Vintage by Maxine Linnell Read Free Book Online

of your business.”
    â€œI’ll tell Mum of you.”
    Brat.
    I slip the note behind the new cupboard. So it can’t be seen.
    Off out the back door, into this new world.

The doorbell rang again. Holly’s mum was out of the bath.
    â€œThat’ll be pizza!”
    How could pizza ring the doorbell? Whatever pizza was?
    Marilyn hesitated, then answered the door. There was a man outside, in a helmet. A motorbike stood by the roadside. He was holding a square flat box and a plastic bag.
    â€œPizza! You ordered it.”
    â€œOh.”
    â€œDon’t tell me this is another hoax call. If I eat more of these I won’t be able to get through the door. This is 132, isn’t it?”
    â€œYes, I think so.”
    â€œDon’t you live here? Look, it’s all paid for, on the phone, here you are.”
    He held the box and the bag out so Marilyn couldn’t help taking them. The box was warm.
    The man ran back down the path and jumped on his motorbike. Marilyn stood there, watching him drive off.
    â€œPizza!”
    She turned to see Holly’s mum running downstairs dressed in pink pyjamas, a towel wrapped round her hair.
    â€œGreat. Bring it in. I’ll get a glass of wine – there’s a coke in there for you.”
    They sat with their feet up on a huge settee in the front room, made of leather. It didn’t seem to smell like leather, and it was soft.
    This was breaking all the rules. Marilyn wasn’t eating at the table, there was food in the sitting room and glasses on the floor. And the mum was drinking a big glass of red wine. Her own mum never drank, except at Christmas and weddings. Marilyn lost count of all the things she was doing that weren’t allowed at home.
    And she loved it.
    The pizza was a big flat cake with tomatoes and cheese on top. She looked round for plates and knives and forks, but the mum picked a slice up in her hand and ate it. Marilyn did the same. It was easy to eat, and sweet. They ate while they watched telly. It was huge, and the pictures were really clear with bright colours.
    Holly’s mother didn’t seem to expect her to do anything except grunt a few responses, which was great as Marilyn didn’t know what to say, even more than at home. Then Holly’s mum asked Marilyn a direct question.
    â€œWhere’s your mobile?”
    Marilyn almost choked on her pizza. She didn’t know what a mobile was, let alone where hers was. If she’d ever had one. But the mum didn’t wait for a reply.
    â€œHolly, you haven’t lost it again! You know what your dad said last week. If you’ve lost this one you’re in big trouble. You are hopeless, where did you last see it?”
    Marilyn shrugged her shoulders, hoping that would be enough of an answer.
    â€œYou don’t care, do you? Everything we give you – I work all hours, you’ve got everything any girl could want in spite of being a single parent family now, and you don’t look after any of it. I don’t know where we went wrong. Is it some kind of acting out? Are you trying to tell me something?”
    Marilyn shrugged again, but the mother was carrying on. She was beginning to sound like her own mum, going on and on about everything.
    Nobody asked her to.
    â€œYou’ll have to ring your dad. He’ll climb the walls. Go on then, ring him.”
    Marilyn didn’t know where the phone was. She hadn’t seen one in the hall when she got here. That’s where her family’s phone was.
    â€œHere, use my mobile.” The mother rummaged in her handbag and gave Marilyn an object she didn’t recognise. Marilyn looked at it, confused.
    â€œFor heaven’s sake. I’ll ring him then.”
    This was a phone? There were no wires. But the mother was poking at the keys, and seemed to be able to talk to someone somehow, probably Holly’s dad.
    â€œYou know what she’s done? She’s lost that