Gemini Rising (10 page)

‘No.’

‘Why not?’

‘She’s in my way.’

‘What about your own sister?’

‘I hate her. I want to kill her.’

Whether she is faking or not, there is a violence to her words that leaves me dumbstruck. There is a long silence as I don’t know what to say next. With trembling hands, I flick through the book for the instructions on what I need to do to get Elyse to wake up and go back to normal.

While I’m frantically leafing through the pages, I suddenly notice that she has opened one eye and is staring right at me. The second she sees me looking, she lets out her held breath and bursts into hysterical laughter.

‘You didn’t think that was real, did you?’ she cackles.

‘Of course not! Like you said, it was just a laugh. That
was
pretty funny,’ I say hastily.

‘Come on, your turn! Let’s swap,’ Elyse says, still laughing.

I’m still smiling as I lay back on the bed. The cushions are really comfy, and it’s pretty relaxing when Elyse starts chanting all the same words from the book that I read out to her.

I don’t notice a massive difference, but then again, I wasn’t expecting to. Like Elyse said, it’s just a laugh. However, I do start to drift away a bit, like I’m very sleepy. It’s probably the wine, I tell myself.

Elyse doesn’t say anything else. The silence seems to go on and on. At first, I quite enjoy it, lying there quietly with the music humming away in the background and candlelight flickering faint and red behind my eyelids.

After a while, though, I start to feel panicky. I don’t know what’s going on; I don’t know where Elyse is – she might have just left me here, never to come back.

When I can’t bear it any longer and my eyes spring open, Elyse’s face is right next to mine. We are eyeball to eyeball. It shocks me so much that I would scream, but nothing comes out. I almost headbutt her as I instantly snap into an upright position; she ducks out of the way just in time.

‘Oh my God!’ she exclaims. ‘I thought I’d lost you for good.’

‘What are you talking about? You didn’t even do anything…’

‘Sorana, stop trying to freak me out! You were mucking about just like I was, right? It didn’t work on you, either?’

‘Right… Hang on, what do you mean?’

‘Well, you were doing the same thing I did, obviously. Talking jibberish and coming up with stupid answers to the questions I asked you.’

‘No, stop trying to freak
me
out! You didn’t ask me any questions. I just lay there in silence for a few minutes.’

‘Um, you’re not serious, are you? Are you honestly telling me you don’t know what just happened?’

Elyse suddenly looks solemn, and it’s like I can’t wake up properly – my brain is foggy and I’m not sure what’s happening.

‘You
are
serious!’ Elyse goes on when I don’t reply. ‘You were really hypnotised. You were saying all kinds of crazy things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Not telling. You were going on for ages, though…’

‘Elyse, seriously – stop it. Nothing happened. I just lay there in silence for about two minutes.’

‘Sorana, you were hypnotised for nearly half an hour.’

I grab my phone and check the time, but I realise that I have no idea what time it was when we started, so I have no way of knowing.

‘It’s cool, don’t worry about it,’ Elyse says, obviously aware of my distress. ‘Let’s forget it; it’s just between us. You weren’t saying anything
that
bad, anyway. Have another drink.’

She pours me another glass of wine and I drink it. She turns the music back up and switches the lights on. I don’t believe her, especially now that we’re in the light and everything feels normal again – I know it’s just a joke. But the thing with Elyse is that she can take a joke further than anyone else I’ve ever met in my life.

She keeps it up all night and even the next morning – swearing blind that I must really have been hypnotised, refusing to tell me what I allegedly said. After a while, it stops mattering whether it’s true or not – Elyse is such a great actress, which I’ve seen in action before, that she can practically
make
things true.

Whatever the truth is, and despite how close Elyse and I are, I can’t help feeling that she’s got one over on me, like I’m at a disadvantage.

Back at school on Monday, Elyse doesn’t even mention in front of the others that we saw each other over the weekend. She certainly doesn’t say anything about our little experiment with hypnosis. My edginess around the subject evaporates as the day goes on, until I am just glad to have a secret with Elyse that nobody else knows about. By the end of the day, I realise I’d been feeling nervous about nothing.

Even so, I’m kind of glad to be back home after school this evening. I’m sitting and doing my French homework at the kitchen table, when the phone rings.

Only half concentrating on my French essay to begin with, I look up to see Pete’s face drop almost as soon as he answers it. I notice his eyes flicker towards me for a second before he passes the phone to my mum.

‘God, how awful… Yes, of course. Here she is, Tina… You take care.’

As he hands the phone to my mum, they have a brief whispered conversation that I annoyingly can’t hear. And then they both look over at me again.

‘Girls,’ Pete says as my mum quickly exits the room with the phone clamped to her ear. ‘How about we start getting the table set for dinner?’

He turns up the radio and pretends not to notice my very suspicious look. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but there is definitely something weird going on here. Weirder still, I don’t even get the feeling that I am in trouble.

A few minutes later, my mum re-emerges and my suspicions are confirmed.

‘Sorana? Can I have a quick word?’

Pete cunningly distracts Daisy by whacking her with a tea towel as my mum ushers me into the living room. Conspiracy, much?

‘OK, sweetie, nobody’s dead and nobody’s dying – got it?’

Knowing that I inherited her tendency always to jump to the worst possible conclusion, my mum always breaks medium-bad news like this. Unfortunately, as I know all my mum’s tricks, this is enough to make my hands and face go numb.

‘Oh, God. What is it?’

‘I’ve just heard that a girl in your class was attacked on her way home from school today.’

Attacked
.

‘Who? I mean, what? What happened?’

‘She was walking home from school, on Belmont Road, when she was grabbed from behind. She was tackled to the ground and kicked while she was down; they ran away before she could even see who it was. The police think it must have been someone she knew, as they didn’t take anything or seem to have any other motive.’

Having only just heard this, my mum still sounds in shock herself.

‘
Who
?’

‘Alexandra White.’

‘Lexy,’ I mutter automatically. ‘Is she all right?’

‘She’s battered and bruised and, obviously, very shaken up. But there were no serious injuries; she’s going to be fine.’

‘Do they have any idea who did it?’ For some reason, the words stick in my throat and I swallow audibly as they come out.

‘No, not yet – I’m sure they’ll catch them. Judging by her injuries, and how quickly it all happened, they think there may have been two people involved. But that’s all they know for now.’

We both sit in silence for a moment as we digest exactly what this means.

‘Right,’ Mum says decisively, ‘I don’t want you to worry, but I want you to be a bit careful, OK? No walking home alone, no dawdling after dark – just be sensible. They’ll be making an announcement at school tomorrow, but I wanted to give you a heads-up so it’s not so much of a nasty shock. Obviously it’s not really common knowledge yet, so can you do me a favour and not tell Shimmi or anyone tonight?’

It seems a bit petty to be asking arbitrary questions – and no prizes for guessing exactly why I want to know – but I can’t seem to help myself.

‘Why was Tina on the phone just now? How does she even know about this?’

I’m not sure I want to know the answer.

‘It was Josh who found the poor girl after it happened. He was actually on his way to meet her and she was late. I knew straight away that I recognised her name – that she was a friend of his from your class at school.’

‘Yeah, I don’t really know her that well, but I think they’re pretty good friends.’

The bitterness in my voice is unmistakeable even though I tried my best to hide it.

‘Sorana… I know this is a really horrible thing to have happened, but are you OK?’

I don’t even know how to begin to describe the cocktail of feelings that is brewing in my chest – nor do I want to.

‘Yeah. I’m fine. It’s just…poor Lexy, you know?’

‘Excuse me, ladies.’ Pete pushes the door open. ‘Sorry to interrupt, but this stir fry has already kind of been stirred and fried to within an inch of its life. Another two minutes and I’m not sure I can salvage it…’

He drops his voice by a few decibels as Daisy approaches to see what’s going on. ‘All right, kiddo?’ he mouths to me.

I think I am, but I really have no idea how I am supposed to feel. I kind of wish I didn’t know anything about this before the rest of my class. Like it’s none of my business.

Lexy is back at school the next day. As my mum said, she’s not badly hurt, just bruised and shaken up. I saw her lifting up her school shirt to show Alice in the common room – her ribs on her right side are practically ink-blot patterned. She really took a beating, and it must have been terrifying.

Not surprisingly in light of what happened, the A Group seem to have closed ranks and turned their antagonism outwards once again. Their constant whispers and suspicious looks are making everyone feel paranoid. Amie Bellairs even breaks our unofficial vow of silence, and practically confronts me one morning in the common room.

‘Sorana—’ she sounds nervous and aggressive all at once ‘—can I have a word?’

‘Um, yeah.’

‘I just wondered if everything was OK?’

‘What do you mean?’ I mutter as a reflex action. ‘Everything’s fine.’

‘Just, like, you and Elyse – if there was anything, you know, weird going on… I mean, I know we’re not exactly best friends, but you could talk to me.’

The ensuing silence is beyond awkward.

‘Yeah, like you said, Amie – we’re not exactly best friends. So I have no idea why you’d think I might want to talk to you about anything.’

‘I-I didn’t mean it like that,’ she stammers. ‘Never mind. Just forget it, OK?’

Instead of morning registration on Friday, a policeman comes in to talk to us – telling us not to walk home alone and to be on the lookout for any suspicious behaviour around the school. They don’t want to worry us, but as Lexy can’t think of anyone who might have a serious vendetta against her – at this Shimmi gives me a very pointed look, which I ignore – this could be a random attack, and it might happen again.

‘God, she’s loving every minute of this, the attention-seeker,’ Shimmi grumbles as soon as the talk is over. ‘I’m serious, you’d think it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to her.’

‘Don’t say that, Shim,’ I respond automatically, but I have to admit that she kind of has a point.

Lexy has already been going around boasting about how Josh saved her, and how he is totally in love with her.

‘He’s had to go back to school, but he’s been texting me
constantly
!’

Everyone in the school is talking about Lexy’s ordeal and the beautiful romance that has flourished out of it. Lexy has become something of a minor celebrity with the younger girls – Daisy’s year are lapping this up like it’s
The Notebook
or something.

Shimmi and Elyse, in particular, seem super put out by this turn of events; Elyse is inexplicably furious. My attitude is, who can blame Lexy? I have to admit, if that had to happen, I can
kind of
see the up side for her. Anyway, who am I to say what’s right in all this? I just feel really, really confused. Despite everything that’s going on – and I really hope this doesn’t make me a truly evil person – I have to admit I have other things on my mind.

What happened to Lexy, and the whole saga with her and Josh, has made me realise that I care about him less than I thought. I don’t know if this is a good thing or if it just makes me a selfish, heartless bitch – but I keep kind of forgetting about it.

Even while he’s been being nice, Josh hasn’t truly been top of my boy-list for a while. OK, I’ll just come out and admit it: I’ve still been thinking about Jago a lot. In fact, I can’t seem to stop. I have this weird feeling about him – that it’s the first time I’ve come across a boy who is pretty much exactly what I’ve been looking for all my life. I’m convinced our paths will cross again.

When Elyse asks me if I want to go out on Saturday night, my irrational first thought is that Jago might be there. If I hang around Elyse’s house and in town long enough, surely I will see him again.

‘So, there’s this bar in town, kind of like a club,’ she says. ‘The Attic, do you know it?’

‘I’ve heard of it…’

In all the years I’ve lived in this town, it’s not somewhere it ever occurred to me I could go.

‘It sounds cool.’ Elyse shrugs. ‘Apparently they have bands playing on weekend nights and they never check ID. We’ll go on Saturday night.’

‘OK. Where did you hear so much about this place, anyway? From Gareth?’

‘Like I need him to tell me the cool places to go!’

‘Do you think he might be there?’ I ask, clumsily trying to drag the conversation in this tenuous direction. ‘You know, him or…anyone else?’

Elyse whoops. ‘Oh my God, you haven’t got a crush on Gareth, have you?’

‘What? No way!’

‘Shit, you’re blushing – you do!’

‘Elyse, listen – I really, really don’t.’

‘Come on, Sorana. You can admit it to me, at least. I thought we were best friends. I mean, Gareth’s quite good-looking, if you like that sort of thing. He’s quite sweet, really. Definitely way better than that stepbrother of his…’

When I don’t reply, she breaks off with a sudden wicked glint. I know that look; right now, I do not like that look.

‘I’m going to tell him!’ she announces.

This conversation is not going to plan
at all
.

‘OK, OK – I’ll level with you.’ I don’t pause to think about whether this is a Very Bad Idea; I just want Elyse to stop it. ‘I wasn’t thinking of Gareth. But someone else.’

‘What are you on about? Who, then?’

‘Um, Jago.’

I’ve been daydreaming about him so much – dark skin, ridiculous eyelashes, the most divinely proportioned shoulders I’ve ever seen – it seems wrong that his name feels so foreign in my mouth. I’ve been storing him up in my head.

‘You fucking idiot. Didn’t you listen to a word I said?’

Now I wish I’d kept him there, where I could imagine that
Me Without You
by Trouble Every Day really is our song, and we really did lie in a field of long grass holding hands on a fictional sunny day. Back in reality, I don’t even know his last name, and Elyse is looking at me like I’ve just told her my secret crush is on Charles Manson.

‘Yeah, but…’ I protest weakly.

‘Well, did you think I was just having a laugh? Or that I don’t know what I’m talking about?’

She is clearly not just having a laugh. She is furious.

‘Look, Elyse, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. I just thought he was really good-looking, and I don’t really know anything about him…’

‘Yeah, clearly.’

‘So, tell me. Did you and him used to go out or something?’

‘No!’ she practically shouts. ‘He wishes.’

‘
What
, then?’

‘OK, fine: he asked me out, ages ago. I said no, so he spread all these rumours about me – really gross, horrible stuff that some people still believe. Meanwhile, he thinks he’s so amazing just because he plays guitar and looks moody and shit, and he won’t even talk to me when I’ve tried to confront him. Are you happy, now you’ve got all the gory details?’

‘God, that’s awful – what a loser.’ I murmur the words on autopilot, deep in thought.

‘I’m being deadly serious here – he made my life a total fucking misery.’

‘I’m so sorry. Obviously, I mean, I had no idea.’

‘So, you’ll forget about him and leave it alone?’

Elyse has no way of knowing quite how obsessed with him I’ve been, so I shouldn’t expect her to be all sensitive about it or anything. I’ve actually taken myself by surprise, at how hard it is to get the words out. It feels like kissing a whole universe goodbye.

‘Yeah… Of course I will.’

Of course, Elyse is right. Jago is evidently nothing like I imagined. I have been basing my entire crush on practically nothing – and I just need to get the hell over it.

‘Anyway,’ Elyse adds with a nasty twist to her mouth, ‘I thought that you were in love with Lexy White’s boyfriend – Josh, or whatever his name is?’

‘No, he’s just, like, a family friend,’ I say lamely.

‘Well, that’s good, because I think it’s really dodgy that he just miraculously turned up straight after she was allegedly
assaulted
. A bit suspicious, don’t you think?’

‘I don’t know…’ I mumble.

‘Well, I’m just saying. That’s if
you
don’t know more than you’re letting on – after all, you’ve got more reason to hate Lexy than anyone else I can think of…’

‘Elyse!’ I exclaim, more shocked than anything else. ‘What are you saying?’

She bursts out laughing. ‘God, you’re so easy! I’m just joking, but I think this is further evidence that you have got the worst possible taste in men. Official. I think you’d better start listening to me a bit more in future, don’t you?’

To this, I have no response. On the plus side, after her outburst, Elyse seems to have cheered up instantaneously.

‘So, to make up for having the world’s stupidest crush and not listening to me – not to mention possibly being the crazed attacker of St Therese’s – will you do me a favour?’ she asks.

‘Um, I think you’d better tell me what it is first…’

‘Annoyingly, my dad’s actually at home this weekend – so can we all come round to yours and get ready together before we go to The Attic on Saturday?’

My room has never been so packed full of people. No wonder Pete looked shell-shocked when he came up to see if we wanted any dinner. We didn’t.

‘Hey, can I use that eyeliner after you?’