Page 68 of Forever Summer

“A source close to the friends? You have got to be kidding me.”

In a fit of rage that would make any two-year-old proud, I scrunched up the paper, shredding it within an inch of its life, reminiscent of Sarah Norman’s diary in high school.

“Ellie, stop it.”

I pushed the heap aside, my mum taking it from me as I gripped the steering wheel and blew the hair from my eyes. Mum was looking at me like I was some kind of crazed lunatic, which in all honesty wasn’t too far from the truth.

“Oh, now look what you’ve done,” Mum said, trying to flatten out the wrinkles and salvage the tears. “Honestly, Ellie, I don’t know what has gotten into you.”

I simply ignored her, instead starting up the car. Cool, calm and focused as I put the car in gear, thinking of only one thing over and over in my mind.

Tonight, I was taking Mum back to Onslow.

Thirty-Four

I dropped Mum off at home; I could tell she was worrying about me. She had as good as stared at me the whole way back, her unpredictable, crazed daughter. I don’t even think she needed to ask me where I was going, as she closed the door behind her and leaned in the window.

“Be good,” she said.

It was the one thing I couldn’t promise.

Despite having had to endure a silent, moody car ride with me, she was nevertheless grateful to be away from the city; wished I could say the same. The moment I had seen the Perry Ranges in the distance, it was like a dark cloud had settled over me.

The Ellie of old would have loved this, would have actually paid money to have my name in the spotlight next to some sporting god. But now, as I sat in my mum’s car outside the Onslow Hotel, thinking about all the whisperings and speculations, the way heads would turn if I walked through those doors right now, I honestly couldn’t think of anything worse. I wasn’t exactly a stranger to a rumour being attached to my name, and I’m not going to lie, many of them were self-inflicted and usually believed by the people who meant nothing to me. But now, I just couldn’t stomach the thought of my friends believing the rumours. I wasn’t mad as much as hurt and worse still, the entire township of Onslow would know, and that was based surely on the gossip mill of Mum’s Bingo friends alone. I was seriously doomed. My weary eyes skimmed the long lines of cars along the drive. It was a typical Friday night, the Onslow was packed, there were people standing in clusters everywhere. Lingering near the entrance, sitting outside on the picnic tables, the place was pumping, and as expected all the usual suspects were here. Ringer’s car, Stan’s, Sean, Tony, Adam’s, Chris, even Max was back in town. A full brigade of Onslow Boys. Cold Chisel’s ‘Flame Trees’ filtered out into the night air, the music almost soothing in its familiarity.

Just breathe, Ellie. Just breathe.

Closing my eyes, I tried to think. Do I go or do I stay? But just as I thought I had decided, readying to reach for the ignition to start up the Corolla and get the hell away from here, two hands banging on the driver’s side window startled me.

“Holy shit!” I screamed, winding down the window to see Tess standing right next to my car. I didn’t get a chance to abuse her for scaring me, she was already on her way around the front of the car, sliding into the passenger seat, closing the door behind her.

“What the—”

“Your mum rang me, said you were on your way.”

I closed my eyes, thudding my head back against my seat, cursing that woman.

“You didn’t have to come out,” I said lowly.

“Right, so what, just leave you sitting in your car, pining away for Adam?”

“I’m not pining,” I snapped. “I’m furious, at him and you.”

“Okay, so I might have been a bit quick to judge.”

“Ya think?”

“But in my defence, I didn’t know that your first date had been such a disaster.”

I paused for a moment, thinking; I had relayed my date to Tess around the time of the engagement party. A time when I had tried my best to avoid her.

“So, how did you know that—”

“Chris told me, said you couldn’t stand the guy, and that there was no way in hell you would be on a second date with him.”

“Wow, who’da thought Chris would be my saviour?”

Tess sighed. “Just talk to Adam, he’s not mad, he’s just—”

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