‘Indeed . . . of taxpayers’ money!’ Niall drawled.
‘Niall!’ hissed Hilary.
‘Sorry!’ he said, totally unabashed, ignoring the glare Hilary gave him. ‘I always felt those outrageous salaries should have been capped.’
Hilary’s mobile vibrated. She had it on silent, but she always kept it close in case her mother-in-law rang. Margaret was recovering from a kidney infection and was finding it hard to tolerate the antibiotics.
She was surprised to see Sophie’s number come up. ‘Excuse me, I need to take this, it’s Sophie. I just want to make sure everything’s OK.’ Sophie had taken Jasmine to her youth club’s disco and Hilary was collecting them at 12.30 p.m. ‘Hi, is everything OK?’ she murmured, walking down the garden.
‘Mam, Jazzy’s smashed! She had a bottle of vodka in her bag and she drank it real fast. She’s pukin’ all over the place and she’s being really aggressive to the bouncers. You’ve got to come and get her. I don’t know what to do with her.’ Her daughter was nearly in tears.
‘For God’s sake! OK, stay calm. I’ll be there shortly. Is Leanne with you?’ Hilary tried to keep the exasperation out of her voice.
‘Yep, she’s holding her head while I’m ringing. It’s gross, Mam! Gross!’
‘Right, I’m on my way.’ Hilary hung up, irritated that she was going to have to drive because she was the only one not drinking and wishing she could get her hands on Jazzy and wring her neck.
‘What’s up?’ Niall cocked an eyebrow.
‘Sorry to have to tell you this, you guys. Jazzy had a bottle of vodka in her bag and she drank it very fast and she’s pissed and puking and being aggressive. We’d better go and get her,’ she said crossly.
‘Aw the little bitch,’ Colette exclaimed.
‘For Chrissake, what is it with her?’ Des exploded. ‘Can’t you get her to behave? First the weed affair and now this!’ He glared at his wife.
‘Excuse me?’ Colette said icily. ‘Might I remind you that you are her father!’ She was furious with him for mentioning the marijuana episode that had nearly got their daughter expelled from boarding school recently. Only a hefty donation towards upgrading the science lab had sorted that hiccup.
‘Well you’d better go and get her,’ Des snapped.
‘And you’d better come with me,’ she snapped back. ‘Sorry about this, Hilary, can you give us a lift?’
‘Of course, I’ll just get the car keys and a couple of plastic bags.’
‘That’s unfortunate.’ Niall stood up and followed them into the kitchen.
‘Kids, who’d have ‘em!’ Des growled, draining his glass and leaving it on the kitchen counter.
‘I’ll murder her,’ Colette fumed as Hilary grabbed some plastic freezer bags. She didn’t want her car covered in puke.
‘Look, these things happen. I’m never, ever smug about Millie or Sophie, believe me. The things you hear about teenage behaviour would make your hair curl. Come on, at least it’s not in town, we’ll be there in ten minutes.’
There was no chit-chat in the car. Colette stared out of the passenger window and Des glowered in the back seat, scrolling down through his text messages as Hilary sped towards Raheny along the Howth Road.
‘You go and get her,’ Colette said tightly to Des when Hilary pulled up outside the youth club. Hilary could see Sophie and Leanne bending over Jazzy who was slumped in a half-sitting position against a wall. One of the bouncers was standing with them. ‘I’ll come with you,’ she offered. She wanted to make sure Sophie and Leanne were OK.
‘Thank goodness, Mam. She’s not puking any more but she’s passed out.’ Sophie ran towards her.
‘It’s OK.’ Hilary gave her daughter a comforting hug.
‘She just needs to sleep it off. I’ll give you a hand to get her to the car,’ the bouncer said matter-of-factly to Des, who bent down and gave his daughter a rough shake.
Jazzy opened a bleary eye. ‘Uuhhh . . . Hi, Dad,’ she slurred and closed her eyes again.
‘Get her under the arms,’ the bouncer instructed, taking up position on one side. Des took the other and between them they dragged the comatose teenager to the car.
‘I’ll drop them home to Sutton and come back and collect you. Is that OK?’ Hilary asked the two riled teenagers standing in front of her.
‘But you said we could stay until half twelve!’ Sophie exclaimed.
‘I know, I just didn’t want to have to come out again,’ Hilary sighed.
‘I can ask my mam to come and collect us,’ Leanne said helpfully. ‘I’ll ring her.’
‘It’s OK, I’ll come back,’ Hilary said. They had a rota going with other parents and it was her turn to collect the girls and it was just her tough luck that Jazzy had mucked up her night. ‘See you later, enjoy yourselves, and no drinking!’ she warned. She certainly wasn’t a hundred per cent sure that the pair in front of her hadn’t had a nip out of Jazzy’s bottle but they were absolutely in control of themselves, and she remembered how when she was in her teens she and her friends had swigged out of a bottle on a few occasions, in the toilets at the Grove.
Colette looked pinched and miserable and Hilary’s heart went out to her as she got into the car. ‘Chin up, it goes with the territory.’ She reached over and squeezed her friend’s hand. ‘We had the odd hairy moment ourselves.’
Colette gave her a weak smile. ‘Yeah, we did, I suppose.’
‘No supposing about it – remember the night you barfed into Darina Ryan’s handbag because you didn’t want to ruin the new Calvin Klein one your mother had bought from New York? Darina was fit to be tied.’
‘Shush, don’t let Jazzy hear you saying that,’
