Tore Renberg - See You Tomorrow

Can’t she give it a rest.

Standing there breathing so heavily.

‘Yeah, yeah!’ sputters Bunny’s little brother. ‘Emo! Looking forward to you making an asshole of yourself on Thursday! International Cunt Workshop!’

‘Wanker!’ shouts Tiril, hears them laughing and watches them skate out of sight. Bunny’s little shit of a brother, cheeky little prick. Not a day goes by without him making some remark, something wrong with that guy.

‘Listen…’ she says, without looking at Malene. ‘I didn’t mean it.’

‘Right, right,’ her sister says hastily. ‘Whatever. I’m heading home. See you when I see you’

Tiril bites her lip. ‘Look…’ she takes a deep breath: ‘That thing about the clothes. I didn’t mean it. Dad likes it. I’m sure he does. It’s just … you always have to be so … it’s like, you always have to do the right thing the whole time. When did you get your period, by the way?’

Malene looks like E.T. again, she gives a little start and laughs. Tiril grins.

‘Well, I—’ Malene stops herself. Looks closely at Tiril. ‘But have you—’

‘No, no. I’m as clean and pure as a preacher’s sheets. Heh heh.’

‘Summer last year,’ Malene says, ‘right after we got home from Copenhagen. It’s a real hassle.’

Tiril looks around. It’s a hassle, yeah, but it sucks being the last in the class to get it. Not that she’d want to have been the first, not like Amalie, that was so embarrassing, she got it super early, but if it doesn’t come soon she’s going to start to wonder if there’s something wrong with her, no matter how much it hurts.

She doesn’t have Malene’s nice figure. She doesn’t have Malene’s eyes. She isn’t good, nice and kind like Malene, but she has the eyes of Amy Lee, and she, too, is able to see. Bunny’s little brother and his mate skating by the low-rises. The woods. The school. The telecom tower. The hill.

Tiril feels the cold worming its way into her body. All right, she thinks, hopping down off the loading ramp. Fleet of foot, clear in mind. All right.

‘Come on,’ she says, setting off.

‘Huh?’

‘Limahaugen.’

‘Huh?’ Malene scuttles after her.

‘Well? Didn’t you want to look for Dad?’

‘Yeah, but—’

‘Well then, come on,’ says Tiril, continuing up the hill by the school, ‘and I’ll prove to you nothing’s wrong. Dad is standing up there, I’ll bet you a hundred kroner on it. He’s standing up there, on top of Limahaugen looking out over the fjord, Zitha by his side, her tail wagging, and when we get there she’ll come running and barking, but then you’re the one, Malene, who’s going to have to explain what we’re doing there, okay?’

Tiril stops in front of the flats, turns and breathes on her sister.

‘Well, have you got a hundred? I’m not going if you don’t.’

Malene nods and takes a banknote from her pocket.

‘Do I smell of smoke?’

Malene sniffs.

‘It’ll go away.’ Tiril hurries uphill toward Limahaugen. ‘Dad will be disappointed, you know, if he finds out. Think you might need glasses by the way, you’re making a lot of weird faces, maybe your eyesight is bad.’

Bunny’s little brother, that prick.

Tiril clenches her fists.

Guess who’s going to get a taste of Tiril tomorrow.

‘Like that? Daniel? Like that?’

It hurts a little. She has the weight of a boy lying on top of her, his entire bodyweight. Only a few moments ago she thought about just abandoning herself to it, and she managed too, but now she’s suddenly thinking there’s a boy on top of her, she’s never experienced that before and he’s thrusting something inside her. Ouch.

It stops abruptly. She feels a trickling sensation ease through her body and it doesn’t hurt so much any more.

I love this boy, she thinks. I love this. He’s all mine.

Why is he stopping? Why is he pulling out of me? Sandra opens her eyes as she feels Daniel getting up. She props herself up on her elbows, covering her naked breasts. He’s on his knees in front of her, features tightly drawn, looking away, looking into himself.

‘Daniel? What is it?’

He doesn’t answer. His face is contorted, his eyes wide open, as though his pupils are just going to disappear. Sandra draws her legs back, feels a tightening in her chest.

‘Daniel? Is there something wrong?’

He holds his hands in front of his crotch, he’s quivering all over, sweating, not looking at her. Sandra reaches out despairingly, her hands touching his stomach.

‘Don’t!’ he hisses, getting up and pushing her away.

‘What is it?’ She sobs. ‘Daniel? What have I done wrong? You know I love you, you know I just want … it was nice, Daniel!’

They hear the sound of a dog barking, not far from them. Daniel pulls up his jeans, giving her a stern look as he crouches down.

‘Daniel, I—’

‘Shhh!’

He brings a finger to his lips. He shoots her another severe look. Sandra feels her throat go cold and a sweat break out under her hairline. She’s never seen him like this before, it’s scary.

But she does as he says. Keeps quiet.

Footsteps. They hear footsteps. Moving quickly over the ground, nearby. They both crouch down further. Daniel zips up the flies of his jeans. Sandra pulls her panties on hurriedly, wiggles her hips into her jeans and nervously fastens the buttons on her top one by one. They look around for the source of the footsteps. That dog, the barking of that dog, they’ve heard that before. Is someone spying on them? My God, it could be someone from the class. It could be Mum, it could be Dad.

Daniel points. Once again he puts a finger to his lips. Sandra feels her stomach throb with fear, she looks around anxiously. Now he gives a firm nod, his teeth clenched, in the direction of the woods. What is it she’s supposed to see?

There. A girl.

Or, a woman.

She’s walking between the trees. God, she’s walking right towards them. A woman, she’s carrying something, what is it, a cat? It’s an animal in any case, and she doesn’t look good, this woman, not at all, frail and rough with unruly witchlike hair, shabby clothes and smudged make-up — there’s that dog barking again.

‘Down!’ whispers Daniel and lies down flat on the ground.

Sandra does the same. Her heart pounding in her chest.

The woman walks by. It’s a hedgehog she’s carrying. It’s the weirdest-looking thing, the woman is tiny and as thin as a sheet of paper, around forty or something, with crooked teeth and red eyes, walking along muttering to herself.

She continues on down towards the road.

They get back up when she’s out of sight. They try to look at one another but can’t manage to. Sandra has tears running down her cheeks and feels like she’s ruined everything. She did something wrong but doesn’t know what, and now he’s furious. Wasn’t she good enough at it? Were her hands not skilled, did she use her tongue wrong, was her body not attractive? Has he slept with hundreds of girls before her and just thought she was horrible, stupid, small and tight and no good at anything? Please, Daniel, give me one more chance, I’ll be better, I promise, I’ll do everything the way you want.

‘There’s someone here,’ he says, in a low voice.

She’s about to say something, but he puts his hand over her mouth.

What’s he on about? How can he talk like that after what’s happened?

There’s that dog barking again.

He turns. Whispers: ‘Understand?’

Sandra nods, she feels so small and stupid that she obeys everything he says.

Then they hear it, both of them. The sound of someone laughing.