Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 05] by Dates Mates, Sole Survivors (Html) Page B

know that.’
    ‘Everyone knows that,
TJ.’
    ‘Do they? Oh, sorry.
I’m not the one to talk to about fashion, am I?’
    ‘Goddesses, yes;
fashion, maybe no.’
    ‘But I do know that
you have your own style and it suits you, Lucy. Remember when Nesta gave me
that makeover and made me look like a Barbie doll. It wasn’t me at all. It made
me realise that you have to trust your own judgement about what suits you and
not let others impose their ideas on you.’
    I laughed. She was
right. TJ, maybe you don’t know the names, but I think that you know more than
you realise.‘
    TJ looked at me with
concern. ‘I hope you don’t mind me asking, Lucy, but… well, it’s just, you do
seem different since you met Daniel and I wondered if… are you having a good
time?’
    ‘Yeah. I mean, I know
we had a bit of a glitch when I showed him my designs, but apart from that,
we’ve done loads of things together. I feel like I’ve discovered London. We’ve
been everywhere.’
    ‘I know, but… you
could do all that with anyone -with a teacher or your mum. I mean, do you have
a good time, a laugh? Silly times and serious times when you really talk, you
know, about what you want and all your plans? About how you feel?’
    That made me think. We
didn’t really. He talked, or rather, lectured. He liked an audience and I did
find what he had to say interesting. But no, we didn’t talk about personal
stuff, not really, and we certainly never got silly. I couldn’t imagine Daniel
being silly. He’s far too busy trying to be sophisticated, I told myself. But
that’s what I like about him. He’s different.
    ‘OK,’ said Izzie,
coming back in with a huge box of Liquorice Allsorts. ‘Let’s do Lucy’s cards
next.’
    Nesta followed her in
carrying a tray full of tortilla chips and Pringles and Diet Cokes.
    Izzie handed me the
cards and told me to shuffle them while thinking about my question.
    What’s going to happen
with Daniel? I thought. What’s going to happen with Daniel? Then I laid out the
cards as Izzie told me.
    ‘OK,’ she started.
‘Hmmm. The first card is the Page of Swords.’ She flicked through her book then
read what it said. ‘This card denotes a young man with a strong will. He’s very
clever, but can be ruthless and unconcerned about the feelings of others.’
    TJ gave me a knowing
look. I guess that’s true, I thought. He wasn’t very sensitive when he looked
at my designs.
    ‘And it’s crossing the
Page of Wands. Another boy. Oh, that’s interesting. Hmmm, some kind of conflict
coming up, I’m afraid, as there’s the Lovers card as well.’
    ‘That’s good, isn’t
it?’ I said.
    ‘It can be - let me
just look it up,’ said Izzie, turning to her book again. ‘It says that you have
a choice ahead of you, and the other cards are saying that you need to
reassess.’ Just at that moment, my mobile rang. ‘Daniel,’ I said.
    ‘Just checking in,’ he
said. ‘What are you wearing?’
    ‘Oh, jeans and a
T-shirt. It’s only us here.’
    ‘Ah, but us designers,
we’re the ambassadors of style. Wherever we are, whatever we’re doing.’
    Oh, get a life said
pre-menstrual twin in my head. Who does he think he is? The fashion police?
    After that, we went
downstairs to watch the
Pop Idol
video. Talk about taking criticism, I
thought, as we watched some of the judges destroy people’s performances. It was
funny, though, especially a girl who sang ‘YMCA’ really out of tune. Then
Daniel phoned
again
.
    ‘I miss my little
bear,’ he said. ‘What are you doing?’
    ‘Watching
Pop Idol
,’
I said.
    ‘Oh, that rubbish.’
    ‘It’s not rubbish,’ I
said. ‘It’s great.’
    ‘Well, you’re
obviously enjoying yourself, so I’ll leave you to it,’ he said huffily. ‘When
am I seeing you next?’
    ‘I have to pick up
some business cards for Mum in Hampstead tomorrow morning, so in the
afternoon?’
    ‘Great,’ he said. ‘We
could go round Camden.’
    ‘Fine,’ I said. I
wished