Page 8 of When We Were Friends
Rain started to fall as bit by bit, drop by drop, faster and faster, horror stormed over the other three’s faces.
4
MORGAN
‘Yousleptwith Hugo?’ asked Tiff and her phone fell to the ground.
‘You want us to findhim?’ asked Paige faintly. ‘He’sOlly’s father?’ She staggered backwards and Morgan rushed over to prop her up but Paige put up her hand, regained her balance, and recovered her calm.
Emily picked up Tiff’s phone and passed it to her, hardly taking her eyes off Morgan. ‘You want us to help you track down that utterbastard?’ Her hand covered her nose and mouth.
Morgan wished Paige would speak some more. They’d always been especially close, despite the differences on the surface, such as Morgan’s down-to-earth dress sense compared to Paige’s precocious elegance. However, she remained silent and looked like she used to when they drank too many ciders: as if she daren’t open her mouth because she’d say something she’d regret later.
‘Are yousureit’s him?’ continued Emily. ‘Hugo made it clear at the prom just how much he detested us. Surely, he couldn’t have hidden that hatred just to… to—’
‘Get laid? Are you trying to ask if I’m making it up?’ asked Morgan, her fist still clenched. Yet she understood the disbelief. Such intimacy seemed unlikely after his humiliating revelations that cut through the four of them. She could still picture his mouth, how it fell on one side, a flaw in an otherwise perfectly symmetrical facade, with the upper body V shape and strong brow, those eyes so blue and wide enough apart to trust him… So much for that. Morgan should have followed her gut instinct from the years before that told her he was a bully, a brown noser. Instead, she learnt the hard way that intuition can be swayed by the most popular boy in the school showing an interest.
Paige still hadn’t moved an inch. Morgan got it. She’d sat on the floor of the public toilets for an hour after seeing the positive pregnancy test. An old woman had come in, peed and then asked her what the matter was. When Morgan told her, the woman called her a poor cow and left.
‘Talk about a plot twist. It took me months to get over your three’s betrayal.’ Tiff threw her arms into the air. ‘I’m not diving into that cesspool again and I’m certainly not interested in findinghim.’
‘Ourbetrayal?’ said Paige finally, in a quiet, steady voice, looking more like her old self. ‘You’d been as deceitful as us. Let’s face it, we were a bunch of silly girls who should have known better. But look, we’ve clearly all made it on our own.’
Emily snorted. ‘I imagine your mummy and daddy set you up for life, Paige.’
‘Let’s not be unkind to each other. It was a long time ago,’ Morgan pleaded.
‘And not talk about the fact thatyouactuallysleptwith Hugo Black? You had his kid? Christ, there’s me thinkingmylife was screwed up.’ Emily’s voice wavered. ‘This has got to be the biggest pothole ever.’ Unexpectedly, a tear ran down her face and angrily, she wiped it away. Tiff went to touch her but Emily shook her head vigorously. Back in the day, the two of them had such a strong bond.Buzz and Woodythey’d call each other, both being fans of the two unlikely friends from theToy Storyfranchise. Tiff was the astronaut with delusions of grandeur above being a toy, whereas Emily had her feet firmly planted on the ground, expecting far less from her life than Hollywood-chasing Tiff.
A man and woman approached. He carried a clipboard, she grasped an umbrella.
‘It’s about time the school made use of its derelict buildings,’ the woman was saying, in a familiar tone. She wore a smart jacket and skirt, and practical loafers. ‘They were run down like this when I was a pupil here. Well, no more. The old science lab would make a great art studio, and this overgrown outdoor area could…’ The sentence petered out as the four gaping women caught her attention. A straggly eyebrow shot up. ‘Do go around the back,’ she said to the man, ‘see what you think to my suspicions there might be signs of subsidence. I’ll catch you up.’ The man disappeared around the corner.
‘Hello Jasmine,’ said Tiff and her ears turned red.
‘What’s this? The Secret Gift Society still meets up?’ Eyes flickering with humour, Jasmine focused on Morgan. ‘Your son attended here, didn’t he? I do hope your teenage pregnancy hasn’t held you back.’
‘Not at all and parenthood has brought me more joy than I could imagine,’ Morgan said in a strained tone. No one needed to know that the one thing she regretted was not following her dream, but university would have been impossible with a baby. She’d told herself her time would come, perhaps when she hit her twenties, but she and Olly were so close and she treasured dropping him off at school and always collecting him. Her boss was good about things like that, and thank goodness, because there was no money for after-school clubs. Her parents wouldn’t have been able to help out with college costs either. Like her, they both worked hard just to pay the bills. Over time, she grew to fear losing the certainty of her life as a single mum. She had regular money coming in, a roof over their heads and any spare money went into Olly’s university fund, rather than one for her. Morgan’s chin quivered.
Emily stared at Morgan and then turned to Jasmine. ‘Weren’t you going to be a flight attendant, Jasmine?’
‘Yes and actually I passed my interviews for it before deciding it wasn’t for me. Not everyone has got the right appearance but apparently, I ticked all their boxes,’ she said and gave Emily a look up and down.
A blush spread across Emily’s cheeks and Paige turned from her to face the headteacher. ‘Yet here you are, not even one mile away, back at Dailsworth High.’
Jasmine gave a bright smile. ‘Exploit your brains, not your beauty, for everlasting financial security. I had a fantastic time at university in London. I’m very surprised to see you here in humble Manchester, Paige, and not living it up in somewhere like Paris or Milan.’
‘Not that I consider Manchester humble, but as a matter of fact, my husband’s off to Dubai soon on business. I may well join him.’
Jasmine’s bottom lip jutted out and she turned her attention to Tiff, was about to speak, but then changed her mind. Why did Tiff get off so lightly?
The man reappeared. ‘Lovely to see you four again,’ said Jasmine and she gave a polite smile. ‘But please don’t be here when I come back. The governing board and I take trespassing very seriously.’ She waved at the man and looked upwards. ‘Coming! I’ve got the key for the old lab. We might need to shelter for a while.’
Navigating pools of muddy water, Jasmine vanished out of sight. In unison, the four women muttered, ‘Creep, creep,’ and exchanged embarrassed glances with each other. Before Morgan could smile, the others turned away and reverted to their stern expressions. They used to say, ‘Creep, creep,’ under their breaths every time Jasmine walked away after being mean. Whilst helping out her landscaper granddad, Morgan had learnt that the jasmine plant was a vine. Rather than growing straight and tall, it crept – creep, creep, just like Jasmine’s insidious, toxic comments. Comments that deeply hurt her friends, especially Emily. She’d stopped tying her hair back, paranoid about the clique’sbat earsinsults.
Rain fell heavily now. Morgan put up her hood, looking at the ground where Jasmine had stood. So not everyone had changed. She took a deep breath, reached into her anorak pocket and pulled out three scraps of paper with her mobile phone number scrawled on. Morgan pushed one into each of the hands of the others. ‘Please think about helping me. I’d be so grateful. Even if you don’t want to be friends again. I’ve hidden the truth from Olly all these years. I genuinely had no idea where Hugo was and that made it easier. But if I’m honest, I was also scared that if he ever turned up, Hugo would hurt Olly like he once hurt the four of us. But that’s a risk I have to take now.’
Tiff studied the scrap of paper and ran a thumb over the writing. ‘It’s like the notes we used to leave in each other’s lockers, to call a meeting.’ Back then, Emily wasn’t allowed a mobile phone, so secret communications between the four had to be old-school style. Tiff’s phone gave her a jolt as it rang and she shoved the piece of paper into her pocket. ‘But you could offer me a date with Ryan Gosling, Morgan, and I still wouldn’t cross paths with Hugo again. Wish I could help but it’s a hard no from me. Good luck.’ She gave the other two a cursory wave before heading towards the football match and car park.
