Lobsters by Lucy Ivison Read Free Book Online Page A

Probably, in the words of that Grace girl, getting ‘jiggy’.
    It seemed like everybody in the whole world was getting ‘jiggy’ except me.
    Hannah

    Freddie looked exactly how he has always looked. Stella says he looks like he’s in a boy band, and I suppose he does a bit. Like he’s thought about what he’s going to wear for a long time and is really pleased with how it turned out. He’s quite small with blond-brown hair and blue eyes.
    â€˜Sorry I’m late,’ he smiled. ‘We went to the pub first and then we had to go to this random girl’s eighteenth because Amir’s trying to get with her.’
    â€˜That’s OK. Nothing’s really happened.’ Actually, it felt like alot had happened already.
    â€˜Do you want to go into the garden with me?’ He smiled slightly as he said it. Like it was a euphemism. Up close, I could see the gel in his hair. He was wearing a waistcoat.
    â€˜Yeah, all right. We can go on the trampoline.’
    I walked outside ahead of him, climbed on to the trampoline and started bouncing. He clambered on after me but almost immediately shouted, ‘Stop’ and lay down on his back.
    â€˜Are you OK?’ I asked, and sat down and crossed my legs.
    â€˜Yeah, I’m fine. Just a bit …’ He suddenly sounded much drunker than he had before. ‘You look really fit, Hannah.’
    I didn’t know what to say. ‘You do too’ would have sounded strange, and ‘Thanks’ a bit cold. I stared up at the house and all the people in all the different rooms. The light was on in the bathroom and I wondered where Toilet Boy was now.
    And then, from out of nowhere, Freddie sat up and said, ‘I’m really pleased you want to do it with me, Hannah.’
    And with that, he lurched forward clumsily and kissed me. I was too busy trying to process what he’d just said to stop him. Stella must have told him. Why? Why did she have to control everything everybody did? She just has to get in there and be mates with everyone. It was OK for it to be my night, but only if she said so. What was the point of getting all dressed up to seduce Freddie when she had given me to him on a plate already?
    I pushed him back, gently. I’d kissed him loads of times before, but this time felt different. Wrong. His mouth was really wet, and he tasted like cider and Wotsits.
    He smiled, his eyes half shut, as he swayed backwards. ‘We could do it here, if you like?’ he murmured.
    As if. There was no way it was happening now. I looked around the garden at the clusters of people smoking weed, getting off with each other or looking ill. Yup, this was just how I’d pictured losing my virginity; being publicly deflowered on a piece of exercise equipment. I suppose the only advantage was that it didn’t have his name written across it in huge, sparkly letters.
    â€˜Erm, yeah, we could do it here,’ I said. ‘That is an option. But there are about a hundred people in this garden and you aren’t coping very well with moving or staying conscious.’
    Freddie’s eyes were now fully shut. He didn’t even look like he was interested in being awake, let alone with me. This wasn’t really how I had imagined it. A half-asleep Freddie Clemence, deigning to do me a favour by murdering my youth on a trampoline.
    Sam

    I couldn’t find Robin or Chris anywhere. I wandered through to the kitchen. Ribena Girl wasn’t in there but her friend was, the one who’d summoned her down to meet Freddie. She and another girl were staring out of the French windows into the garden and giggling. I saw what they were staring and giggling at, and immediately felt a bit sick, like I’d just done a shot of sambuca on a full stomach.
    She – Ribena Girl – was sitting on the trampoline, kissing a bloke I can only assume was Freddie. Freddie had apparently come straight to the party from the set