Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 06] Read online

  ‘We could go somewhere else,’ said Nesta,‘ and blag our way in. You know, slap a bit of make-up on and say we’re eighteen.’

  Lucy’s face fell even further. ‘Yeah right. Like anyone’s ever going to believe that I’m eighteen. It’s OK for you lot. You’re all tall and look older, but me… I’m minuscule and look younger than I am. It’s not fair.’

  ‘Don’t worry, Luce, we’ll think of something,’ said Nesta. ‘We won’t do it without you.’

  ‘Let’s phone Candice,’ said Lucy. ‘No way she had her parents’ permission if I know her. I’m going to find out where she got hers done.’ She punched Candice’s number in on her mobile and wandered off down the street to talk to her. A few minutes later, she was back smiling. ‘Candice says that there are loads of places in Camden that will do them. She says some of them won’t and get all snotty about your age, but to keep trying as there are a few where there are no questions asked. She gave me directions to the one she went to.’

  ‘Let’s go,’ I said. Now that we had started on Mission Belly Stud, I wanted to get it over with. Although I was brave about the thumb pricking, really I’m a bit like Nesta in that I don’t like needles. I’d had a sleepless night thinking about what having the stud might feel like when it was being put in and I’d had weird dreams about giant needles chasing me.

  Twenty minutes later, we found the shop that Candice had told Lucy about. Although it sold mainly clothes, belts and boots, there was a discreet sign on the till saying ‘Body Piercing’ and pointing to the back of the shop. A shop assistant at the counter nodded towards a door when she saw us looking at the sign. So far, so good, I thought. I knocked on the door, but there was no answer.

  ‘Just go on in,’ said the assistant. ‘Dels in there somewhere.’

  I opened the door and we all trooped in. The first thing that hit me was an overpowering smell of antiseptic. There was a small reception room with the usual display of studs and rings and a door to the left, which was ajar. Through it, I could see and hear a man having a tattoo done on his upper arm. He didn’t look like he was enjoying it one bit and looked out at us with thin tight lips.

  The man doing the tattoo glanced up at us. ‘Won’t be a mo, girls. Take a seat.’

  We dutifully sat down and looked around. ‘This is like waiting to see the dentist,’ said Nesta. ‘It even sounds like a dentist’s with that tattoo thing buzzing. I feel really nervous.’

  ‘It’s going to be well worth it,’ said Lucy. ‘We’re going to look so glam.’

  ‘So who’s going first?’ I said. ‘We’d better decide.’

  ‘I will,’ said Lucy. ‘I hate waiting and I want to get it over with.’

  ‘Do you want to go next, Nesta?’ I asked.

  She shook her head. ‘No hurry. I don’t mind waiting. I need to gear myself up mentally.’

  ‘I’ll go second,’ I said. ‘That way you’ll know it’s all right.’

  ‘OK,’ said Nesta. ‘Thanks.’

  A few minutes later, the tattooist and his ‘victim’ came out. Interesting, I thought, because the tattooist didn’t have any tattoos, or at least none that were visible. He looked very ordinary, in fact. He was wearing a normal shirt and trousers - not at all like the typical Camden characters who wear black or Goth clothes. On the other hand, the victim was covered in tattoos. He had a shaved head and swirly patterns all over his arms and up his neck. He looks weird, I thought, like he belongs in the circus or something. Then I realised that I was staring at him and quickly looked at the floor.

  ‘Right, I’m Del,’ said the tattooist after Circus Boy had gone. ‘What is it you’re after?’

  ‘Piercing,’ said Lucy.

  ‘Ears, eyebrows, nose, lips, tongues, belly or nipples?’ asked Del.

  Lucy went bright red. ‘Um, belly buttons.’

  ‘All of you?’

  Lucy looked back at TJ. ‘All of us?’

  ‘It’ll be thirty pounds each,’ said the tattooist.

  ‘That means Lucy’s got enough,’ said Nesta, ‘so I can lend you a ten, TJ. Then I could ask my brother - he always seems to have loads of dosh. I can call him on my mobile and ask if he’ll bring the rest if you want. I’m sure he’d come, especially if I tell him Lucy’s here.’

  Predictably, Lucy blushed again. She always does when anyone mentions Tony, even though it’s him that’s running after her these days, not the other way around.

  TJ shook her head. ‘No. You guys go ahead. I’d be too worried about my dad ever finding out. Anyway, we’ve bonded over the Almighty Pringle and that’s good enough for me.’

  ‘All hail,’ chorused Nesta and Lucy. The tattooist looked amused.

  ‘You sure?’ I said to TJ.

  TJ nodded, so I turned back to the tattooist. ‘Three of us for belly buttons,‘ I said, then I got an attack of the giggles at the thought of us getting our nipples pierced. I imagined going home and flashing my chest at Mum over dinner. Whoa! Look what I’ve had done, Mater. She’d go ballistic. But no worries. I mean, really, who in their right mind would ever want to have a nipple pierced? Yee-uck.

  ‘Who’s first?’ said Del.

  Well, that was easy, I thought, as Lucy stepped forward and Del ushered her into his work room. We watched from the reception room as she lay on the chair, then I couldn’t see any more because Dels back was in my way.

  It didn’t seem to take long. She was out a short time later and took a huge breath. ‘Not too bad. Like having your ears done,’ she said giving me the thumbs-up. ‘Not as bad as I thought.’

  ‘Next,’ called Del.

  I got up and felt my knees go wobbly. Was it too late to do a runner? Whose stupid idea was this? I asked myself. Oh yeah. Mine! No. No, I can do this.

  ‘Can I come in and watch?’ asked Nesta as I went in. ‘I want to know what I’m letting myself in for.’

  ‘Sure,’ said Del. ‘You can all come in if you want.’

  ‘Er, no thanks,’ said TJ. ‘I’ll stay here with Lucy.’

  I lay back on the chair and closed my eyes. Then I opened them. Del was coming at me with a pair of weird-looking scissors. They looked distorted like something out of a horror film.

  ‘What are they for?’ I asked in a panic. ‘You’re not going to cut your way through, are you?’

  Del smiled. ‘Nah, mate. These are to clamp your tummy. They make the skin go nice and tight.’

  Next thing I knew, he’d fastened the strange-looking scissors to the skin above my belly button and was wiping the area with some kind of lotion. I felt like I was going to pass out, it smelt so like a hospital.

  ‘Is that the stuff to freeze it?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ said Del. ‘It’s antiseptic. Keeps the area clean. I don’t freeze the skin, though my partner does. We’ve all got our own way, but too risky, I reckon — you might get frostbite. Don’t worry, it will only sting for a minute.’

  I closed my eyes and opened them again. He was taking something out of a small plastic sachet. It looked like a minuscule screwdriver. ‘That’s not the needle, is it?’ I asked. ‘It’s enormous!

  ‘Just take a deep breath,’ he said. ‘You’ve got to suffer to be beautiful, right? No pain, no gain.’

  I closed my eyes again and desperately searched my mind for one of the soothing visualisations I use to take my mind off the discomfort when I go to the dentist’s. Sea, waves, nice flowers, I thought, as I felt a searing pain rip through my middle. ‘Whara… arghhhhhhh,’ I cried.

  ‘All done.’ Del smiled, taking out a plaster and putting it over my belly button. ‘You can get up now. Now that wasn’t so bad, was it?’

  ‘Urg,’ was all I could say as I stumbled out of the chair.

  Nesta had turned pale and backed out of the room. ‘Er, thanks,’ she whispered, ‘but… but I think I might wait until another day.’

  ‘Nihi - ergh,’ said TJ and ran out the reception door and into the shop with Nesta.

  I felt faint. I just wanted to get out o
f there, but Del insisted on sitting Lucy and me down and giving us a looong lecture on how to clean the stud and the importance of being hygienic.

  ‘And don’t take the stud out for four to six weeks,’ he said. ‘Couple of months, if possible. I’m serious now, as you need to give the area time to heal. I know you girls are always anxious to get the pretty stones in, but start messing about with it before it’s completely healed and it can get really ucky.’ Then he handed us each a bottle of cleansing lotion. ‘Salt water,’ he said. ‘Use it to clean the area three times a day, and mind you don’t let the stud catch in your clothes in the early days.’

  I nodded like I’d understood, but I don’t think I took in anything he said. I felt strangely floaty, as though I wasn’t quite present any more.

  We paid our money and at last we were out of there. I gulped the air when we got out into the street and Lucy put her arm under mine to steady me. ‘You OK?’ she asked.

  ‘Heh-nuh…’ I said.

  Lucy grinned. ‘I didn’t think it was bad at all.’

  I guess she has a higher pain threshold than I do. I thought it was awful. And to think, I’d paid to have it done.

  ‘Drinks are on me,’ said Nesta as we headed up to Chalk Farm. ‘I feel rotten that I chickened out, but…’

  ‘Hey, no biggie,’ I said. ‘I’d have done the same if I’d known what it entailed.’

  ‘Are you OK now?’ asked Lucy.

  I nodded. ‘Just needed some fresh air. To get away from the smell of antiseptic. I know it’s supposed to be good, but I always associate it with sickness and it makes me feel nauseous.’

  ‘So let’s head over to Primrose Hill Park. Lots of air up there,’ said TJ, who up until now had kept very quiet. I guess she was feeling bad about chickening out as well.

  When we got to the park, TJ and Nesta shot off to get drinks from the nearby shops and Lucy and I sat on the grass halfway up the hill.

  ‘How long do you think we can spin this out?’ asked Lucy with a wicked grin as she watched them go. ‘They are both obviously prepared to be our slaves because they feel bad.’

  I grinned back. ‘As long as possible, then. Every time we need something done, we can flash our belly buttons at them and groan.’

  We lay on the grass and practised our groaning for a while until a man walking his dog stopped and asked if we were all right.

  Lucy went bright red. ‘Um, yeah, just something we ate for lunch.’

  Luckily he moved on, so I sat up and looked about the park. It felt really calm. The only sound was the hum of distant traffic. There were the usual people out enjoying the late August sun - mums with toddlers, a few joggers, a guy on a bench listening to his Walkman and a number of teens hanging out farther down the hill.

  Suddenly, the roar of a motorbike shattered the peace as it zoomed down the hill to our left. I glanced through the railings to see who it was - some guy wearing black leather trousers and a tight black T-shirt.

  ‘Eejit? said Lucy.’I hate those things. They’re so noisy!

  ‘Yeah, but I’d quite like a go on the back of one of them. Wouldn’t you?’

  Lucy shook her head. ‘Nah. Think I’ll stick with my limo fantasy, thank you very much.’

  As Nesta and TJ returned laden with drinks and pastries about ten minutes later, I noticed that the motorbike guy came into the park behind them and went to join the other group of teens down the hill.

  ‘Don’t like the look of that lot,’ said TJ, glancing at them as she sat down.

  They didn’t look much older than us, maybe sixteen or so. Six of them. I counted. Three boys and three girls. A few of them were smoking, and a few were sharing cans of what looked like beer. One of the boys started acting stupid, throwing things around. It was funny because he was clearly trying to impress Bike Boy. When Bike Boy didn’t react, he started throwing bits of sandwich at a jogger who was running past. Still no reaction. Well, you can see who’s king of the castle there, I thought. Bike Boy got up and went to stand a short distance apart from the rest of them. He leaned back against the railings, lit up a cigarette and glanced around the park. As he looked up at us, I felt a rush go through me. There was something about him. Tall, dark, slim and looks like he works out, I thought. He had well-toned arms - not big muscles, just nicely shaped.

  ‘Bad boy, but very cute,’ said Nesta, casually glancing around the park and noticing that I’d clocked him. I laughed. She doesn’t miss a trick.

  Lucy looked over to him. ‘Yeah, handsome, but he looks dangerous.’

  ‘Never judge a book by its cover,’ I said. ‘Like that guy in the first tattoo shop - he looked hard, but he was a real sweetie when we got talking to him.’

  ‘I guess with boys it depends on what you’re looking for,’ said TJ. ‘I think it’s important to find a boy who’s dependable.’

  ‘Yeah, but fun,’ I said.

  ‘And a good kisser,’ said Nesta. ‘Very important.’

  Lucy rubbed her forehead. ‘Hmmm. I know a joke about finding the perfect boy - if only I could remember it…’

  ‘Well, he doesn’t look like the perfect boy,’ said TJ, looking at Bike Boy. ‘He looks like trouble and boys that good-looking are usually self-obsessed.’

  I looked at him again. I wouldn’t say that, I thought. I think he looks like he knows how to have a good time. Then I realised that we were all gawping at him. How uncool is that?

  ‘Stop looking, stop looking,’ I whispered to the others. ‘He can see we’re staring.’

  Too late. He’d already noticed. He raised an eyebrow and gave us a lazy smile before going back to his mates. Then he flopped down next to one of the boys and said something into his ear. They both turned, looked at us and laughed. He probably thinks we’re a bunch of kids, I thought, as I sipped on the Ribena Lite that Nesta had bought me. I pretended that I was laughing at something Lucy had said, then I purposefully looked straight at him then in the opposite direction. Two can play at that game, matie, I thought.

  Lucy’s Joke

  It’s important to find a boy who is always willing to help in times of trouble.

  It’s important to find a boy who makes you laugh when you’re feeling blue.

  It’s important to find a boy who is dependable and doesn’t lie.

  It’s important to find a boy who is a good kisser.

  It’s important these four boys never meet.

  C h a p t e r 3

  Restyle

  Contents - Prev / Next

  ‘How’s the stud?’ I whispered to Lucy the next morning as I let her in the front door.

  ‘Fine,’ she said and followed me up the stairs. ‘Yours?’

  I pulled a face. ‘Gone a bit crusty, if you must know, and it stings like anything when I put that salt water on it.’

  ‘Mine’s been OK,’ said Lucy as we went into my bedroom and I shut the door. ‘But I showed Mum and Dad, I’m afraid. I couldn’t resist.’

  ‘And?’

  ‘Dad hit the roof for a while and Mum was miffed that I hadn’t asked permission, but they were both cool in the end. In fact, Mum came into my room last night and asked where I’d had it done.’

  ‘Why? She’s not going to go and hassle them, is she? About us being under-age?’

  ‘Nah. She said she wanted one!’

  ‘No!’

  ‘That’s what I said. I said if she dared to have her belly button pierced, I’d leave home.’

  ‘Quite right,’ I said. ‘Yuck. I can’t imagine my mum ever having one done. The thought is too disgusting.’ And totally unlikely, I thought. She likes the classic look and is always immaculate in beige or black. The only earrings she ever wears are little pearl studs.

  Lucy shivered. ‘Yeah, image overload. Let’s change the subject. So…’ She looked around my room, taking in the piles of clothes I’d thrown on the bed, chair and floor.

  ‘I know,’ I said.’ I pulled out everything. I want to do a real throw-out. I’ve found stuff in my drawe
rs that I’ve had for years.’

  ‘OK,’ said Lucy and began to sort through things. ‘We’ll make two piles, one for the bin, one for keeping.’ She picked up a pink vest. ‘Oh, you must keep this. It’s really pretty.’

  ‘Nooo. It’s too… boring.’

  Lucy moved some clothes aside and sat on my bed. ‘Well what image exactly are you going for?’

  I sat next to her. ‘Dunno. That’s why you’re here, style queen.’

  Lucy’s been my closest friend for ages and I really trust her opinion. Not that I don’t trust TJ and Nesta, I do, but I’ve know Lucy longer - since junior school - and we’ve shared everything from clothes and CDs to our first day at secondary school. Sometimes we even know what each other is thinking. Also, she’s great on fashion. She makes loads of her own clothes and wants to study dress design after secondary school. That’s why I asked her rather than Nesta or TJ to help me go through my wardrobe. It’s not that Nesta hasn’t got style, she has. But if she had her way, she’d dress everyone like her, in girlie clothes, and what suits her doesn’t necessarily suit everyone. I’m not a girlie type of girl. And TJ’s the opposite of Nesta. She’s a bit of a tomboy. She does look good in her jeans and trainers, but she’s not that bothered about clothes really. She’d rather spend her pocket money on a book than a top.

  ‘All I know is I need a change,’ I said. ‘Something more sophisticated, something to make me stand out. Like, I know I’ll never be drop-dead gorgeous like Nesta…’

  ‘Rubbish,’ interrupted Lucy.‘ You have a different look, that’s all, but you’re just as good-looking as she is.’

  Typical Lucy. Always my champion.

  ‘Get real,’ I said. ‘I know where I stand in the beauty stakes, and Nesta is a nine and a half out of ten… and I’m about a five without any make-up, but can be a seven or eight if I make a bit of an effort. Fact. Reality.’

  ‘You’re too critical of yourself. I’d give you a nine, easy. You’ve got a great figure, fabulous eyes, lovely hair…’

  ‘Thank you very much, Lucy,’ I said, ‘but sorry, I don’t share your view. My bum’s too big for a start and my nose is too lumpy.’