Dangerous Games (14 page)

The Dogwalker went over to Ben's car and collected the Doberman, then turned back to face us. ‘Now take your friend,' he said, ‘and go.'

‘Believe me,' Ben said, ‘he's not our friend.'

Alice and the Dogwalker stood and watched as we helped Finn to his feet.

‘You,' he said, ‘you're gutless!'

‘We're going,' Ben said.

‘Traitors,' Finn snarled.

‘We could leave you here if you'd prefer,' Ben said.

Finn shook Ben off. ‘I'm not going anywhere with you.' He turned and looked at me then. ‘So that's it, is it? You're staying with him?'

‘We're partners,' I said.

Finn stared at me for a long time, disappointment and frustration and wounded pride mixed up in his face.

‘You're going to regret it,' he said. ‘You think he's going to keep you safe. But he can't. No-one can. You'll find out soon enough.'

And he turned and limped away down the street to where his car was parked. He started it with a crotchety vroom and drove throatily away into the night.

Ben was looking warily at the agents of order, who were looking mistrustfully back at us. ‘We should go,' he said.

‘Yes,' I agreed.

And we moved quickly and defensively toward Ben's car and jumped in, expecting someone else to ambush us at any moment.

But the ambushing was over for one night. As Ben set the car in motion and turned it around, I saw the
Dogwalker fussing and cooing over his dog as if it was just an ordinary pet. And the last thing I saw before we hightailed it out of there was Alice, her face pale and serious in the flaring headlights, holding up a hand in farewell.

‘S
o,' Ben said, after we'd been driving for several minutes, ‘what exactly did funboy mean when he asked you if you were staying here?'

‘Well,' I said, ‘he asked me to go with him.'

‘Where?'

‘Wherever.'

‘As what?'

‘I don't know,' I said. ‘His partner in crime?'

Ben was silent for a moment. ‘You know, technically that would have been kidnapping,' he said.

‘Not if I went voluntarily,' I said.

‘You're a minor,' Ben said. ‘I don't think you get a say.'

I'd expected him to be angrier about it, but he seemed to think it was funny. ‘I seriously thought about it you know,' I said, a little annoyed.

‘I bet you did,' Ben said. ‘So what made you decide to stay?'

He said it in an extremely casual way, but something about his body language made me think maybe it wasn't a casual question after all.

‘I'm just waiting until the weather gets a bit nicer,' I said, trying to make a joke out of it.

There was an awkward silence, and I sensed that Ben was disappointed in me.

‘You were right about him all along,' I admitted. ‘The guy was a creep.
And
he was wrong.'

Ben glanced at me. ‘He was right about hunting down agents,' he observed in a neutral voice.

‘But according to him, what happened tonight shouldn't have happened. Those two agents should have taken him out and then they should have taken us out. It should have been a battle. But it wasn't. They let us go.'

‘I thought we let them go.'

‘You know what I mean. Negotiation isn't supposed to be an option with them. But it was. And it worked.'

‘Yeah,' Ben said. ‘Surprise.'

‘I'm wondering whether Finn might have been a little paranoid.'

‘Mm,' Ben said dryly. ‘Maybe.'

We were both silent for a moment.

‘You rescued me again,' I observed.

‘Yep,' Ben said.

‘I thought you said if I ever saw Finn again I was on my own.'

Ben looked at me with frustration – at least I think it was frustration. ‘Do you really think I'd do that to you? Not come to your rescue?'

‘You sounded pretty convincing,' I said.

‘I was mad at you,' Ben said. ‘I didn't really mean it.'

‘You meant for me to choose.'

‘And now you know why,' Ben said. He looked at me, a
serious expression on his face. ‘Melissa – don't you know how I –'

But whatever he was about to say, I never got to hear it, because we had turned into my street. ‘Oh man, I'm going to be in so much trouble!' I gasped.

My mum's car was in the drive.

‘Stop the car,' I ordered. It might not be too late. She might have only just got home. She might not have checked my bedroom. Jason might have covered for me. (As if. And as if an eleven-year-old was going to make things better instead of worse.) ‘Thanks for saving me,' I said hurriedly. ‘Again. I've got to go. I'm really sorry. I'll call you tomorrow, assuming I haven't been sent to a convent by then.'

I jumped out of the car and began to run, crouching, commando-style, towards my house. I prayed to the forces of destruction that my luck could hold just ten minutes longer. I didn't even need ten. Five. Or three. Three would be enough.

I scuttled up the side of the house and squeezed in my bedroom window, holding my breath and waiting for the light to click on. I got one leg in, then the second leg. Was it possible? Had I really managed to go to Soph's party and rescue Finn from the forces of order and still get home without getting into trouble? The house was quiet. Jason had obviously gone to bed. Mum's light was still on, but that was it. I eased off one shoe, then the other. Silence. Nothing. Could Mum possibly have got home and
not
bothered to check my room? It was beginning to look like she had. I moved over to the bed to fish my PJs out from under the pillow, and as I did
so I stumbled over my party shoes which were lying where I'd discarded them on the floor. I stumbled, and knocked over my bedside table, sending lamp, books, former favourite fluffy bunny and clock radio flying.

Curses!

I heard a muffled thump from Mum's room and then footsteps so swift and stormy they shook the floor like thunder. Mum hurled open my bedroom door and slapped on the light and I was caught, red-handed, half-dressed, with my party clothes on the floor and my puffy coat – I only discovered this at that moment – ripped to shreds by that stupid dog.

‘I am
extremely
disappointed in you, Melissa!' she roared.

I
was grounded and de-phoned for another month. Soph, after being threatened with being sent away to live with her grandparents in a village, was also grounded and de-phoned for a month. Even though we'd done our very best to clean the house up, you could still kind of tell something catastrophic had happened while they were out. For one thing, there was a mysterious smell that lingered even after we'd opened all the windows and switched on all the extractor fans. And for another – well, cream-coloured carpet and parties are just never going to mix. Plus the neighbours ratted us out big time. (Soph said the phone rang all morning. A delegation came to the door. Soph's parents were so ashamed they considered moving to another suburb.)

Still, Soph's enthusiasm for big parties was undeterred. ‘Next time,' she said, ‘I'm going to do it properly. I'm going to invite heaps of people and we're going to hire a hall with security and we're going to have a
huge
party.'

It was Sunday afternoon. We were talking on our
landlines. It just wasn't the same as talking on our mobiles, but we had to make the best of it.

‘Your parents are never going to let you,' I said.

‘It's a year away,' Soph said. ‘They will have forgotten by then. And anyway, my mum still goes on about her sweet sixteenth. Trust me, my next party's going to be
huge
.' She paused. ‘Smart thinking on the smoke detectors by the way.'

‘How did you know that was me?' I asked. ‘There were so many people smoking in the house anybody could have set them off.'

‘The noise they made was about twice as loud as usual,' Soph said. ‘And there was no way they were going to go off by themselves. My mum kept burning the toast and setting them off, so she took the batteries out of them. They don't actually work.'

‘Didn't your parents think it was a bit strange then, that they went off and disturbed the entire neighbourhood?'

‘I don't think they were really focused on that part of it,' Soph said.

We were both silent for a moment, thinking about that momentous night.

‘You won't need to hire security next time you have a party,' I said. ‘You just need to get Draz to stand at the door and bluff the bad guys.'

‘Could you believe that?' Soph agreed, wonderingly. ‘He's so
brave
.'

‘And what about his friends,' I said. ‘What a bunch of girls.'

‘They could have at least
pretended
they were ready to back him up,' Soph said.

‘You know I was ready to help out if he needed me,' I said. ‘But he didn't.'

‘No, he didn't,' Soph sighed. ‘He is
so
amazing.'

We were silent for a moment.

‘Actually, I've got a bit of a confession to make,' I said.

‘What?'

‘Up until last night, I'd never really got why you like Draz so much,' I said. ‘But now I get it.'

‘Meliss,' Soph said, ‘this is me. You think I didn't know that?' She paused. ‘So what changed your mind?'

‘I guess I kind of thought he wasn't really serious about you,' I said. ‘Not the way you are about him.'

‘I'm not that serious about him,' Soph said. ‘Draz is fun, but I don't think he's a long-term prospect.'

‘What?'

‘Well, he's great and everything, and I love him to bits – but he can be a bit of an idiot. And his
friends
! My God!'

I was speechless.

‘And some of the stuff he gets up to – man, it's exhausting. The guy never sleeps! No wonder he's failing everything at school.'

It was hard to even visualise Draz at school. He seemed like an entirely extracurricular guy.

‘The thing is, when I started going out with him, he seemed so grown-up and exciting. But the more I got to know him, the more I realised he's actually a big kid.'

‘Is he?'

‘Are you kidding? All he's interested in is skateboards
and mucking around. He's like your idiot brother, only taller.' Soph paused. ‘And a better kisser.'

‘I should hope so,' I said. The thought of my brother kissing anyone was really quite disgusting.

‘I guess –' Soph paused. ‘I guess I wanted a relationship like you and Ben have.'

This was a truly startling idea. ‘What do you mean?'

‘Whenever I see you guys together you seem so grown-up,' Soph said. ‘I guess I felt like you were leaving me behind.'

‘Are you kidding me?' I said. ‘Ever since you started going out with Draz I've felt like
you
were leaving
me
behind.'

‘Really?' Soph said.

‘Absolutely. When you started talking about going out to all these wild parties I felt like I was about five years old.'

‘But that's just how
I
felt whenever you talked about this destroyer stuff you were doing with Ben,' Soph said. ‘It was like you two had this private secret grown-up world where important stuff happened, and I couldn't be a part of it. I guess I was kind of jealous.'

‘That's how you and Draz seemed to me,' I said. ‘I was jealous too.'

‘Yeah,' Soph said feelingly, ‘I remember.'

‘That night –' I began. ‘I never –'

‘I know,' Soph said. ‘It's okay. But I think we need to come to some kind of agreement. In future, if you don't like any of my boyfriends you need to tell me.'

‘Okay,' I said.

‘Which reminds me,' Soph said, ‘what happened with
that other destroyer? Is he still on the scene? Has he ruined a perfect relationship?'

‘No,' I said, ‘he's gone.'

‘What was that all about? Was he really as great as you said or was it just a lust thing?'

I felt myself blushing. ‘He
was
really hot,' I said. ‘And at first he seemed really cool and grown-up, like he knew heaps of stuff. And he was really exciting to be around. But when it came to the crunch, he wasn't there for me.'

‘Yeah,' Soph said knowledgeably. ‘Dud. Forget him.'

We were both silent for a moment.

‘So,' Soph said, ‘how are things between you and Ben now?'

‘Okay,' I said. ‘I think.'

‘That's good,' Soph said. ‘Because if you two ever broke up it'd be the end of life as we know it.'

‘We're just mates,' I said. ‘Mates don't break up.'

‘Meliss,' Soph said with a sigh, ‘you are so clueless.'