The Beauty in Between: Too Close (A Beautiful Series Novella) (2 page)

If you’ve never
been to Western Sydney, you may feel a little impressed. But
seriously – it’s Western Sydney, sure there are some bright kids
there, but it’s not like you’re competing with the biggest brains
in the country. You’re competing against lower to middle-class
kids. It’s a good school, and it gives the smart kids living in a
crappy area a bit of a leg up in this world, but it’s hardly
something to brag about.

The moment
Trina and I stepped foot through the gates on our first day, things
were different. There were tight cliques of girls, and macho groups
of guys, and we fell somewhere in the middle.

For a while, we
just stayed together, hanging out on our own as we didn’t really
know that many people from primary school in our classes. But
slowly, we started to make other friends.

Katrina was
asked to sit with a group of girls at lunch time. I liked to call
these girls the ‘celebs’ because they seemed to be the most popular
group in our grade, and everyone seemed to know all their
business.

I would spend
most of my time out on the oval kicking a ball around with the
guys. Trina and I still saw each other at school – it’s not like we
were growing apart, we were just becoming what we were – a girl and
a guy.

As soon as
school was over though, it was our time. I would either go to her
house, or she would come to mine. But when my mum and dad started
fighting all the time. I started spending more and more time at
hers.

My dad seemed
to hate the sight of me for some reason. I don’t know if he
resented having to take care of me and mum or whether he just hated
everyone. He had a huge drinking and gambling problem and while
they tried to act normal while I was around, they would fight like
crazy at night. Each time they fought, I woke up and each time, I’d
lay awake, listening to the argument.

One night I was
woken by the sound of a slamming door, followed shortly by the car
starting and a crashing then a thud coming from the kitchen. I
raced out of my room, thinking that something had happened to my
mum. Instead, I found my father lying on the floor, a bottle of
scotch glugging itself empty beside him as he clutched the base of
a broken glass and snored loudly.

“Shit,” I said
to myself, leaning over to pick the bottle up and remove the glass
from his hand, setting them both back on the bench. The liquid was
being readily soaked up by his clothing, so I threw down a bunch of
paper towel to soak up as much as I could while I cleaned up the
glass.

Once I
finished, I tried to rouse him, so I could help him get cleaned up.
“Dad,” I whispered, shaking him gently.

Realising he
wasn’t going to wake easily, I rolled my eyes and yelled instead.
“Dad! Wake up!” I shook him more firmly this time to get him
up.

“Wha? What are
you doing boy?!” he growled, sliding his knee up and nearly
clocking me in the face with it. I quickly jerked my head back to
avoid it, but in doing so, I managed to earn the wrath of my
father. “What are you flinching for? You think I’m going to hurt
you? You think you’re better than me? Don’t deny it. I can see the
way you’re looking at me. Let me tell you something boy. You are
me, so get a good look. This will be you in a few years. You’ll
fuck up everything you touch. Just like I do.”

He tried to
stand, grunting and puffing as he stumbled back to the floor. I
reached forward, offering my hand. “Dad, let me help.”

Snatching his
arm away from me, he pushed me backwards, causing me to fall on my
arse. “Just fuck off. I don’t need the help of a good-for-nothing
kid like you. Get the fuck back to your room.”

After all the
fighting I had overhead, I wasn’t a huge fan of my dad anyway. But
having him speak to me like that planted a seed of hatred that I
just didn’t feel I’d be able to shake. I looked at him, trying to
recall a time that he had ever been nice to me and came up
blank.

I stood up and
went back to my room, stinking of alcohol, vowing that I’d never
help that man with anything again.

For the next
month, if I got home and saw my dad’s car in the driveway, I’d go
back to Trina’s house and tell them no one was home, so they’d let
me stay for dinner. I don’t know if my mum had spoken to Katrina’s
mum about what was going on or not, but no one ever questioned
anything. They just let me be.

Katrina was my
rock during this time. She listened to me go on and on about how
angry I was with my father and never once rolled her eyes because I
was repeating myself.

On the nights
he wasn’t home, everything was great. My mum and I got along really
well, and she did her best to make the most of what we had at the
time, even though my father was burning through the family funds
faster than either of them could make the money.

Neither of us
wanted to talk about what was really happening, so most of our time
together was spent reading. We were sharing George R.R Martin’s A
Song of Fire and Ice series. She read the first book years ago but
had never read the others, so while I read that, she read the
second and so on. I looked forward to these nights with my mum. I
could almost pretend like we were one of those happy families they
depict on tv shows, and I’d go to bed with the hope that I’d
actually get to sleep through the night…

“I’m so sick
of your fucking bullshit!” was the first sentence I heard after
being pulled from my sleep by my parents’ fighting. It was my
mother. She was yelling at my father for spending all of our money.
Again. “You have a wife and a fourteen-year-old son that you’re
supposed to care for. But all you give a shit about is fucking
gambling and drinking. I’ve had it with you!” she screeched.

My ears
actually reverberated from the shrill pitch of her voice. This was
the loudest they had ever been. I could hear my dad say something
in return, but it only came through the wall as a muffled yell.

Sighing, I
decided that I couldn’t stand another night of listening to them
fight. I sat up in my bed and pulled on a pair of tracksuit pants
and my runners. Then I climbed out the window and headed to
Katrina’s place, jumped her side fence and tapped on her
window.

“Trina!” I
whispered as loud as I could without talking. “Trina!”

After a few
moments, her blind went up. That was probably the first time I
really saw her – as a girl, I mean. She was wearing a sports crop
top and a pair of satin Mickey Mouse boxer shorts and with me going
through puberty at the time, I felt a bit of a stirring down
below.

Immediately, I
dropped my gaze, pushing any thoughts that were at odds with our
friendship as deep down as I could. “Jesus Trina. Put some clothes
on!”

“What?” she
said looking down at herself. “This is what I sleep in.”

“Just put on a
shirt or something.”

“Fine,” she
grumbled, grabbing a shirt from the back of her desk chair. “What
are you doing here anyway?”

“Can I crash
here? My mum and dad are screaming at each other.”

“Sure,” she
said immediately, sliding her window open fully and popping out the
fly screen so I could climb through.

“You’ll have
to bunk in with me though. If I go wandering about the house to get
you blankets and a pillow, someone might hear me, and they’ll go
off their nut.”

“Really? How
often have you gotten in trouble for walking around the house at
night?”

“Never. I
don’t leave my room.”

“Not even to
go to the toilet?”

“I don’t
normally wake up. So no.”

“Trina, it
will be fine. Just go and get me a pillow and blanket, so I can
sleep on the floor. It might be a bit weird sleeping in your bed
with you.”

“How is it
going to be weird?” she asked me, hands on hips. “You’re like my
brother.”

For reasons I
didn’t understand at the time, a heavy feeling landed with a thud
in the pit of my stomach. “Would you sleep in the same bed as your
brother?”

“Of course I
would.”

“Fine,” I
conceded, taking off my shoes and climbing in. “You know we could
sleep either end.”

“David! What’s
your problem? You can sleep with nothing on the floor if it bothers
you that much – but I can guarantee you that I will kick you back
out that window if you put your stinky foot anywhere near my face.
Now move over.”

I slid up
against the wall in the single bed to make enough space for her to
get in.

“This is kind
of nice,” she told me smiling as she propped herself up on her
elbow peering into my face through the moonlight. “We’ve never had
a sleep over before.”

“Not from a
lack of asking,” I laughed.

“Yeah… they
never really went for it did they?” When I didn’t respond, she
nudged me gently. “So, how bad is it this time anyway?”

“Pretty bad, I
guess. I didn’t really hang around long to listen this time.”

“Do you think
they’ll check your room for you?”

I shook my
head. “I doubt it. They’re pretty focused on screaming right
now.”

Pressing her
lips together, she flicked her hair over her shoulder causing my
saliva to thicken for some reason.

“Cassie told me
she likes you,” she said after a while.

“Does she? Is
she the tiny one with the curly hair?”

“Yeah… she
asked me to… I don’t know. This is stupid,” she huffed out, rolling
onto her back.

I got up on my
elbow, so I could see her face properly. “What? What’s stupid?”

Sighing she
said, “She asked me to find out if you like her too.” She brought
her forearm up to cover her eyes and groaned. “Good, I feel like
I’m in primary school doing this!”

“Then why are
you?”

“I don’t know.
She keeps asking me to…”

“Hmm. Well, my
answer is – I don’t know. I hardly know her.”

“God, I can’t
tell her that!”

“Why not? It’s
the truth.”

“Because,
she’ll get all upset.” She got back up on her elbow and faced me.
“Don’t you want a girlfriend though? Everyone seems to be so
interested in pairing up lately. Aren’t you?”

“Not
really.”

“Why? Don’t you
want to kiss a girl, see what it’s all like?”

“Who’s to say I
haven’t.”

“Me. I know you
David. You’ve never kissed a girl before.”

“So? You’ve
never kissed a boy.”

“That’s not
because I don’t want to though – they’re just not interested in
me.”

“Of course
they’re interested Trina! Listen, I’m going to let you in on a
little secret. The guys are more interested in sports and farting
than they are girls. I mean, they talk about them and stuff, but I
don’t think that we’re as into this boyfriend girlfriend stuff as
you girls are… Well, at least I know I’m not anyway.”

“Why?”

“Because I
don’t want to hang out with them instead of you. If you really want
a boyfriend, then fine – I can tell you who thinks you’re hot, but
once we hook up with other people, then that’s our friendship time
over. We only get to hang out after school, and if we start
pretending to be all serious about relationships and stuff then
we’ll lose that time too. I don’t want that. I don’t want to stop
hanging out with you, just so I can start pashing some girl who’s
going to take up all my time.”

Letting a short
laugh come out her nose, she said, “I never thought about it like
that. Maybe we can just hook up with people at parties for fun like
some of the others do – avoid the whole relationship issue.”

“Trina, you’re
too good for that kind of thing.”

She let out her
breath and turned onto her back, staring at the ceiling for a
moment before looking back at me. “I’m glad you know.”

“What
about?”

“You not
wanting to date Cassie. I was worried that you’d go out with her
and wouldn’t want to hang out with me anymore.”

I slid my arm
under her shoulders, and she moved so her head was resting on my
chest. “Never Trina. I’d never stop hanging out with you.”

***

We both awoke
with a start when Katrina’s door knob began to jiggle from side to
side, followed by a thumping knock and her mum’s voice.

“Katrina! Why
is your door locked? You know I hate it when you do that. What if
there was a fire, and we couldn’t get you out?!”

Trina sat bolt
upright and stared at me wide eyed. “Shit,” she whispered. “Get out
of here!”

“She’ll hear
me!” I hissed.

“Mum! Let me
sleep!” she called out in a mock sleep-drunk voice.

“You have
school young lady! Get your butt out of bed now!”

“Fine, just
give me a minute to get dressed. I’m allowed to have privacy for
that you know.”

“Just be out
for breakfast in ten minutes, or I’ll take the sim card from your
phone.”

“Harsh,” I
whispered, half smiling over the exchange. Katrina’s mum was pretty
strict. But she meant well. I actually thought she was pretty
cool.

Reaching over
to her bedside table, Katrina activated her iPod so HIM’s version
of ‘Wicked Game’ filled her room.

Taking the loud
music as my cue, I slid my feet into my shoes and headed for the
window, once again removing the screen, so I could climb
through.

Standing on the
ground outside, I leaned in. “Thanks for last night Trina. You
could have gotten into a lot of trouble.”

“Just go or I
will be in a lot of trouble… and you’re welcome,” she smiled,
leaning on her window sill, so we were eye level. I don’t know why
I did it, but I grabbed her face and kissed her. It was a soft
kiss, involving only our lips, but still, it took my breath a
moment to return to me.

When I pulled
back, Katrina’s cheeks were bright pink and her eyes were wide with
surprise. “Now you don’t have to wonder,” I told her with a
wink.

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