Page 12 of When We Were Friends
Had it been an act, on his part; had she been under a spell? Olly had such a good heart, his father couldn’t lack goodness completely. Yet the prom… his self-satisfied laugh… his sneers…
Slowly, Morgan stirred her drink again. ‘Are these doubts also because your mum… how it ended… you’re worried Hugo might be ill, and Olly will only meet him to lose him again?’
Emily shuffled in her seat but didn’t reply.
‘You looked after her so well.’ Her mum had been given a terminal diagnosis in Year Ten. Emily had done everything for her from that point on, even though they were never close. But even before she got ill, her mum had often gone down the pub with friends during the week, leaving Emily to babysit her younger brother, whilst their lorry driver dad was away. The Secret Gift Society had meant everything to Emily: her one escape from the sadness.
‘She’s been gone for nineteen years now, but the effects of that time of my life have hung around like… like a warplane, over my head, biding its time to drop a bomb, a bomb that has finally dropped in recent months and blown everything I’ve worked for apart.’
What did Emily mean? ‘Your mum wasn’t a like a normal parent. I mean… she always came across as so much fun. That Christmas she let us taste all the drinks in your family’s drink cabinet and didn’t mind if we put on eighteen-rated DVDs. I didn’t sleep for days after that zombie movie. I’ve never been able to be that chilled with Olly.’
‘Normal would have been nice sometimes.’
There had been nothing normal about being fifteen and nursing your mother through terminal cancer, about giving her bed baths after rounds of chemo, about cutting her nails – and painting them too, Emily’s mum would insist. She also fed her meals, cooking whatever her mum wished for, anything to get her better. On top of that was the laundry for the household, of comforting her younger brother when Emily was barely more than a child herself, and keeping cheerful for her dad when he came home from a tiring week on the road. Although Emily’s mum kept her sense of humour, and if the girls ever went around she’d often be laughing on the phone to a friend or watching television. She’d never let Emily go to the hospital with her, said it was important she didn’t miss lessons. Emily once told Morgan that secretly, she was glad. Nine till four, at school, was precious time for herself.
‘Mum was always such a wildcard,’ Emily muttered.
Morgan, Paige and Tiff admired how she dressed in the latest fashions. She’d let them read her magazines if they went around and always bought takeout for tea. She was an oracle when it came to celebrity gossip. Emily preferred books, her knitting, she liked nature, and on the rare weekends he was home, she’d often go hiking with her dad. Back in the day, Emily and her mum couldn’t have been more different. A bit like Olly and Hugo.
‘How did your dad cope?’
She grimaced. ‘It took him a long time to get over what happened, but he’s retired now. Remarried. Gina’s good for him. Used to be a care assistant.’
‘You and her have that in common then. Looking back through grown-up eyes, I can see how selfless you were, looking after your mum, missing nights out with us, school events, all so that you could be there for her. I… wish I’d helped more.’
‘It wouldn’t have changed the fact that Mumruinedmy life.’
Whathadhappened? ‘I’m so sorry to hear that.’
Emily got up. ‘I don’t need your pity… even though I don’t have a high-falutin career like being a maths teacher, a solid future cut out and all sorted.’
‘High-falutin? I work in a supermarket, live on the estate where I grew up, and still buy my undies from Marks.’
Emily stopped dead. Sat down again. ‘You didn’t go to uni? But you always wanted to and when it came to maths, were the brightest in our year.’
‘How could I? Olly had to come first.’
‘Of course he did,’ she said, for the first time sounding like the Emily from high school.
‘Please, Emily, help me find Hugo. We don’t have to stay in touch afterwards. I just need to get this right or I’m scared I’m going to lose my lad. I would never say this to him, but… Olly’s all I’ve got.’
‘No partner?’
She shook her head. ‘Just a job I hate. Some days, I wonder how I’ve managed to stick at it.’
Emily caught her eye, hesitated and then raised her arms and did breaststroke in the air. The two women exchanged a brief smile and Emily quickly dropped her arms, but not before a warm sensation had filled Morgan’s chest.
‘Mum and Dad living around the corner… In some ways, I feel like I’ve never grown up,’ she continued. ‘Apart from when it comes to Olly. He’s the one thing I’m so proud of.’
Emily’s tired face softened, and as if sensing a need for them to change the subject, she ran a finger around the rim of her cup and said, ‘Tiff looked different, didn’t she?’
‘I still can’t believe it, and what about Jasmine? She must have really upped her game at sixth form college.’
‘She’s still a bitch, though. See, some people can’t change.’
‘But the four of us have.’
Emily took another mouthful. ‘Not Paige so much, apart from being a bit stand-offish. I wonder what she does now. Do you think Tiff’s on one of those Hollywood diets, all cabbage and farts?’
