Double Cross (4 page)

'I know you'll always have my back.'

'Don't rely on that, Tobey,' Dan said quietly.

My smile faded. Dan and I regarded each other.

'Oi, you two! This ain't a chat show,' Liam, the captain
of my side, yelled out. 'Kick the damned ball.'

Dan and I both made a show of getting back in the
game, but although my body ran around the Wasteland
trying to look useful, my head was elsewhere. When pain
stopped play again, I stood slightly behind Dan as we both
waited for the game to restart and the ball to head our way.

I couldn't help thinking about what he had said.

I felt like I'd been asleep and had just been kicked
awake. I'd always assumed that Dan would have my back
and vice versa. But Dan running errands for McAuley had
evidently changed all that. I'd blinked and missed it.
Hell, I'd blinked and my world was suddenly a lot more
complicated.

Years ago, I thought that getting into Heathcroft High
School was it, the be-all and end-all of my existence. I'd
thought that all I needed to do was keep my head down
and my grades up to make it through. After school, I'd go
to university and at the end of all that, I'd be something
big in the financial markets. I had it all figured out. I
wanted a job that'd make me tons of money. But that was
stuff for the future. I'd forgotten that I still needed to make
it through the here and now first. The present was filled
to overflowing with McAuley and the Dowds and
needing to belong to a gang just to be able to walk the
streets. The present was all about friends who had your
back and turning away from those who didn't. The
present was hard work, not to mention dangerous.

I realized Dan had been right about one thing.

The no-man's-land I was clinging to wasn't firm ground
at all, but quicksand.

At school the next day, Dan's words kept ringing in my
head. I walked home alone because Callie had a singing
lesson after school, and I still couldn't forget what Dan had
said. I'd barely shut the front door before my sister Jessica
emerged from the living room. She was wearing faded
jeans and a long-sleeved red T-shirt that was now more
faded pink than any other colour. Her light-brown hair
shot out in gelled spikes around her head. Her lips were
already pinned back into a mocking smile. My heart sank.
I knew what that look meant. I took off my school jacket
and tossed it over the banister.

'How come you're not at work?' I frowned.

'It's my day off,' Jessica replied. 'What's with that face?'

'I'm having a bad day, Jessica. So back off.'

'How about we meditate together?' my sister suggested.

And the sad thing was, she was serious. She's
into all that hippy-dippy, transcendental, rental-mental
bollocks. Or at least, she was this fortnight. A month ago
kick boxing had been the way to cure all of society's ills.
And the month before that it'd been colour therapy.
Apparently the reason I was so permanently irritable
was because I wore too much blue and ate too much red
and brown.

I walked past her towards the kitchen. 'Jess, I'm not
in the mood for your nonsense this evening, I'm really
not.'

'Tobey, what you need to do is submerge yourself in
Lake You,' said Jess, following me. 'Get to know your
true self . . .'

Lake You . . . Godsake!

'Jessica, get away from me,' I said.

'What's the matter, Tobey? Girlfriend giving you
trouble?'

'Feel free to drop dead at any time.'

'Ooh! Sounds like you didn't get any under or over the
clothes action today,' Jessica laughed.

I glared at her, but from the huge, moronic grin on my
sister's face, she still didn't get the message. It took a lot to
bring Jess down.

'Just how far have you two gone anyway?' she
asked.

I went over to the fridge. If I ignored her, maybe she'd
take the unsubtle hint and bog off.

'Come on, Tobey. Tell all. Inquiring minds want to
know,' Jessica teased.

I opened the fridge door. 'Jess, what can I get you?
Orange juice? Lemonade? Your own business?'

'Your business is my business,' Jessica informed me.

I grabbed a can of ginger beer and pushed past her.

'Tetchy!' Jessica called after me. 'Someone isn't getting
any.'

Godsake! This was all I needed. First Dan. Now my
sister.

'Jessica, go away,' I told her.

'Definitely not getting any,' Jessica called after me.

I headed out into the hall just as the front doorbell
sounded. Being closest, I opened the door.

'Hi, Tobey. Ready to work on our history project?'

I frowned, moving out of Callie's way as she swept past
me. I sniffed silently. Callie was wearing the cinnamonspice
perfume I'd given her last Crossmas. She never
wore anything else now. Damn, but I loved the way she
smelled.

'I thought you didn't want to do it until tomorrow.' I
frowned. 'And what happened to your singing lesson?'

'Mr Seacole is ill today so my lesson was cancelled. I
tried to find you at lunch time to tell you, but you were
wearing your cloak of invisibility.' Callie graced me with
an accusatory stare. 'I just got home and Nathan is round
again,
and he and Mum are making cow eyes at each
other, so it was stay at home and be sick down my blouse
or come and see you.'

'I take it I only just won?'

'It
was
close,' Callie agreed with a smile.

Callie wore her dark-brown hair tied back in her usual
plaited ponytail. She'd changed out of her school uniform
and into denim jeans and a light-pink, tight pink, long-sleeved
T-shirt. A figure-hugging, curve-clinging, lightpink,
tight pink, long-sleeved T-shirt. Dark-blue sandals
showed off her unpainted toenails. She was five feet seven
and most of it seemed to consist of legs. Legs and boobs. I
forced myself to focus on Callie's face before she decked
me. She started up the stairs to my bedroom.

'You got our history notes?' she asked, turning back
to me.

I dug out my memory stick from my trouser pocket and
waved it at her. I didn't go anywhere without it. 'It's all
on here.'

'Hi, Callie. You OK?'

'I'm fine thanks, Jessica.' Callie smiled at my sister.
'Tobey and I are doing our history project together.'

'Enjoy,' said Jessica. 'Just remember to keep the
bedroom door open and at least one foot on the floor at
all times.'

'Ha frickin' ha,' I called out as I followed Callie up the
stairs.

Jessica cracked up laughing. She really thought she was
funny. My sister was older than me by only eighteen
months and although she worked part-time as a hairdresser,
she still lived at home. On her wages, she'd be at
home until she was a pensioner. I wasn't going to settle for
that. No way.

There'd come a day when I'd have money dripping out
of cupboards. I'd promised myself that from the time I
started at Heathcroft. Success was all a matter of mental attitude.
And I had the right stuff. I was going to be rich – by
any means necessary. Any legal means, of course. No way
was I going to make my money with the shadow of prison
hanging over my head. At least the shadow of the noose had
now been permanently removed. And about time too.

Callie turned at the top of the stairs to grin at me. I was
well aware of how much me and my sister amused her.
But Jessica knew exactly what to say to wind me up.
Especially when she teased me about Callie. Actually, now
I come to think about it, only when she teased me
about Callie.

Once we reached my bedroom, I must admit, I closed
my bedroom door a little louder than was absolutely
necessary. I was more than a little annoyed at my sister's
dense comments. What if Jessica's teasing put Callie off
coming to my room at all?

'Tobey, should I strip off and lie on the bed?' Callie
asked. 'That'd really give your sister something to tease
you about!'

'Yes, please.' I grinned. If only.

'You wish,' Callie scoffed.

Yeah, I did actually.

'I can dream, can't I?' I gave a mock sigh.

I took off my school shirt and put on a clean white
T-shirt pulled out of my wardrobe. Thanks, Mum! I
decided to leave my school trousers where they were, on
my body. I wasn't in the mood to listen to Callie tease me
about my 'skinny uncooked chicken legs', as she kept
calling them. I sat at my tiny desk, connecting my
memory stick to the family computer, which stayed in
my room as I used it the most.

'Tobey, all joking aside, why don't you tell your sister
we're just friends?' Callie stated.

I glanced away so that Callie couldn't see my face. 'I've
tried, but she didn't believe me.'

'I've told Jess more than once that you don't think of
me as anything but a pain in the neck, but she didn't
believe me either. I wonder why?' Callie frowned, sitting
down on my bed. She glanced at her watch. 'How long
d'you reckon today?'

'I give her three minutes.' I sighed, for real this time.
'And counting.'

'Nah. I reckon seven minutes, fifteen seconds,' said
Callie. 'Your sister will want to wait until she thinks we're
really into something before she bursts through the door.'

'You're wrong. Two or three minutes at the most. Any
longer and she'll be afraid she's missing something.'

'What has she heard about you that I haven't?' Callie
frowned. 'Bit of a fast lover, are you?'

Careful, Tobey . . .

'I've never had any complaints,' I replied.

Callie regarded me, a strange expression on her face
before she turned away to trace the lightning-fork pattern
on my duvet. 'Well, we're not all as easily pleased as
Misty.'

Misty? What on earth did this have to do with Misty?
More to the point, what did it take to please Callie? Had
Lucas already given her some idea about that? Our
conversation was spiralling away from me dangerously.
Nothing I said now would come out right, so better to say
nothing.

Callie stood up and headed for my desk. 'Let's see all
this cool stuff you've come up with for our project then.'

I tried to access the files on the memory stick, but the
computer didn't even recognize that a memory stick was
connected. After trying twice more, I tried to access it
directly via the operating system. Weird symbols and
hieroglyphics scrolled across my screen.

'Tobey, where are my files?' Callie's voice was low, her
question rhetorical. She could see as well as I could what
had happened to her files.

'This isn't my fault,' I said quickly. 'I only bought this
thing last month. It's supposed to be state of the art.'

'State of the another-word-beginning-with-A more
like,' Callie said in disgust. 'Tobey, I really don't want to
have to do all my sections again.'

'Didn't you take a backup of your notes?' I said.

'Not the latest version, no. I changed some stuff at
school before loading it onto your memory stick, then I
deleted the files afterwards. And what about all the film
clips you added and the other stuff you said you did at
school? Are they gone too?'

I nodded. 'I'll just have to do it all again. Don't worry,
it'll only take me a couple of hours.' I tried to reassure
Callie, knowing full well I'd lost a lot more than two days'
work. It would take ages to add all the graphics and re-edit
all the film clips I'd included in our presentation. Godsake!

'What happened to your memory key? Did you
microwave it or something?'

'Or something.' I pulled the wretched thing out of the
USB port and scowled down at it.

'Take it back to the shop you bought it from and get a
refund,' said Callie.

I nodded, not holding out much hope. I had no idea
where I'd put the receipt. I returned the memory stick to
my pocket, mightily cheesed off. Maybe the shop would
exchange it without the receipt as I didn't want my money
back.

Callie headed back to my bed. 'Well, we can still carry
on with the rest of our report. And I'll update my sections
when I get back home.' She glanced at her watch as she
sat down. 'If your sister is about to burst in on us, you'd
better come over here and sit next to me. After all, you
wouldn't want to disappoint her.'

I did as requested. I sat so close that our arms and thighs
were squashed against each other. I could feel Callie's
body heat warming me through my clothes.

'What d'you smell of ?' I asked, sniffing at her neck.

'Why? Is it minging?' Callie sniffed at her wrist doubtfully.
I suppose she had the same perfume I'd given her on
her wrists as well. And of course she didn't reek. She
smelled lovely.

'You smell of biscuits,' I told her.

Callie's eyebrows shot up. 'Thanks.'

'That's a compliment.'

Looking deeply unimpressed, Callie said, 'Tobey, a few
words of advice. Don't tell Misty or any of your other
girlfriends that they smell of biscuits. Tell them they smell
of flowers, that they smell sexy, erotic, exotic, good
enough to eat even, but not that they smell of biscuits.'

'But I like biscuits,' I protested.

'Is this another of your wind ups?' Callie said suspiciously.

I grinned at her, deciding that no answer would be the
best answer in this case. I really did love the way Callie
smelled and she smelled of biscuits, but I suspected if I
pressed the issue, she'd go home and flush the rest of my
Crossmas present to her down the loo.

Callie sighed and lay back on her elbows. I wished she
wouldn't do that. It made her boobs stick out even more.
Once again I had to force myself to concentrate on the
area above Callie's shoulders.

'Fancy watching a film once we've finished our
homework?' Callie asked.

I was instantly on my guard. 'What kind of film?'

'Angie's Mystery
is on at nine o'clock,' Callie suggested.

'What's that?'

'It's a contemporary social drama set in—'

'Never mind where it's set. No.' The words 'social
drama' were all I needed to hear to make up my mind on
that one.

'Or there's
Lovelorn
on at the same time on Channel—'

'Hell, no! If it's got "love" in the title, I'm gone,' I
told her straight. 'Can't we watch an action or a horror
film?'

'What if I told you
Lovelorn
is an action musical.'

An action musical? Yeah, right.

'Nice try!'

Callie sighed. 'What's wrong with a romantic drama?'

'Callie, I'm not watching some drippy film that's all
angst and sickly sweet sentimentality so you can sit there
sighing and sniffing next to me,' I said. 'No way.'

'There's nothing wrong with the odd cathartic cry,'

Callie informed me. 'I learned that when Nana Jasmine
died.'