Between Friends by Jenny Harper Page A

gun.’ Hmmm.
    ‘Super Ficial.’ Maybe not.
    ‘D.A. Delight.’ Fucking hell. Now that was a name he hadn’t seen in a long time. D.A. Delight.
    Tom smiled radiantly at the screen and tapped in a message. Now he could really have some fun.

Chapter Nine
    ‘So he’s like, what ? And I was so embarrassed, Suzy, I just can’t tell you,’ Emily Harvie said into her mobile. She was lying on her bed, staring at the poster of her idol, Stephen Isserlis, wrapped around a cello and smiling at the camera like it was a woman he was about to seduce.
    ‘Forget it, Ems. You’ve sown the seed in his brain, haven’t you? And you can take it one step further at my party.’
    ‘Yeah, your party.’ Emily perked up at the thought of her friend Suzy’s party. ‘I’ve got to get some new clothes. My mum’s so mean though, I don’t know how I’ll do it.’
    ‘Do the old “all my friends are getting a new dress” routine. Never fails.’
    ‘You don’t know my mum. Still, I’ll work on her.’
    ‘You need to look really wicked to get Robbie’s attention.’
    ‘Robbie,’ Emily sighed dreamily. ‘Do you really think I’ve got a chance, Suze?’
    ‘Course you have, you’re sweet looking and clever, too, and he likes clever girls.’
    ‘He’s so much older. I don’t think he thinks I’m cool.’
    ‘That’s why the new dress is important.’
    ‘Yeah, I know.’ The sound of a snigger outside her bedroom door triggered an alarm in Emily’s head. ‘Listen, Suzy, gotta go. See you in the morning.’
    ‘See you, Ems. Bye.’
    While she was saying these last words, Emily was crossing the floor of her bedroom and now she flung open the door to find Ross darting across the landing towards his own room.
    ‘Stop, you sneaky little brat! Come here.’
    Ross turned and stuck his tongue out, his round face cheeky. ‘Emily fancies Robbie,’ he chanted. ‘Emily fancies Robbie.’
    ‘Shut up !’
    Ross turned and faced her, crossing his arms across his chest. Already his figure was filling out and his shoulders were becoming broader and squarer. He was shaping up to have his father’s stocky frame. ‘Robbie Jamieson’s really into drugs,’ he said knowingly.
    ‘He so is not!’
    ‘Is.’
    ‘He’s not. Anyway, how would you know?’
    ‘His brother Sandy’s in my class, remember? He tells me stuff.’
    ‘I don’t believe you. Robbie’s really cool.’
    ‘I’ll tell Mum you’re going to get off with him.’
    ‘You will not! Why would you do that?’
    ‘Keep my big sister safe,’ he smirked.
    Emily strode across the landing and grabbed her brother by the T-shirt. ‘You dare and I’ll kill you,’ she said threateningly.
    ‘Oh, I’m really scared.’
    It had been some years since Emily could dominate Ross physically. She let go of the T-shirt with a small thrust and studied him. ‘Okay,’ she said. ‘What do you want?’
    Ross pretended to think. ‘Let me see—’
    ‘ Ross. ’
    ‘Okay, okay. You know I’m off to school camp soon? I want to borrow your iPod.’
    ‘But you’re away a whole week!’
    ‘Yup.’
    ‘That’s too much.’
    ‘I’ll just go and tell her now, shall I?’ He moved towards the top of the stairs.
    ‘All right, all right,’ Emily said hastily. ‘You’re a smelly toad though.’
    ‘And you’re a smelly armpit,’ Ross giggled and ducked into his room as Emily’s hand flashed out at him.
    She could hear him laughing inside his room. Having little brothers was such a pain.
    Casting aside her irritation, she set her mind instead on the challenge ahead: getting finance for a new, Robbie-catching outfit. She skipped down the stairs and into the kitchen.
    ‘Hi.’
    Her mother looked round from the stove, where she was staring vacantly at a saucepan of spaghetti that was bubbling and spluttering and dribbling over the rim and down in spurts onto the worn white enamel.
    ‘It’s boiling over, Mum.’
    ‘Mmm?’
    ‘The saucepan.’
    As her mother continued to stare at