Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 06] (8 page)

Lucy wrinkled her
nose. ‘Haven’t finished this one yet. You’re not supposed to slug them back,
you know, especially if you want to be more grown-up. You’re supposed to sip,
like a lady. Like this…’ She took a mouthful and started gargling it and making
her eyes go cross-eyed at the same time.

TJ, Nesta and I all
creased up and took mouthfuls of ours, then gargled as well.

‘Really, though,
Izzie,’ said Nesta when we’d stopped laughing. ‘I don’t think you’re supposed
to knock them back. And you’ve had two plus some of ours already.’

‘I’m fine,’ I said. ‘Just
one more.’ I felt like being reckless and daring for a change. Everyone always
thinks I’m the sensible one, I thought. Oh, sensible Izzie, she has all the
answers. But I don’t, not really. I’m just a mad old orangutan. I looked back
at the index and picked another cocktail. ‘I’m going to try one of these
Tequila Sunrises. I think that sounds really nice, don’t you? And it’s mainly
orange juice, so it will be OK, won’t it?’

Nesta shrugged and
started to put the tops back on the bottles. ‘I guess, but don’t blame me if
you feel like crapola tomorrow.’

I think this will be
my drink, I said to myself, as I poured some tequila and orange into a glass.
My brain was starting to feel slightly fuzzy, but in a nice way, as I poured in
a generous measure. Slightly bitter, I thought when I tasted it. Needs
something else. I added a dash of whisky and tried that. Nope, still not nice.
So I added a tiny bit of Martini. No, yuck, that one doesn’t work at all. I put
it to one side.

After that, the others
sat down and began to watch telly. I was feeling too good to just slob on the
sofa, so I started reading through the cocktail book again.

‘I’m going to become
an expert,’ I said. ‘Cocktail queen. When I’ve got a flat of my own, I’ll have
all
these drinks. A whole wall of them, like in a bar. And I’ll have the
fluorescent ones as well, the ones that make drinks blue or green. Like
really
sopisti… no, I mean, soristi… no,
sophisticated
. S’a hard word to say,
that. Isn’t it? Sopis… tic… ated. Never realised that before.’

‘Izzie, you’re drunk,’
said TJ from the sofa.

‘No, I’m not,’ I said.
I wasn’t. At least I didn’t think so. I felt perfectly fine. ‘Don’t be silly.
But I do feel good.’ Then I spotted some creme de menthe. ‘There’s a green one.
I bet that tastes nice mixed with Bailey’s. My gran always has that, at
Christmas. It tastes like it has chocolate in it.’ I poured a small amount of
each into a glass.

Nesta got up, took the
glass out of my hand and took a sip. She almost spat it out. ‘It tastes of
toothpaste mixed with liquified After Eight.
Yee-uck
. Way too sickly.’

I took the glass off
her and swigged it down. ‘Mmm. I like it. S’nice. Chocolatey.’

‘Come and sit down,’
said Lucy. ‘We’re going to start a video.’

‘OK,’ I said. ‘Just
going to the loo.’ I started to walk towards the door and that’s when I became
aware that maybe the drinks were stronger than I’d thought. My legs seemed to
have turned to jelly and the room began to sway. Oops, I thought, as I reached
out to the wall for support. Am OK. Just a bit… wobbly. Walk straight.

Lucy, Nesta andTJ were
half laughing and half looking at me with concern. ‘S’OK,’ I said. ‘I’m fine.’
I
was
fine. It was
them
who were out of focus.

I made my way out to
the corridor and realised I was having a very hard time walking in a straight
line. I made it to the bathroom and switched on the light. Very, very bright, I
thought, as I sat on the loo and tried to pull myself together. Fine, I told
myself, feeling fine. But my vision had gone all blurry and I was beginning to
feel a tad nauseous.

There was a knock on
the door, then Lucy’s voice. ‘Izzie. You still in there?’

‘Yeah.’

‘You’ve been in there
for ages,’ she said. ‘You OK?’

I made myself get up,
but the room seemed to be spinning. ‘Yeah. Fine,’ I said. I opened the door and
giggled.

Lucy raised an
eyebrow. ‘Come and sit down.’

I followed her back to
the sitting room, trying once again to walk in a straight line. Funny feeling
this, I thought. Sort of giggly, but blurry at the same time. As we reached the
sitting room door, I was vaguely aware of Nesta’s brother, Tony coming into the
house.

This would be a good
time to stop and stand still, I decided. Prop myself up against the wall.

Tony looked at me
quizzically. ‘You all right?’ he asked.

‘Oops.’ I laughed as I
leaned back on the wall and knocked a picture frame squiff.

He gave me a funny
look, then went into the sitting room. I followed, or rather fell, in after
him. He took in the bottles and glasses. ‘You girls have been having fun, I
see,’ he said.

‘Izzie’s drunk as a
skunk,’ said Nesta from the sofa.

‘I am
not.
.
.’ I said. I wasn’t. I really wasn’t. Just felt a bit blurry and in need of a
lie-down. On the carpet behind the sofa seemed like a good place, so I knelt
down and crawled there. It felt nice and cool, so I curled up and closed my
eyes. Euumm. Feel a bit funny, I thought, and opened one eye. All I could see
was under the sofa and the skirting board. This is what mice see, I thought.
Arrr. Sweet. A mouse’s view on life. But fine. Fine. Best have a little sleep.

‘Do you want to watch
the video?’ asked Lucy, popping her head over the sofa top. ‘We’ve got
Drop
Dead Gorgeous’

I waved my hand at
her. ‘No, you jo astead. Just having a liddle sleep.’

After that I was
vaguely aware of voices and the telly. They sounded very distant. ‘She hasn’t
had tequila, has she?’ I heard Tony say.

Nesta shrugged. ‘Don’t
know. Think so.’

‘Prepare for the
hangover from hell, Iz, my old pal,’ called Tony over the sofa.

‘Okeee dokeee,’ I said
without opening my eyes.

‘Tequila’s lethal,’
said Tony. I don’t know who he was talking to, though. It was way too much
effort to open my eyes. My eyelids seemed to have stuck together somehow. ‘Even
some of the most hardy drinkers can’t take it.Very nasty side effects. What
else has she had?’

‘Blackcurrant liqueur, Bailey’s…’

I must have drifted
off because the next thing I knew there was a bitter smell of coffee. It made
me want to retch. Tony was holding a cup next to my nose. ‘Come on, Iz. Have a
sip.’

I pulled a face and
rolled away from him. ‘Don’t like coffee. I’m vegetarian. Want to sleep.’

Tony began to laugh.
‘Did nobody ever tell you Lesson Number One in drinking, Izzie? Don’t mix your
drinks.’

‘Won’t,’ I moaned.
‘Fact, won’t drink again. Been very, very stupid. Kay, go way now, need to
sleep.’

There was the sound of
the front door opening and footsteps in the hall.

‘
Ohmigod’
I
heard Nesta cry. ‘Quick, put the glasses under the sofa.’

The sitting room door
opened and I heard the girls scrabbling about, then another voice. It sounded
vaguely familiar. ‘What in
heaven’s
name is going on here?’ said
Nesta’s mum.

‘And why is Izzie
lying behind the sofa?’ asked her dad.

Oops, I thought, as I
tried to roll into a ball and make myself invisible.

C h a p t e r
 
7

Orang-utans
in the Mist

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Ooooh. Strange dreams.
Very strange dreams. Orang-utans in the mist. Snowy forests with penguins
eating blackcurrants. Don’t feel very well, I thought, when I woke up the next
day and tried to open my eyes. It appears someone glued my eyelids together in
the night. And my
head
. Oof. Somebody’s doing a drum solo in there. I
turned over and looked at the clock. Half past ten. Oops. I rolled on to my
back and looked at the ceiling. How did I get home? I asked myself. I could
vaguely remember Angus turning up. He must have driven me back. Don’t remember
seeing Mum. Oh God. Mum. I pulled the duvet over my head. Think I’ll stay under
here from now on. Probably best I never get up again. Ever.

Half an hour later, I
was woken again by my mobile. I cautiously got out of bed, grappled around for
my bag and found the phone.

‘How are you?’ asked
Lucy.

I rubbed my eyes. ‘Bit
fragile, to tell the truth.’

Lucy laughed. ‘Serves
you right. What did your mum say?’

‘Haven’t seen her yet.
I guess she’ll be at work now. Don’t remember much.’

‘You were hysterical,’
said Lucy. ‘Falling about all over the place when Angus arrived. At one point,
he tried to pick you up and you told him to bog off.’

‘Oh
no
, I
didn’t, did I?’ I moaned. ‘Well, that’s it, isn’t it? I will never ever
ever
drink again.’

‘Right. What, not even
water?’

‘Oh haha, Lucy. I mean
alcohol. Not if it makes you feel like this.’

‘Oh yeah, that reminds
me. Tony asked me to pass on his infallible hangover cure.’

‘Good. What is it?’

‘Don’t drink the night
before,’ she laughed.

‘Oh, very funny. Are
the others in trouble?’

‘Nesta is. My dad
picked me and TJ up and we just ran out to the car and didn’t tell him
anything. But Nesta’s been grounded today. She’s really miffed because it was
your idea to try the drinks.’

‘Oh
Go-od!
’
I groaned. ’I’ll phone her and
apologise. Got to go and lie down again now, Lucy. Sorry. Call you soon.‘

‘Drink a load of
water,’ said Lucy. ‘That’s what Mum does whenever she’s had too much to drink.’

After I hung up, I saw
that someone had put a glass of water by the bed. Mum probably. I dutifully
drank it, then lay down for a while longer. I felt dreadful, like I’d been run
over by a bus. After another hour, I finally made it downstairs to get some
more water.

Angus works from home
some days and this was one of them. He looked up from his desk as I passed his
study on the way to the kitchen. I gave him a weak smile and prepared myself
for the telling off.

‘How are you feeling?’
he asked.

‘Rotten, if you must
know.’

He chuckled. ‘Enough
to drive you to drink, isn’t it?’

I went to stand in the
doorway. ‘Aren’t you mad with me?’

He shook his head.
‘But your mum is. She said to say that you’re grounded and can’t go over to
Nesta’s until school starts again.’

‘It wasn’t Nesta’s
fault. It was me who started it all. And I won’t be doing it again in a hurry,
I can tell you.’

Angus chuckled again.
‘Never say never,’ he said.

He’s clearly never had
a hangover like this, I thought, as I staggered into the kitchen.

Mum rang early in the
afternoon and was true to her word. Grounded, she said. I couldn’t go out until
she said so, even though there wasn’t much of the holidays left. I knew I
didn’t have a leg to stand on, literally on the night of the cocktails, so I
didn’t try and argue. I knew I’d blown it with her.

I decided to keep a
diary of my imprisonment.

Day One:

First day of
prison sentence. Don’t mind staying in as feel pretty grotty. Began to feel
marginally better after a ton of water.

Cleaned the house.
Even though we have a cleaner, thought it was a good way to earn brownie
points.

Belly button
update. It’s healing up nicely at last, phew. It’s going to look great in a few
weeks. Ha ha, Mum, you may have grounded me, but I’ve got a new belly button
stud in. You can’t control everything.

Worked on lyrics
for new songs.

Thought about
Josh. Thought a
lot
about Josh. He said ‘See you around.’ No chance of that, then — not for
a while. Unless Mum relents and there’s not much chance of that. Felt good when
I saw him in the park last time. Sort of huzzy. Definitely different to being
with Ben. They must be about the same age, but somehow Josh is more exciting.
And he’s taller
.