So Much to Learn (23 page)

"That's all
very well, Jack Morgan Whitby," I smiled back fondly, "but
considering our situation, a cold shed may be all I'm going to
get."

"See, now
that's where you're wrong." Jack tapped the side of his nose and
sent me a corny wink. "It'll work out, Tally, I promise."

Raising my
eyebrows at his odd behaviour, I pushed his chest lightly and
asked, "Right, so, what do you know that I don't?"

"You'll find
out soon enough," he said, infuriatingly vaguely.

I attempted a
pout, but annoyingly, it turned into a wide yawn. Seeing this Jack
reached over and grabbed my jacket, draping it over my shoulders
and signifying the end of our night time escapade.

"Look, and I'm
not being patronising here, you really should go back to bed," he
said, "you're freezing and you're tired."

I nodded
reluctantly and slid off his lap onto the floor. He stood up beside
me and we both stretched. I slid my arms into the jacket sleeves
while Jack retrieved his T-shirt and slipped it back on.

Yawning hugely
again, I started for the shed door, but stopped when I realised
that Jack wasn't following me. When I turned it was to see him
collecting his boxing gloves and strapping them back on.

"Oh no, Jack,"
I groaned. "Haven't you done enough for tonight? Aren't you ready
for bed now?"

Jack shook his
head with a wry grin.

"Why not?" I
demanded, crossing my arms and hoping that I wasn't going to have
to calm him down again, I really was tired.

"Well, let me put it this way," he said, looking pretty
uncomfortable, "as much as I
logically
know that you and me is not
going to happen in this shed tonight my body is taking a little
longer to come round to the idea, get my drift?"

I stared at him
in incomprehension and shook my head no.

He sighed and
gestured towards his nether regions, "I've got something to work
off, Tally, you get me now?"

Yep, I got him
then! I clapped a hand over my mouth to cover the giggles which had
been surprised out of my throat.

"Right well,
good luck with that then," I choked. "Night, Jack."

"Goodnight,
Tally."

I woke up late
the next morning, I knew this because the sun filtering through the
gap in the curtains was too strong for it to be earlier than about
ten. I stretched blissfully, feeling the warmth of contentment
spread from my chest all the way to the tips of my ears and the
ends of my toes. Pulling the bedclothes tighter around myself, I
revelled in the feeling of safe snugness that waking up in my
childhood bed gave me. I contemplated turning over and going back
to sleep, but then I heard a burst of laughter downstairs and
changed my mind. I could lie in bed at the flat any Saturday
morning that I liked, but it was getting increasingly rare that I
could spend time with my parents, so I knew I should take advantage
of my home visit.

Rolling out of
my warm cocoon I let my feet hit the floor and, grabbing a hair tie
off my old chest of drawers, pulled my hair up into a ponytail as I
exited my bedroom and started down the stairs.

I could hear
Jack and my mum's voices coming out of the kitchen and, outside,
the rumble of the tractor which meant that Dad and Matt were
playing farmers in the paddock. Isn't it strange when you're away
from something for a while and when you come back you discover
nothing has changed? This morning might as well have been any
Saturday morning since I was about 10.

The smell of
toast and fried egg tantalised my nose and pulled me out of my
reverie and I covered the last couple of stairs and turned to enter
the kitchen, looking forward to a nice big plate of breakfast and a
bit of basking in the feeling of being home.

Now, there are
a couple of things you expect to hit you as you enter the family
kitchen. The smell of a good breakfast, the love and acceptance of
your family, you know that kind of happy rosy stuff. What did I get
that Saturday morning?

A wet tea
towel, straight in the face.

I spluttered in
surprise and grabbed at it, but before I had time to fully pull it
off my face, a pair of hands grabbed my shoulders and hustled me
backwards out of the kitchen archway.

When I finally
managed to grab the wet material off my face I saw that Jack had
pushed me into the little hollow between the stairs and the
corridor wall.

"Well good morning to you too," I gasped, my eyebrows raised.
"Any reason for that particularly…um…
original
greeting?"

"Have you
looked at yourself in the mirror this morning?" Jack asked, looking
as if he was trying, and failing, to hide a smile.

"What?" I
asked, completely bemused, "I only just got up, Jack, of course I
haven't bloody looked in a-"

"Perhaps you
should," he interrupted me. "And, maybe, I don't know, put some
makeup on or something."

"You cheeky
bastard," I snapped. "It's not like you wake up looking like a
pretty picture yourself!"

Far from being
offended, Jack rolled his eyes in an exasperated sort of way and,
after checking to see if there was anyone around, he pulled me
across the corridor and into the downstairs bathroom where he
positioned me in front of the mirror.

"Oh!" I leant
closer and examined my inflamed face at close range.

Pash rash at
its very worst!

"Yeah, oh,"
Jack confirmed. "And considering there is a decided lack of
candidates whose stubble could have scratched up your face like
that in this house, I would’ve thought you would have liked to be
warned before you ran into anybody."

I turned away
from the reflection of my bright red chin and cheeks and started
rummaging in the cupboard for the aloe vera cream and my mum's
concealer (we were the roughly the same shade, thank God!). Finding
it and turning back to the mirror I smeared the cream across my
face, making me look for all the world like I was going to start
shaving.

"So…uh…" Jack
muttered from behind me and, looking at him in the reflection of
the mirror, I raised my eyebrows in a 'yes?' kind of way. "Does it
hurt?" He asked gruffly and it was my turn to roll my eyes.

"I hadn't
realised I had it until you pointed it out to me, did I?" I rubbed
the cream in then squirted some of the concealer out onto my hand.
"Pash rash is more annoying and unattractive than it is painful."
Smearing the concealer across my face and smoothing it out I turned
and grinned at him. "Nevertheless, maybe the next lesson could take
place straight after you've shaved."

"Ah yes, the
lessons." Jack's lopsided smile made an appearance. "I meant to
mention that last night's lesson was ‘location, location,
location’, so I suppose lesson number 7 is that it’s best to be
prepared and for me that means shaving."

"Aww," I
sashayed towards him and put my arms around his neck, "you'd change
your toiletry routine for me?"

His hands rose
up and circled my waist, pulling me in closer to him. "Baby, I'd
change the world for you if you asked me to." He was only joking,
as denoted by his corny use of 'baby', but I couldn't help my wide
grin at his words.

"Jack, Talia,
breakfast's getting cold!" My mum's voice from the kitchen cut
across the moment and made as jump apart from each other
guiltily.

My conscience
immediately started roundly abusing me for being so stupid. My mum,
the biggest busybody known to man, was only a little way down the
corridor and I had been flirting outrageously with Jack, the person
she is the most interested in? I was nuts! Jack must have been
thinking along the same lines as me because he looked like he'd
just been slapped across the face.

Unable to
resist, I reached up and smoothed out the furrow in his brow with
my fingers before jerking my head towards the door.

“Breakfast,” I
announced firmly.

We entered the
kitchen together and Mum, fussing around with setting the table,
glanced up with a smile. "There you two are!" She exclaimed. "I
thought I heard you coming down the stairs, Talia, but you never
appeared and then I turn away for one second and Jack disappears as
well, very odd."

I shrugged noncommittally because it is never a good idea to
outright lie to my mother by trying to make up some excuse. Nor is
it wise to try and look completely innocent, she
never
believes that
one.

"Morning," is
what I settled for instead.

"Morning dear,
isn't it a little early for makeup?" She smirked at me then turned
and threw open the window above the sink. "Boys, food's ready," she
sang out while I inwardly groaned at her ability to notice even the
smallest difference in my appearance.

Facing us once
more, this time with loaded plates in her hands, Mum held one out
to me, but instead of taking it, I shot a panicked look across at
Jack.

"You cooked the
eggs, right?" I asked and he nodded. "And the toast?" I clarified
and he grinned and nodded again. "Good." I sighed in relief and
then finally took the plate my mum offered.

While Mum
tittered in pretend offence, Matt and Dad trooped in looking all
fresh faced and happy.

Despite the
fact that we are one of the few families in the town whose
principal income doesn’t come from the land, we have approximately
10 acres, although it’s mostly bushland rather than grazing area.
With a small flock of sheep and a thriving orchard, my dad keeps
his hand in on the farming side although his day job is being the
principal of the area's district school. My mum is an artsy fartsy
and does the most beautiful landscapes although her 'real' job is
being the art teacher at the school too.

Matt and Dad
sat down and Matt pulled a plate piled high with toast and eggs
towards himself. Picking up a fork he was about to dig in when he
suddenly froze and looked at Jack in alarm. "You made this, right?"
he asked and, when Jack confirmed he had, he relaxed and began
shovelling the food into his mouth, tuning out Mum's indignant
squawks.

We all ate
appreciatively for several minutes then, cramming the last piece of
toast into his mouth, my dad stood up and brushed the crumbs off
his trousers.

"Right, boys,
let's finish up with the tractor, then I want to move the sheep
into the south paddock."

Jack and Matt
both nodded, finished up their plates and stood to follow him.
Matt, however, seemed to remember something and stopped in the
kitchen doorway, looking back at me.

"Hey, Talia,
you might want to call Simone and, um, check she's OK or whatever,
alright?"

I looked up in
surprise and swallowed my mouthful of food before asking,
"Why?"

Matt shrugged
uncomfortably. "Well I don't know, but last night on the drive up
she got a couple of calls on her mobile and went all weird."

I laid down my
fork and said slowly, "OK, now Matt I need you to focus. I know you
hate this girly, emotional stuff, but you're going to have to give
me more than 'went all weird.'"

He shoved his
hands in his pockets and glowered at me from underneath his shaggy
hair. "Don't be patronising, I noticed something was wrong, didn't
I? Look someone rang and it was like she didn't want to talk to
them in front of me and Tommo so she said she couldn't talk and
hung up, but then she got another call and the person on the other
end talked for ages and then she said 'right, thank you for telling
me.' and hung up. Then," he hung his head even further and blew the
fringe out of his eyes, "well then she did the whole trying not to
cry thing."

I was getting
pretty alarmed by this stage. Cursing mildly, after all my parents
were still in the room, I pushed my chair back from the table and
barged past the boys in the doorway. Starting to jog up the stairs
I called over my shoulder, "Did you at least ask her what was
wrong?"

"Of course I
did," Matt shouted indignantly as I reached the top of the stairs
and entered my bedroom. "She said she was fine and I didn't want to
pry."

"Urgh," I
groaned, stripping off my pjs and digging some underwear, a pair of
jeans, a top and the thin little jacket I'd used the night before,
out of my travelling bag. "OK, so you didn't want to pry," I yelled
so he would be able to hear me from downstairs, "but why didn't you
tell me this last night?"

"I thought I'd give her a night to sort things out herself
before I sent you charging in there," he replied, having the cheek
to start sounding frustrated with
me.
"When I dropped her off she said
she was buggered and was just going to go straight to
bed."

"And you
believed
her?" Now fully dressed I clattered down the stairs again and
shot my brother an incredulous look. He glared back at me and I was
about to snap at him again when I realised I was just wasting
time.

Slipping my
sandshoes on I smiled briefly at my family, all gathered in the
corridor looking anxious.

"Thanks for
breakfast Jack, I'll see you all later," I said, exiting through
the front door and just catching my mum calling after me,

"Give Simone
our love."

I hurried down
the drive and turned right on the road, treading the familiar
bitumen which led to Simone's house. Being a 15 minute walk from
mine to hers I had plenty of time to think and realise that, under
my worry over Simone, I was beginning to feel a bit guilty. Clearly
something was up with her and I, supposedly her best friend, hadn't
noticed. Recently I'd been so wrapped up in the
burgeoning…thing…between Jack and me, that everything else had been
shoved to the back of my mind. God, that made me such a crappy
friend!