‘Okay. Promise.’
I narrowed my eyes, trying to determine if she was being genuine. I knew she felt guilty for how she’d treated me and that was enough to buy her silence. ‘Alright,’ I said, writing down her order. ‘I’ll put this in.’
‘Wait,’ she said, grabbing my arm. ‘When are you going?’
‘I don’t know. Soon. I’ve got some stuff to work out first.’
‘Stuff with him?’ she said, inclining her head toward Matt, who, sensing our gaze, looked up from the magazine in his hands.
He smiled at me. ‘Maybe,’ I said.
Zara went outside to Kayla. I watched them through the window. Zara was sitting quietly while Kayla chatted away. I was a little stunned at the audacity of my lie – my dad had invited me? – and my sudden impulse to blurt out to Zara that I was leaving Kelly’s Crossing. But it felt kind of good to tell someone that I had a better place to go, that I could escape this train wreck of a life. I was proud to have a dad that lived in the city and loved me and wanted me to live with him. That felt so good, even if it was a fantasy.
I made up the last of the orders and was finally able to go back over to Matt, slumping down into the chair next to him. ‘Zara quit because her mother doesn’t want her working with me, the murderer’s daughter,’ I said before Matt had a chance to say a word.
‘Don’t say things like that, Sunny. There hasn’t been a murder.’ He frowned.
‘You don’t know that. Anyway, to be honest, I don’t care about Zara. She was the one who wanted to be friends in the first place. So,’ I held his gaze, ‘do you want to tell me that you can’t see me too, or are you going to feel sorry for me and stick around? Just so you know, there’s no obligation. I don’t need anyone’s pity, that’s for sure.’
‘Sunny, stop it.’ He put his hand on my arm. ‘I came because I wanted to see you.’
‘Oh.’ Through the window, I saw Zara and Kayla turn to look at us.
‘There’s something going on with you and for some reason you won’t tell me, but don’t you think we should talk?’
I studied the plastic tablecloth, smeared with grease from the previous occupants.
‘Fine, let’s talk. But there’re things I don’t know about you too.’
‘Yeah. I guess there’s a lot. Is there something specific you want to know?’
My stomach dropped as I looked at him. ‘Well, um … I heard something about your last school,’ I said.
‘Oh. That.’ He sat back in the chair, nodding.
‘Is it true?’ I said.
‘About the drugs, you mean?’
‘Yes, what else?’
He folded his arms. ‘It’s true I was kicked out. But it didn’t have anything to do with drugs.’
‘Why then?’
‘I was failing. All I wanted to do was draw. And they didn’t even have a proper visual arts course there – the school was too small. So I wagged class and went off into the bush to sketch. I was stupid and because of that they wanted me to leave, and then Mum had to move. I made it really hard for her.’
‘So, there were no drugs?’
‘No. We left by choice in the end.’
‘People just made that up?’
‘They see my clothes and long hair and they make assumptions.’ He leant forward and spoke in a low voice. ‘The thing I like about you is that you knew about it and you didn’t care anyway. At least I thought you didn’t care.’
‘I don’t care. I mean, I wouldn’t have.’ I gazed at him. What I was keeping from him was in another league altogether. He’d be freaked out if he knew what was going on in my head. But I also realised that I was in debt. He had told me his secret and now I owed him one.
Sudden yelling from outside made us both look up. Chairs scraped as the people on the nearby table stood and stared through the window toward the pub.
‘What is it?’ I said, standing.
Leanne came out of the kitchen as Matt and I made our way over to the window. ‘What now?’ she said.
‘Something’s happening.’ I could see people spilling out of the pub and onto the street.
Leanne pushed open the door and we all went out into the warm night where we could see the reason for the gathering crowd. Across the road two men were fighting under the cover of the pub awning. My heart sank when I recognised Kevin’s familiar silhouette.
I stopped on the pavement, unable to move, unable to think. ‘Oh, God. It’s Kevin.’
‘Stay back, love,’ said Leanne.
I heard shouting as some of the onlookers tried to pry the men apart.
‘Who’s the other guy?’ Matt said.
‘Gary Koslovski,’ said Leanne. ‘Wait here.’
As Leanne shambled across the road, her apron flapping around her legs, I glanced behind me at Zara and Kayla. They stood by their table, arms folded, staring.
My skin turned cold as I watched Kevin pull away from the men holding him to take another swing at Gary. I’d never seen grown men fight like that; even from a distance I could feel their hatred and fury crackle in the air between them. I could taste their lust for blood, their desire for lips to split and knuckles to connect with splintering bone.
‘Kevin!’ I heard Leanne cry out. ‘Kevin! Stop it.’ She wrung her apron in her hands and hovered uselessly on the sidelines.
Kevin and Gary continued to swing at each other, some punches connecting, others missing as they ducked and twisted around each other.
‘Come back inside, Sunny,’ said Matt, his hand closing on my shoulder.
‘No.’ I stood firm, shrugging him away.
My eyes drifted to the lights hanging from ropes under the pub awning, their metal shades like oriental hats. A cloud of bugs swirled around the bulbs in a frenzy of light-filled drunkenness. There hadn’t been many bugs for ages; maybe their presence meant that it was
