Six Steps to a Girl by Sophie McKenzie Read Free Book Online Page B

self-consciously. “I’m gonna ask Kirsty out, this week. Ry thinks I’m ready. I’ve bin chatting to her for a couple of weeks now. I can’t wait any longer.”
    “Kirsty?” I said.
    “Yeah. She’s the year below us. Short. She’s got curly red hair and freckles.”
    I frowned, unable to place her.
    Tones’ eyes lit up. “She’s amazing.”
    I stared at him, wondering if it was possible that Kirsty was anywhere near as hot as Eve. I decided she couldn’t be. No one was.
    After the weekend I was no longer grounded. On Monday I went to the shops after school and bought a bag of wooden buttons, ready for Art Club later in the week. When I came home, Mum and Chloe were in the middle of this massive row about the fact that Chloe was still grounded for another three weeks while I was allowed to go out. They’d been arguing a lot since the party. In fact, Chloe had basically been in one, long, bad mood for weeks. She hadn’t used to be like that. Not that she and Mum didn’t argue. But, before, with Dad, it was different.
    I set down my buttons on my bed and closed the door.
    Dad used to make them laugh. When Mum and Chloe had their rows and Chloe would storm off to her room, he’d go from one to the other, coaxing them round, making them smile, until they’d calm down and come to the kitchen and . . . and somehow Dad would be there, making it all right.
    I looked over at the records, still in the corner.
    I could see Dad now, really clearly, peering round my bedroom door and rolling his eyes. “What is it with girls, Luke?” he’d sigh. Then he’d wink at me. “Can’t live with them. Can’t live without them, eh?”
    I don’t remember what I said back. Nothing, probably.
    I sat, staring at the records, listening to Mum and Chloe shouting. They sounded like they were crying. For a second I felt like crying too. Then a door slammed and the house went quiet and I felt nothing.
    Nothing at all.
    At last it was Thursday. I arrived five minutes late for Art Club, hoping Eve would be there already and Ms Patel would suggest I joined her table. But Eve wasn’t there. Worse – she didn’t turn up later, either. After half an hour I wandered over to the two girls I’d seen her chatting to the week before.
    “I wanted to ask Eve something about my collage project,” I said. “D’you know if she’s coming.”
    One of the girls half looked up at me. “She’s gone to watch her boyfriend in a football match.”
    I walked back to my table and stared down at the stupid piles of buttons on my piece of paper.
    What the hell was I doing?
    I felt this tremendous urge to hurl the table over on its side. Eve was totally into Ben. I was wasting my time even thinking about her.
    And then she walked in.

 
8
Staying late
    He looks through his window
What does he see?
He sees the bright and hollow sky
He sees the stars come out tonight
He sees the city’s ripped backsides
He sees the winding ocean drive
And everything was made for you and me
All of it was made for you and me . . .
    ‘The Passenger’
Iggy Pop
    Eve’s face was flushed, as if she’d been running. And there was a dusting of raindrops on her hair.
    Without taking off her coat she rushed over to Ms Patel. “Is it all right if I stay late?” she said. “I promise I’ll clear up afterwards.”
    My stomach flipped over.
    Ms Patel pursed her lips.
    Say yes, Ms Patel. Say yes and I’ll make you the best wooden-button music collage you’ve ever seen.
    “All right, Eve,” she said. “But only for half an hour. The caretaker locks up at six.”
    Eve pulled off her coat and raced over to the tray that I knew contained her collage. She pulled the paper out and carried it carefully to the nearest table.
    I bent over my buttons. I’d wasted the last hour looking up at the door every ten seconds, but now I had a plan and I worked as if my life depended on it. I arranged the buttons in zigzagging lines across the page, then waited for Ms Patel to walk