Page 48 of Glitterland
“Aww, babes, you’ve made me so ’appy.”
“That’s like so beautiful,” said the seventeen-year-old.
“Research,” said Niall. “I see.”
I blushed so hard, it was almost painful. As though I were about to spontaneously combust. “Um, yes. Darian, this is my friend Niall. Niall, this is my…my…Darian.”
“Pleasure to meet you, Darian,” said Niall coldly.
Darian flashed one of his bright white grins. “Fanks, mate, glad you could make it.”
Niall glanced between us.
Darian tugged on my hand. “Come on, babes, you gotta meet everyone.” He wriggled. “Omigod, still can’t believe you came.”
I cast a helpless glance in Niall’s direction. He shook his head and followed as Darian pulled me into one of the side rooms. It was full of people. Golden-legged women in bright dresses. And athletic-looking men in very shiny, very pointy shoes. Oh, God.
“Ahwight, you lot,” Darian called out. “This is Ash what I was telling you abaht. And ’is mate, Niall. They’ve come all the way dahn from London.”
We were surrounded. Names flew shrieking past me like fighter planes. Most of the women, at least, seemed to be called Lauren.
“This is Gary,” babbled Darian.
I shook hands with a man who basically looked like the Platonic ideal of David Beckham. God. No wonder Darian had his name tattooed on his hip. If I’d slept with someone like Gary, I’d want the world to know it too.
“And this is my nan.”
I bent down on instinct to receive a brief hug from a tiny old woman wearing a lot of purple.
“And this is my girl Chloe.”
I exchanged double-cheek kisses with Jessica Rabbit, bouncing awkwardly against her truly spectacular cleavage.
“She’s like my best mate in the world,” explained Darian. “If I ’ad a sister, she’d be my sister.”
“So it’s not incest or nuffin like that,” she agreed placidly.
Incest? What the fuck?
“You’re sleeping together?” The words tore out of me before I could stop them.
She giggled. “That’d be silly, Darian’s gay.”
I glanced hastily at Niall. His expression was unreadable.
“But you just said,” I went on carefully, “it wasn’t like incest.”
“I just meant we’re like so close in this deep like…what do you call it…like being on the same wavelength all the time…psy-psy-psychotic?”
“Psychic, babes,” offered Darian.
“Yeah, yeah, not psychotic. That’s like wanting to kill people… Oh no, I didn’t mean that.” She laughed. It was peculiarly charming, though it had no right to be. “It’s just we’ve got this bond, right, so it would be sort of like incest if we was really related.”
“Right,” I said, as it seemed the safest possible answer.
“They did practically grow up together,” said Nanny Dot. “She was always popping round ’ere and he was always over there.”
“I fink I told you Chlo’s got ’er own boutique,” added Darian proudly. “And these,” he gestured to indicate the clothes that surrounded us, “are all ’er designs. Me ’n’ Gary and some of the ghels are gonna be modlin ’em later.”
