Free Chocolate Box Girls: Sweet Honey by Cathy Cassidy Page B

up on Riley’s flirty, teasing tone but it’s harder to get
     the pitch right in an online message than it is in real life. Have I said too much?
     The silence leaves me confused and embarrassed.
    I add another line quickly.
Joking. We’re just friends,
     right?
    An answer comes back almost at once.
Friends? You kidding me? I do not
     set my alarm to five in the morning to talk to my friends. Just
     sayin’.
    Relief washes over me as I type back.
Hey. There was me thinking you were
     playing hard to get …
    xxx
    I wait for a reply, but nothing
     arrives.
    I smile, imagining Riley stretched out
     on his student bunk, still in his party clothes, drifting into sleep as the Sydney
     dawn drags its finger along the windowpanes. I imagine his laptop glowing bright in
     the half-light until, finally, it blinks and sleeps too.
     

     

 

    Just so’s you don’t
     forget … your big movie debut is almost here!
Scarlet Ribbons
is on TV here at 8 p.m. on Wednesday. You should be able to get it on
Watch-Again
from the day after. So excited! Finch says you’re
     in loads of the fairground scenes!
    Skye xoxo



10
    At Tara’s sleepover, sometime after
     eating the home-made funny-face pizzas and watching the first slushy DVD, talk turns
     to makeovers. We sort through Tara’s wardrobe, discarding the worst atrocities
     and updating others. Tara hands me a pair of dressmaking shears and I set to work
     turning jeans into shorts, a knee-length skirt into a mini, a T-shirt into a crop
     top.
    ‘Your mum will kill me,’ I
     say, snipping the lace collar from a prissy little print dress and holding it
     against a plain black T-shirt. ‘But you’re going to look amazing, I
     promise!’
    ‘How d’you know what to do
     with all this stuff?’ she asks. ‘You should be a fashion designer or a
     stylist or something …’
    ‘No, my sister Skye’s the
     stylist – she loves vintage and she can make something beautiful out of almost
     anything. A charity-shop dress, an old sheet … She’s awesome, I kid
     you not. She helped with the costumes for a film a little while ago, and it’s
     going to be on TV in the UK on Wednesday night!’
    ‘A film?’ Bennie echoes.
     ‘Cool!’
    I shrug. ‘Me and my little sister
     Coco are in it as extras,’ I say. ‘Just in the background.’
    ‘Serious?’ Tara gasps.
     ‘You’re in a
film
?’
    ‘I guess I am,’ I say.
     ‘It’s on
Watch-Again
from Thursday. I might have a
     look …’
    ‘You have to!’ Bennie tells
     me. ‘We will too. I can’t believe you never mentioned it
     before!’
    ‘It’s no big deal,’ I
     say, watching Tara lean in towards the mirror, pulling her hair back into a
     ponytail. She frowns, rolling her eyes.
    ‘Hey, film star, any advice on
     what I can do with my hair?’ she asks. ‘It’s just
     so … yuk. And I can never figure out what suits me.’
    I narrow my eyes. Tara’s hair is a
     startling shade of auburn, but it’s too long and too lank, held back with
     little-girl hairslides decorated with polka dots.
    ‘Have you tried an updo?’ I
     ask, and I open my laptop and find a YouTube tutorial. Bennie and I set to work with
     hairspray and backcombing to create a towering beehive-style bun, but the end result
     is ridiculous, as if Tara is balancing a small cushion on her head. We try French
     plaits next, but that looks too severe. I demonstrate making ringletty waves with a
     hair straightener, but this just makes Tara look like a lovable spaniel with
     extra-cute ears.
    ‘I think it’s too
     long,’ I declare finally. ‘It’s nice enough, but it doesn’t
     flatter your face – you have great bone structure, Tara. What would really, really
     suit you is one of those short, sharp bobs, like Amélie from that French film,
     only … well, you know. Auburn.’
    Tara folds her hair up short to make a
     mock-bob, and her face lights up. ‘Maybe!’ she says. ‘With a cute
     little fringe? I’ve always wanted