Peppermint Kiss (6 page)

“Good,” said Summer.

Secretly, though, I believed that it
was
different for me and Marco. We had such a strong connection. That moment when we'd held hands walking along, it was like we just totally understood each other, without even having to say anything. He couldn't have had
that
with seven other girls, surely?

“Hey, how about we go shopping tomorrow?” Summer was saying as she pushed the door open. “I can show you this great place—”

“Oh, thanks, but I can't,” I said quickly. “I'm planning to go and explore the town with Mum and my sisters. You know, have a proper look around. Another time, though.”

“Okay, cool, no worries,” she said. “Check out Willow when you stop for lunch, it's this yummy veggie restaurant. And listen, get your network changed soon, yeah? I can't even get
hold
of you outside school! We still need to sort out our Media project.”

“Yeah, sure, I will,” I said. It gave me a start though, remembering that, even after the talk we'd just had, none of my new friends knew
exactly
what an awful situation we were in now, money-wise. However much I'd told them, I hadn't been able to bring myself to say we had nothing, and that if a job didn't come along soon for Mum or Saff we could be out on the streets in a matter of days. Still, maybe they'd find something at the weekend, or our benefits would come through, and the rent would be paid in time. Maybe, after a while, we could even put enough aside to do up the flat a bit. Then I'd feel like I could bring people round. If all that happened, there'd be nothing to actually
tell
.

“Are you sure you're okay?” Summer was asking.

I shrugged. “Well, you know, it's not easy, but—”

“Any time you want to talk, just ring me, okay? I'll come straight over.”

“Okay, thanks.” She hugged me and I must have felt a bit better, because I managed to hug her back without bursting into tears. Then we headed back into the lunch hall.

As we neared our table, Marco finished off his own iced bun and reached for mine, so I swiped it off his plate. “Hey, that's supposed to be for me!” I cried. “I'm upset, remember?”

He raised his eyebrows. “Well, you look alright to me,” he said, with a cheeky smile. “More than alright.”

I tried not to blush at that, and I deliberately didn't look at Summer.

As we all chatted and joked, I kept sneaking glances at him, wondering whether Summer's words would have somehow magically changed how I felt. He flicked his hair from his eyes and my stomach jolted.
Nope.

The good thing was, I knew what he was like, so I wouldn't fall into the same trap as those other girls did, would I? I could have a laugh with him, see if he did really like me, see what happened, see if I
was
different. Make sure this connection I felt we had was real before I got involved. I could hold the cards and call the shots and all those kind of phrases. There was no danger I'd end up being Broken Heart Number 8, was there?

Mum, Saff, Grace and I were actually feeling quite positive when we left the flat to head into town on Saturday morning. We'd all used my lemon zest shower gel to give us some extra zing and my olive grain foot scrub seemed to have put a spring in Mum's step. She and Saff had dressed up smartly, and planned to ask about jobs as we went round town (well, check back to see if anything had come up, in Mum's case).

As we piled out of the door, Saff and Grace were busy arguing as usual, this time over whether Grace's skirt went with her shoes (Saff said it didn't and Grace said she didn't care). They soon stopped when we saw the big, muscle-bound man holding a Price Cutter bag and unlocking the door to the next flat along. He gave us a friendly grin and said, “Morning. I take it you've just moved in.”

“Yes,” said Mum. “I'm Kim, nice to meet you. And these are my daughters, Sapphire, Grace and Abbie.”

“Hello,” we chorused.

“Nice to meet you all, too,” he said. “I'm Liam. You should come round for a cup of tea sometime, once you're settled.” Mum said thank you, and invited him round to our flat too (lucky, lucky man!). Then he added, “And if there's anything you need…”

“Four iPhones,” I thought to myself, “a laptop and wireless broadband, a car, new school uniforms, jobs for Mum and Saff, a decent flat… If it's not too much trouble, of course.”

As Mum cried, “Abbie, for goodness' sake!” and steered me away, I realized I'd said that out loud. Argh. I
have
to stop doing that.

Well, apart from that, our trip into town started off well. We found this cool place called Vire Island that's in the middle of the river, and from there we walked over the bridge and all the way up Fore Street and the high street (past Willow, the restaurant Summer had mentioned), looking at all the cool little shops and cafes.

But by the time we got to the castle at the top of town, our feet were dragging and our mood had crashed. Everyone had been nice and taken Saff's details, but no one had said there was actually any work going at the moment, and it was the same when Mum checked back with people. Saff isn't exactly great with rejection at the best of times, and she got more and more grumpy, until Mum said it was time to stop asking because the way she was just slouching into places was actually giving a
bad
impression. Grace even asked about summer work in a couple of places, but it seemed like they only wanted over sixteens.

I thought my heart would explode from watching Mum pull herself together, reset her smile and go into each place as if it was the first, but after a long string of “no”s even she was beginning to look tired and defeated. We sat down on the sloping grass near the castle and I put my arm round her. “We've still got a few days to come up with the rent,” I said. “And Saturday probably isn't the best day for this kind of thing – everyone's really busy and the weekend staff don't know anything about what jobs are going. Come back up on Monday, it'll be better then.” I wasn't sure I really believed that, but I had to say something to cheer her up.

Luckily she gave me a small smile. “Maybe you're right,” she said. “Look, let's get an ice cream each – we can just about afford that – and then we can go into the information centre on the way back to the flat and get some leaflets about country trails.”

“What, you mean, so we can go on a
walk
?” gasped Saff.

“Don't look so horrified,” said Mum. “The flat's only a stone's throw from open country. There'll be some nice routes we don't need to drive to. There's no point being in beautiful Devon if we're not going to see any of it.”

“And walks are free,” said Grace approvingly. “We can stop back at the flat first and make some sandwiches as well, to save buying lunch out.”

“Urgh, not more cheese spread,” groaned Saff, rolling her eyes.

She got on board with the plan eventually, though, and a couple of hours later we had dodged some scary-looking cows, had hysterics watching her trying to climb over a stile, and saved Grace from a wasp that she was convinced was
deliberately
chasing her. Soon we were sitting on top of a big hill in the sunshine, scoffing our sandwiches, and no one was complaining about the cheese spread.

We got really silly then, because Saff decided that as no one was around we were all going to do the Macarena and sing at the tops of our voices. For those few minutes, we were just completely carried away having fun and we forgot about everything. Then Grace spotted a couple of dog walkers coming our way and we had to try and act sensible.

That night we watched a film and everything was still kind of okay. It was like all the fun and fresh air we'd had on the hill had made us immune to the depressing grottiness of the flat. But the effect wore off overnight, and on Sunday morning we woke up to pouring rain, and it felt like the gloom was going to settle back over us again.

That was, until I got my stuff out to make the solid perfume I'd promised Summer. I could have just given her one of the compacts I'd made the other night, of course, but I'd decided to create a blend of essential oils especially for her. Instead of letting me get on with it on my own like normal, Saff offered to help, and then Mum and Grace came and got involved too. In the end, everyone wanted their own signature scent and we had all my oils out on the table, passing the bottles round and trying different combinations, smelling each other's blends and making suggestions, experimenting and adjusting.

I settled on bergamot, jasmine and geranium for Summer (I'd decided that the geranium and rose I'd made for myself was going to become
my
signature scent after Marco liked it so much, so I wasn't making her
exactly
the same one!). I chose a lovely enamelled compact for her, and Mum, Saff and Grace chose one each too.

We made up names for our perfumes and I wrote them on each compact in swirly writing with silver pen. I called Summer's “Summer Breeze” and decided that mine would be “Wild Rose”.

It was really nice, sitting round the table with endless cups of tea, making stuff together. So nice, in fact, that they helped me make a batch of lavender bath bombs too, and some lime and ginger body scrub (only half a batch, though, as I'd nearly used up all the Dead Sea salt and ginger essential oil I had left).

I hoped my ingredients for making products wouldn't run out too soon, as there was no way I could afford to buy any more, of course. And I was getting the feeling that my special box of oils and creams, bases and natural colourings, flower petals and herbs was somehow more than just a bunch of stuff to make beauty products with. That afternoon, it became like some kind of special sweet-smelling, reviving, swirling magic that kept us going.

Summer went crazy over the little perfume compact when I gave it to her on the field at morning break on Monday. So she must have been surprised when I burst into tears. Ben and Marco certainly were. We were all lazing about on the grass – luckily I'd found a fiver in one of my jeans pockets the night before, which had meant I could buy an organic apple juice and rice cakes so they wouldn't start asking questions about money. But it didn't matter in the end, because I just wasn't able to hide it all any more.

Summer was saying how amazing the perfume was, Ben was having a look at the compact and Marco was just lying in the sun, giving me a slow, lazy (possibly flirty?) smile. Just looking at them all and thinking that I'd probably have to leave them in a few days' time made me realize how close we'd got, and I felt really gutted. That's what the crying was about.

When they saw the tears, Marco shot up and asked if I was okay, Summer put her arm round me, and Ben just looked really concerned. So it all came out then – about how Mr. Vulmer would be round on Wednesday and we didn't have the rent money. “There are only two days left to find it and after that we'll be made homeless, and I'll have to leave the school and I really like it here, and it's not fair because I've only just met you guys,” I finished breathlessly.

“Oh, Abbie, you poor thing,” Summer cried. “But listen, we won't let that happen,” she insisted, wrapping me up in a huge hug. “I know Mum and Dad haven't got any spare cash to lend, but you can all come and stay with us for as long as you like.”

That was so nice, it just made me cry even more. “Thanks, but we couldn't possibly…” I began.

“Of course you could,” she insisted. “Jim and Jed can share, or you can have the yurt we've got in the field.” I couldn't help smiling at that – the idea of
Sapphire
living in basically a glorified
tent
.

“I'd love to offer as well, but you couldn't swing a cat in our place,” said Ben. “Not that I'd try to, obviously.”

He always knew how to make me smile. “Thanks for the thought, anyway,” I told him.

I realized then that they were both looking at Marco. He hadn't said anything, and they obviously thought he should have done. Argh! I really wanted them to stop it. It was making me feel completely stupid and my blush-ometer was going off the scale. I hadn't expected any of them to offer anything. But now that Marco wasn't, and not even explaining why not, like Ben did, Miss Paranoid here was wondering why. Maybe he was still annoyed about the knock-back (if it even
was
a knock-back, if the coffee was even a
thing
in the first place) or maybe he found the thought of me, wandering around in the night with no make-up on looking headless, far too terrifying.

“Ooooh, wouldn't you want Abbie to see you without your cool gear and hair gel on?” Summer teased.

I thought he'd flick her the Vs as usual, but instead he just blushed and looked really flustered. “Course you can stay with us, Abs,” he mumbled.

I felt an even bigger rush of blood to my cheeks and stared hard at the grass. One thought had led to another and suddenly I was imagining us living under the same roof, chatting late at night, cooking together, watching DVDs… But then…I'd have to sneakily get up at 5 a.m. every day to do my make-up, ditch my awful too-short puppy PJs and obviously I'd never
ever
be able to do a number two.

So maybe it wouldn't be such a great option after all.

I glanced up and caught his eye. An intense look passed between us. I don't know what was in
his
head, but he still looked as flustered as I did. Was that a good sign? I wasn't sure.

“It's really, really nice of you all,” I said, smiling a little. “I'm sure that, even if the worst did happen, we'd be able to sort something out, but just knowing you're there for me means such a lot.”

Summer squeezed my shoulders. “You're not going anywhere,” she said firmly. “We won't let you.”

That was so nice of her, but unless she had some kind of magic power I didn't know about, I didn't see what she could really do about it.

We had netball after lunch, and no one minded that I didn't have a proper kit (I'd just taken some shorts and a T-shirt – no way was I making last week's uniform mistake again. Even if Marco was into me now, he wouldn't be if he saw me trotting out in a pea-green PE skirt, complete with matching humungous gym knickers and an Aertex top with Abigail Green embroidered across the front).

I really enjoyed pounding around on the court with my mind completely focussed on the game – it was lovely not thinking about all our problems. And a couple of girls on my team, Olivia and Rose, said I was really good. It was a boiling hot day, so after the game I went in the showers, but I made sure I kept my face out of the water so my make-up didn't get ruined. I wasn't planning on a repeat of the headless look.

I got out my home-made hand cream and body lotion afterwards and Summer wanted to try them, and then Jess did, and suddenly there was a whole crowd of girls round me. They all loved the products (I let them have a bit each). Then Summer got her perfume compact out too to show them and they all went on about how gorgeous it was. When Mrs. Lurman came over to see what the fuss was about, I thought we might get told off but she had a try too.

“Mmm, this hand cream smells delicious,” she enthused. “If you're making a new batch, put me down for some too. You'll have to let me know how much it is.”

The girls wanted me to “put them down” for things too, and they were asking about prices and what else I could make. It should have been really cool and exciting, but instead it just made me feel really stressed out, because I had to nod and go “yeah” and say I'd let them know. The truth was, I didn't have enough money to buy any more ingredients, and my stocks were too low to start turning out new batches of stuff.

I told Mum, Saff and Grace about it when I got home.

“I wish I could magic the money up for you, hon,” Mum said, “because I'm sure you'd make it back again, and more. But we've hardly got enough for food. I've been on to the job centre again about our benefits, but it all takes time.”