Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 06] (3 page)

Lucy went bright red.
‘Um, belly buttons.’

‘All of you?’

Lucy looked back at
TJ. ‘All of us?’

‘It’ll be thirty
pounds each,’ said the tattooist.

‘That means Lucy’s got
enough,’ said Nesta, ‘so I can lend you a ten, TJ. Then I could ask my brother
- he always seems to have loads of dosh. I can call him on my mobile and ask if
he’ll bring the rest if you want. I’m sure he’d come, especially if I tell him
Lucy’s here.’

Predictably, Lucy
blushed again. She always does when anyone mentions Tony, even though it’s him
that’s running after her these days, not the other way around.

TJ shook her head.
‘No. You guys go ahead. I’d be too worried about my dad ever finding out.
Anyway, we’ve bonded over the Almighty Pringle and that’s good enough for me.’

‘All hail,’ chorused
Nesta and Lucy. The tattooist looked amused.

‘You sure?’ I said to
TJ.

TJ nodded, so I turned
back to the tattooist. ‘Three of us for belly buttons,‘ I said, then I got an
attack of the giggles at the thought of us getting our nipples pierced. I
imagined going home and flashing my chest at Mum over dinner. Whoa! Look what
I’ve had done, Mater. She’d go
ballistic
. But no worries. I mean,
really, who in their right mind would ever want to have a nipple pierced?
Yee-uck.

‘Who’s first?’ said
Del.

Well, that was easy, I
thought, as Lucy stepped forward and Del ushered her into his work room. We
watched from the reception room as she lay on the chair, then I couldn’t see
any more because Dels back was in my way.

It didn’t seem to take
long. She was out a short time later and took a huge breath. ‘Not too bad. Like
having your ears done,’ she said giving me the thumbs-up. ‘Not as bad as I
thought.’

‘Next,’ called Del.

I got up and felt my
knees go wobbly. Was it too late to do a runner? Whose stupid idea was this? I
asked myself. Oh yeah. Mine! No. No, I can do this.

‘Can I come in and
watch?’ asked Nesta as I went in. ‘I want to know what I’m letting myself in
for.’

‘Sure,’ said Del. ‘You
can all come in if you want.’

‘Er, no thanks,’ said
TJ. ‘I’ll stay here with Lucy.’

I lay back on the
chair and closed my eyes. Then I opened them. Del was coming at me with a pair
of weird-looking scissors. They looked distorted like something out of a horror
film.

‘What are
they
for?’ I asked in a panic. ‘You’re not going to cut your way through, are you?’

Del smiled. ‘Nah,
mate. These are to clamp your tummy. They make the skin go nice and tight.’

Next thing I knew,
he’d fastened the strange-looking scissors to the skin above my belly button
and was wiping the area with some kind of lotion. I felt like I was going to
pass out, it smelt so like a hospital.

‘Is that the stuff to
freeze it?’ I asked.

‘No,’ said Del. ‘It’s
antiseptic. Keeps the area clean. I don’t freeze the skin, though my partner
does. We’ve all got our own way, but too risky, I reckon — you might get
frostbite. Don’t worry, it will only sting for a minute.’

I closed my eyes and
opened them again. He was taking something out of a small plastic sachet. It
looked like a minuscule screwdriver. ‘That’s not the needle, is it?’ I asked.
‘It’s
enormous
!

‘Just take a deep
breath,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to suffer to be beautiful, right? No pain, no
gain.’

I closed my eyes again
and desperately searched my mind for one of the soothing visualisations I use
to take my mind off the discomfort when I go to the dentist’s. Sea, waves, nice
flowers, I thought, as I felt a searing pain rip through my middle. ‘Whara…
arghhhhhhh
,’
I cried.

‘All done.’ Del smiled,
taking out a plaster and putting it over my belly button. ‘You can get up now.
Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?’

‘Urg,’ was all I could
say as I stumbled out of the chair.

Nesta had turned pale
and backed out of the room. ‘Er, thanks,’ she whispered, ‘but… but I think I
might wait until another day.’

‘Nihi - ergh,’ said TJ
and ran out the reception door and into the shop with Nesta.

I felt faint. I just
wanted to get out of there, but Del insisted on sitting Lucy and me down and
giving us a
looong
lecture on how to clean the stud and the importance
of being hygienic.

‘And don’t take the
stud out for four to six weeks,’ he said. ‘Couple of months, if possible. I’m
serious now, as you need to give the area time to heal. I know you girls are
always anxious to get the pretty stones in, but start messing about with it
before it’s completely healed and it can get really ucky.’ Then he handed us
each a bottle of cleansing lotion. ‘Salt water,’ he said. ‘Use it to clean the
area three times a day, and mind you don’t let the stud catch in your clothes
in the early days.’

I nodded like I’d
understood, but I don’t think I took in anything he said. I felt strangely
floaty, as though I wasn’t quite present any more.

We paid our money and
at last we were out of there. I gulped the air when we got out into the street
and Lucy put her arm under mine to steady me. ‘You OK?’ she asked.

‘Heh-nuh…’ I said.

Lucy grinned. ‘I
didn’t think it was bad at all.’

I guess she has a
higher pain threshold than I do. I thought it was
awful
. And to think,
I’d
paid
to have it done.

‘Drinks are on me,’
said Nesta as we headed up to Chalk Farm. ‘I feel rotten that I chickened out,
but…’

‘Hey, no biggie,’ I
said. ‘I’d have done the same if I’d known what it entailed.’

‘Are you OK now?’ asked
Lucy.

I nodded. ‘Just needed
some fresh air. To get away from the smell of antiseptic. I know it’s supposed
to be good, but I always associate it with sickness and it makes me feel
nauseous.’

‘So let’s head over to
Primrose Hill Park. Lots of air up there,’ said TJ, who up until now had kept
very quiet. I guess she was feeling bad about chickening out as well.

When we got to the
park, TJ and Nesta shot off to get drinks from the nearby shops and Lucy and I
sat on the grass halfway up the hill.

‘How long do you think
we can spin this out?’ asked Lucy with a wicked grin as she watched them go.
‘They are both obviously prepared to be our slaves because they feel bad.’

I grinned back. ‘As
long as possible, then. Every time we need something done, we can flash our
belly buttons at them and groan.’

We lay on the grass
and practised our groaning for a while until a man walking his dog stopped and
asked if we were all right.

Lucy went bright red.
‘Um, yeah, just something we ate for lunch.’

Luckily he moved on,
so I sat up and looked about the park. It felt really calm. The only sound was
the hum of distant traffic. There were the usual people out enjoying the late
August sun - mums with toddlers, a few joggers, a guy on a bench listening to
his Walkman and a number of teens hanging out farther down the hill.

Suddenly, the roar of
a motorbike shattered the peace as it zoomed down the hill to our left. I
glanced through the railings to see who it was - some guy wearing black leather
trousers and a tight black T-shirt.

‘
Eejit
? said
Lucy.’I
hate
those things. They’re so
noisy
!

‘Yeah, but I’d quite
like a go on the back of one of them. Wouldn’t you?’

Lucy shook her head.
‘Nah. Think I’ll stick with my limo fantasy, thank you very much.’

As Nesta and TJ
returned laden with drinks and pastries about ten minutes later, I noticed that
the motorbike guy came into the park behind them and went to join the other
group of teens down the hill.

‘Don’t like the look
of that lot,’ said TJ, glancing at them as she sat down.

They didn’t look much
older than us, maybe sixteen or so. Six of them. I counted. Three boys and
three girls. A few of them were smoking, and a few were sharing cans of what
looked like beer. One of the boys started acting stupid, throwing things
around. It was funny because he was clearly trying to impress Bike Boy. When
Bike Boy didn’t react, he started throwing bits of sandwich at a jogger who was
running past. Still no reaction. Well, you can see who’s king of the castle
there, I thought. Bike Boy got up and went to stand a short distance apart from
the rest of them. He leaned back against the railings, lit up a cigarette and
glanced around the park. As he looked up at us, I felt a rush go through me.
There was something about him. Tall, dark, slim and looks like he works out, I
thought. He had well-toned arms - not big muscles, just nicely shaped.

‘Bad boy, but very
cute,’ said Nesta, casually glancing around the park and noticing that I’d
clocked him. I laughed. She doesn’t miss a trick.

Lucy looked over to
him. ‘Yeah, handsome, but he looks dangerous.’

‘Never judge a book by
its cover,’ I said. ‘Like that guy in the first tattoo shop - he looked hard,
but he was a real sweetie when we got talking to him.’

‘I guess with boys it
depends on what you’re looking for,’ said TJ. ‘I think it’s important to find a
boy who’s dependable.’

‘Yeah, but fun,’ I
said.

‘And a good kisser,’
said Nesta. ‘Very important.’

Lucy rubbed her
forehead. ‘Hmmm. I know a joke about finding the perfect boy - if only I could
remember it…’

‘Well, he doesn’t look
like the perfect boy,’ said TJ, looking at Bike Boy. ‘He looks like trouble and
boys that good-looking are usually self-obsessed.’

I looked at him again.
I wouldn’t say that, I thought. I think he looks like he knows how to have a
good time. Then I realised that we were all gawping at him. How uncool is that?

‘Stop looking,
stop
looking
,’ I whispered to the others. ‘He can see we’re staring.’

Too late. He’d already
noticed. He raised an eyebrow and gave us a lazy smile before going back to his
mates. Then he flopped down next to one of the boys and said something into his
ear. They both turned, looked at us and laughed. He probably thinks we’re a
bunch of kids, I thought, as I sipped on the Ribena Lite that Nesta had bought
me. I pretended that I was laughing at something Lucy had said, then I
purposefully looked straight at him then in the opposite direction. Two can
play at that game, matie, I thought.

C h a p t e r
 
3

Restyle

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‘How’s the stud?’ I
whispered to Lucy the next morning as I let her in the front door.

‘Fine,’ she said and followed
me up the stairs. ‘Yours?’

I pulled a face. ‘Gone
a bit crusty, if you must know, and it stings like anything when I put that
salt water on it.’

‘Mine’s been OK,’ said
Lucy as we went into my bedroom and I shut the door. ‘But I showed Mum and Dad,
I’m afraid. I couldn’t resist.’

‘And?’

‘Dad hit the roof for
a while and Mum was miffed that I hadn’t asked permission, but they were both
cool in the end. In fact, Mum came into my room last night and asked where I’d
had it done.’

‘Why? She’s not going
to go and hassle them, is she? About us being under-age?’

‘Nah. She said
she
wanted one!’

‘No!’

‘That’s what I said. I
said if she dared to have her belly button pierced, I’d leave home.’

‘Quite right,’ I said.
‘Yuck. I can’t imagine my mum ever having one done. The thought is too
disgusting.’ And totally unlikely, I thought. She likes the classic look and is
always immaculate in beige or black. The only earrings she ever wears are
little pearl studs.

Lucy shivered. ‘Yeah,
image overload. Let’s change the subject. So…’ She looked around my room,
taking in the piles of clothes I’d thrown on the bed, chair and floor.

‘I know,’ I said.’ I
pulled out everything. I want to do a real throw-out. I’ve found stuff in my
drawers that I’ve had for years.’

‘OK,’ said Lucy and
began to sort through things. ‘We’ll make two piles, one for the bin, one for
keeping.’ She picked up a pink vest. ‘Oh, you must keep this. It’s really
pretty.’