‘Ignore them,’ Clem says. I catch his eye and shake my head.
‘Easy for you to say,’ Zin says, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
‘You’re smudging your mascara,’ says Clem, leaning in to fix it with his giant thumbs. ‘Here.’
Lara comes jogging back down the street, panting a little.
Clem looks up from Zin’s eye makeup, which he’s really just smudging around her entire face. ‘Why do you look so happy with yourself?’
‘Jackson got out of the car and I got him right in the . . .’
‘Lara! We’re Year Twelves now!’ Zin says, standing up straight and batting Clem away. ‘We need to be classier than that!’
Clem snorts and we all turn back to Lee’s front door.
‘We’re going in,’ I say, although I don’t move until Zin takes my hand and tugs me onto the porch.
She squeezes my fingers. ‘I’m glad we’re out,’ she says, but she doesn’t sound that happy anymore. She doesn’t look like she’s going to keep spinning or dancing or plucking stems of lavender from people’s gardens.
***
Matthew turns up when everything at Lee’s has reached that pumping stage. Lee’s parents have gone out to a bar and – miraculously – the music’s been turned down and the cops haven’t turned up. Zin and I have been discussing the latest class break-up when she stops talking mid-sentence and elbows me.
‘He never turns up to these things,’ she says, nodding at Matthew Clarke. ‘He must be trying to make the most out of high school, too!’
‘Dear God,’ Lara says. ‘That would mean that there are two of you.’
Zin makes a growling noise.
A few people clap Matthew’s shoulder as he walks through the party, but nobody really stops to talk to him. He looks at me from the back doorway and I can’t tell if he recognises me from Fairyland or not. For a moment, I hold my breath. I wait for him to come out, to talk to me, but he doesn’t.
The party has an edge, like all the parties we’ve been to around here have. Mum calls it rowdy, but it’s more than that. People drinking more than they should. The smell of spray paint and the sound of things breaking.
‘Hey!’ Clem calls from one of the windows to Zin. ‘Your maths mate’s chucking in Lee’s parents’ room!’
‘Are you sure it’s Tahlia?’
‘It’s one hundred per cent Tahlia.’
‘Crap,’ mutters Zin. ‘She’s meant to be staying over tonight. I’d better go sort her out.’
‘You’re on your own,’ Lara says. ‘If I get that stomach bug right before volleyball training starts, I’m screwed.’
‘Like it’s a stomach bug,’ I say. ‘She’s just turned eighteen.’
Zin pulls a face. She drops a kiss on my head, gets to her feet and disappears inside, sidling past Matthew, who’s still in the doorway. Through the window, I see Clem sigh and follow her.
After a while, a girl wearing a very bright, floral dress from Year Twelve heads out into the garden and I elbow Lara in the ribs.
‘What?’ she snaps.
‘That’s the girl Zin’s been mooning over all year!’ I say. ‘Monica, right? We should go over there and put in a good word. Be wing-women!’
‘Zin will kill us.’
‘Not if we score her a date, she won’t.’ I stand up. ‘You coming?’
Lara shakes her head. ‘Nope. When I did lit with Monica last year, Zin told me she’d rip out all my teeth if I said anything.’
‘Sook.’
She shrugs. ‘Whatever.’
I go over to Monica, coming up with an action plan. I tell her about Zin and flowers. I feel a pat on my head as Zin’s details go zipping through to Monica’s phone.
I look up at Clem, who seems impossibly tall from where I’m sitting on the grass. ‘Can I steal you for a sec?’ he asks.
‘Sure.’ I stand up and we’re back to normal, with me just that little bit taller than him. ‘See ya,’ I say to Monica.
Monica smiles. ‘See ya, Stella. Thanks again!’
Clem tugs me towards the deck. He narrows his eyes, glancing from me to the garden and back again. ‘Zin told me she’d rip off both my arms if I talked to Monica Ravensleigh.’
‘Monica Ravensleigh is in charge of flowers at her sister’s wedding,’ I say. ‘I told her that Zin’s the biggest flower nut in Sutherbend and Monica’s going to message her for some advice.’
Clem considers this for a moment. ‘In that case, Zin might only rip off one of your arms.’
‘As if! She’ll be over the moon.’
‘We’re going to walk Tahlia back to Zin’s and hope she doesn’t puke on us.’ Clem pulls a face. ‘You know she drove here? Lara spotted her car outside. What sort of idiot drives to a party and then drinks that much?’
‘An idiot who’s just turned eighteen,’ I say, as my phone vibrates in my hand. There’s a message from Taylor, asking when I’ll be home.
‘Anyway – you coming with us?’
‘Think I might head home. Taylor’s just texted and I’ve gotta start job hunting tomorrow.’
‘I can walk you.’
‘Nah, it’s alright. Thanks though, Clem.’
Lara comes down from the deck. ‘You walked right past me, Clements! How’s Tahlia?’
‘Not great. We’ve gotta head; get her back to Zin’s.’
‘If she makes me sick, I’m never forgiving any of you.’
‘I’ve got nothing to do with it!’ says Clem.
Lara sighs and gets to her feet. I watch the two of them disappear inside. I brace, wanting to run after them. But I don’t. I need to get home. My phone buzzes with messages from Taylor.
‘C’mon,’ Joshua Bennett is saying in a low voice to his girlfriend, Chelsea. She leans backwards, towards the party, but Joshua tugs her out onto the deck.
‘No,’ says Chelsea. Joshua takes a better grip on her arm.
‘She said no,’ I point out.
Joshua glances at me, then away as though I haven’t spoken.
‘She said no!’ I yell, and a few people near the doors and windows look out at us.
‘Piss off,’ says Joshua.
Taken advantage of. Suddenly, all the anger I’ve been pushing down about everything starts to bubble up. Judy and Charlie. My dad at the track, not looking at me when I called him until the last horse had crossed the finish line. ‘If someone says no, you listen to them. Let her go.’
‘She’s my girlfriend – rack off.’ He goes to tug Chelsea across the deck again and she tries to pull free, but he’s so much bigger than her. I glance back and I can only really see soccer guys, and they all look uncomfortable. Nobody moves outside.
‘Mate, let her go,’ someone says, but their voice is uncertain. Joshua sets his jaw and Chelsea starts to cry, and I suppose his grip on her arm just tightened enough to really hurt her.
I channel Taylor, then. And every little thing I’m angry and confused about. Taken advantage of. I’m practically the same size as Joshua. I kick him as hard as I can in the shin and elbow him with all my strength in the stomach. He loses his footing and Chelsea pulls free and runs inside, where Matthew Clarke has just pushed through the crowd and come out onto the deck.