Peer Pressure (24 page)

In the garden, Katy had laid out a pure white table cloth and dressed it with cups, plates and the centerpiece, a large birthday cake with Jodie’s photo superimposed onto it, in sugar paper. Not just any photo either, a photo of Jodie from when she was eight, sitting on her favorite bicycle. It was Katy’s most cherished picture of her daughter and as she put the finishing touches to her party table, she couldn’t help but stop every now and again, to look at it. It always made her smile.

“It’s cute,” said Rob, sneaking up behind Katy and putting an arm around her waist,

“You’ve done a nice job out here.”

“Do you think she’ll like it?”

“What, the garden? Or the fact her face is on a confectionary item?”

“The garden.”

“It looks great, sweetheart. She’ll be psyched, I’m sure.”

Katy let out a little chuckle.

“What?” asked Rob, not getting the joke.

“Psyched?” enquired Katy, still chuckling.

“What? I’m ‘down’ with the kids.”

“The kids from the early nineties maybe. Are you going to rock a be-bop stance and shout

‘Word!’ too?”

“Cheeky git.”

“Seriously, though, if you were an eighteen year old girl...”

“That’s a question I’ve never been asked before.”

“Would you like it?”

“She’ll love it.”

Katy turned and smiled at Rob, rubbing her hands up and down his arms.

“Thanks for this.”

“For what?”

“For being nice.”

“I am nice. Besides, I want the same treatment on my birthday.”

“Really?”

“Sure, the cake, the sausage rolls, the birthday girl banner.”

“I’ll make the birthday girl banner my priority.”

Rob and Katy smiled at each other, before falling into a long silence. The sky was beginning to darken, but they kept their eyes focused on each other, before Katy broke the silence with,

“Do you think we’ll be doing stuff like this next year?”

“Do you mean for you and Jodie?”

“No. For me and you?”

Rob hesitated before answering, allowing a raise of the eyebrows, before saying:

“You went all serious on me.”

“I know I did,” she replied, aware that perhaps now was not the best moment to ask, but unable to help herself,

“So, what do you think?”

Rob merely shrugged.

“I’m not sure, but I think we’re doing it right. Don’t you?”

Katy didn’t reply, although it was through nothing more than mere hesitation than reluctance to answer. Rob, however, caught her on it.

“Don’t you?”

Katy smiled and placed a gentle kiss on Rob’s lips, a kiss of reassurance as well as affection. She then turned her eyes towards the sky, noticing a small flurry of clouds far towards the horizon.

“Does it look like rain to you?”

Before Rob could answer, the doorbell rang. Katy brought her gaze back down to Rob and gave his arms a squeeze, adding: “Keep an eye on it, will you?” She winked, before disappearing back into the house to answer the door.

An hour had passed since the first ring of the doorbell. Music was now playing, drinks had been poured and the guests all awaiting the birthday girl, who had now gone from being fashionably late, to unfashionably rude.

The guest list was nothing elaborate. Katy had invited Sean and his parents from next door, simply because she knew that Sean and Laura had been seeing each other and was unaware of the recent break up. And seeing as Laura was Jodie’s best friend, it made sense to her that he was there.

The inclusion of Sean’s parents was as much out of politeness as it was neighborly duty.

Katy had become friendly with Gillian, Sean’s mother, over the course of the last year and tonight would be the first time she would meet Sean’s father, Colin, who due to his senior position at the Malco Oil Company, was very rarely around.

Amongst Jodie’s circle of friends, Katy had also invited Susan and Mary, from her English class. Katy knew them a little, but felt that she had the advantage of having Rob there to help keep any silences brief. In any case, she needn’t have worried as, despite Jodie’s absence, they found no problems fitting in amongst the other guests, passing the time flirting with either Sean or Rob.

‘
Girls will be girls after all
, she thought,
speaking of which, where the hell is my
daughter?’

Katy headed away from the guests, towards the kitchen and was just about to reach for her mobile phone, when a swearing voice announced the arrival of the birthday girl.

“I am fucking thirsty! How is that even possible, I drank so much?”

Katy hesitated for a moment, a little surprised to hear such language seemingly coming from her daughter’s mouth. She expected it from Laura, sure, but not Jodie. It was only as she went into the kitchen that it all became clear - Jodie was leaning over the sink, drinking water straight from the tap, her skirt riding a little too low showing off her underwear, while Laura was leaning against the wall laughing at her.

It was a rather unappealing sight and, for a brief moment, Katy thought that perhaps Jodie was sick, or that she’d hurt herself. What other reason could there have been for the commotion?

It was only as Jodie turned round, wiping the drips of water from her chin, that Katy realized what was going on.

Jodie made eye contact with her mother and lunged forward, giving her a hug.

“I’m here!”

Katy didn’t hug her back; she kept her arms at her sides.

“Me too!” added Laura, as she flung her arms around the both of them, “Group Hug!”

“That’s right,” said Jodie, breaking the hug and stepping back to address her mother,

“we’re both here. And so are you, good for you!”

Katy could smell the booze on her daughter’s breath, a familiar, yet indescribable aroma.

But booze, definitely booze.

“Where the hell have you been?” she asked, “we’ve all been waiting for you.” But Jodie wasn’t listening, her attention already having wandered to what was going on in the garden, over her mother’s shoulder.

“Wow, the garden looks awesome!” she screamed and shoved her mother to one side, making her way out the door and looking around at the decoration and lighting that had been Katy and Rob’s afternoon’s work, “I mean you really went all out here.”

Everyone in the garden stopped talking and turned towards the door, where Jodie stood, or rather swayed on the step. And just like that, everyone there was aware that the party, for Jodie at least, had started a good few hours before they had arrived.

Katy stayed indoors, half hiding out of embarrassment, half frozen in anger, as she watched her only child make her way up the garden path towards the guests. Laura also stayed indoors, but didn’t share in Katy’s concerns, instead sliding up to her and nudging her arm, motioning to the garden and saying,

“Nice job Mum”

Katy rolled her eyes and turned to address Laura with as much authority as she could muster.

“It’s Katy to you, Laura. What have you girls been doing?”

Laura looked at Katy for a moment, trying to size up her mood. Of course, a sober person would have noted the anger in Katy’s eyes. Laura, however, didn’t register that at all, instead going the smart ass route, breathing out and giving her a mocking shrug.

“It was crack.”

Katy didn’t laugh, instead narrowing her eyes and leaning forward, bringing her face down to Laura’s and whispering,

“I almost believe you, Laura. What do you think that says about you?”

Laura, unsure what Katy was getting at and, again, miss-reading the tension in the air.

“That you
love
me?”

Again, Katy didn’t laugh. She didn’t blink, she barely breathed.

“Go and get my daughter back here.”

This Laura understood and slowly she backed away and out into the garden. As she walked down the path towards Jodie, her gaze moved to Sean, who was still standing to one side with his parents.

He gave her a smile and a small wave, which he meant in politeness, and yet, in Laura’s mind, he was being patronizing. She sneered at him and continued down the path. Katy watched her go, or rather stumble from the doorway, before bringing her attention back to her daughter, who was dancing up the garden path, towards Susan and Mary, who were busy talking (or rather flirting) with Rob.

“And my friends! Come here, give me a hug.”

Jodie wrapped her arms around the both of them and squeezed hard. Susan and Mary were more than happy to indulge their classmate, finding her intoxication hilarious. As Laura wobbled up to join them, Jodie’s eyes fixed on Rob, who was trying to slip away from the group hug and back up the path towards the house. He was unsuccessful, as Laura grabbed his arm and dragged him back over towards Jodie, adding a slightly sinister

“Where are you heading off to?”

Rob didn’t get to answer, as Jodie slinked up to him and laid her hand on his chest.

“Rob,” she beamed at him, “you helped didn’t you?”

Rob recoiled a little, smelling the alcohol on her breath, before replying:

“A little.”

Jodie’s grin was as wide as a Cheshire Cat and came in for a hug, which Rob who felt caught between a rock and a hard place, felt almost duty bound to reciprocate.

“I knew it,” she said, laying her head against his shoulder, “I knew you’d helped. There’s no way my mum could have done all this by herself.”

Rob stepped back and Jodie slid from his hug almost losing her balance but just managing to keep her footing. Rob, turned his gaze towards the kitchen, looking for help.

Katy saw her cue and came walking over to them, motioning towards the garden table as she approached. Rob took the hint and turned back to the girls, clapped his hands together and said:

“Let’s all eat shall we?”

“Yeah, good idea,” added Katy, putting her arm around Rob’s waist, and addressing Jodie and Laura: “Let’s eat, especially you two - maybe it will soak up some of whatever you drank.”

Jodie raised her arm in defiance.

“Ah, it was just a little cider.”

It was supposed to sound dismissive, but came across merely as bratty. Katy stood her ground.

“How little?”

“It was like, three liters or something,” replied Laura, “I don’t know, math was never my strong suit. Not like your daughter. She’s so smart, do you know that?”

Katy stepped to one side and ushered both girls towards the table, not taking her eyes off Laura as she said:

“Eat. Don’t talk.”

Jodie stepped past her mother and almost immediately screamed out, “Oh, look at the cake!” as she noticed what had been prepared for her.

“It’s me. Look how cute I am! Everybody! Everybody come and see how cute I am.”

The guests slowly began to gather around the table, as Jodie leaned forward to study the cake. Laura stood beside Rob and nudged his arm saying:

“She’s cuter now, right?”

Rob looked at her, confused, and didn’t answer. Katy quietly grabbed Laura from behind and navigated her into a garden chair, thrusting a sausage roll into her hand, before returning to Rob’s side. He gave her a look that said,
‘Are you all right?’

“I’ll live,” she replied out loud.

Jodie’s attention now moved to Sean. She made her way around to the other side of the table, where he stood with his parents. He watched her approach, trying to negotiate the garden furniture as she went. She didn’t do too well in this regard and tripped twice, almost toppling over the table at one point. Sean gave his parents a look of re-assurance, as if to say,
‘don’t panic, I’ve got this,’
but really all that was going through his head was,

‘This isn’t going to be good.’

Jodie smiled as she came to a stop, punching Sean’s arm in a friendly, almost masculine manner, as though they were team mates on a football pitch.

“Sean thanks for coming.”

“Thanks for having us,” he replied, politely. Jodie leaned forward and presented her cheek to him. For a moment, Sean didn’t know what she was doing, but eventually he leaned forward and gave her a friendly kiss on it. She leaned back, smiling happily, adding

“And just between you and me, Laura isn’t taking things too well; I think you two should patch things up.”

Sean gave his Mum and Dad a quick, embarrassed look, before turning back to the birthday girl.

“I’ll keep that in mind, cheers. Jodie, this is Gillian and Colin, my mum and dad. Mum and dad, this is your...” Sean gave Jodie a quick glance, noticing how she was swaying back and forth, and clearly having trouble focusing. He sighed, “...well, your neighbor, I guess.” Jodie extended her hand, which Colin shook.

“Hello,” she beamed.

“Started celebrating early, eh?” Colin replied, with a cheeky wink which clearly indicated that he thought this was very funny. Gillian gave him a look, as if to say,
‘Don’t
encourage her!’
, but the way Colin saw it, she was eighteen and allowed to let her hair down. “Happy Birthday,” he continued, “Sean’s told us a lot about you.”

Jodie continued to shake Colin’s hand as she stumbled over her words,

“Listen, you guys, your son is such a good guy. Really, he’s the nicest guy. I mean, he and I can see each other,” Jodie’s free arm extended up to her house, “from our bedroom windows and he totally never peeps on me.”

Jodie then leaned forward, towards the two of them, trying to make sure Sean couldn’t hear, whispering, “And I would know, because I always check.” She winked, before turning her attention back to Sean, patting him on the back and stating, “You are such a gentleman.”

Sean, now
really
embarrassed, although more for her than for him, tried to stifle a giggle, before trying to change the subject.

“Thanks, let’s move on shall we?”

“Aw, he’s embarrassed,” she said, with a mocking voice, before losing interest and turning her attention back to herself, “Did you see the cake?”

Jodie swung herself round and made her way back towards the head of the table, where Susan and Mary were giggling amongst themselves. Sean turned to his parents and gave them a bemused shake of the head.