The Four of Us by Margaret Pemberton Read Free Book Online Page A

were me or Simon trying to deal with her.’
    â€˜Interesting,’ Geraldine had said, and had then changed the subject to the one that dominated most of their conversations; boys – and how to attract them.
    That their parents would all have pink fits if they knew just how boy-fixated they were was, Kiki reflected, the only thing their parents had in common. Artemis’s father would, they had all generally agreed, lay violent hands on any boy he caught taking his precious only daughter out on a date. Geraldine had been of the opinion that it was her her father would lay violent hands on if he caught her out with a boy at fifteen and Primmie had said that if she were caught she would never be allowed to sleep away from home again.
    She turned away from the window in order to turn off the alarm of her bedside clock before it shrilled into life and then threw one of her pillows on to Primmie’s bed.
    â€˜Hey, Dormouse,’ she said, impatiently. ‘Wake up, it’s seven thirty, it’s Friday and I’ve got plans for the four of us.’
    Primmie groaned and humped herself a little further under the bedcovers. Kiki unceremoniously tugged them off her. ‘What say we organize a night of freedom for tomorrow?’
    Primmie swung her legs to the floor and pushed a tangle of mousy curls away from her face. ‘How? I’ll be in Rotherhithe.’
    â€˜You don’t have to be.’
    Kiki padded barefoot into the en-suite bathroom. ‘It’s the sixth form school play tomorrow night.’ She turned on a cold tap and squeezed toothpaste on to a toothbrush. ‘If you say you want to go to it, it’ll be the perfect excuse for your sleeping here an extra night.’
    â€˜But I don’t want to go to it.’
    Kiki’s response, as she spat and gargled into the sink, was, perhaps fortunately, unintelligible.
    â€˜And Geraldine and Artemis won’t want to go to it either,’ Primmie continued, shedding her pyjamas and stepping into the shower. ‘It’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and I saw them at rehearsal the other week when I had to stay behind for tennis practice.’ She turned the shower on, revelling in the pleasure of it. Even after living so long at the Lanes’, there were still some things she was unable to take for granted. ‘They were dreadful,’ she said, speaking more loudly so that Kiki would be able to hear her over the sound of the water. ‘Truly.’
    â€˜Lord, but you’re dense!’ Kiki wiped her mouth on a towel and paused long enough in front of the mirror to see if her breasts were making much of an impression against the thin cotton of her pyjama top. They weren’t. ‘The school play would just be the excuse for your sleeping over on Saturday night. We wouldn’t actually go to the silly, sodding thing. Simon’s at a conference over the weekend. It’s an ideal weekend for arranging for Geraldine and Artemis to sleep over with us because when he’s away Mummy always takes advantage and has a binge and she won’t have a clue what time we come home. Savvy?’
    â€˜Y-e-s.’ Doubtfully Primmie stepped out of the shower so that Kiki could step into it. ‘But it’s a bit deceitful, isn’t it? I mean we’re all going to have to lie, aren’t we?’
    Kiki closed her eyes in exasperation and began soaping herself, wondering why it was she was still so flat chested when even Primmie was wearing a bra and Artemis’s cup size was an awesome 36C.
    â€˜No, we’re not, Primmie,’ she said, with as much patience as she could summon. ‘We all four tell our parents that it’s the sixth form play on Saturday – and you three then ask if it’s OK for you to sleep at my house. None of us will have said that we’re going to the play. It will just be assumed that we are. So we won’t have fibbed at all. Get