Girls in Love Read online



  The next day I have a private word with Magda.

  ‘She’s totally mental,’ says Magda.

  ‘I know. But there’s no way I can get through to her,’ I say.

  ‘I’ll have a go,’ says Magda.

  ‘Well. Do be ever so tactful. And don’t let out that I said anything, eh?’ I say, but Magda isn’t listening to me.

  ‘Nadine! Come over here! Ellie says you’re going to do it with Liam, you silly cow.’

  Practically every girl in the playground looks up and gawps.

  ‘Magda! You and your big mouth!’ I say.

  ‘I think it’s you and your big mouth, Ellie,’ says Nadine. ‘Thanks a bunch.’

  ‘Hey, don’t be like that,’ says Magda, rushing over to her and putting her arm round her neck.

  ‘Get off me, Magda!’

  ‘I just want to talk to you, Nadine.’

  ‘Yeah, but I don’t want to talk about it, OK?’

  ‘We’re mates, aren’t we?’

  ‘But this isn’t about you and me and Ellie. It’s just to do with me and Liam. So you keep your nose out of it, OK? And you too, Ellie,’ says Nadine, and she stalks off by herself.

  ‘Shall we go after her?’ says Magda.

  ‘We’ll be wasting our time,’ I say miserably.

  I know Nadine too well. She’ll never listen to either of us now. I feel I’ve really blown it. I’ve betrayed Nadine’s confidence – and I haven’t helped her in the slightest.

  She barely talks to either of us all day. When school is over she goes rushing off to meet up with Liam, who’s waiting for her by the wall.

  ‘So let’s have a word with him, eh?’ says Magda.

  ‘No! You can’t! And Nadine would kill us,’ I say.

  We don’t get the chance anyway, because Nadine and Liam hurry away. It’s cold, so Liam is wearing this incredible black leather jacket.

  ‘That is a seriously sexy jacket,’ Magda says wistfully. ‘He might be a pig but he sure looks good. Why can’t Greg wear a leather jacket? He’s got this naff zippy thing that is practically an anorak.’

  ‘How’s it going with Greg, anyway?’ I ask.

  ‘Well . . .’ says Magda, and sighs.

  ‘He doesn’t want you to . . .?’

  ‘Per-lease!’ says Magda. ‘Greg??? No, he’s OK, he’s quite sweet actually, but all we seem to do is talk homework and hang out at McDonald’s. Ah! Which reminds me. One of Greg’s mates, Adam, is having a party this Saturday. His parents are away for the weekend so they’re planning a serious rave-up. Want to come?’

  I stare at her, heart beating.

  She mistakes my hesitation. ‘Look, I know you and Dan are an item and the last thing you want is to meet someone new at a party. I mean, you’ve got a boyfriend.’

  Oh, Magda! If you only knew. A party. I’ve never ever been to a party before. Well, of course I’ve been to parties – the little-girly balloons-and-birthday-cake kind. But I’ve never been to a party with boys.

  ‘Please come, Ellie. It should be a laugh, if nothing else. Maybe I’ll meet a new boyfriend. Greg is OK, but he’s seriously lacking when it comes to street cred. His mates might have more potential.’

  I don’t know what to say, what to do. A serious rave-up. No parents. And boys, boys, boys.

  It sounds incredible.

  It sounds incredibly scary. I think drink. I think drugs. I think bedrooms.

  I want to go. Maybe I’ll meet a real boyfriend. One of Greg’s mates. Although perhaps they’ll have girls already.

  ‘Are you sure it won’t be just a couple party?’ I say.

  ‘No, that’s the point. This Adam is inviting along half Year Eleven at Andersons, and most of them are totally uncoupled. They’re desperate for more girls. Greg practically begged me to ask some along. I was thinking – who else shall we ask, eh?’

  There doesn’t seem much point in asking Nadine. Magda asks Chrissie, but she’s already going to a party that night. She asks Jess but she says it’s not her kind of thing, thanks. She asks Amna who says she’d give anything to go but her dad would go bananas.

  ‘Maybe my dad won’t let me,’ I mumble.

  ‘Rubbish. Your dad seems really cool to me,’ says Magda.

  Dad always makes a fuss of Magda when she comes round to our house.

  ‘I’ll ask him for you if you like,’ says Magda. ‘OK?’

  I don’t really want her to. I don’t know if I really want to go to this party. What will I wear? What will I say? What am I expected to do?’

  ‘What’s up?’ says Magda. ‘He knows you’re going out with Dan so you won’t let any other boy try it on at the party – so he can’t object, can he?’

  Oh help. I’ll have to keep Magda away from Dad at all costs. Dad thinks it hilariously funny that I write so much to the real Dan. He’ll talk about him to Magda and she’ll twig what he’s really like.

  ‘No, leave Dad to me, I’ll handle him,’ I say firmly. ‘OK, I’ll go to the party with you, Magda.’

  ‘You won’t regret it, I promise,’ says Magda.

  I regret agreeing almost immediately. I tell Dad about the party, practically hoping he’ll say no way. Anna is very doubtful, and asks straight away if the parents are going to be there and what about the drink/drugs situation and suppose there are gatecrashers?

  ‘Look, I don’t want to be rude, but I wasn’t asking you, Anna, I was asking Dad,’ I say. Though I’m secretly glad she’s pointed out all these objections.

  I hope Dad will take them all on board and agree it’s out of the question.

  But he doesn’t. ‘Come off it, Anna, you’re sounding positively middle-aged,’ he says. ‘This is just some tame little party at a schoolboy’s house. Why shouldn’t Ellie go? And she’ll be fine if Magda’s going too. That kid knows what she’s doing all right.’

  ‘I don’t give a damn about Magda. It’s Ellie. Does she know what she’s doing?’ says Anna.

  ‘We’ve got to credit her with some sense. You know enough not to do anything stupid, right, Ellie? You go to your party and have fun.’

  ‘I don’t think you’re being a very responsible parent,’ says Anna. ‘But then you’re not famed for your responsibility, are you?’

  ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ says Dad.

  ‘I think you know,’ says Anna.

  ‘I don’t have a clue,’ says Dad.

  I don’t have a clue either but I leave them to have a row while I go up to my room. I get out all my clothes and try on every single item. I look a mess in everything. Fat. Babyish. So utterly uncool that I despair.

  I’m still despairing on Saturday evening, even though Magda arrives early and gives me advice.

  ‘Dress down. You’ll look as if you’re trying too hard if you dress up. Wear your jeans. Not the cruddy ripped ones. The black.’

  OK. So that’s my black jeans, even though they’re so tight I shall be cut in two if I sit down.

  ‘You won’t be sitting down, babe. You’ll be dancing,’ says Magda. She looks at my boots. ‘Well, lumbering.’ She sees my face. ‘Joke, Ellie!’

  I don’t feel like laughing. I feel so fat I select my biggest baggiest T-shirt to wear with the jeans.

  ‘No no no,’ says Magda. ‘Dress down but also dress sexy.’

  ‘But I’m not.’

  ‘You don’t have to be it. Just look it. Something little and tight on top. For God’s sake, Ellie, yours are Wonders without the bra. So if you’ve got it, flaunt it.’

  I’ve never felt less like flaunting in my entire life. But I do as I’m told and put on an old purple T-shirt I wore when I was practically a little kid. It strains across my embarrassing chest. I look as if I’m wearing a giant rubber band but Magda insists I look fine. She makes me up with purple shadowed eyes to match the T-shirt and fusses that we haven’t got deep purple nail varnish too.

  Dad is giving us a lift to this Adam’s house. (Magda is meeting Greg there.) Dad winks approvingly at Magda, who