TAISIE BRUSHED HER HAIR WHILE ROSA CHECKED HERSELF out in the long mirror attached to the inside of her wardrobe door. Taisie had the biggest bedroom, after her mum and dad’s, because she was the oldest, but she still regretted not picking Alex’s when she had the chance, because it was under the roof and not on the same floor as anyone else’s. Unfortunately, when they moved here Taisie was only eight and hadn’t known any better and Alex was four, so their mother chose for him. When she was thirteen, she’d tried to persuade Alex to swap, even bribing him, but the little bastard wouldn’t budge. She loved him, really. Well, kind of. She wasn’t a fan of small boys.
Rosa was her best friend, although sometimes she wondered why. She was so self-obsessed; always bringing the conversation round to herself. They could be talking about the weather, and next thing you knew, they were back to Rosa again. Rosa was off to California next week. Taisie was going to Devon, like they did every year, to visit family friends. This year was different because the Ritchies were coming, which meant Nick would be there. Taisie put the brush down and wove her fingers through her hair, draping a few strands across her forehead, to look more mysterious. She rummaged through her earring box for the black onyx pair she’d got for her birthday and put them on.
‘What do you think?’ Rosa asked, tugging at the hem of the dress.
‘You look gorgeous. The colour really suits you.’
It was Taisie’s, but she didn’t mind lending it, because Rosa didn’t look half as good in it as she did.
Rosa came over and squeezed on to the chair beside Taisie and started to do her make-up.
‘Got your eye on anyone in particular?’ Taisie asked.
‘Nah. They’re all idiots. What about you?’
She smiled. ‘I have my plans.’
Rosa dabbed spots of foundation over her face before blending it in with her fingers. ‘They all fancy you.’
‘Don’t be silly. You’re much prettier than me.’
‘Aw. Thanks. What about Nick?’
‘Nick?’ she said innocently.
At the barbecue at her house last weekend, he had kissed her. She hadn’t told anyone even though she wanted to, and she was sure Rosa didn’t see anything. Taisie wasn’t altogether sure how she felt about it yet, because she and Nick had been friends since they were two. And what if no one else thought he was fit? They’d had a lot of the punch, but even so, it felt like he was really into her. Nick was sixteen, the oldest in their year group, with his birthday on the third of September, and that gave him a certain kudos.
‘Yes, Nick,’ Rosa said. ‘Is there anything going on there? You were very cosy at the barbecue.’
‘We’re just friends.’
Taisie didn’t want to tell her yet. For one thing she hadn’t seen Nick since; not to speak to anyway. She’d passed him in the corridor at school and had spotted him in the distance in the playground. But he was always surrounded by his friends.
‘Don’t you fancy him?’ Rosa leaned forward with her mascara wand and combed it through her lashes, opening her eyes wide.
Taisie shrugged. Rosa was angling, but she didn’t trust her. What was hers was Rosa’s. That was how her friend’s mind worked.
‘So maybe he doesn’t see you that way,’ Rosa said. She picked a tiny blob of mascara from the end of one eyelash and wiped it on a cotton bud.
‘Actually,’ Taisie said, because she wasn’t letting her get away with that. ‘He’s been after me for ages, but I keep saying no because he’s, like, part of the family. I only have to snap my fingers, though, and he’ll come running.’ She demonstrated, laughing.
‘Alana’s into him,’ Rosa said.
‘Alana?’ Taisie felt a twinge of concern, but she managed to sound off-hand. ‘She doesn’t have a hope in hell.’
Rosa leaned back and gave her an odd look, her eyebrows raised. ‘You like him,’ she teased.
Taisie shoved her so hard that she fell off the chair. But she was secretly pleased.
Nick rang the doorbell dead on seven o’clock. Taisie and Rosa ignored it, waiting in her bedroom until Alex got off his bum and sloped out of the sitting room to let him in. Then they sauntered downstairs.
Her mother appeared and told Rosa she looked stunning. Then she remembered Taisie. ‘You look lovely too, darling.’ She went outside to speak to Nick’s dad, who was waiting for them in his car.
Their school was only a bus ride and a short walk away, but Tim insisted on getting them there in style. He drove a sports car, so she wasn’t arguing. He used to be in a rock band, like donkey’s years ago. They made one album apparently, though Taisie had never listened to it. It was only on vinyl.
Nick was wearing ripped jeans and a T-shirt and looked really good. He wasn’t exactly the best dresser normally, which was surprising because his dad always looked so cool. Maybe Tim had given him a few tips. Once she was his girlfriend, the first thing Taisie was going to do was go through his wardrobe. She glanced at Rosa. She was giggling and batting her eyelashes. Perhaps she should have been clearer. Nick was hers.
Alex went back to his TV programme, but Rory and Izzy came running out of the sitting room and stopped dead, looking up at her and Rosa and back at Nick. Izzy’s eyes filled with envy. Taisie gave her a shove. Her sister was thirteen and desperate to be going to parties.
‘You look wicked,’ Rory said.
Nick high-fived him. ‘Thanks, dude. You look pretty cool in those pyjamas.’
Rory glanced down, smoothing his hands over the picture of Thomas the Tank Engine. ‘I got them for my birthday. I’m eight now.’
‘Well, lucky you.’
Izzy was still staring.
‘You look like a frog,’ Taisie said.
She snapped out of it and stuck out her tongue.
Nick caught Taisie’s eye and smiled, his cheeks colouring, and she felt her heart give a little skip. ‘Are you ready?’
‘You’ll be the belle of the ball,’ her father called after them. ‘Knock ’em dead!’
She stuck out her tongue. ‘Embarrassing.’
They linked arms as they left the house. Tim had his window down and his forearm resting on the frame, and he was drumming the door lightly with his fingertips. His smile took in both girls as they teetered down the front path in their high heels. He winked.
‘Well, look at you,’ he said.
She grinned, unsure whether he was teasing. You could never tell with Tim Ritchie. He took the piss a lot.
Nick scowled at his father and slid into the front. Taisie sat behind him. The car smelled of leather and Tim had Pulp playing on the CD player. There wasn’t much legroom, but she and Rosa opened their windows and rested their elbows on the frames, like Tim, and smirked at each other. Taisie glanced at Nick’s profile and fantasized about him kissing her again. It was amazing how much had changed. She didn’t see him as a kid any more; but as someone with potential. Despite the angry crop of spots at the corners of his jaw, his dad’s aura of cool was beginning to rub off on him.