Page 38 of Nothing Without You

‘And partying,’ she added.

His facial expression changed, and he stared at her with a serious look on his face. ‘Sissy used to do good at school. She was the smartest kid there. After she got with Stoner though, she didn’t do any schoolwork. She dropped out.’

‘But she has a job at the supermarket.’

‘Yeah, but she always wanted to be a teacher. Stoner said that was a shit job, so she changed her mind.’

She wasn’t sure how to answer. Sissy was her friend and she didn’t want to say anything bad about her.

Tim rested his foot on the top of the shovel. ‘You want to watch that doesn’t happen to you. You said you got good marks at your last school.’

‘I won’t drop out. Why would you think that?’

He didn’t say anything for a while, and she waited for what he was going to say. Tim was not like any of the boys she had known before. Maybe because he had two sisters, he knew how to talk about his feelings. Most boys didn’t talk about how they felt. They kept things like that to themselves. She wondered if Bob would talk about feelings.

Tim’s voice was deep and she looked at his full lips. He was cute and she wondered what it would be like to be kissed by him. He spoke softly. ‘You want to watch out for Bob. I know you think he’s cool, but he’s a lot older than you, and I know he isn’t a nice person.’

Unsure what to say, she shook her head, looking away from him and towards where the girls would be. ‘He seems okay.’

‘Don’t go with him, Evie.’

She turned to face him. ‘Why not?’

‘He’s just bad, that’s all.’

Tim’s eyes were sad, and she twisted her mouth as she looked away. She liked him so much and didn’t want to argue with him. But Bob was cool, and now she was his girl.

When she told the girls what Tim had said, Peace laughed. ‘He’s jealous. That’s all. He likes you too.’

She could feel her face redden. ‘Tim? Really?’

‘Yeah, Sissy said, ‘He told me the first day he met you, he thought you were really cute. He was going to try and tell you at the party, but he didn’t get a chance to talk to you because you disappeared with Bob.’

A hollow feeling formed in Evie’s stomach and she tried to ignore it. She liked Tim and didn’t want to hurt him but … Suddenly she remembered what she had come to tell the girls. ‘I got my period,’ she blurted out. Peace jumped up and down and Sissy hugged her, the three of them stumbling around before falling together in a giggling bundle on the ground. When they calmed down and lay looking up at the sky, talking about what they were going to do for the rest of the day, she forgot about Tim and his sad eyes. Now she could relax and look forward to the next time she saw Bob.

Chapter Forty-Two

It was a month until she saw Bob again. The band were away on a road trip from Cairns to Gladstone, playing at pubs and small clubs along the way. Sissy had followed them for a while, until they got down as far as Rockhampton. By the time she drove back home, she wasn’t very happy.

A small fire on the beach gave some light to the three of them as they sat around roasting marshmallows. Sissy had bought them in Cairns on her last trip and now they made a sweet accompaniment to the cask of wine they were sharing. Tim and Arlo were fishing with some mates further up at another beach, so tonight was a good time to share some girl talk.

‘Stoner sort of ignored me when I was at their last gig.’ Sissy looked from Peace to Evie. ‘I caught him kissing another girl.’

‘Oh my God,’ Evie said, as she took a large gulp of the wine before drawing back on a joint they were passing between each other. ‘What did you do?’

‘I threw a glass of beer in her face.’ Sissy said. ‘I don’t know who she was, but there are lots of girls who follow the band around. They’re all sluts and they throw themselves at the boys.’

Evie hesitantly asked what she had been wondering about for a while. ‘Do you think Bob was with anyone? I haven’t seen him since the party, but he asked me to be his girl.’ She noticed a look between Sissy and Peace. ‘Just tell me if he has another girlfriend.’

Sissy took a while to answer. ‘He doesn’t have a girlfriend, but I reckon he might be kissing other girls.’

Evie thought for a long while. She needed to see him and be with him again. Then she could check if he still liked her. On the night she had slept with him, he had told her that he loved her. That meant he would want to see her again. Maybe another girl had kissed him and he hadn’t been able to stop her. Evie wanted to talk to him and see what the situation was. If she was going to be with someone older than her, she would need to be a bit bolder and ask questions.

Her questions were answered the next weekend. School had been back for a week and she quickly settled into classes and school life. The teachers were the same as her last school. Some were good, and some, not so good. She loved her science teacher, who was young and had picked up straight away that Evie was good at the subject. ‘Your skills are way above everyone else’s. Make sure you stay on track. I’ve only been here a year, but I see lots of kids drop out and waste their education. Make sure you don’t do that.’

This weekend, however, education was the last thing on her mind. Mother was working all weekend at her new job at the resort, and Evie was going to stay at the commune with the girls. Well, that was what she told her mother. There was a party at Sugar House and Bob had passed a message to Sissy, to tell Evie to make sure she came. He was looking forward to seeing her.

When she arrived with the others, she couldn’t see Bob around. Stoner was missing also, and Sissy was grumpy, giving Tim a hard time. ‘I asked you to get me some extra weed, so I could give some to Stoner as a present.’

---