Free Friendship on Fire by Danielle Weiler

to?’
    Roman liked this question. Sitting up in his chair, he folded his arms and grinned at me. ‘Try it. But if you were really observant, you’d notice you’re pretty much the only girl I talk to. For long periods of time, that is.’
    I thought about this for a second. ‘Bull.’
    He called my bluff. ‘Fine; who have you seen me talking to recently? First week of school? Hit me.’ The latter was tempting, but my wrist still ached from the last time …
    Desperately delving back into my memory, I vaguely remembered Skye trying to make a pass at him, but he managed to get out of it without getting her offside. So that left minimal options for argument. He had spoken to me and Rach, and … that’s it.
    â€˜Rach.’ I folded my arms to match his, in certain triumph.
    Roman slammed his palm on the table. ‘She doesn’t count. I only talked to her ‘cos she was with you.’
    â€˜What a gentleman,’ I pouted, knowing he was right about the whole thing.
    â€˜Come on ranga, give up. You’ve got your family dinner now, haven’t you? I’ll walk you home. It’s probably safer than you driving us, anyway.’ He stepped away from my fist just in time.
    So I chased him down the road.

    Nanna was sitting at the dining room table sipping a hot drink as I walked through the front door. I was so excited to see her. Every visit she brought me clothes from the local op shop that she thought I would like. Some of it was cool; most of it was from a time long before I was conceived. I always pretended to like it regardless.
    â€˜I hope you’re not studying too hard, young lady,’ she said into my hair as I gave her a huge hug.
    â€˜Aww, I could easily let a bit more slide.’ I grinned and sat down on a wooden chair next to her.
    She put her hand gently over mine and asked, ‘How is the big year twelve going?’
    â€˜Fine. Busy, but I can handle it. How are you?’
    â€˜Alive,’ she smiled, and then she reached out to touch my hair. ‘Hmm.’
    â€˜Dad’s fault,’ I said.
    â€˜Right. I’ll tell him he has to fix it. It makes you look washed out.’ No one could say no to Nanna.
    â€˜Thanks, Nanna. It’s kind of growing on me. Being a ranga isn’t so bad.’
    â€˜A what?’ Her eyebrows knit together in confusion.
    â€˜Never mind. So, what have you brought me?’ I nodded at the bag at her feet.
    â€˜Things for a beautiful girl. Hope you like them,’ she said, as she handed the bag to me and let me rifle through it in peace.
    In the past she would contentedly smile as she watched me pull clothes and trinkets out of the bag. I never understood how it could give her so much joy to be constantly giving. I wondered how much giving I had in me.
    When the others got home, we sat around the dinner table and ate pizza and salad. Family dinners on a Friday night were a tradition in the Brooks household. It was a time where everyone shared their news for the week, brought up issues to discuss and made future plans. Tonight we predominantly heard about Josh. He had another new girl he was pursuing and we gave him heaps for it. He changed girls so often it was hard to keep up with who he was actually with at any point in time. Not that he meant to be like that. Josh got bored of them real easy and would not settle down with one girl for longer than a month. He would rave about a girl and we might miraculously meet her once or twice, but then we’d stop hearing about her. He liked the conquest.
    Shane thought he saw a shark in the surf yesterday. He swore black and blue it was coming for him, but we think he’s going crazy from not enough hard work since finishing school at the end of last year.
    Treston complained about his many assignments for uni in his science course. He was considering taking up engineering as an extension of his study and wanted all our advice.