Free The Truth About You by Susan Lewis

many shall we make, Dad?’
    ‘About a dozen?’ Tom suggested, starting to break the eggs. ‘That should work out at about two each.’
    Zav frowned as he counted on his fingers how many they were making for. ‘I don’t think that’s enough,’ he decided, holding up eight fingers.
    ‘Uncle Grant and Auntie Cara had to leave early.’ Lainey plonked an orange juice down in front of him. ‘So we’re only six if Max joins us, more for you if he doesn’t.’
    ‘I can eat six,’ Zav informed her proudly.
    ‘I know you can,’ she laughed, catching his face in her hands and kissing him roundly.
    ‘You’re so sloppy,’ he protested, wiping the kiss away. ‘Dad never does that, do you Dad?’
    ‘He does to me,’ Lainey told him with a twinkle.
    ‘Wait till you have a girlfriend,’ Tom advised his son.
    ‘I don’t like girls, they’re stupid. Mum, can I have one of those chocolates? Please, please, please, please.’
    ‘They’re for after dinner tonight,’ she said firmly, trying to make room for them in the fridge.
    ‘That’s so mean, I never get to have any of those and they’re lush.’
    ‘I’ll save you one,’ Lainey promised. ‘Now, I guess as you two have breakfast under way I ought to go and rouse the rest of the house. Have you seen Grandpa this morning?’
    ‘He was still asleep when I looked in,’ Tom told her.
    Glancing outside to check if the estate was back and seeing that it was, she said, ‘I wonder if Max has company . . .’
    ‘Are you kidding?’ Tom laughed. ‘You must have heard them all turning up in the early hours.’
    Surprised that she hadn’t, as she usually slept quite lightly, Lainey said, ‘In that case I think I’ll leave him. We can always rustle up more when they decide to surface.’
    Upstairs in her room Tierney was huddled under the covers doing her best not to be hung-over. It wasn’t easy when she’d downed a ton of vodka jelly over at Max’s last night. It was seriously wicked that stuff, nearly as good as the jägerbombs she and Skye had got wasted on the last time they were there. Skye had got totally off her face that night; she’d been in a bit of a state last night too by the time Tierney had staggered back to her room about four o’clock. Unlike Tierney Skye had gone to the concert with Max and his mates, so she’d been drinking all night, and smoking dope. Apparently she’d texted Max about eight o’clock and he’d offered to go and pick her up from school if she could sneak out. Obviously Skye had managed it, she always did, but Max, pig that he was, had refused to come back for Tierney.
You’re still not sixteen
, he’d responded when she’d sent a text begging to be allowed to go too.
    God, she hated him sometimes.
    Still, at least he hadn’t thrown her out when she’d snuck over there after they’d all got home, nor had he stopped her tucking into the jelly, mainly because he’d been too into Skye to notice. The others had all been smooching about the place, snogging and doing other stuff it was too embarrassing to watch. Talk about some people needing to get a room. She was the only one who hadn’t had a partner and not only because she was Max’s sister so his mates had to keep their hands off, but because she wasn’t interested in any of them anyway. As far as she was concerned they were just a bunch of mingers who thought they were seriously cool just because they smoked a few joints and got wasted while listening to loud music by bands she couldn’t stand. Max was so weird the way he was into the same sounds as Dad. They even went to concerts together sometimes. No way would anyone ever catch her going to see sad old sacks like Eric Clapton or Jackson Browne or Billy Bragg. Most of her friends had never even heard of them. It was pretty embarrassing that she had.
    She wondered if Skye was still over there, sprawled out unconscious on Max’s bed the way Tierney had found her a couple of weeks ago. Skye had been going all