Free Life of the Party by Gillian Philip Page B

breath away. Even if I’d thought of a snappy retort I couldn’t have got it out. I stared at the pile of books on my desk, trying not to be sick and feeling desperately hurt.
Might have told me earlier,
was all I could think.
    Talk about irony.
    Might have told me, when I was too shy and insecure to tell
him.
Might have told me, maybe, before I started drinking more so I’d have the confidence to chat him up …
    Oh, sod him. I had friends. Plenty of friends. I was the life and soul of the party these days.
    Best of all, I had Steph. I leaned across to her.
    ‘The park, later?’
    She grinned. ‘Thought you were staying in for the rest of your life?’
    ‘I need some fresh air,’ I hissed, jerking my head at Rob Yeadon.
    ‘Been having a go at you? Ignore him.’ She sniffed. ‘Yeah, okay. Meet you after tea?’
    ‘Great!’
    I wanted some company. I hated that nagging voice that had crept back into my brain, the one that said I was ugly and worthless and pointless. I just wanted to hang out with friends who liked me.
    It wasn’t as if I was going to have a drink or anything.

TWO
    ‘You’re dead funny, you. You’re a good laugh.’
    Wished I could say the same about Kieran. He was Ricky Browning’s older brother, and he was sitting way too close to me on the picnic table, resting his feet on the bench. The sun had sunk beyond the tops of the trees, the picnic area was inshadow and it was definitely getting cooler. I hoped Kieran wasn’t going to offer to warm me up.
    Supposedly, drink makes boys look better. For me it was working the other way round. An hour ago I’d thought Kieran was kind of cute. Now he was trying to snuggle up, I could see his lips were flabby, his eyes leery, and he had a zit on the side of his nose. Most likely so did I, and probably Rob Yeadon did too, but there was something dead off-putting about Kieran’s.
    I wished Rob Yeadon wouldn’t keep barging into my thoughts. I took a swig of cider to fend him off.
    I’d be fending off Kieran in a minute. I just knew he’d try and kiss me soon and then I’d be sick. I felt queasy enough already, like last night was catching up with me again. So I kept making cuttingremarks to try and put him off, but he just kept chortling.
    ‘You’re a scream, Chloe!’
    No, I just felt like screaming.
    I craned my head round to try and talk to Ricky, who was nearest. I quite liked Ricky, who was in our class and was better-looking than his brother and less of a pain in the neck, but he was hardly worth talking to right now, since he had his tongue halfway down Jenna’s throat. Didn’t exactly make Jenna scintillating company either.
    Steph wasn’t helping. Ricky’s mate Calum was chatting her up, and she wasn’t paying attention to me, and I was getting more annoyed by the second. I took another swig from the plastic cider bottle. That felt a bit better.
    Thoughtfully I studied the bottle. For goodness’ sake. That couldn’t have beenme. Could it? I couldn’t have knocked that back all by myself …
    Trouble was, I was bored. Bored, and there was nothing to do but keep taking mouthfuls of cider. I was fed up with the lot of them, and the worst of it was I couldn’t just go home.
    At least it was a beautiful evening. The sky was bright blue, the tips of the pine trees still gilded with light. The rickety picnic table was way out of town in the armpit of nowhere – well, beside the forest walk car park, four miles out of town – and we’d come here because we’d had enough of the municipal park. Too many kids running around screaming their heads off.
    There wasn’t any peace, and some jerk in a blue anorak moaned about us sitting on the swings, and even though Ricky swore at him in technicolour, he wouldn’t leave usalone. In the end it had been easier to take our carry-out somewhere else. Kieran had a car, so we all squeezed in, shrieking and giggling, and drove out here to the forest.
    Which had been fine when we were still having