Page 58 of Now and Again

‘I can’t stay here anymore,’ Riley was sad to say.

‘No. You can’t,’ India said quickly, trying to sound like it had been her idea. ‘You’re not welcome.’

Riley, a hand on the doorknob, suddenly remembered something. ‘You did it to shut her up. She was trying to tell me something. What was it… Something about your fight?’

India rolled her eyes. ‘You’re not getting me on that. She confessed in front of you.’

‘Yes, she did. But then she started to say…’ Riley was putting stuff together at speed. ‘She started to saywhyshe’d done it. That’s when you shoved her. That’s it, isn’t it? You didn’t want her to say something. You didn’t want her totell mesomething.’

India sniffed and took another vodka hit. ‘Wow. This is quite something to watch.’

‘What is?’

‘You, suddenly deciding you want to know things.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means you were always fine with not knowing things before. That was our arrangement. I kept you out of certain things, and you didn’t ask.’

Was that true? Had she been in the dark? Or simple denial? It didn’t matter now. She couldn’t have gone back if she’d wanted to. ‘What did you do?’

‘I protected you. Not that you’d appreciated it.’

Riley didn’t like the sound of that. ‘India. What did youdo?’

India sighed. ‘You remember that party?’

THEN

India was snogging that guy from downstairs, and she was bored. In general, but specifically bored with moving this guy’s hand away from her pants. She was willing to let him go to town in the bra region. Why could they never appreciate what they’d been given? She moved his hand away, and he tried again a few seconds later. After the third attempt, she pushed him off her entirely.

‘What?!’ he cried from the floor.

‘Take a hint!’ she said to him. She got up and began to walk out.

‘Are we still going out?’ he called after her. India didn’t bother replying. She wanted to find Riley. She’d left her downstairs; she hoped she hadn’t gotten fed up and left. It had been known.

She found Paul Prentiss in the kitchen. He was pouring tequila into a beer can. ‘Paul, have you seen Ri?’ she asked him.

‘Eh? Who?’ Paul answered. He was pretty drunk, even for him.

‘Never mind.’

She walked around the party for a while, saying hi to people, only caring if she found Riley. She found Jack instead, to her chagrin. ‘Hey, is Riley here tonight?’ he asked her, sounding tense.

‘Ummm… no. She left,’ India said, which, after all, might turn out to be true.

‘Oh. Fuck. Did she… Has she said anything about me?’

India smirked. ‘Nope. You’re yesterday’s news, Jacky Boy.’

Jack huffed. ‘Fuck’s your problem?’

India shrugged. Boys didn’t like that she treated them like this. But there was something sort of two dimensional to her about the male of the species. She supposed she’d like one properly one day, maybe even fall in love. Until then, it was fun to knock them about like this, watch them wilt. There were never any true consequences to hurting them.

Unlike Riley. God, that girl was so fucking sensitive sometimes. She would be upset if she saw India being mean, even to Jack. So India was careful about that sort of thing. She hated to think of Riley thinking badly of her.

She didn’t have that policy for most people. People like that loser, Juliet, as a prime example.India had a general dislike for that weak little squirrel since day one of comp.But recently, she kept catching Riley talking to her. At the library, in the cafeteria, in the hall. What the hell was that about? Why would they suddenly strike up a friendship out of the blue? Unless… Hmm. It couldn’t bethat? Could it?

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