Can't Live Without by Joanne Phillips Read Free Book Online Page B

her mother that I never found quite the right way to discipline her, never mastered the art of making her do what I say simply because I say it.
    Instead I decide to attack my own mother, who was far too good at being strict with me to be letting Lipsy get away with this now. ‘Is this right?’ I demand of her. ‘Are you OK with this happening in your house?’
    My mother stands between us, her face creased with confusion. She looks from me to Lipsy and back again. I hear movements from behind the door to my daughter’s bedroom and wonder what the man, what Robert, is doing.
    ‘Well, the thing is, I can’t really say… that is, I’m not sure that it’s …’
    ‘Oh, don’t bother.’ I turn away from the pair of them so they can’t see the tears of frustration that are starting to puddle in my eyes. As I reach for the door to my own room – my own bloody teenage bedroom where, God knows, I got up to stuff I fervently pray Lipsy will never do – my daughter throws out her killer blow.
    ‘You’re such a hypocrite, Mum. After all, you weren’t that much older than me when you got pregnant.’

Chapter 5
    Wednesday 6 th June
    I hate my mother.
    As of today the above statement is official and nothing she can do will ever change my mind.
    Yesterday the woman formerly known as my mother went totally ballistic when she found Rob in my room. She caused a scene like you would not believe. I was so ashamed. Thankfully Rob was cool about it but afterwards he said he didn’t feel right doing it with her in the house. Just great!
    Then, as if she hadn’t done enough already, she goes and phones my dad, who we never see anyway, and tells him all about it. Like he gives a shit. But that made everything ten million times worse because for the past six months I’ve been telling my mum that I was staying at my dad’s at weekends when I kind of wasn’t. I was actually staying with Rob.
    Now I’m grounded. Grandma is backing her up so that’s it. My life’s over. Rob will meet someone else – that Nina at McDonald’s likes him, I’m sure. And she’s got blonde hair and big tits and she’s such a tart …
    No. Must not worry. Rob isn’t like that. And if he is then it will be all my mother’s fault and I’ll make her pay for ever.
     
    Lipsy snapped her diary shut and returned it to its secret place under her mattress. Lately she’d been filling it with the kind of things she had a feeling should not be viewed by anyone else but her. And her mum had turned into such a pain in the arse she wouldn’t put it past her to sneak around looking for evidence against her.
    No, it was safer to keep it well and truly hidden. Maybe she should think of some kind of code for certain things; she knew that was what her friend Rosie did in her diary. Rosie had explained the code to Lipsy, which Lipsy thought was a bit stupid – what was the point of a secret code if your best friend knew how to break it?
    Still, she was grateful for the advice. She needed all the weapons she could find against her mother now. It was all-out war.
     
    ***
     
    Paul stirred two sugars into his latte, rolling his eyes in disgust as the hot liquid slopped over into the plate-sized saucer. Never mind that these trendy coffee shops had to give you your drink in a cup the size of a soup bowl, did they really have to fill them right to the brim? And look at the handle on the mug – too small for even a child’s finger to fit through. He hated these places, full of frazzled shoppers and self-conscious types. He could have told Stella no, he’d meet her somewhere else, like the pub for example, but he knew Café Crème was her favourite hangout.
    Lifting the mug carefully to his lips, he sipped the scalding liquid and watched the door closely. A tall woman with dark hair appeared behind a group of rowdy teenagers and Paul stretched his head to see. It wasn’t Stella. When she did arrive, thought Paul, she would be full of life, immediately telling him