Free Megan 3 by Mary Hooper Page A

stepfather’s brilliant! Like – he’s got money, for a start. We were really broke before he came along, but now we go onholiday and go out for meals all the time and everything. He got me my job at his firm, too.’
    ‘I don’t want to work with him and my mum in the estate agents, thank you,’ I said.
    ‘The two of them are babysitting tonight, though, aren’t they?’ Claire said. ‘So that’s something.’
    I nodded, thinking that at least now he was living with us, Mum wouldn’t be out so much. ‘When he suggested it, I couldn’t get out the door quick enough. He even lent me a fiver!’
    Josie let out a cackle of laughter. ‘He didn’t volunteer to babysit just to be nice,’ she said. ‘He did it to get you out of the way.’
    I looked at her, not knowing what she was getting at.
    ‘You cramp their style!’ she said. ‘Bet your sister’s out too, eh?’
    I nodded.
    ‘Well, then. They want a little bit of nookie, don’t they?’ She glanced over to the two boys to make sure they were watching her and added loudly, ‘A touch-up in front of the telly!’ before collapsing in giggles.
    I thought about it. It wasn’t a nice thought. Not Mum and him. In fact, it made me cringe…
    ‘Bet they are!’ Josie went on. ‘They’ll be at ithammer and tongs by now. Don’t go home early – you might get a shock!’
    ‘Just because your mum and dad are always at it!’ Claire put in. ‘I don’t suppose everyone else’s are.’
    ‘My mum and dad even did it on the stairs, once,’ Josie said proudly.
    ‘How d’you know?’ I asked.
    ‘My brother saw them.’ She shrieked with laughter again. ‘Don’t look all disgusted, Megan Warrell. You’ve done it – why shouldn’t they? I think it’s nice that they still want to do it.’
    I thought about this; I didn’t think it was particularly nice. ‘Anyway, we haven’t got stairs in our flat,’ I said.
    We began to talk about something else. Josie was staring at the two boys openly now. She might as well have had a notice on her forehead saying,
I’m Josie and I’m up for it
. She got what she wanted, though, because after ten minutes or so of blatant staring, giggling and posturing, the boys came over, asked if we wanted drinks, and then went back to the bar to get them.
    While they were getting the drinks I found out that Claire and Josie had seen them there before, but had never managed to get them over. I was instructed tocall both girls by different names: Chelsea and Jonquil, to pretend that they had jobs in a PR agency – and on pain of death to keep quiet about the fact that Claire was still at school. I began to wonder where I was going to fit into this foursome.
    The boys came back with drinks and sat down, and told us that their names were Pete and Lou. I thought they looked pretty OK. I mean, I wouldn’t have tried to poach them or anything – not that they were going to fancy me in a grey T-shirt which smelt slightly of baby-sick – and not after all the hard work that had gone into getting them over. Anyway, even if I
had
gone for it with either of them I was put straight out of the running by Josie announcing that I might have to go home early because I had a baby to look after.
    Pete and Lou turned to me in surprise. ‘Yeah?’
    I nodded, embarrassed to be in the spotlight. ‘He’s just over a year old. His name’s Jack.’
    ‘Phew!’ Pete said, and immediately made a dismissive gesture with his hand, as much as to say leave him out of it.
    ‘Aah, it’s a dear ickle baby-waby,’ Josie said, screwing up her face into a stupid expression.
    ‘I got a little brother called Jack,’ Lou said, but that was about the last thing they said to me. The five ofus got up and had a dance or two together, but a bit after that Lou and Claire went up to the bar and started chatting to each other up there, and Pete and Josie began dancing very slowly and sexily, arms around each other.
    I sat there for a while, smiling glassily at