pocket, she pulled out a packaged oat and raisin bar and walked over to the boxes. Kneeling down, she pressed the bar into the man’s hand.
‘Thanks, love,’ croaked the voice that was connected to the hand. ‘Liked those crisps you brought me yesterday, though,’ the voice added.
‘I’ll get another packet for you tomorrow,’ Hannah promised. Then she stood and rejoined India.
‘What was that all about?’ India asked as they continued on down the road.
‘That’s Fred,’ Hannah replied. ‘Offered him my muesli bar once on the way home from the museum and I’ve just sort of been dropping something off to him every day since. I like him, he’s always so friendly. I remember once back home I tried to buy a homeless woman a sausage sandwich for her lunch and she spat on me and told me to piss off unless I had any money or cigarettes for her.’
‘Seriously?’ India exclaimed. Then she grinned. ‘Ahh, Hannah, you’re a good kid, aren’t you? Sorry about shaking you before; you’re just a bit infuriating, that’s all.’
They picked up a bottle of wine and a large margarita pizza on the way back to Hannah’s flat. ‘I don’t have a DVD player,’ Hannah apologised as they headed up the creaking stairs, ‘but there’s usually an old movie on Channel 4 or 5 every night.’
Once inside, Hannah rushed to tidy up the few items of clothing that were strewn around the single-room flat, bundling everything up and tossing it onto the bed. Then they set themselves down on the floor with the pizza box open between them and a couple of plastic wine goblets, filled with generous amounts of the red wine they had just bought. After flicking through the channels, they settled on a nineties romantic comedy. They chatted through the ad breaks and India felt pleased as she watched Hannah begin to relax and ease into her own skin. Maybe it was time to ask her some more probing questions?
Hannah was beginning to enjoy herself. She didn’t know how she had come to invite India back to her place for a girls’ night. A girls’ night! As if she even knew what one of those involved. It had been far too long since she’d had girlfriends.
But she’d had the feeling that India was getting fed up. Their friendship was completely one-sided, with India pretty much carrying her.
Take, take, take. She needed to put some effort in. She needed to give a little.
Hannah hadn’t had any close friends since she had left her first high school at the end of year nine when her parents had split up. Her mum had immediately pulled her out of Plumpton High and moved them to a small apartment in Neutral Bay and enrolled her at North Sydney Girls’ High.
None of the girls at her new school were keen to accept a girl from out west into any of their cliquey little groups and mostly seemed to look down on her and her Doc Martens boots. She tried to remain friends with her old group from Plumpton, even sneaking out one night to visit that nightclub in Penrith with them, despite the fact that they were only sixteen at the time – but she soon drifted apart from them as well. While the North Shore girls looked down on her, her old friends began to think that she was most probably beginning to look down on them, and so Hannah remained stuck in the middle, friendless and lonely.
Hannah wasn’t particularly close to her family either. She and her father got along okay – they just didn’t have much to talk about. Perhaps an unspoken blame still hung in the air between them from when her father had first left her mother. And although his new wife had always been perfectly nice, Hannah had just never really known how to build any sort of relationship with her. Hannah thought back to the fantasies she used to have when she was fifteen and her parents had first divorced. Her dad was quick to remarry and Hannah had always suspected that he must have been having an affair with this new woman, because otherwise their relationship had moved
‘Thanks, love,’ croaked the voice that was connected to the hand. ‘Liked those crisps you brought me yesterday, though,’ the voice added.
‘I’ll get another packet for you tomorrow,’ Hannah promised. Then she stood and rejoined India.
‘What was that all about?’ India asked as they continued on down the road.
‘That’s Fred,’ Hannah replied. ‘Offered him my muesli bar once on the way home from the museum and I’ve just sort of been dropping something off to him every day since. I like him, he’s always so friendly. I remember once back home I tried to buy a homeless woman a sausage sandwich for her lunch and she spat on me and told me to piss off unless I had any money or cigarettes for her.’
‘Seriously?’ India exclaimed. Then she grinned. ‘Ahh, Hannah, you’re a good kid, aren’t you? Sorry about shaking you before; you’re just a bit infuriating, that’s all.’
They picked up a bottle of wine and a large margarita pizza on the way back to Hannah’s flat. ‘I don’t have a DVD player,’ Hannah apologised as they headed up the creaking stairs, ‘but there’s usually an old movie on Channel 4 or 5 every night.’
Once inside, Hannah rushed to tidy up the few items of clothing that were strewn around the single-room flat, bundling everything up and tossing it onto the bed. Then they set themselves down on the floor with the pizza box open between them and a couple of plastic wine goblets, filled with generous amounts of the red wine they had just bought. After flicking through the channels, they settled on a nineties romantic comedy. They chatted through the ad breaks and India felt pleased as she watched Hannah begin to relax and ease into her own skin. Maybe it was time to ask her some more probing questions?
Hannah was beginning to enjoy herself. She didn’t know how she had come to invite India back to her place for a girls’ night. A girls’ night! As if she even knew what one of those involved. It had been far too long since she’d had girlfriends.
But she’d had the feeling that India was getting fed up. Their friendship was completely one-sided, with India pretty much carrying her.
Take, take, take. She needed to put some effort in. She needed to give a little.
Hannah hadn’t had any close friends since she had left her first high school at the end of year nine when her parents had split up. Her mum had immediately pulled her out of Plumpton High and moved them to a small apartment in Neutral Bay and enrolled her at North Sydney Girls’ High.
None of the girls at her new school were keen to accept a girl from out west into any of their cliquey little groups and mostly seemed to look down on her and her Doc Martens boots. She tried to remain friends with her old group from Plumpton, even sneaking out one night to visit that nightclub in Penrith with them, despite the fact that they were only sixteen at the time – but she soon drifted apart from them as well. While the North Shore girls looked down on her, her old friends began to think that she was most probably beginning to look down on them, and so Hannah remained stuck in the middle, friendless and lonely.
Hannah wasn’t particularly close to her family either. She and her father got along okay – they just didn’t have much to talk about. Perhaps an unspoken blame still hung in the air between them from when her father had first left her mother. And although his new wife had always been perfectly nice, Hannah had just never really known how to build any sort of relationship with her. Hannah thought back to the fantasies she used to have when she was fifteen and her parents had first divorced. Her dad was quick to remarry and Hannah had always suspected that he must have been having an affair with this new woman, because otherwise their relationship had moved
Similar Books
