Music From Standing Waves by Johanna Craven Page B

to sleep with Mia?”
    He rested his forehead against mine. “Abby, I
always thought you would be my first. Not Mia. I don’t want to be
with her.” He sat up and stared at me. “I want you, Abby. I
always have. I’m sorry I didn’t do the ball with you. I don’t know
what I was thinking.”
    I kissed him softly and slid my singlet top
over my head.
    “Are you sure about this?” he said.
    I took a deep breath. “Yes. Are you?”
    Justin nodded. “Hell yeah. I’m sure.”
    I stretched back against the warm
floorboards. Justin threw off his shirt and lay over me; his bare
skin hot and sticky against mine. My heart was thumping. He began
to kiss my neck; his lips sliding along my collarbone. He slipped
my bra strap off my shoulder. I felt my breathing quicken. Suddenly
Justin pulled away.
    I opened my eyes. “What is it?”
    “It’s Mia,” he hissed. “I heard her voice,
she’s on the stairs.” He pushed my top into my hands. “You have to
hide. Get behind the curtain or something.”
    “What?! You arsehole!”
    “Come on Abby, just do it.” He fumbled with
his shirt buttons. “Please.” He grabbed my hand and pulled me off
the floor. “Over there,” he hissed, steering me into the corner. I
heard him open the door to Mia.
    “Hey baby,” she sung. I heard them kiss.
Justin led her to the glass doors. I could hear their voices as I
slunk past them into the hallway.
    “What have you been doing up here, baby?
Simon told me you were up here.”
    “Nothing. Just waiting for you.”
     
    I ran back to the caravan park, tears
streaming down my face and my stupid stiff curls sliding free from
their hairpins. Shoes in hand, I raced into the lounge and flopped
face first onto the couch. I hugged a cushion to my chest and began
to sob; my shoulders heaving as I gasped for breath. I reached up
and grabbed the blanket that was thrown over the back of the sofa.
Curled into a ball and wrapped it around me like a shell. I yanked
the last pins from my hair and flung them across the room. They
bounced off the TV screen. My sticky hair fell over my eyes. It
stank of hairspray and stale cigarettes.
    I gulped down my tears and curled up in the
stillness of Acacia Beach. Inside, the kitchen tap dripped.
Outside, frogs twittered. I rolled onto my stomach and fell into an
uneasy sleep.
     
    I woke up as Nick stumbled through the back
door and let the fly screen slam.
    “What the hell are you doing home?” He
collapsed on the end of the couch and jerked me out of my daze.
“Big night?”
    I poked my head out of the blanket.
    “Your makeup’s all run. You look like
shit.”
    I sat up angrily. “Yeah well you stink.”
    Nick pulled the blanket off me and wrapped it
around his shoulders. I shuffled onto the arm of the couch and
stared at him. His blonde hair was tangled over the cushion. Dark
shadows underlined his eyes.
    “So what is it?” My head was throbbing. “What
are you taking that makes your life so wonderful?”
    Nick rolled onto his side so I couldn’t see
his face. “Stay out of it, Abby. It’s got nothing to do with
you.”
    “Yeah right! I’m the one who has to pick up
the fucking syringes you leave on the floor in the toilets!”
    Nick sighed. “They’re not mine, okay.”
    “Bullshit!”
    “Would you shut up!” he hissed. “Do you want
to wake her?”
    I picked at the hem of the blanket.
    “So how was the ball?” Nick asked finally. “I
was going to come down to the party but-”
    “But what? But you were too stoned to even
remember your name?” I shook my head in disgust. “You need to get a
life.”
    Nick snorted. “You’re an arrogant shit,
Abigail, you know that? You know nothing about anything. You’re
going to die of shock if you ever get out of this place.”
    I leapt off the couch. “What would you know?
You don’t know the first thing about me!”
    Nick let his hand fall over his eyes. “Yeah
and you sure as hell know everything there is to know