Nine

 

Riley

 

 

“Hey, it’s Riley. Right?”

I turn to see who’s talking to me. It’s the guy who served me at the surf shop this morning. “Yeah. Hi,” I reply.

“Hi. I’m Reece,” he says, smiling at me. “I served you today at the surf shop.”

I smile back politely. “I remember.”

“Waiting for your pizza?” Reece asks.

“Yep.” When you live in a city, you tend to forget how overly friendly small town people can be. Reece is obviously no exception.

“What did you get?” he asks.

“I don’t know,” I reply.

“You don’t know?”

“Brooks ordered it for me.” I’m hoping my short answers will make him go away.

“Brooks did? Do you know Brooks?”

He seems surprised.

“We used to hang out when we were kids.”

“Oh. She never mentioned that. So you’ve been to Roper’s before?”

“I used to come up here when I was a kid. My dad lives here.”

“Oh? Who’s your dad?”

“Scott Fisher,” I reply. He’s obviously not a local if he doesn’t know I’m related to the infamous Scott Fisher.

Reece shifts on his feet. “Scott Fisher’s your dad?”

“Yeah. Why?” It’s the second time tonight I’ve had the feeling someone doesn’t like him.

“Oh. Nothing,” Reece says. “So, how long have you known Brooks then?”

I shrug. “Since we were five maybe.”

“Oh, really? That long?”

I just nod. I look over to the counter where Brooks was taking orders, but she’s gone.

“You’re practically a local then, huh?” He smiles at me, but I don’t smile back. “So you’ll know about the Saturday night bonfires then.”

“I guess.”

“Well, there’s one on tonight, if you’re interested.”

I turn to face him. “I doubt my father would let me go. He’s pretty protective, you know?”

“Right,” Reece says. He looks back over the crowd of people inside the cafe, obviously checking where Dad is.

Thankfully my number is called out before he can ask any more questions. “That’s me,” I say. “Catch you later.”

After I get my pizza, I scan the crowd and spot Dad and Julie talking to a couple of official looking men in suits, who look out of place amongst the locals, who are mostly wearing short-sleeved shirts and shorts. Jason’s sitting at a table nearby with some boys who look like they’re around his age, all of them hunched over a handheld game. I decide to get some fresh air, so I head outside to see if there are any tables free to eat by myself. They all look full, and I wonder whether the old picnic table is still around the back of the Hut. No-one except the staff would know about it, so I head through the marquee down the side of the shop.

When I round the corner, I spot Brooks sitting by herself. I stand for a minute, not sure if I should go over, and then Brooks spots me.

“Riley?”

“Hey, Brooks.”

“Hey,” she says. “Did you see what I got you?”

I look down at my pizza box. “No. Not yet.” Brooks pats the seat beside her and I go over and sit down. I open the box and peer inside. “A ham and cheese?”

Brooks grins. “Yep. You don’t like all that meat on the meatlover’s right? So I got you ham without the pineapple. And extra cheese.” She grins.

“I thought you could only order what was on the menu tonight?”

“I put my initials on the bottom so the boys would know the order was from me so they’d make up exactly what I said.”

I smile and pick up a slice. “Thanks.”

“No problems.”

We both eat our pizzas in silence for a bit, and I can’t help looking over at Brooks every now and then. It feels familiar to be sitting beside her again, but also strange.

“How’d you end up out here?” Brooks asks eventually.

“It got a bit too loud in there, and I needed some fresh air.”

“Your dad won’t miss you?”

I shrug. “Not really. He’s busy schmoozing.”

“Yeah,” Brooks says. “These council things are always boring.”

“You’ve been to one before?”

Brooks nods. “When your mother’s the Deputy Mayor, you’re kind of expected to go.”

“Right,” I say. “I also think that guy from your work, Reece, was trying to hit on me.”

Brooks snorts. “Really?”

“Yeah. When I was waiting for my pizza. He just came up to me and started talking to me, like he knew me.”

Brooks shakes her head. “Well, you can’t blame him.”

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, Riles. Look how you’ve turned out. You were cute when you were a kid, but now you’re all grown up. I’m sure boys just throw themselves at you.”

Brooks’ face is in shadow so I can’t really tell if she’s joking. I think she is, so I whack her on the arm. It feels like we’ve slipped straight back to old times. I didn’t realise how much I needed that until right now.

Brooks laughs. “It’s been a long time, huh?”

I nod. “Yeah. It has. So how have you been?”

“Me? I’m good. How about you?”

I don’t know if she’s asking in general terms, or about Mum’s death, so I opt for the reply everyone expects. “I’m okay.”

“Did you find what you were looking for this morning?” she asks.

“What do you mean?”

“At the shop,” Brooks says. “Sorry I didn’t get to talk to you. Reece keeps us busy.”

I wave her off. “Oh. Sure. No problem. And yeah, I bought some new togs and stuff.”

“That’s good,” Brooks says.

“Yeah,” I reply. “I needed new ones.”

There’s an awkward silence and then when Brooks turns back to her pizza, the light from the shop glints off her eye. “You got your eyebrow ring then?” I ask, looking for something, anything, to keep Brooks talking. I never realised how much I missed talking to her.

Brooks touches her finger to her eyebrow. “Yeah. Hurt like hell, too.” She smiles.

“What did your mum say?”

“You don’t want to know.” Brooks laughs. “But that argument was nothing compared to what she did when she found out about the tattoo.”

“You got a tattoo? When?”

“Last year. One of Ben’s mates is a tattoo artist just starting out. He did it for me for nothing for my birthday.”

Before I realise what I’m saying, I blurt out, “Can I see it?”

Brooks laughs. “I’m not sure whether I want to show you or not.”

“Oh. I didn’t mean… If it’s not somewhere you can show me that’s okay.” God, how embarrassing. What if it’s on her boob or her butt or something?

“It’s hard to see in this light,” Brooks explains.

I hope Brooks can’t see my face in this light so she won’t notice how red I’ve gone. “That’s okay. You can show me some other time.”

I take a bite of my pizza, mainly to stop myself from saying anything else stupid.

“So how’s it going being back here?” Brooks asks.

“It’s okay,” I say around chewing my pizza.

“You’re dad must be happy you’re back up here. I mean, not under the circumstances, obviously.” She scrunches up her nose and shakes her head. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” I shrug. I think about Brooks’ question. Is Dad happy I’m back? He hasn’t said anything to me really. “I don’t know what Dad thinks about me being here,” I say. “I haven’t seen him much since I got here.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. He’s got his big glamping project to keep him busy.”

“Right,” Brooks says.

“And he’s got me staying out in the guest house, which totally sucks.”

“Why does that suck? You have your own space. I would be so happy if my parents had a guest house for me to stay in. Although it doesn’t really matter since I’m not living there anymore.” Brooks rolls up a slice of her pizza and bites into it. She hasn’t changed at all.

“You’re not at home?”

Brooks finishes eating her pizza and wipes her hand across her mouth. “Nope. I’m staying with Ben at Uncle Pete’s.”

“Oh? Why?”

Brooks shrugs. “I just needed some space. Mum and I had some pretty major arguments over your dad’s development.”

This surprises me. “You don’t like it?”

Brooks sighs and looks like she’s trying to think of a good answer. Before she can reply, someone calls her name. She turns to see who it is. “Hey, Ben. What’s up?”

“Sorry to interrupt,” he says. “We’ve just taken final orders. Can you come give us a hand to start clearing up?”

Brooks checks her watch. “Shit. Have we been out here that long?”

“Gloria came out here earlier and saw you were busy, and she didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Sorry,” Brooks says.

Ben shrugs. “That’s okay. We had it covered.”

“Thanks. Hey, have you met Riley?”

“Nope.” He sticks out his hand and I shake it.

“Hi,” I say, and look at Brooks for an explanation.

“Ben’s my cousin. He moved up here last year.”

“This is your friend from when you were a kid,” Ben says. “Nice to finally meet you, Riley. Brooks has told me heaps about you.”

“Has she?”

He laughs. “Not really. She keeps her life BB pretty secret.”

“BB?” I ask.

“Before Ben,” Ben explains.

Brooks slaps at him. “Don’t be so embarrassing.”

“So are you coming to help out? The sooner we can get everything finalised and then packed up the sooner we can get to the bonfire. Hey,” he says turning to me. “You should totally come.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I’d have to ask Dad. I think he wants us to spend some time together after the meeting finishes.”

“You don’t have to come,” Brooks says. “But it would be great to catch up. If you’re up to it.”

“I’ll find out,” I reply.

Brooks stands up. “We’ll be an hour or so cleaning up and then we’ll head home to get changed. We should be down there by nine. It’s straight down in front of the Lion’s Park, where we used to have them. Be great if you can make it.”

She smiles, and even though she’s changed a lot, she still has the same goofy grin she used to have permanently on her face when we were kids. I can’t help but smile back “Okay, sure. I’ll see how I go.” I watch as she heads off with Ben. I can’t hear what she’s saying to him, but she shoves him and he throws back his head and laughs. Brooks looks back and waves, and I wave back. Dad did tell me I could come and go as I please I guess, and spending some time catching up with Brooks isn’t the worst thing I could think of to be doing tonight.