Sunshine Girl Page 4

  The further she got from the boarding house, the closer she got to the art gallery. Now this began to feel much more real and much more nerve-racking.

  She was going to break up with Dermot. For real.

  There had been a break-up a few weeks ago, but it had only lasted for a few hours before they’d got back together again. But this was really going to be goodbye.

  She couldn’t help thinking of all the good times they’d had together. Now that she was going to finish things, her brain was reminding her of:

  Dermot joking with her mom, even though all his jokes fell flat.

  Dermot kissing her for ages and ages when she was supposed to be helping him with his history revision.

  Dermot’s mum, Dermot’s house, Dermot’s ever-ready smile, Dermot’s way of making almost everything seem funny.

  Dermot turning up at the Halloween party dressed as Shrek! How could she forget about that? How could she dump Shrek?!

  She knew she’d love to keep Dermot as a friend. But that was going to be impossible. Especially if she dated Callum.

  Dermot and Callum were at school together and Dermot would know all about Callum’s new girlfriend. So Gina and Dermot couldn’t be friends. This was definitely going to be goodbye.

  She began to walk up the long driveway to the art gallery, wondering if she would get there before him. Just the thought of what she was going to have to say to him was making her heart skip about in her chest.

  Walking into the café, Gina realized it was busy. For a moment, she scanned the packed tables and didn’t think that Dermot was there. But then a wave caught her attention.

  There he was!

  She couldn’t help herself from smiling and there was a burst of feeling pleased until she remembered just what she was here to do.

  As she passed through the tables towards him, Gina was not exactly over the moon to see Rosie and two of her friends drinking tea and sharing a piece of chocolate cake at a table just two down from Dermot’s.

  ‘Hi,’ she said, almost under her breath, when Rosie looked up and saw her.

  ‘Oh … hi …’ Rosie said and began to blush.

  She knew! She knew why Gina was here. No doubt about it.

  Gina looked away from Rosie and focused on Dermot, who was walking over to her.

  ‘Hello, gorgeous, how are you doing?’ he greeted her. His smile was totally friendly, totally welcoming. He held out his arms and Gina leaned down into them, accepting the hug and the kiss on the lips. ‘Tea? Coffee? Hot chocolate? Or something wild and wacky, like maybe chai?’ Dermot asked.

  ‘Chai would be good … but can we get it to go? It’s so hot and busy in here … maybe we could walk round the sculpture gardens outside.’

  ‘Scene of our first kiss. Can I just remind you of that?’

  ‘No! Our first kiss was in my car on the way to the airport.’

  ‘Oh, you’re right. How could I forget? But the sculpture gardens was the scene of our first official date kiss.’

  ‘No it wasn’t! I think that was at your house … never mind …’ Gina felt flustered. ‘OK. We’ve kissed in the sculpture gardens before. Does it matter?’

  ‘Of course it matters. It all matters. The little things matter. Let me get your tea.’

  ‘No, it’s OK, I’ll get it.’ Gina was desperate for Dermot not to pay. She couldn’t make him buy her an expensive cup of tea and then dump him once she’d drunk it. ‘I’ll get the tea,’ she insisted. ‘Would you like something?’

  ‘Well … maybe a paper cup so I can take my coffee outside with me.’ He pointed at the elaborately creamed and sprinkled drink in front of him.

  ‘Sorry, do you mind?’ she asked.

  ‘Not really.’

  Once she was in the cool, fresh air of the gardens, away from the stares of the Lower Fives, Gina began to calm down. She had her tea in one hand and Dermot’s fingers in her other.

  As they walked along, he chatted about the café and how his exam revision was going. He was hoping to do well enough in his summer exams to get into Edinburgh University.

  Exams … and working in the café. That was all Dermot had time for right now. She was amazed he’d even managed to get away to meet her here. That was a big part of the problem.

  He was lovely, but compared to Callum … he was a little bit boring.

  ‘So … how are you?’ He turned, smiled and fixed his blue eyes on hers. As soon as that happened, Gina felt herself wavering.

  ‘Well … well … the thing is …’ She wished she’d done this by phone. Or email … or even sent him a text.

  But nine months! They’d been dating for nine months. She couldn’t just end that with a text.

  ‘The thing is …’

  They had stopped walking now and were standing, facing each other. Dermot was still smiling, with obviously no idea what was coming next. A pained expression was beginning to take shape on Gina’s face.

  She had watched the break-up scene on so many films and TV shows, but she’d never actually done this. Well, OK, they had sort of broken up before, but they got together again immediately afterwards.

  This was the real thing.

  She was about to really, really hurt and reject him. It felt very hard, especially when he was looking at her with his lovely smile, expecting her to tell him something much more ordinary.

  ‘The thing is … the thing is …’ she stumbled, ‘we’re going to have to break up. This is the thing …’ Her voice sounded all choked and anxious. ‘We’re going to have to break up because …’ She looked down at the grass and the pointy toes of her boots. ‘Because I really like you, Dermot’ – she clung onto his hands tightly – ‘but I don’t want to go out with you any more.’

  There. She’d said it and she knew he’d heard it because there was a stunned silence hanging between them. She dared to look up into his face and felt an immediate pang at the hurt she’d caused.

  It took him several moments to find his voice.

  ‘Well … I’m … I’m a bit surprised,’ he spluttered. ‘I mean, we’ve been through this. We did break up and you convinced me you’d made a terrible mistake. You convinced me, and now you’re doing it all over again.’ His voice seemed to range from choked to hurt, to angry and back again. As if he couldn’t decide how he was supposed to feel.

  ‘I’m sorry. I really like you, Dermot. I really do.’ Gina searched his face. This was true. This really was true; she could feel an ache building up in the back of her throat. ‘But … I don’t want to be your girlfriend any more. I want to … move on.’

  Ouch. That seemed to land like a slap on his face. He winced.

  ‘Dermot, you’re a great guy. Really, really great …’

  ‘But not great enough for you?’ He made a bitter little half-smile, which disappeared as quickly as it had come. ‘Please tell me you’re not going out with Callum? Please tell me I’m not being dumped for him?’

  Gina bit her lip. She didn’t dare to lie to him because she knew he would find out.

  ‘Oh, great! That is just great. Just what exactly is so … so … fascinating about Callum? He’s an idiot, you know. A total idiot.’

  She carried on biting her lip. Nothing she could say would be good enough.

  ‘Well … you just go off … with Callum then. I hope you have … have a … a … lovely time.’ Dermot sounded an almost perfect mixture of angry and upset. His words were stuttering out awkwardly.

  ‘Dermot, please …’ Gina said, feeling tearful and confused. ‘I don’t want to hurt your feelings.’

  ‘Well then, stop dumping me every five minutes.’

  ‘But I don’t want to do this any more, even though I really like you.’

  ‘Are you sure?’ He stepped close to her, took hold of her upper arms and searched her face.

  Looking into his face made her feel overwhelmingly sad, overwhelmingly sorry for him, but Gina still nodded.

  Yes. She had really, really liked him. But it was time
to move on. Otherwise what? There was no one who didn’t go through break-ups. Otherwise, everyone would be happy ever after with their first-ever boyfriend.

  ‘I really liked you,’ she said. ‘You made me very happy. You were part of the reason I came back to Edinburgh. But now, we’re back to friends. I hope … I really hope we can be OK with that. I couldn’t bear to lose you as a friend too.’

  ‘When you break up with Callum,’ Dermot said darkly, ‘you can come and see me in the café any time.’

  She leaned over, wanting to kiss him once more, aiming for his lips. But he turned his head and the kiss landed awkwardly on his cheek.

  He began to turn away. He was going. This really was the last of Gina-and-Dermot. She felt a horrible stab of sadness.

  ‘Take care,’ she said in a little whispery voice.

  Dermot’s phone began to bleep. He pulled it out of his pocket. ‘That’ll be my new girlfriend,’ he tried to joke, but his voice sounded gruff and not at all funny. He called up the message, then just stared at it with a surprised look on his face.

  ‘Is everything OK?’ Gina asked.

  ‘Nice of you to have told everyone you were going to dump me,’ Dermot said bitterly.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Dermot held up the phone so she could read the message: POOR YOU. I THINK YOU’RE LOVELY XX

  ‘I didn’t tell—’ Gina began, but stopped right there, because she had. ‘Who sent that?’

  ‘Caller withheld,’ Dermot told her.

  Chapter Nine

  ‘Aim! There you are!’

  Niffy rushed into the St Jude’s boarding-house laundry room, brandishing a letter in her hand. Amy was sitting on top of a table eating a Pot Noodle while Min tried to put up the rickety boarding-house ironing board.

  ‘Is that a Pot Noodle?’ Niffy asked, stopping in her tracks. ‘Can I have some? In fact, have you got a spare one? I am starving. We had double games and the new woman, Miss Jonker, made us run around the pitches six times to warm up.’

  ‘No, I haven’t got any more and no, you can’t have some of mine,’ Amy said, pulling the pot towards her protectively.

  ‘What is so great about those things, anyway?’ Min asked. ‘They taste horrible.’

  ‘Give me that,’ Niffy told Min. ‘The great science and maths brain of the twenty-first century unfortunately can’t make any sense of an ironing board.’ As she went over to help Min, she put down the letter she’d been carrying on the table beside Amy.

  ‘So what is this? Is this what’s got you all excited?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Niffy said, putting the ironing board up in a moment, then coming back to study the contents of her letter with Amy.

  Amy picked up a newspaper cutting and glanced it over. There was a picture of a horse receiving a third-place rosette. ‘Is that Ginger? The horsey love of your life?’ she teased.

  ‘Yes. He’s being ridden by this friend of mine during term time, she took him to a show and they did really well. And that’s why Mum sent me the cutting from the local paper. But that’s not why I’ve been running all over the place trying to find you … Look on the back.’

  Amy turned over and saw the headline: THIRD COURT APPEARANCE FOR MAN ACCUSED OF OAP FRAUD. Beside the story there was a black-and-white photo of a man in a suit hurrying down the court steps.

  ‘So?’ was Amy’s reaction. ‘I don’t get it. Do you know an OAP he’s defrauded?’

  ‘No! But I know him! We all know him.’

  Amy looked at the photo much more carefully now, and Min even left her ironing to come over and take a squint.

  ‘That is Mrs Knebworth’s boyfriend!’ Min was the first to gasp.

  ‘You are joking!’ Amy exclaimed, pulling the paper closer.

  ‘Not this time,’ Niffy said. ‘Of course it is; it’s Jaguar man. Are you going blind, Amy? I knew I’d seen him somewhere before and it says in this story the paper covered his last two court appearances.’

  ‘What’s he supposed to have done?’ Min asked.

  ‘Cheated five OAPs out of their life-savings with some dodgy financial scheme. Basically, Mrs K is dating the Bernie Madoff of Cumbria.’

  ‘You have got to be joking,’ Amy repeated, but seeing the picture and skim-reading parts of the story, she knew that it was true.

  ‘Mr Edward George Arbuckle; that’s his name, isn’t it?’ Min asked. ‘I’ve definitely heard Mrs Knebworth talk about “Georgie” and Miss McKinnon referred to him as Mr Arbuckle.’

  ‘Do you think Mrs K knows about this?’ Amy asked. ‘I mean, he’s supposed to be her late husband’s cousin … or do you think he lied about that too?’

  Niffy looked at Amy, then Min in turn. ‘If you think the Neb, the pinnacle of respectable Edinburgh society, knows that she is dating someone who makes court appearances charged with OAP fraud, then you can’t know her as well as I do,’ she replied.

  Min and Amy exchanged a glance. This was totally true. There was no way the Neb knew.

  ‘Oh no! With her lipstick and her floral numbers and her Saturday nights at the opera, she’s having so much fun,’ Min began. ‘Niffy, you just can’t want to be the one to tell her!’

  Chapter Ten

  Something had also arrived for Min in the post that day, but as she didn’t think her dorm friends would be interested, she kept it to herself.

  She came back up to the dorm after she’d finished her ironing and the angst-ridden discussion with Niffy and Amy, in which they’d decided Niffy probably should tell the Neb about Jaguar man, but maybe not yet.

  Sitting on the chest of drawers beside Min’s bed was the cardboard box filled with bubble wrap which contained the brand-new laboratory standard microscope which her dad had sent her. Her parents seemed to be gradually resigning themselves to the fact that if she went into medicine, she’d probably go into medical research rather than patient care, so maybe that’s why her dad had sent the microscope.

  Min carefully lifted the bubble-wrapped weight out. She’d already inspected it, but now she was actually going to prepare a slide and look down the lens at it.

  She looked around the dorm, wondering what she could use. The Iris dorm (all the boarding-house dorms were named after flowers) was a cosy attic room filled to bursting with four beds, four chests of drawers, a small wardrobe and all the many, many belongings of four girls.

  Family photos and posters hung on the walls. The dressing tables were cluttered with hair products, face creams, make-up brushes and jewellery stands, and the chairs at the end of every bed were draped with clothes. Under every bed there was an untidy jumble of sports kit and shoes: multicoloured pumps, heels, patent leathers and tennis rackets under Gina and Amy’s beds; muddy boots, schools shoes, trainers and hockey sticks under Niffy’s.

  When Min’s eye fell on Niffy’s trainers, she remembered with a jolt that summer term and athletics were coming, and she’d hardly done any training at all the whole winter. She considered scraping some mud from Niffy’s boot for the slide, but she didn’t think that would be interesting enough.

  Min went over to the little attic window and there she found exactly what she was looking for: a small, dead hoverfly trapped in the little bit of spider web in the very corner of the window. She borrowed tweezers and a pair of nail scissors from Amy’s chest of drawers, plucked the fly from the web and began to snip it into tiny pieces over her slide. Then she added a drop of saline solution and pushed the other slide on top, making a glass hoverfly sandwich.

  As soon as she’d switched on the microscope and focused in on the slide, she couldn’t help giving a ‘Wow!’ out loud because she felt so excited by what she could see.

  ‘I love bugs,’ she whispered to herself. ‘I absolutely love bugs.’

  There was a knock on the door.

  ‘Come in,’ Min answered.

  A girl from two years below, one of the more shy new girls, was standing there looking totally out of breath.

  ‘Are you Asimina?’ she aske
d.

  ‘Yes. Hi.’

  ‘There’s a phone call for you.’

  ‘Thanks, that’s so nice of you to come all the way up here and get me.’ Min remembered just how annoying it was to be a junior in the boarding house and have to run about answering phones, finding people and taking messages. ‘Do you know who it is?’ she asked, hurrying to the door.

  ‘A guy … I think he said his name was Greg.’

  ‘Greg!’ This spurred Min into excited action. ‘Thanks!’ she called again as she raced across the landing, out of the fire door and began to take the steps two at a time.

  Greg had been Min’s boyfriend – she still felt a tingly thrill at the word – since Christmas. Her very own, very first boyfriend. Greg was completely and totally cute, and just to prove how much they had in common, they’d met through an online physics homework club.

  Min raced down the many flights of stairs, then dashed along the corridor, worried that he might have given up waiting for her on the other end of the line.

  ‘Hello?’

  ‘Min – is that you?’

  ‘Hi! How are you?’ Min settled herself on the little stool in the cupboard with the phone, and she and Greg chatted about school, about homework and most importantly, about films they might like to see at the cinema next weekend.

  ‘Hey, I got a microscope!’ Min told him. ‘A real one, electric, lab standard with slides and a light and everything.’

  ‘A microscope?’ Greg sounded surprised. ‘What are you going to look at with a microscope?’

  ‘Everything. Anything and everything. I’m going to look at whatever I can jam in between two glass slides.’

  ‘What are you looking for, Min?’

  ‘I don’t know … exactly. But that’s what good scientists do, don’t they? They just keep looking and looking at things until they discover something.’

  ‘Sounds a tiny bit madly obsessive to me,’ Greg teased. ‘Is this to do with your long-term goal of getting into Cambridge?’