“Ah, yeah, Adam invited me to tag along. It’ll be great to see Tess again.” Megsy beamed, skirting on the edge of excitement.
What.
The.
Actual.
Fuck.
I wanted to be sick. No, really, I think I was going to vomit.
No-no-no-no, not here, not now.
I pushed myself to stand, swaying and scurrying past Ringer. He was boxing me into the table; I slapped at his shoulders.
“Move!” was all I could manage, as I felt the chunks rising.
“Want me to hold your hair back, Ellie?” Ringer joked, but I had no time to respond. I hit the ladies’ toilet doors at a run, barely making it to the empty cubicle and being violently ill. My life flashed before my eyes, black spots danced under my eyelids, and the tiny little room spun. It was still spinning even as I slid down the wall, convinced I had nothing left to give. Flushing the toilet, I hugged my knees to my chest.
Classy, Ellie, real classy.
If I hadn’t felt so awful I would have let the wave of humiliation wash over me, but I was far too sick to care—that would come tomorrow in the light of day.
For now I just concentrated on breathing, in and out, in and out. The door to the bathroom opened, flooding the small room with music and chatter momentarily until the door swung closed.
Oh great.
Footsteps made their way around the privacy barrier and stilled in the opened doorway to my toilet cubicle.
“You okay?” Bel stood there, her eyes narrowed in concern as if she was identifying a body at the morgue or something, which by all accounts wasn’t too far from the truth. Unlike any of the Onslow Boys who had held my hair back, dunked my head under a faucet and slung me over their shoulder, Bel crossed her arms across her chest, mindful not to make contact with the side of the door possibly out of fear of catching any germs.
“I guess you drew the short straw on coming to check on me.” I wiped the light sheen of perspiration from my brow.
“Well, Adam made it as far as the door, but then I kind of reminded him best not to linger in the ladies’ toilets.”
Ha! Not like he hadn’t before, I thought.
“Want a chewie?” Bel held out a packet of Juicy Fruits and I thought based purely on that, she could easily be my new best friend.
“Thanks,” I said, holding my hand out so she could squeeze two little white parcels into my palm.
The door to the bathroom opened again, causing music and laughter to echo off the walls, and the unmistakable sound of girls struggling to walk in high heels clicking against the concrete floor. Stacey Palmer and Kim Winters rounded the corner, pausing mid-giggle before taking in the sight before them. They gave each other a knowing look and curve of a brow before Kim made her way to the vacant cubicle next to mine. Their chat was shallow and gossipy, as much as I could bring myself to care, but as Kim came to the basin and washed her hands as Stacey reapplied her lipstick, her eyes never tore away from me in the reflection of the mirror. Shutting the tap off and turning to the paper towel dispenser she stood before me, drying her hands and shaking her head.
“Some things never change,” she said.
“Well, you know what they say,” said Stacey, pocketing her lipstick and turning her attention to me. “You can take the girl out of Onslow but you can’t take the Onslow out of the girl.”
Their laughter erupted, and I watched steely eyed as they left the bathroom, grinning like fools and revelling in my demise. But what was worse was, they were right. Nothing had changed; I hadn’t changed. I was still looked upon as little Ellie Parker, class whore of 1999, the kind no boy would want to take home to meet his mother. The girl who got smashed and got sick and passed out in boys’ beds, the girl that was a bit dumb but had a nice arse.
My eyes burned with tears that threatened to rise through anger, anger for all those things, but mainly angry with myself.
Bel looked uncomfortable, proving the simple truth that we really didn’t know each other, and that she didn’t know what to say to offer me comfort. Unlike Tess, who would have slid down next to me and looked at me with big sad eyes, or Adam who would have crouched before me and made me laugh, Bel simply stood there, uncomfortable.
“You okay?” she asked again, as if not really sure what else there was to know.
“Yeah, just give me a minute,” I said, turning my face away from her, hiding the tears, praying she would just take a hint and leave, and mercifully she finally did.
Ten
