Adam shrugged. “That’s the problem, no one knows, I don’t even think Toby knows or if he does he’s not saying, but my loyalty is to Tess not him, and if he doesn’t man up and talk to her soon then I’m not going to just stand by and watch him hurt her.”
I grimaced. “I know it’s hard, but try to think about what Tess wants, what she needs in a friend right now.”
Adam sighed. “I knew you’d be all logical and reassuring and shit.”
I smiled. “Sorry about that.”
“Ah, that’s all right.” He straightened. “Do you want me to give you some reassurance?”
“Um, okay …”
Adam leaned closer to me. “I won’t tell anyone.”
Chapter Thirty
I looked at Adam, thoroughly bewildered.
My mind raced with questions, but I didn’t get to ask even one of them as the door behind us opened and music flooded onto the verandah.
“Oi, your women are looking for you.” Chris stood in the open doorway, glowering at his younger brother.
“Ha! Only because they’re too tight to buy their own drinks.” Adam grinned. He peeled himself off the railing and made his way to the open door. “I was going to take Tammy back to the campsite; she has a bit of a headache …”
I did? What was he on about?
Adam continued. “Do you think …?”
“I’ll take her,” Chris snapped, never taking his broody expression off me.
I couldn’t take my dumbfounded eyes off Adam.
Headache?
“Thanks, bro!” Adam tapped Chris on the shoulder, stepping back through the door. He winked at me and mimed that his lips were locked and he had thrown away the key.
My breath hitched; is that what he had meant? That he wouldn’t say something to Chris? What? That I liked him? I guess I should have been relieved, but the last thing I needed (aside from Amy playing matchmaker) was for Adam to none too subtly try to hook me up with his brother.
His broody, fuming, scary-looking brother who stood in front of me.
He stalked over to me, took the bottle from my hand and threw it in the nearby bin. “Let’s go.”
“But I haven’t …”
“Now!” he growled over his shoulder as if the point was completely non-negotiable.
Geez, what did I do?
I hurried after him, stumbling in my footwear, the stupid over-strappy, blister-inducing heels that Ellie had convinced me to buy.
“Chris.” I stopped to take off one shoe, then the other. “Wait.”
Either he hadn’t heard or he just chose to ignore me as he stalked off into the car park.
Ugh. What a bloody child.
I thought maybe removing my shoes would help me move faster, but as I winced and hopped on the sharp gravel it kind of had the opposite effect.
“Ooh-ah-ooh-ah—ah.” I limped my way across the never-ending stretch, my anger building with each painful step.
Just. You. Wait. Chris Henderson.
Chris had reached the car long before me. He had flung the passenger door open and was glowering at me, waiting for my arrival.
There was the Chris I knew.
“Get in.” He pointed.
Pain being the least of my worries now, I stormed the final couple of metres and threw one shoe in the car then the other. I slammed the car door shut and pushed Chris against it.
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that!” I yelled. “I’m not one of your lackeys, you can’t boss me around like that, and what’s with the freakin’ attitude?”
“Have you taken one of your tablets?” he snapped.
“What?”
“I’m guessing you’re one of two kinds of stupid,” Chris said.
What the hell?
“One, you haven’t taken your medication to stop your migraine or two, you have and you’ve been drinking. Either way it makes me want to throttle you.”
My mouth gaped open. I was completely taken aback by every offensive rant that came from his mouth, before I thought about it.
“You’re right, I can’t tell you what to do, but have enough sense to realise that your actions affect other people.”
“Are you going to let me explain?”
“You know, Tammy, I’m not always going to be around to give you a ride and if you think …”
“For fuck’s sake, CHRIS, I DONT HAVE A FUCKING HEADACHE!” My scream echoed through the car park so loud I wouldn’t have been surprised if the music had stopped and the entire population of Villa Co-Co had heard.
Chris’s brows rose in confusion. “Then, why did you say—”
“I didn’t say. I never said. Adam was the one who told you I had a headache, Adam was the one that suggested you take me home, Adam was—”
“But why would he do that?” Chris asked, confusion etching his brows.
“My God!” I tugged at my hair in frustration then put my hands on my hips. “I’m guessing you’re one of two kinds of stupid. One, you’re blind or two, ignorant. Or both. Either way it makes me want to throttle you.”
Chris’s mouth pinched at the corner. “What’s with the freakin’ attitude?” he said.
Touché.
I sighed. “Why do you think they left for the camping trip early and blackmailed you to stay back and drive me? Why did they leave for Villa Co-Co without me and have you take me? Why suggest I have a headache so you can whisk me away into the night?”
Chris crossed his arms over his chest, his expression unmoving and unreadable as he waited for me to spell it out.
He was really going to make me do it.
I buried my face in my hands.
God give me strength.
I looked him dead in the eye. Best to get it out of the way – now that Adam knew, there would be no peace, anyway. “Because they’re playing matchmaker.” I waved my hand, motioning between us. “With you and me.”
I braced myself for Chris to laugh, or openly grimace, or maybe blush, but he did none of those things. I waited. I tilted my chin up a little; I wasn’t going to cave with embarrassment. I was going to stand my ground.
The only thing that thawed my resolve was when Chris broke into a brilliant white smile.
“What?”
Chris leaned against the car, his smile growing wider and wider as his devilish eyes watched my troubled expression.
“What’s so funny?”
Chris hooked his hands behind his head, looking like the cat that got the cream. I couldn’t help but break into a smile myself; this unexpected reaction was contagious.
“What are you thinking?” I said.
Chris looked me dead in the eye. “Let’s give them what they want.”
Chapter Thirty-One
My smile evaporated from my face in shock.
“W-what?” I swallowed.
“They are so obviously bored with their own petty existences.”
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess?”
Chris pushed off the car, moving to stand before me, the same devilish twinkle in his eye. “Well, let’s give them something to talk about.” He inched closer to me.
“What are you suggesting?”
“You might have to call on your academy award-winning acting skills.”
“Go on.”
“Here’s an idea,” he said. “We pretend that we’re having a summer fling, but we don’t admit anything. We act kind of cuddly but flat-out deny anything’s going on. What do you think? They’ll drive each other wild speculating. It will kill them. Plus, it’ll stop them from playing Cupid if they think it’s already happened.”
My grin matched Chris’s. “Sounds pretty devious.”
“No more than they are.”
True.
“So you in?” He held his hand out to me. I looked at it for a long moment before giving it a firm, business-like shake.
“I’m in.” I paused, thinking. “So how do we start this masterful plan of deception?”
“First we’ll have to plant the seed,” Chris said as he opened the car door for me.
“Oh? And what’s that going to be?” I asked with interest.
“The person with the biggest mouth.”
***
When we arrived back at the campsite we found Ringer throwing Maltesers in the air and trying to catch them with his mouth. Having witnessed one roll from his lips onto the ground only to be picked up and placed back into the packet, we both respectfully declined his offer when he passed it our way.
“You guys weren’t gone long,” Ringer said with a mouth full of chocolate.
“No, I had a headache,” I said, trying not to look at Chris.
“Yeah, well, Villa Co-Co isn’t the place to nurse a headache,” said Ringer.
“Where’s Romeo and Juliet?” asked Chris as he propped himself on a nearby esky.
“You know young lovers.” Ringer grinned, nodding toward their tent.
“What’s Toby’s excuse, then?” The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them.
Both boys looked at me, unable to answer, because, unlike everyone else, Toby was a complete enigma.
“Anyway, I’m going to turn in for the night. Better rest this head of mine. Night, boys.”
“Night, Tammy,” said Ringer.
“Night,” Chris said, trying not to smile.
I tentatively walked toward the path, my strappy heels dangling from my hand. I winced with every sharp stick or piece of bark that dug into my feet. It must have looked like I was doing the walk of shame, the infamous ungodly-hour stumblings of a girl with messed-up hair and raccoon eyes. I smiled to myself, lost in my thoughts before a new thought entered my mind.
I was heading toward the van.
I stilled. Was I sleeping in the van tonight? I mean, that’s where all my stuff was, but would that be weird? Sleeping in Chris’s van and not the tent. I bit my lip and looked back down the track. I couldn’t go back, that would be awkward. My mind raced at a million miles an hour, conflicted by what to do.
“Night, Tammy.” I jumped, startled when a voice pierced the darkness.
I muffled my cry with my hands.
A rich chuckle emanated from the dark like a nightmare, until a light flicked on.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” Toby said, trying not to laugh as he stood from his camping chair.
I clutched at my heart. “Jesus, Toby, you nearly copped a shoe in the face.”
I had walked straight past Toby and Tess’s tent and hadn’t even realised. The treetop canopy above us cast deep shadows eerily all over the camping ground; not even the light of the full moon could penetrate in some places. Toby’s torch shone at my feet.
“Why aren’t you wearing them?”
I held up my heels. “Hiking boots they are not.”
Toby nodded. “I don’t know much about women’s shoes, but I’m guessing you’re right.”
“The blisters on my feet think so too.”
An awkward silence fell between us, and just as I was about to say goodnight and continue my awkward, painful trek up the track toward the van, Toby spoke.
“Hang on a sec,” he said. He shucked off his shoes and handed them out to me. “They’re about ten sizes too big, but I assure you I haven’t any foot diseases; they will be definitely more comfortable than those.”
I stared at Toby’s sneakers, taken aback by the kindness. Of late I had heard nothing but the whispered speculation about Toby and Tess and how Toby was being a jerk. I hadn’t thought much of it, and, to be honest, I didn’t really know him. I hadn’t talked to Toby much outside of the group setting.
He shook the shoes. “Go on, take them.”
I so badly wanted to ask him what was wrong between him and Tess, why he was shutting down. I wanted him to tell me that everything would be all right, that they would be all right because, let’s face it, we all believed if Toby and Tess couldn’t work it out, no one could. I took his Converse shoes.
“Thanks,” I said, taking them and placing them on the ground and slipping my feet inside. They were comically huge but compared to the sticks and sharp gravel they were like walking on clouds.
Toby smiled, looking at my feet. “There you go,” he said.
It was the first real smile I had seen from Toby in a long while. Although I was so desperate to ask, I didn’t dare. He wasn’t really my friend anyway, and he had probably gotten enough grilling from his real mates asking him what the matter was.
If they didn’t know, he sure wasn’t going to tell me.
But then all of a sudden he did.
“Do you ever feel like you have so much to say, but you just don’t know how to say it?” he asked out of the blue.
I stilled, almost forgetting to breathe as I took in his words. Toby was talking, and he was talking to me. I didn’t move, afraid I’d spook him.
I kept it simple. “I feel like that all the time.”
His eyes flicked up to meet mine, as if he was trying to gauge if I was serious. Toby sighed and pushed his hands deep into his pockets. “Every time I go to speak, or try to confess …”
I inwardly cringed. Confess wasn’t a good word; it implied that he had done something wrong. My heart thundered in my chest.
“Sometimes,” I said, “you just need to say it, no matter how it sounds. Some things are better out in the open. Better said than left unsaid.”
God that sounded confusing; did that even make any sense?
Toby nodded like he completely understood.
“You’ll know when the time’s right to talk about it. Whatever it is you need to talk about.” I tried to sound soothing, but I was worried I wasn’t being any help at all.
“Yeah, I will,” Toby said, lost in his own musings. And then just like that he snapped out of his deep thoughts. “Well, be careful walking in those shoes – they might be more comfortable but they might not be much easier.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, blinking, refocusing. “Thanks, though, you’re a lifesaver.”
“Night, Tammy.”
“Night.”
I turned to shuffle my way up the slanted gravel track. My mum had always taught me never to judge anyone unless you walked a mile in their shoes; I just had never expected to be walking in Toby Morrison’s, literally.
***
I punched my pillow for the millionth time, trying to get comfortable. It was impossible, considering it was partly the crappy pillow’s fault, but mostly it was because I was lying in the dark, on the mattress, still in my dress.
In the back of the van, I had struggled and fallen, nearly dislocated my shoulder trying to undo the back of my dress. If I’d had access to a pair of scissors I would have had no qualms about shredding the bloody thing into a million pieces.
Frustrated, I had crumpled to the mattress, giving up, trying to think of the silken fabric as soft against my skin instead of the reality of its scratchy lace edgings. I would never have had this problem if I had bought the bloody hippy dress from Evoka.
Where the bloody hell was Chris?
Probably planting the seed like he had planned, sitting with Ringer at the campsite, although me crashing in the van tonight was no doubt going to be a topic of conversation.
A wicked smile lit my face. I could always call out from the van. “OH, CHRIS! I NEED YOU TO TAKE MY CLOTHES OFF!”
I giggled to myself; I was so funny. Wouldn’t they just love that? It would not be the most subtle of planted seeds. I thought it was probably better to just try to sleep instead before I did do something stupid. Little did I know that as far as doing stupid things was concerned, Chris was going to take the whole freakin’ cake!
Chapter Thirty-Two
I hadn’t even realised I had fallen asleep until two things happened:
The door to the van opened and I was hit in the face with a piece of plastic.
“Sorry,” Chris laughed.
I hitched myself up onto my elbows and winced against
the van’s bright interior light. “What was that?” I croaked, looking around me for the flying missile.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.”
Well, NOW I did!
I sat up, stretching my arms to the roof as I continued to look around the mattress.
Chris climbed into the van, leaving the door ajar, and rummaged through his bag.
“Uh, you know how we were going to plant the seed, subtly?” he said.
I lifted the bedding, still searching for the mystery missile. “Hmm,” I managed, blinking to wake myself up.
He cringed. “Well, I might not have been quite subtle enough.”
“What are you talking abo—” I froze, my eyes fixing to the very thing that had hit me in the face. I scooped it up and turned it in my hand, as if studying a wondrous object. My eyes flicked up in horror to see Chris almost bracing himself for me to lose my shit.
“Are you serious? A condom?”
Chris ran his hand through his hair. “I know, I know.”
“THIS is NOT subtle,” I said.
“Well, I didn’t ask for it,” Chris defended.
“So what? You just stumbled onto this on your trek home?” I asked in wonder, trying not to think how I had come about wearing another person’s shoes.
“Honest to God, I didn’t even get the chance to plant the seed with Ringer, we were too busy talking about other stuff and I thought, well, maybe the fact you were sleeping in my van might be subtle enough anyway, and just as I was calling it a night he stopped me, went into his wallet and chucked that at me. And then I chucked it at you.”
Chris was rattling on in a blind panic, as if what he was saying was so far-fetched I might not believe him and was about to call him on it.
It was curious to see the usually cool, calm, collected Chris fumble over his words.
I started laughing and threw myself back on the mattress. A wry, relieved smile broke across his face.
“I’m glad you think it’s funny,” he said, throwing the blanket over my head, muffling my laughter.