Dismissed Read online

  ‘He’s not exactly Brandon though, is he?’ Heather sniffed.

  ‘I think Mr Smart is kind of cute,’ Zoe offered.

  ‘Ew!’ Taylor, Heather and Cara all looked at her at the same time.

  ‘What?’ she asked, bewildered. ‘He is!’

  ‘I suppose he’s alright,’ Lizzie said, not wanting to make her feel bad.

  ‘I’m pretty sure he wears a toupee,’ Taylor said.

  ‘He doesn’t!’ Zoe laughed. ‘And he’s really nice.’

  Lizzie smiled. She decided she should hang out with Zoe more often.

  ‘Have you guys done your English assignment yet?’ Taylor asked.

  ‘I’d like to do the English teacher,’ Heather said, laughing dirtily.

  Lizzie watched for Taylor’s reaction. She looked like she was dying to tell them about Jason, but was torn about the consequences if she did.

  ‘He is pretty hot,’ Cara conceded.

  ‘I wonder what he looks like naked,’ Heather mused.

  Taylor seemed ready to burst with the effort of staying quiet.

  ‘I think he’d be pretty fit,’ she finally managed to choke out.

  ‘What do you think of Brandon, Lizzie?’ Heather asked.

  ‘He’s a little bit hot,’ she admitted.

  Taylor gave her a look, but Lizzie just shrugged.

  ‘I guess we should get the official business out of the way early,’ Taylor suggested. ‘We have to fill out a form with all our names and details for the committee.’ She ran to her bag and came back with a piece of paper and pen.

  ‘Alright, so full name. Taylor Walsh, obviously,’ she said, starting to write. ‘Do you think we need to put our middle names?’

  ‘Oh God, please no,’ Heather said.

  ‘Why? What’s your middle name?’ Cara asked her.

  ‘I don’t want to tell you.’

  ‘It’s Mildred,’ Zoe giggled.

  Heather glared at her. ‘At least I don’t have a stupid hippie middle name. Chai.’

  ‘Is that yours?’ Taylor asked Zoe.

  ‘Yeah. My parents were born a decade late. My mum doesn’t even shave her legs. I had to beg her to let me do mine when I started high school.’

  ‘At least it’s better than mine,’ Taylor lamented. ‘I just have boring old Rose. But Lizzie’s is the same, so we’re kind of twins in a way.’

  She almost said something then, obviously reminded of Brandon, but stopped herself.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Heather asked, noting Taylor’s weird expression.

  ‘Yeah. I think maybe we should just skip middle names.’

  ‘Well I quite like mine,’ Cara announced. ‘If I ever get famous I’m going to use it as my stage name. Nicolette.’

  ‘That’s pretty,’ Zoe said. ‘Nicolette Abrams.’

  Taylor handed around the form for everyone to sign. ‘Alright, well now we should probably brainstorm themes and locations so we can pass them onto Mr Smart. What were we all thinking?’

  ***

  Two hours later, the girls were well and truly done with their formal planning and feeling giggly from all the alcohol. Even Lizzie had relaxed, and they still had a couple of hours until her dad got back.

  ‘Why don’t we play Truth or Dare?’ Heather suggested saucily.

  Taylor groaned. ‘I hate that game.’

  ‘Don’t be such a spoilsport. What about if you go first?’

  ‘Alright, Lizzie. Truth or Dare?’

  Lizzie assumed that Taylor wouldn’t ask her about Brandon in front of the other girls, but she didn’t want to take the risk. ‘Dare.’

  ‘Suck on one of your toes.’

  ‘That’s gross.’

  ‘You can’t argue. Just do it.’

  Lizzie bent over and sucked her big toe. She wasn’t particularly impressed, having walked around the house barefoot all afternoon.

  ‘How long do I have to do this for?’ she asked, her voice muffled.

  ‘A minute.’

  Heather, Cara and Zoe all found this hysterical.

  ‘I’m putting this on Instagram,’ Cara laughed, getting her phone out.

  ‘Please don’t,’ Lizzie said, her toe still in her mouth.

  ‘And…. Time!’ Taylor smacked the coffee table with her hand to indicate the end of the minute. ‘Your turn.’

  ‘Zoe,’ Lizzie said, turning to Zoe. ‘Truth or Dare?’

  ‘Truth.’

  ‘Hmm… how far have you gone with a guy?’

  Heather frowned. ‘That’s easy. Nowhere. She’s a virgin.’

  Zoe blushed. ‘Actually, not anymore.’

  ‘What?’ Heather screamed. ‘Since when?’

  ‘It was over the holidays. I got together with this guy and we had a bit of a summer romance.’

  ‘I want details,’ Heather demanded. ‘How come you didn’t tell me?’

  ‘Because it was no big deal.’

  ‘Your virginity is a very big deal. He must have been special.’

  ‘He was sweet,’ she agreed. ‘But you know how those things are. You go back to school and everything changes.’

  ‘Who is he?’

  ‘Kind of a family friend. My parents know his parents.’

  ‘So does that mean you’ll see him again?’

  ‘Maybe.’

  ‘You little minx, you. Well, welcome to the club. So I take it it’s just you now Lizzie who hasn’t popped their cherry?’

  ‘Actually I haven’t,’ Cara interjected.

  Heather turned to her, surprised. ‘What about when you were with whatshisface last year?’

  ‘Nope. I went down on him, but we didn’t have sex.’

  ‘Really? Did you know he was telling everyone you did?’

  ‘Yeah. I didn’t care. If anyone had bothered to ask me, I would have set them straight.’

  Lizzie actually felt slightly more friendly towards Cara after that revelation.

  ‘So Lizzie, are you going to do it with Gabe?’ Heather quizzed.

  ‘I’m not sure yet.’

  ‘Has he asked?’

  ‘No. We’ve only been going out for like two weeks.’

  ‘Has he told you he loves you?’

  ‘No. We’re not in a hurry to do all that stuff.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Because it’s Year Twelve and we have other things to focus on.’

  ‘I meant it when I said you were a robot,’ Taylor said.

  ‘Leave me alone. Just because I’m not in a hurry to throw away my virginity or declare my love, doesn’t mean I’m a freak.’

  ‘Of course not. Sorry babe. I was just being silly.’

  ‘Who are you into this year, Taylor?’ Zoe asked, diffusing the tension.

  ‘Oh, no one really. There is this one guy, but I don’t think it’s going to be serious.’

  ‘What’s his name?’

  Lizzie shot Taylor a warning look. It would be risky to reveal too much in case the girls made the connection later.

  ‘Jason.’

  Lizzie shook her head. She hoped that they hadn’t already discovered that Brandon had a twin brother. But then Jason was a pretty common name. She supposed Taylor was safe for now.

  ‘Taylor, do you want to help me tidy up? Then we can watch a movie or something.’

  ‘Yeah, sure.’

  Taylor carried some plates into the kitchen, while Lizzie carried the empty pizza boxes. It had only taken a couple of glasses of champagne for the girls to forget their carefully crafted images and scoff down half a pizza each. Cara had eaten almost a whole one herself.

  ‘Don’t say anything else about Jason, OK?’ Lizzie whispered.

  ‘I won’t. Settle down. Hey, did you end up asking Gabe about CC?’

  ‘Sort of. But I didn’t get far.’

  ‘Maybe we should ask the girls.’

  ‘No! I don’t want them knowing anything is wrong. Heather would tell everyone.’

  ‘OK. But they might be helpful.’

 
‘I’ll think about it.’

  ‘Hey, what are you two whispering about?’ Heather called out. ‘Get over here and let’s watch a movie. I’m in the mood for some Ryan Gosling. Who’s with me?’

  CHAPTER 13

  Lizzie and Taylor were standing at a couple of benches in the back row of Art class. They were each working on an assessment piece for the end of the year. Lizzie was painting a large canvas, and Taylor was making a sculpture. Art was Taylor’s best subject. She seemed to have an amazing talent for replicating whatever was in her brain into any medium she chose to express herself. Lizzie enjoyed the class, but she wasn’t terribly good at making her visions a reality.

  Taylor stepped back to survey her work.

  ‘I feel like going to the Pancake Manor this afternoon. You want to go?’

  Lizzie looked at Taylor. ‘That’s really random. Why there?’

  ‘I just thought it might be fun.’

  ‘If you want. Are you sure you don’t want to go somewhere else?’

  ‘Nah. I really feel like pancakes.’

  ‘OK then.’

  ‘Should we go straight after school? I can come to yours and then we can drive over.’

  ‘Will you split the parking cost with me?’

  ‘Sure.’

  Lizzie looked at the clock on the wall. They only had twenty minutes left before home time. Lizzie was glad. She’d had a long week, but she couldn’t believe it was already April. The last couple of months had flown.

  Between school, work and hanging out with Lizzie and Gabe, she didn’t really have time for anything else. Taylor had thankfully stopped talking about Jason. Lizzie suspected that he’d just used her for a one night stand and then moved on.

  Things with Gabe were mostly going well. The only hitch had been when he had caught her accidentally on purpose clicking on his messages when she asked to look up something on his phone.

  ‘Babe, what are you doing?’ he’d asked neutrally.

  ‘Sorry. Must have pressed the wrong button,’ she’d lied guiltily.

  ‘If you spy on my stuff, I might have to kill you,’ he’d joked. ‘I have top secret clearance with ASIO.’ But then he’d turned serious. ‘Please don’t be one of those girls. You’re better than that.’

  Lizzie had been so ashamed that she’d never brought it up again. And she really only thought about it when he didn’t answer his phone, or if they hadn’t seen each other on the weekend. But she felt like he would tell her if it was important. He really didn’t seem like the kind of guy to cheat on her, and he was always so sweet that she couldn’t believe he would be capable of doing anything dodgy.

  Her dad certainly seemed to like him. They’d finally met a few weeks back, and instantly become life-long buddies. It was almost off-putting the way they sometimes forgot Lizzie was even there. But it was definitely preferable to having her dad hate him.

  Lizzie concentrated on her painting. It was an underwater scene with coral and fish. So far it was kind of abstract. She had the water sorted, but the coral was causing her problems.

  The bell rang and she glanced at Taylor’s progress. She was going to get a great mark at the end of the year if she kept producing stuff of such a high standard. She was currently working on a life-size woman constructed from paper mache, except she had skinny legs, a small head and an overly round belly. It was halfway through being painted in a rainbow of colours, which made it look like something out of a Mambo campaign.

  ‘That is awesome,’ Lizzie breathed. ‘You so have to do some sort of Arts degree at uni.’

  ‘I don’t know. I’m not sure I really want to go to uni.’

  ‘But what about after your gap year?’

  ‘I might just come back and get a job. Uni seems kind of pointless to me unless you’re studying to be a doctor or something.’

  ‘Maybe.’ Lizzie didn’t agree. She thought uni was important to help you get a good job in whatever field you chose. Maybe Taylor didn’t realise how hard it was out there because she’d never had to apply for a job. She’d always just fallen randomly into stuff. Like at the moment, she was working as a receptionist at a glamour photography studio because her dad knew someone. She supposed he might also know someone in a lucrative industry that Taylor could take advantage of next year, but it would be risky to count on it.

  They caught the bus back to Lizzie’s and quickly changed. While Taylor was finishing touching up her makeup in the bathroom, Lizzie texted Gabe to tell him where they were going in case he wanted to join them later.

  Taylor appeared in the doorway.

  ‘Ready to go?’

  ‘Yep.’

  They headed out the door.

  On the way over, Lizzie started thinking about homework, particularly English. She’d gotten a really good mark on her High Fidelity assignment. Brandon had given her an A and written a smiley on her paper. Every time she thought about it, she couldn’t help smiling too. Taylor had gotten a B, but she had pretty much been ignoring Brandon since the night of the gig. Lizzie was relieved. She was worried that her friend might start trying to impress him on a personal level in place of his brother, but she hadn’t even suggested they go to another gig. It was actually kind of weird.

  ‘I talked to Mr Smart today,’ Taylor informed Lizzie. ‘He said we’re fine to go ahead with the James Bond theme at the Hilton. He called and talked to the events coordinator, and they have availability.’

  ‘Oh good. I’m kind of surprised they’re letting us do the theme, seeing it’s going to be all gambling, guns and martinis.’

  ‘It’s just a bit of fun. I assured Mr Smart that we wouldn’t be gambling with real money, any guns would obviously be toys, and that the cocktails would be non-alcoholic.’

  ‘So I guess we’ll have to go outfit shopping soon, then.’

  ‘Yes! I can’t wait. Which Bond girl do you want to go as?’

  ‘I don’t know yet. You?’

  ‘I’m not sure either. But do you think I could get away with going in a bikini?’

  Lizzie laughed. ‘You could try, but I think you’ll be stopped at the door.’

  ‘Yeah. Maybe I’ll just go as Pussy Galore.’

  ‘Only because you want to be allowed to say the word pussy all night.’

  She laughed. ‘Kind of. Oh, and speaking of pussy, as in whipped, have you asked Gabe if he’ll host the after-party?’

  ‘He’s not pussy-whipped! But no, I haven’t asked him yet. I’ll probably see him later, so I’ll check then.’

  ‘Good. Make sure you do, because we’ll have to ask someone else if he can’t.’

  ‘No problem.’

  They pulled into a car park near the Pancake Manor and walked up to the old converted church. The twenty-four hour venue felt dark and slightly dingy. Lizzie wondered when places that were always open did their cleaning.

  As they took a seat in one of the corner booths, she discovered that the answer was now. A guy with a noisy vacuum strapped to his back was cleaning the carpets.

  A waiter brought them a menu.

  ‘I’ll have the Bavarian Apple pancakes,’ Taylor informed him after briefly looking at the selection.

  ‘I’ll have the Macadamia Madness please,’ Lizzie said, hastily scanning her menu.

  ‘Do you come here often?’ she asked Taylor curiously after the waiter had left.

  ‘Sometimes.’

  ‘How come I didn’t know that?’

  ‘I don’t tell you every detail of my life, Lizzie,’ she snapped.

  ‘Sorry. I don’t expect you to. It’s just we’ve never come here together, and we eat out a lot.’

  ‘Oh look who it is!’ she said putting on a fake bright voice and looking past Lizzie.

  Lizzie was immediately suspicious, and turned to the door.

  ‘What is he doing here? Did you plan this?’ she hissed. Jason was walking in and had stopped near the kitchen to chat to the chef. His dreads were tucked into what seemed to be his trademark beanie. It was a w
oven Rastafarian pattern, and he was wearing it with black jeans and a grey t-shirt.

  ‘I just told him where we’d be. I didn’t know he was going to show up.’

  Lizzie fixed her with a stare. ‘I don’t believe you.’

  ‘Fine,’ she huffed. ‘He wanted to meet me here.’

  ‘So what the hell is going on?’

  ‘We’ve kind of been texting each other for a few weeks.’

  ‘How did that come about?’ Lizzie was trying to get her head around this new and very disturbing development.

  ‘He was filling in on bass for another band and they went on tour just after the Orion’s Head gig. He was on the road for ages and he texted me one night after a show.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘What do you mean why? He missed me.’

  ‘Wow. OK.’

  ‘Don’t you think I’m the kind of girl a guy could miss?’ she asked, hurt.

  ‘Of course you are. But Jason isn’t a good guy. What did you talk about in your texts?’

  She looked away guiltily. ‘Just stuff.’

  ‘They weren’t picture texts, were they?’

  ‘Don’t be gross. No. OK, maybe a couple on Snapchat.’

  ‘Taylor! How could you?

  ‘Don’t be so judgy, Miss I Accidentally Spied On My Boyfriend’s Messages.’

  ‘I would never have told you about that if I knew you were going to use it against me.’

  ‘Well, it’s too late now.’

  ‘Have you actually seen him since the gig?’

  ‘A couple of times,’ she admitted.

  ‘When?’

  ‘Just in the last week. Only here though.’

  ‘Why here?’

  ‘Ladies!’ Jason’s voice cut through their conversation. ‘I have a Bavarian Apple, let me guess, for you Taylor. And a Macadamia Madness for Sugar Lips.’ He put a plate down in front of each of them and then slid into the booth next to Taylor.

  ‘I told you, don’t call me Sugar Lips. Do you work here?’ Lizzie asked, surprised.

  ‘Just in between gigs. Gotta pay the rent somehow, sweetheart.’

  ‘So why have you decided to enlighten me on this, whatever it is, now?’ Lizzie asked.

  ‘Because we wanted to make it official,’ Taylor said.

  Lizzie laughed. ‘What? You two are boyfriend and girlfriend now?’