Page 19 of Nothing Without You

Chris flicked sand at her legs, which came down unexpectedly, knocking the cigarette out of Lily’s hand in the process. Her foot landed on the cigarette and she squealed loudly. ‘Shit, that just burnt me.’

The girls scrambled around in the sand, locating the cigarette and pushing each other playfully, their giggles loud in the still of the night. ‘We’ve gotta get back. Dad will still be watching the cricket, and we’ll just walk straight past him and say we’re tired. He’ll never suspect a thing.’

Chris stood up, pulling Evie up beside him by her hand. ‘We need to get back too.’

The girls hugged Evie. ‘We won’t see you now ‘til you start school next year. Come and find us and we’ll look out for you.’ They raced each other up the path, laughing and pushing one another, disappearing into the darkness once they reached the park.

Chris held Evie’s hand as they walked slowly together. When they reached the park, he stopped and kissed her again. ‘I’ll see you at school,’ he said.

‘See you then,’ she said, wishing she could think of something else to say that would give her a chance to see him again before school.

The moon slid behind the clouds and the street was cloaked in darkness. When they stood at the gate to The Magic Fish, neither of them spoke. Evie put her hand up to her mouth, the taste of his lips still on hers. His blue eyes stared hard at her, and she noticed how long his eyelashes were.

He squeezed her hand. ‘Night, Evie.’

She squeezed it back. ‘Night, Chris.’

Chapter Fourteen

The ride back on the car ferry was rough. A vigorous wind blew in from the north, creating short, sharp waves that chopped up the ocean. Grey skies hung overhead with ominous, darker clouds gathering on the horizon. The colour of the sky matched Evie’s mood, and she was thankful her mum also seemed gloomy and didn’t want to talk. They sat in the front of the car, her mum resting her head on a pillow. Evie stared at her, looking at the shorts and T-shirt she had bought from the shop at Point Lookout. It had a saying on the front. ‘Today is the first day of the rest of your life.’ She caught Evie staring at the words.

Her mum’s voice had lost its tone of excitement. ‘Your friends don’t seem to be on the ferry.’

‘They caught the earlier one back this morning.’

She nestled into the pillow again and pulled her sunglasses down over her eyes. Slipping off her sandals, she tucked her legs underneath her body, curling up like a child on the front seat.

Evie wound the car window down and put her hands on the opening, resting her chin on them. Why did holidays have to end? Why did Chris wait until the last night to kiss her? What would’ve happened if he’d done that earlier? Did that kiss make them boyfriend and girlfriend? So many questions with no answers and, at the moment, no one to talk to about what had happened. Where was Layla when she needed her?

She spotted some of the boys who had been camped further up the beach. They sat in a Kombi van a few spaces in front of her mum’s Datsun, their feet hanging out the windows, music blasting and smoke billowing out of the open door at the back of the van. Their flared, ragged jeans were the only clothing on their bodies, and a lady who walked past frowned at them and shook her head.

She strained to hear what the song was. It was her song. Evie. Closing her eyes, she let the lyrics wash over her, the words echoing in her mind. ‘Oh Evie, so much in love with you.’

Chapter Fifteen

Her dad was waiting on the front veranda when they drove in. He waved and walked towards the car, and she was surprised to see him in casual clothes instead of his usual work suits. He opened her mother’s door and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as she hopped out. Funny, Evie thought, she’d never seen them kiss properly, like on the lips. Watching them now, she realised that a kiss on the cheek was about as affectionate as they got. Licking her lips, she felt her face burn when she thought of Chris’s lips on hers. His kisses were what she would be thinking of every night before falling asleep, and every morning when she woke.

Now though, she enjoyed her father’s arms around her, and his kisses on the top of her head. He wanted to hear about everything she had done, and she went into great detail about the fish she’d caught, the books she’d read and where she and Mum had been. Her mother was quiet and, although she’d thanked Dad for carrying in their bags and helping to unpack, Evie noticed that there seemed to be a distance between them. Almost as if neither of them wanted to be there.

The next week she kept busy, putting up the Christmas tree and stringing strands of little lights from branch to branch in the trees in the front yard. Dad took her into the city to look at the Christmas lights, and they stood together singing ‘Jingle Bells’ at the top of their voices at ‘Carols in the Park’. He held her hand and passed her a candle to hold, and they swayed to ‘Silent Night’, along with hundreds of other people who had gathered for the event.

It was a strange feeling not to tell her dad about her first kiss. She usually shared everything with him. But something told her to keep what had happened to herself. He might not like that a boy had held her, or put his lips on hers. For now, it was her secret. As she looked up at him, his head held high, his distinctive moustache moving up and down as he sang, she felt a warmth in her heart that she knew was pure love. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in beside him, his voice growing louder as he sang. When he looked down at her, encouraging her to sing louder, his dark eyes sparkled and she knew he loved her as much as she loved him. He must have read her mind because he bent down, kissed the top of her head and then ruffled her hair. ‘I love you, Evie.’

Wrapping her arms around him she jumped up and down and squeezed him tightly. ‘I love you too, Dad. You’re my favourite person in the whole world.’

When the music ended, they walked hand in hand back to his car. ‘That was the best night ever,’ she said. ‘I didn’t want it to end.’

He seemed sad, but he smiled when he spoke. ‘There are many things we don’t want to end, but not everything always stays the same.’

Chapter Sixteen

Christmas came and went. A large, slow-moving cyclone devastated the city of Darwin, and for the first time, Evie noticed what was on the news. She watched the black and white reels showing groups of women and children boarding planes to escape the devastation, their new destinations thousands of miles south of where they usually lived. It made her think about how hard it would be to start at a new school, away from everything familiar. Thank goodness everyone she knew was going to the same high school as she was. She didn’t feel that nervous, after all she would know lots of kids starting on that first day.

Before she knew it, the Christmas break was over. High school was better than she could have ever imagined. The rules were not as strict as at primary school, and with Layla in most of her classes, she started to change the way she dressed and thought. She was no longer a little kid and, because Chris and his two sisters hung out with her, some of the other older kids befriended her and Layla also.

By the end of year eight, Layla and Evie had joined with Chris and his mates to become a tight-knit group. Their favourite spot was on the far side of the oval, well away from the prying eyes of teachers, who mainly walked around near the buildings.

No one at home seemed to care that her uniforms became shorter, or that she wore jewellery to school. She even carried a small makeup bag; the first stop for her and Layla when they arrived at school was the girls’ toilet, so that they could apply their makeup. The toilets were a great place to hang out before school, and her parents never questioned why she wanted to leave home so early in the morning.

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