And Baby Makes Two

Shanee kept nodding and looking around.

“Everything will be colour co-ordinated eventually.”

Shanee gave me a look. “So does this mean that Les will be moving in?”

“Of course,” I said. “It’s what we’ve been waiting for.”

“Well, that’s really great.” Shanee let go of her carrier bags and gave me a hug. “Then he’ll be coming with you tomorrow night.”

“’Fraid not. He’s been held up at his mum’s.”

Shanee was looking at me the same way she’d looked at me when the socks fell out of Shinola’s blanket.

“But you’re still coming, aren’t you?” she asked. “You have to come.”

“I know… I have to meet Guy.”

Shanee waved Guy away with one hand. “Not any more. Now you have to meet Andy.” She laughed. “I met him on Christmas Eve at Edna Husser’s. He’s a friend of her brother’s.”

I had to laugh, too. “You’ve changed a bit. You never used to go out with blokes at all and now you’re running through men like they’re traffic lights.”

“You know what they say,” said Shanee.

“Make hay while the sun shines?” I guessed. It was one of my nan’s.

“No,” said Shanee. “You’re only young once.”

I spent most of New Year’s Eve day debating whether to go to Shanee’s party or not. Should I? Shouldn’t I? Should I? Shouldn’t I? At about nine o’clock, when everyone on the telly was gearing up for the big hour, I decided that I should. Madonna would have.

But the minute Shanee opened the door I knew that I’d made a mistake.

“Lana!” she shrieked. “I can’t believe it! You actually came.”

Already I didn’t know why I had. One minute I was sitting there on my own in my new, empty flat with nothing to do, listening to the echoes, seeing Les in his yellow shirt dancing like John Travolta. And the next I was getting me and Shinola into our velvet dresses.

“I didn’t realize it was casual,” I mumbled. From what I could see, lots of the girls were in jeans or leggings with see-through or sequinned tops. And almost all of them were wearing black or grey, or some combination of black and grey. Red was obviously not the in-colour this season.

“You look beautiful,” Shanee assured me. “Very mature.”

I took this to mean “old”.

Shanee was wearing a dress for a change, but it didn’t have a lace collar and cuffs. It didn’t have any collar or cuffs. It was long and gauzy and in layers. The top layer was black but underneath it was purple and, underneath that, red. It was very sexy in a quiet sort of way. I’d never seen Shanee look sexy before. It was a bit of a shock.

“You look pretty mature, too,” I said.

Shanee grabbed my arm. “Come on, let’s put Shinola in my room, then I’ll introduce you to everyone.”

“Right,” I said. “Brilliant.”

I followed her through the mob. A couple of people looked at me as if I was carrying an orangutan and not a human baby, but mostly nobody seemed to see me. Nobody waved hello or anything. I recognized a few faces, but not as many as you’d think.

“You’ve certainly made a lot of new friends since I left school,” I joked.

“Yeah,” said Shanee. “I suppose I have. There’s so much going on.”

I laughed. “Yeah, I know.” There was a lot going on in my life, too, only it all seemed to be going in a circle.

Shanee giggled. “Who ever thought growing up would be so much fun?”

“Not me,” I said.

Shinola, of course, was not about to go to sleep just because I wanted her to. She was in play mode.

“I have to get back to the party,” said Shanee. She made a face. “The responsibilities of the hostess. Come and get me when she’s asleep.”

“Sure,” I said. “If I can still recognize you by then.”

I sat on Shanee’s bed while I waited for Shinola to nod off. A boy and a girl I didn’t know poked their heads in once, looking for the snogging room, but other than that we were on our own.

Being in Shanee’s room was like going back in time. She still had every photo we’d ever taken of ourselves stuck around her mirror. And she still had the picture of us with her mum and the kids standing in the rain at Thorpe Park. And the traffic cone we found in the road. And her James Dean poster on the wall. I thought about how many hours of my life I’d spent looking at that poster while me and Shanee talked. Hundreds. Maybe thousands. I could actually see us sitting there. We were eating biscuits and spraying crumbs everywhere when we laughed.

Shanee was in a clinch in the kitchen when I finally found her.

She didn’t even look embarrassed.

“Lana,” she gushed. “This is Andy. Andy, this is Lana.”

Andy was possibly the most gorgeous bloke I’d ever seen in real life. He wasn’t my type – he had a long ponytail and a nose-ring – but he was incredible to look at. Like a film star. Like Johnny Depp. He had to be at least twenty.

Andy said, “How’s it goin’, Lana?” And ran one hand down Shanee’s side.

“I’ll be right out,” Shanee promised. She kind of bumped her hip into Andy’s hip. “I came in for more food. Amie and Gerri are out there. Ask them to introduce you to anyone you don’t know.”

“OK,” I said. “I’ll see you in a bit.”

I couldn’t get Amie’s attention. She was laughing her head off with two boys I didn’t know. They didn’t go to our school, that was for sure.

I couldn’t get Gerri’s attention either. She was in the snogging room.

I wandered round, picking at the snacks and smiling as if I was having a good time. I got a beer and tried to mingle. I stood on the edge of a group of people and listened with a smile on my face. But they were all talking about people and things that had nothing to do with me. I got another beer. The beer made me feel a little better. I stood myself in a corner and kind of swayed to the music, like I was waiting for someone to ask me to dance.

And then I spotted Gary Lightfoot over by the drinks table. He used to be in my form. He’d always been a bit gawky and stupid, but he was a friendly face, so I gave him a smile. It was like waving a red flag at a bull. He was beside me so fast I bumped into the wall.

“Lana,” said Gary. “Long time no see. How’s it goin’?”

I said it was going great. How about him?

“Brilliant,” said Gary. “So everything’s all right?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Everything’s great.”

He was smiling at me like he was posing for a photograph.

“So,” Gary cleared his throat. “Did you have the kid?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I had the kid.” I nodded towards the hall. “She’s sleeping in Shanee’s room.”

“Brilliant.” Gary nodded. “So what’s its name?”

“She’s a girl,” I said. “Her name’s Shinola.”

Gary’s smile started to quiver.

“You what?”

“Shinola. It means beauti—”

“Shinola?” Gary’s smile was all over the place. “You mean like the shoe polish?”

“Shoe polish?” I wasn’t smiling at all. “What are you on about, shoe polish?”

“Shinola,” said Gary. “It’s a shoe polish.”

“No, it isn’t.” Not only was I not smiling, I was hardly moving my lips. “It means beautiful morning. In African.”

Gary gave up trying not to laugh. “No, it doesn’t. It means shoe polish in American.”

I was still trying to explain that it meant beautiful morning or something like that in