Жаклин Уилсон - Girls In Love

‘You’re telling me.’

‘We’re a . . .’

‘You’re telling . . .’

We’re laughing so much we can hardly speak. It’s an age-old routine we used to spout when we were about seven and it wasn’t really funny then. But it feels so good to giggle like crazy. We both roll on the bed, helpless – and we’re truly back to being Best Ever Friends.

Nadine’s still dead depressed about Liam, of course, but she’s not in quite such a zombie trance.

I tell Magda there are no worries on the pregnancy front.

‘You’re sure, Ellie?’

‘Positive. They never actually did it.’

‘Well, at least that’s something. Though it still beats me how Nadine can have been mad enough to go with a guy like that.’

‘Well, we all do crazy things sometimes, Magda,’ I say uncomfortably. ‘Let’s stop going on about it, eh?’

Magda is happy enough to change the subject because she’s found out that Stacy has this older brother Charles who’s going to be keeping an eye on things at the party, and apparently he’s really quite tasty looking, with blond hair.

‘How old?’ I ask.

‘About eighteen, according to Amna. She’s been to Stacy’s house for tea.’

Stacy’s got big brown eyes.

‘Are his eyes brown by any chance?’ I say, though I know it’s a chance in a million. Well, there aren’t a million people who live in our town. Ten thousand? But that’s everybody. How many halfway good-looking boys of eighteen are there? The odds are whittling downwards. A thousand to one? Maybe even a hundred to one?

‘I don’t know about his eyes, Ellie. You’ll be asking me for his inside leg measurement next! Ask Amna. Ask Stacy.’

I’d feel a right fool asking Stacy about her brother’s eyes. I decide I’ll just have to wait and see for myself. Of course he might not even deign to come to this party. But it’s getting quite famous now and all sorts of extra people are going. A whole crowd of Year Tens who go to Stacy’s dance class are going to be there, and several of them are going out with Year Eleven boys.

Greg is waiting for Magda after school.

‘What do you want?’ she says, linking in with me and Nadine.

Greg scurries along behind us. ‘About this old party on Friday night, Magda,’ he puffs. ‘Hey, wait a minute. I want to talk to you.’

‘Well, I don’t want to waste my breath on you, Greg, so why don’t you just push off?’ Magda sings over her shoulder.

‘Don’t be like that. Look, I’ve changed my mind. I’ll go to the party with you, Magda. OK? That’s what you wanted, isn’t it?’

Magda sighs. She stops. ‘That was what I wanted. God knows why. It’s certainly not what I want now. I’m going to the party with my girlfriends. Right, girls?’ Magda smiles at us. We smile back, and the three of us walk on, still linked.

There’s a pause.

‘Well, see if I care,’ Greg yells. He’s obviously trying hard to come up with something ultra-crushing. ‘You girls. You’re just a lot of lezzies .’

We burst out laughing.

‘Poor Greg. He’s history,’ says Magda. ‘I like the sound of this Charles. I just have a feeling. Maybe Stacy’s party is going to be a key event in our lives, even though we started off thinking it the naffest non-event of the year. Maybe we’ll all have a dream encounter there. Are you listening, Nadine? And maybe you’ll meet your dream guy too, Ellie – or are you too involved with Dan to be interested?’

I hesitate. I don’t dare look at Nadine. I mumble something about always being interested and then change the subject as quickly as I can.

But as the three of us get ready round at my place to go to Stacy’s party on Friday evening I can’t help hoping that Magda is right. Maybe Stacy’s brother might just be my dream Dan. I haven’t caught a glimpse of him since he said See you.

‘ Please let me see him tonight,’ I say over and over again inside my head as I put on my new shirt and skirt and the killer shoes.

I think I look pretty cool, but when I see Magda I feel depressed. She’s wearing a brand-new raunchy red number and she’s got this new glossy red lipstick that makes her mouth incredible, a shiny scarlet Cupid’s bow.

‘Want to borrow my lipstick, Ellie?’ she says.

I have a go but my lips are too big and my face too fat. I look like a little girl who’s been at the strawberry jam. I sigh and rub it off and start again.

‘What about you, Nadine? Want to add a bit of colour to your old chops?’ says Magda.

‘Colour!’ says Nadine, shuddering. She’s powdered herself chalk-white and outlined her eyes with kohl. Her own lipstick is such a dark purple it looks black and she’s done her nails to match. She looks pretty stunning in a black skirt and a black lacy top and black pointy boots.

‘Nice to see you looking your own deathly vampire self again, Nadine,’ I say.

I wonder if the dream Dan might go for Nadine’s gothic glamour or Magda’s sexy scarlet. It seems very very very unlikely that he’ll plump for me instead. Plump being the operative word.

But when we get to Stacy’s party her brother Charles doesn’t go for any of us.

He’s not my dream Dan. Well, I knew it would be way too much of a coincidence. He is pretty tasty though, in a sort of floppy-haired posey kind of way. Stacy is charging about in a flouncy fancy frock, shrieking and squeaking in batty birthday-girl mode, so it’s left to big brother Charles to welcome us three into the party and show us where to leave our jackets and stuff.

‘So glad you could come,’ he says, smiling, looking at us with big blue eyes. ( Not as distinctive as brown, but pretty devastating all the same.)

I go all girly and Nadine manages a smile and Magda is in Total Vamp mood, her red mouth wide open as if she’s about to gobble him up. But then this other girl comes up to us, also smiling. She’s taller, older, even glossier than Magda’s lipstick. Charles puts his arm round her. She’s his girlfriend.

‘Oh, well, never mind. Let’s hope there are plenty of other spare guys,’ says Magda, her eyes darting round the already crowded room.

‘Honestly! I thought this was our big girls’ night out,’ I say to Nadine. ‘Look at Magda, eyes on stalks, desperate to pull.’

‘Oh, well. I don’t want to meet up with anyone,’ says Nadine. ‘I don’t want to go out with another boy for ages. If ever .’

Nadine looks much better but it’s obviously going to take months before she’s completely over Liam.

But at least she’s been out with someone properly, even if he was a right pig. I feel so pathetic that the only boyfriend I’ve ever had is a pretend one.

It’s not such a bad party. The music is OK and there’s lots of fancy food and that red wine punch they always give you at teenage parties when they don’t want you to get drunk.

We have a glassful each and then we have a dance and then a laugh with some of the girls in our class. I suppose it’s a good night out, but I can’t help feeling depressed when I see that even Stacy has a reasonably good-looking boyfriend and lots of the other girls are with their boys, and though there are a few spare boys none of them so much as glances in my direction.

They do quite a lot of glancing at Magda, of course. And Nadine gets her fair share of attention too. But there’s no-one here for me. No-one interested in me. No-one at all.

‘Ellie?’ Stacy suddenly comes rushing over. ‘Ellie, there’s this boy, he says he knows you. He wants to come to the party. Do you know him?’

She points over to the door. I peer through the blurry lenses of my glasses, wondering if it could possibly somehow be my dream Dan.