The Beauty in Between: Too Close (A Beautiful Series Novella) Read online

  “I’m so sick of your fucking bullshit!” was the first sentence I heard after being pulled from my sleep by my parents’ fighting. It was my mother. She was yelling at my father for spending all of our money. Again. “You have a wife and a fourteen-year-old son that you’re supposed to care for. But all you give a shit about is fucking gambling and drinking. I’ve had it with you!” she screeched.

  My ears actually reverberated from the shrill pitch of her voice. This was the loudest they had ever been. I could hear my dad say something in return, but it only came through the wall as a muffled yell.

  Sighing, I decided that I couldn’t stand another night of listening to them fight. I sat up in my bed and pulled on a pair of tracksuit pants and my runners. Then I climbed out the window and headed to Katrina’s place, jumped her side fence and tapped on her window.

  “Trina!” I whispered as loud as I could without talking. “Trina!”

  After a few moments, her blind went up. That was probably the first time I really saw her – as a girl, I mean. She was wearing a sports crop top and a pair of satin Mickey Mouse boxer shorts and with me going through puberty at the time, I felt a bit of a stirring down below.

  Immediately, I dropped my gaze, pushing any thoughts that were at odds with our friendship as deep down as I could. “Jesus Trina. Put some clothes on!”

  “What?” she said looking down at herself. “This is what I sleep in.”

  “Just put on a shirt or something.”

  “Fine,” she grumbled, grabbing a shirt from the back of her desk chair. “What are you doing here anyway?”

  “Can I crash here? My mum and dad are screaming at each other.”

  “Sure,” she said immediately, sliding her window open fully and popping out the fly screen so I could climb through.

  “You’ll have to bunk in with me though. If I go wandering about the house to get you blankets and a pillow, someone might hear me, and they’ll go off their nut.”

  “Really? How often have you gotten in trouble for walking around the house at night?”

  “Never. I don’t leave my room.”

  “Not even to go to the toilet?”

  “I don’t normally wake up. So no.”

  “Trina, it will be fine. Just go and get me a pillow and blanket, so I can sleep on the floor. It might be a bit weird sleeping in your bed with you.”

  “How is it going to be weird?” she asked me, hands on hips. “You’re like my brother.”

  For reasons I didn’t understand at the time, a heavy feeling landed with a thud in the pit of my stomach. “Would you sleep in the same bed as your brother?”

  “Of course I would.”

  “Fine,” I conceded, taking off my shoes and climbing in. “You know we could sleep either end.”

  “David! What’s your problem? You can sleep with nothing on the floor if it bothers you that much – but I can guarantee you that I will kick you back out that window if you put your stinky foot anywhere near my face. Now move over.”

  I slid up against the wall in the single bed to make enough space for her to get in.

  “This is kind of nice,” she told me smiling as she propped herself up on her elbow peering into my face through the moonlight. “We’ve never had a sleep over before.”

  “Not from a lack of asking,” I laughed.

  “Yeah… they never really went for it did they?” When I didn’t respond, she nudged me gently. “So, how bad is it this time anyway?”

  “Pretty bad, I guess. I didn’t really hang around long to listen this time.”

  “Do you think they’ll check your room for you?”

  I shook my head. “I doubt it. They’re pretty focused on screaming right now.”

  Pressing her lips together, she flicked her hair over her shoulder causing my saliva to thicken for some reason.

  “Cassie told me she likes you,” she said after a while.

  “Does she? Is she the tiny one with the curly hair?”

  “Yeah… she asked me to… I don’t know. This is stupid,” she huffed out, rolling onto her back.

  I got up on my elbow, so I could see her face properly. “What? What’s stupid?”

  Sighing she said, “She asked me to find out if you like her too.” She brought her forearm up to cover her eyes and groaned. “Good, I feel like I’m in primary school doing this!”

  “Then why are you?”

  “I don’t know. She keeps asking me to…”

  “Hmm. Well, my answer is – I don’t know. I hardly know her.”

  “God, I can’t tell her that!”

  “Why not? It’s the truth.”

  “Because, she’ll get all upset.” She got back up on her elbow and faced me. “Don’t you want a girlfriend though? Everyone seems to be so interested in pairing up lately. Aren’t you?”

  “Not really.”

  “Why? Don’t you want to kiss a girl, see what it’s all like?”

  “Who’s to say I haven’t.”

  “Me. I know you David. You’ve never kissed a girl before.”

  “So? You’ve never kissed a boy.”

  “That’s not because I don’t want to though – they’re just not interested in me.”

  “Of course they’re interested Trina! Listen, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. The guys are more interested in sports and farting than they are girls. I mean, they talk about them and stuff, but I don’t think that we’re as into this boyfriend girlfriend stuff as you girls are… Well, at least I know I’m not anyway.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I don’t want to hang out with them instead of you. If you really want a boyfriend, then fine – I can tell you who thinks you’re hot, but once we hook up with other people, then that’s our friendship time over. We only get to hang out after school, and if we start pretending to be all serious about relationships and stuff then we’ll lose that time too. I don’t want that. I don’t want to stop hanging out with you, just so I can start pashing some girl who’s going to take up all my time.”

  Letting a short laugh come out her nose, she said, “I never thought about it like that. Maybe we can just hook up with people at parties for fun like some of the others do – avoid the whole relationship issue.”

  “Trina, you’re too good for that kind of thing.”

  She let out her breath and turned onto her back, staring at the ceiling for a moment before looking back at me. “I’m glad you know.”

  “What about?”

  “You not wanting to date Cassie. I was worried that you’d go out with her and wouldn’t want to hang out with me anymore.”

  I slid my arm under her shoulders, and she moved so her head was resting on my chest. “Never Trina. I’d never stop hanging out with you.”

  ***

  We both awoke with a start when Katrina’s door knob began to jiggle from side to side, followed by a thumping knock and her mum’s voice.

  “Katrina! Why is your door locked? You know I hate it when you do that. What if there was a fire, and we couldn’t get you out?!”

  Trina sat bolt upright and stared at me wide eyed. “Shit,” she whispered. “Get out of here!”

  “She’ll hear me!” I hissed.

  “Mum! Let me sleep!” she called out in a mock sleep-drunk voice.

  “You have school young lady! Get your butt out of bed now!”

  “Fine, just give me a minute to get dressed. I’m allowed to have privacy for that you know.”

  “Just be out for breakfast in ten minutes, or I’ll take the sim card from your phone.”

  “Harsh,” I whispered, half smiling over the exchange. Katrina’s mum was pretty strict. But she meant well. I actually thought she was pretty cool.

  Reaching over to her bedside table, Katrina activated her iPod so HIM’s version of ‘Wicked Game’ filled her room.

  Taking the loud music as my cue, I slid my feet into my shoes and headed for the window, once again removing the screen, so I could climb thro
ugh.

  Standing on the ground outside, I leaned in. “Thanks for last night Trina. You could have gotten into a lot of trouble.”

  “Just go or I will be in a lot of trouble… and you’re welcome,” she smiled, leaning on her window sill, so we were eye level. I don’t know why I did it, but I grabbed her face and kissed her. It was a soft kiss, involving only our lips, but still, it took my breath a moment to return to me.

  When I pulled back, Katrina’s cheeks were bright pink and her eyes were wide with surprise. “Now you don’t have to wonder,” I told her with a wink.

  All of a sudden, realisation dawned on her face, and she hit me in the shoulder. “Thanks a fucking lot. You just stole my first kiss,” she laughed, only half meaning what she was saying. “You’re a dick. Go home!” Rolling her eyes at me, she lifted the screen back into the frame.

  “Hey, at least you’ll always remember me now,” I told her, curling one side of my mouth into a grin as I peered at her through the screen. She simply shook her head at me, smiling the whole time I helped her fix the fly screen back in place. I then took off for home, climbed back through my own window and walked out of my room as if I’d been there all along.

  When I reached the end of the hallway, I could see my mother sitting at the kitchen table, her head in her hands as she sat in her dressing gown, hunched over a cup of coffee. The moment she looked up at me, I could tell that she’d been crying all night.

  Instantly, guilt stabbed like a knife through my gut. She must have gone into my room and found me gone. She probably thought I ran away.

  “Mum…” I started, attempting to apologise as I stepped toward her.

  “He’s gone,” she told me hoarsely, a tear rolling out of her already swollen eyes. She swiped at it, quickly removing it from her face. “He left us.”

  “Bullshit,” I said. It was the first thing that popped out of my mouth in response to my father leaving. I had known this was possible, actually, I thought I wanted it. But to be faced with the reality of it… well, it was sickening in a way.

  Immediately, my mother reprimanded me. “David Anthony Taylor! Watch your language!”

  “I’m sorry mum,” I said, taking a seat across from her.

  She released a loaded breath and looked out the window. “You’re right though. It is bullshit. I can’t believe he chose poker machines and alcohol over us,” she squeaked out, tears falling down her face readily now.

  Standing up from my chair, I walked around the table and hugged my mother as tight as I could. “We’ll be fine mum. You’ll see. We’ll be just fine without him.”

  Chapter Three

  By the time year ten rolled around the guys and girls group had basically merged. As a result, Katrina and I had undergone our fair share of scrutiny because of how close we were. We have always freely hugged and sat near to each other, so everyone wanted to know what was going on between us.

  Further suspicion arose when I wouldn’t let any of the guys talk about her as if she was a hole to be plundered, along with the fact that while I was interested in some of the girls in our year group, I still wasn’t willing to do the whole boyfriend/girlfriend thing.

  It was about three months into year ten when the school put on a big disco in the assembly hall. It was totally lame, and we were supposed to get all dressed up in retro clothes like we were from the sixties or something. The girls got really into it and so did a few of the guys, but most of us just turned up in our regular jeans and a T-shirt.

  Cassie, the girl who Katrina has told me about a couple of years before, was giving me ‘the look’ and feeling a little mellow after drinking some of my friend Brett’s coke laced with bourbon, I decided to follow her when she indicated that she was going out onto the oval.

  It was pitch black when I stepped out around the building, so I wasn’t really prepared when she jumped on me and practically shoved her tongue down my throat. I stumbled forward, bracing myself against the brick wall to regain my balance. She was like a leech, attached to my face.

  Since she was short, I lifted her up and sat her straddled on my knee, which caused something unexpected to happen. She started grinding herself against me, moaning into my mouth and causing my body to react in the way that a guy’s body normally does.

  “I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long,” she gasped, breaking the kiss and pushing herself against me. “I was worried you didn’t want me.” She tilted her pelvis forward, pressing it against my crotch. “But you so obviously do.”

  I let out a groan that I just couldn’t hold in, and she took this as a sign to move forward. She reached her hand between us and tried to undo my pants. But I didn’t want this to go any further. I still hardly knew the girl. She was more Katrina’s friend than she was mine.

  “Cassie. Not here ok,” I told her, pulling back and setting her onto the ground.

  “What’s the problem David?” she cooed. “We’re both sixteen. It's not like we’re doing anything illegal.”

  “Um, I’m pretty sure it’s illegal to whip my dick out in public.”

  “Hmmm, well, maybe some other time,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away, disappearing round the corner, leaving me confused and on my own.

  I waited a few moments until I was able to present myself in public again and re-entered the hall. The moment I stepped in, Brett slapped me on the back and congratulated me, handing me the bottle of spiked coke.

  “What for?” I asked in bewilderment. I’d made out with a girl. It wasn’t the first time. I didn’t understand what the big deal was.

  “For popping Cassie’s cherry,” he informed me.

  “For what?! But I didn’t.” Suddenly I felt sick. I didn’t want this to be happening.

  “Don’t act all coy dude. The girls are all over there talking about it. She told them all you have this giant cock and you rocked her world. And dude, I’m inclined to believe her. I’ve seen that thing of yours at the urinal – it’s unnatural,” he laughed as he walked over to some of the other guys.

  My first instinct was to find Katrina. I needed to tell her it wasn’t true. I didn’t want her to think I’d screw a girl against the wall of the school - I wasn't like that.

  “Hey man,” Terry, one of the guys in my group called out to me, motioning for me to join them. I walked quickly toward them still scanning for Trina on my way.

  The moment I joined them, I think every guy I knew slapped my back in congratulations. It was like I’d won something and no matter how much I objected, not one of them believed me.

  “Man, those girls are just giving up their virginity lately – we’re all gonna get lucky! Ever since Mara and Aaron started, they all seem to want to be in on it,” Brian observed.

  “What the hell?” I mumbled, my eyebrows furrowed so deeply that they were hooding my eyes. “Have you seen Trina?” I asked, still looking for her.

  “I don’t know man. I think Ben was trying to make a play for her. You know he’s got a thing for her.”

  “What? Fuck!” I spat out, embarking on a huge search for her. Eventually, I found her sitting on a silver bench with Ben. They were really close, and he was touching her face. It felt as though the bottom of my stomach fell out as I watched him lean forward and kiss her. It wasn’t one of those frantic kisses like the one Cassie gave me – thank god, had I witnessed that, I might have punched Ben in the face.

  By the time I reached them, they had their foreheads pressed together and were grinning stupidly at each other. They didn’t even see me coming.

  Feeling this surge of protectiveness inside me, all I could see was the need to get Trina out of there. I wasn’t going to let any of those guys touch her. Not one of them was deserving. I reached out and grabbed her arm, pulling her up from the seat and surprising both of them.

  “We’re leaving,” was all I said as I dragged her away from him.

  “David!” she squealed.

  “What the fuck man?!” Ben called after us, jumping up to follo
w as I stormed across the main quad with Katrina in tow.

  “Just fuck off alright,” I said to him, pausing momentarily, before continuing to head toward the front of the school.

  “She’s not your property Dave," he called after us, before adding, "I’ll call you tomorrow Trina,” before turning back toward the building.

  “What the hell are you doing?” she yelled at me, yanking her arm free.

  “I’m getting you out of there. You don’t know how those guys talk Trina! I don’t want you involved with them.”

  “He wasn’t doing anything wrong! I wanted him to kiss me, and you ruined it. You ruined my first kiss David. I hope you’re proud of yourself.”

  Hearing her say that made me stop dead in my tracks, I spun around to face her and grabbed her face in my hands, staring straight into her eyes. “I was your first kiss Trina. Me. Not some guy you hooked up with at a dance.”

  “That wasn’t a real kiss.”

  Instantly, I released her and started to walk to the front gate. It was as if she’d slapped me.

  “Besides, he’s not just some guy David. I’ve liked him for a while.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?” I asked flatly, leaning against the cool metal of the fence.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know, the same reason we don’t talk about the girls you hook up with at parties. We keep our friendship separate from all that dating crap, at least I thought that’s what we did anyway…” she said, trailing off as she pulled her phone out of her pocket and pressed the button to light up the screen.

  “Listen Trina, there’s something I want to talk to you about. There’s a rumour that’s – What? What is it?” I asked, immediately concerned when she looked up from her phone, her mouth wide open and her brows furrowed deeply.

  “You are such a hypocrite!” she yelled, pushing against my chest and holding her phone in front of my face. I could see the message on the screen telling her that I’d slept with Cassie.

  “It’s not true! She lied!”