine by me because he’s going to be my friend – not hers.

I held my breath and kept listening, terrified that they’d heard me but I needn’t have worried. They were in the sitting room, though, so I could hear them clearly enough.

‘I thought if you joined some sort of sports club you might make some friends. You’re not going to meet anyone shut up in the house all the time,’ Devlin’s mum said.

Except ME,
I wanted to shout through the door.

‘What’s the point?’ said Devlin. ‘It’s not like I’m ever going to see them again once we go back home.’

‘You never know,’ said his mum. ‘I met my best friend Helen at summer camp. We didn’t see each other again for twenty years but we kept writing during all that
time.’

Mrs Wade’s voice was suddenly louder. She was in the corridor right outside the basement door. I held my breath. ‘Don’t be long,’ she was saying, ‘the girl from
downstairs will be here soon. I’ll be in the kitchen,’ and I could hear her little kitten heels going off into the distance.

When I got back to the bedroom Lily was lying on her bed.

‘So, what did you find out about lover boy then?’

‘Don’t call him that! Nothing much – except that he’s missing playing baseball. I didn’t have him down as the sporty type.’ Although I suppose that was why he
was so muscly.

‘No, he’s more the “stay home and bake some cookies with Mother” type.’

‘Don’t be mean. How would you like it if you had to go and live in a strange place?’

Lily didn’t say anything to that, though her injured silence spoke volumes.

But being Lily meant that the silence didn’t last long.

‘I reckon he’s gay,’ she said. ‘You’re wasting your time.’

‘Of course he’s not gay!’

Lily just smiled. ‘I’m not coming with you.’

‘You weren’t invited.’

‘You’ll be on your own – with a boy.’ I knew she was trying to wind me up so I didn’t reply.

‘Don’t go pretending I’m there. You know, in your head.’ How did she know that’s what I do? I hate her for knowing that.

I know I’m getting better at being Emily though. On the walk to the bus stop in the mornings I don’t pretend Lily’s with me any more. Instead I use the time to change into
Emily. By the time I get on the bus and start talking to Effy I’m a normal person. Emily Pond, going to school with her new friend.

I knocked on the front door upstairs and Mrs Wade answered it. I really wished she’d tell me her first name because Mrs Wade is a bit of a mouthful. Maybe it’s an American thing,
calling adults by their surname.

I’d got butterflies in my stomach, I don’t know why. I was only showing someone round town, how hard could it be? There was no sign of Devlin, though, and Mrs Wade looked a bit
nervous as she ushered me into the front room.

‘Milly,’ she said, ‘your mum told me about what happened to you – you know – recently.’ She fiddled with the zip on her cardigan. I don’t know who was
more embarrassed, her or me. ‘Anyway, the thing is, I’d rather you didn’t talk to Devlin about it, if you don’t mind. It’s just that he’s . . .’ and then
Devlin walked in and she shut up.

Devlin looked angry, like he knew she’d been talking about him. I know I must have looked angry as well. How dare she? I wasn’t going to tell Devlin about it, but that was my choice.
How dare she tell me what I could and could not say about anything?

So we both left the house in a temper and marched down the street in silence. Now his mum had told me not to mention anything about what had happened, it was all I could think about and I felt
like I was about to blurt it all out, just because she’d told me not to.

‘Where are we going?’ asked Devlin, sounding almost as miserable as I felt.

I snapped out of my own self-pity and said, ‘We’ll cross the bridge and go into town.’

I glanced at him. He didn’t look happy; he had his shoulders hunched and his hands in his pockets. He looked like he’d rather be anywhere but here with me.

‘What are you into?’ I asked him. ‘Romans or Jane Austen?’

Devlin looked completely blank. He obviously hadn’t done any research before he came here.

‘They’re the two main things this city is famous for,’ I explained. ‘Unless you’d rather go shopping.’

‘I don’t know much about the Romans,’ said Devlin, like he was really making an effort. ‘Mum’s into Jane Austen.’

‘Well, the Romans invaded us in AD43, or some time around then, and they came here because there were hot springs and they built some baths around them. I suppose they must have found it
cold after Italy.’

Actually I know loads about the Romans and about the pagans who were here before them, but I didn’t go on about them in case I sounded like a tour guide. Besides, I didn’t want
Devlin to think I was some kind of history geek.

‘Where’s this bridge then?’ said Devlin.

‘Bridge?’

‘You said we were going across a bridge.’

‘Oh!’ I said. ‘We just crossed it. You wouldn’t know because it’s got shops built on it.’

‘Right,’ said Devlin.

‘I could show you, if you like. From the other side, above the river.’

‘No, don’t bother.’

This was going to be even harder than I thought. We carried on up Bridge Street and I thought it would be all right when we got to the Baths, because you can’t visit Bath without visiting
the Baths, that would be mental. But I was wrong. We went in to pay; it’s not cheap but Mum had given me loads of money so I could show Devlin all the sights. Devlin was looking around and
he’d picked up a leaflet about the Baths. It had photos of the main pool in it and I wanted to snatch it off him because I thought he was spoiling the surprise.

‘Is this it?’ he said.

‘That’s part of it,’ I told him. ‘There’s loads of other stuff. Come on, I’ll show you.’

‘I’ve changed my mind,’ said Devlin. ‘I don’t want to go in.’

‘What? But I thought . . .’

‘I don’t want to go in there, okay.’

What the hell? We fought our way out. There was a whole bunch of French school kids queuing up outside. Mum says there used to be a tourist season and, when she first came here, the summer and
the spring were the times when the town was full of tourists. Now it’s full of them all the time. And a lot of them are American. And I was stuck with the most reluctant one in the world. Who
wouldn’t want to see the Baths?

So then I began to wonder what to do with him. I didn’t want to suggest the Abbey, because that seemed like the most boring thing and he didn’t look like a religious type of person.
The Pump Rooms were right next to us but there’s not much to see in them. I could insist he tried ‘taking the waters’. That would serve him right, because they taste foul and the
last time I tried them I nearly puked. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t appreciate the Fashion Museum or the Jane Austen Centre, or the art galleries. I was trying to think of something more
exciting.

All the time that I was wondering what to do next, Devlin was just standing there next to me. I started to walk, just to make it look like I had a plan in mind. Devlin was looking at the shops
as we went past but he didn’t seem to want to go into any of them. We ended up near the river and I had a brainwave.

‘I know, let’s go on a river cruise, then you can see the city from there.’

You can get a boat from the weir. We were approaching Grand Parade where you can lean on the stone balustrade and look down on the river and the weir. The weir is sort of crescent-shaped but
like a crescent that someone’s squeezed inwards so it’s long and thin. There are three steps that the river cascades over and I love looking at it. I could sit all day just looking at
it.