Sugar and Spice (18 page)

“We can get the bus back, there’s one that goes all the way to my place. Then you could stay and have tea. Ask your mum!”

Mum wasn’t all that keen, as I’d known she wouldn’t be, but she said she supposed she’d have to agree to it if that was what I really wanted.

“But don’t you let her go buying you things! And I
need you to be back no later than six. Is that understood?”

I solemnly promised, on both counts, and Shay said she’d call round with the Invisible Man and pick me up. Mum insisted on coming all the way downstairs, “just to make sure”. When I said, “Make sure of what?” she muttered something about “Seeing you off”. I knew that really she was just curious about Shay’s dad. I was quite curious myself, and also a bit nervous, as I had no idea what he could be like.

He was sitting at the wheel of this big red car which Mum said afterwards was a Merc, meaning Mercedes. (I don’t know anything about cars, I can’t tell one from another.) He was creamy-skinned, like Shay (“Foreign extraction,” said Mum), with glossy hair, very thick and black. He didn’t look like a dad, he looked like a movie star. I was quite in awe of him, and I think Mum was, too, as she didn’t say any of the things she’d said she was going to say, like “I’ve told Ruth she has to be home no later than six o’clock” and
“Would you please make sure to give her a lift back?” All she said was, “How do you do?” and “It’s nice of you to drive them.” I didn’t say anything at all, but just slid into the back seat next to Shay.

We drove all the way to the shopping centre in total silence. Shay looked out of the window, her dad drove the car, and I chewed my fingernails, which is something I haven’t done since I was quite tiny. It was really weird. (I don’t mean me chewing my fingernails, I mean nobody speaking.) When we arrived, Shay and I got out, her dad said, “OK, you know how to get back,” and that was that.

Like I said, weeeeeird!

“He’s the quiet sort,” said Shay. “He never says much. Not unless he’s having a fight with the Vampire.”

“They
fight
?” I said.

“Yeah. Don’t yours?”

“They sometimes have words,” I said, “but they don’t actually fight.”

Shay seemed to think that that was rather weird. She seemed to think that all parents fought.

“Let’s forget about them,” she said. “C’mon! Let’s go up the escalator…we’ll start at the top and work our way down.”

Which is what we did. It was like being in an enchanted town! I reckon you could stay there all day and not get bored. It would take about
two weeks
to actually see everything.

“I need a snack,” said Shay, after we’d been wandering in and out of shops and up and down escalators for a couple of hours. “Let’s go in the Chocolate Shop and have a hot chocolate. It’s all right, I’ll pay! Your mum can’t object to me just buying you something to drink.”

In the Chocolate Shop they had real hand-made chocolates decorated with tiny rosebuds and violets. So sweet! I felt my mouth watering as I looked at them, but I didn’t have any money to buy any and I couldn’t have asked Shay. But she must have noticed me looking, cos after we’d finished our mugs of chocolate and left the shop she suddenly put her hand in her pocket and brought something out and said, “Close your eyes and open your mouth.” And when I did, she popped a chocolate into it!

“
Oh.
” I munched, ecstatically.

“Good?” said Shay.

“Mm!”

“Have another.”

She had a whole packet of them! I said, “How did you —”

“Just eat,” said Shay. “Don’t ask.”

“But h —”

“I took them.”

I said, “T-took them?”

“Took them!
Helped myself.
”

She meant that she’d stolen them. That she’d
shoplifted.
The bottom fell out of my stomach with a great clunk. I think my mouth must have fallen open, as Shay gave one of her cackles and said, “Are you shocked?”

I was – horribly. All of a sudden, I was thinking about my chain. And about the earrings. And the drawers full of make-up and jewellery.

“Honestly,” said Shay, “you should see your face!” She pulled down the corners of her mouth and sucked in her cheeks. I felt like saying, “But it’s
stealing.
” Only I couldn’t, cos it sounded too goody-goody.

“Stop looking so disapproving! It’s only a bit of fun. It’s like a kind of game…seeing what you can get away with. I’m pretty good at it! I can get away with almost anything.”

She was actually boasting about it. I couldn’t believe it! Me and Millie had once gone sneaking into Woolworth’s and nicked a handful of lollipops, but that was when we were about
six.
Well, eight, maybe. But we’d known that it was wrong and I think we’d both been secretly a bit ashamed of ourselves. At any rate,
we’d never done it again. Shay had obviously been at it for ages.

“Oh, come on, Spice, lighten up! It’s not like I’m mugging old ladies for their life savings. I’m not hurting anyone! I never lift anything valuable. Not like real diamonds or anything. Just stuff that takes my fancy. I do it for
fun.
Yeah?”

I couldn’t speak. I just didn’t know what to say.

“C’mon!” Shay linked her arm through mine. “Let’s go and look in the music shop.”

I didn’t enjoy the music shop. I was on tenterhooks the whole time, in case something else took Shay’s fancy and she put it in her pocket and marched out without paying.

All the really expensive stuff, like the DVDs and full-price CDs, were in those plastic cases that have to be removed before you can leave the shop or they’ll set the alarm bells ringing. I relaxed a bit round those, cos I didn’t think even
Shay would risk setting off alarm bells. But then we came to the bargain section, where they didn’t bother with plastic cases, and I started to prickle and shake all over again as I watched Shay picking up bunches of CDs and shuffling them like cards.

“That’s a fab one.” She flashed a CD in front of me. I tried not to look, but she insisted. “Techno Freaks. They’re brilliant! They’re my favourite band.”

“You’d better put it down,” I said. “People are watching.”

“So what?” said Shay, but to my great relief she put the CD back with the others and said, “OK! Let’s go.”

I’d thought once we were outside we’d be safe. Shay bought a couple of pop ices from a kiosk and we perched on a low wall, side by side, licking at them, and slowly I began to breathe a bit easier. But then Shay said, “Remember what you said the other day?”

I said, “What was that?”

“About wanting to give me something?” said Shay.

I felt my blood begin to grow chill.

“Y-yes,” I said.

“Did you really mean it?”

I swallowed. “Y-yes,” I said.

“OK, so if you really mean it…if you really, really mean it…”

I waited, in a kind of numb horror, for what she was going to say.

“I’d like you to get me that CD!”

I felt my face grow slowly crimson.

“Techno Freaks. The one I showed you. Yeah?”

“I haven’t any money,” I whispered.

“You don’t need money! I told you, you just go in and take it…easy-peasy! I do it all the time.”

I stood there, my heart hammering.

“What’s the problem?” said Shay. “What are you waiting for?”

“I…I can’t!” I said.

“Why can’t you?”

“I just can’t!”

“I thought you said you really, really wanted to get me something?”

I hung my head. My face was pulsating like a big hot tomato, but my hands were all clammy with sweat.

“Isn’t that what you said?”

“Yes.”

“So why won’t you do it?”

“B-because —”

“Because what? Because you’re scared?”

“Because it’s stealing!” The words finally came blurting out of me.

“Oh! Shock horror! It’s
stealing
!” Shay gave a loud squawk and threw up her hands. A woman passing by turned to stare, but Shay didn’t seem to see. Or maybe she just didn’t care? “These people make millions! How’s it going to hurt them, just nicking one little CD? They probably wouldn’t even notice it had gone!”

I couldn’t think what to say to this. All I could think was that it was
wrong.

“Do you want me to come with you,” said Shay, “and hold your hand —”

“No! I’m not going to do it!”

“You mean you’re not going to get me anything?”