A Walk On The Beach

Chapter 12

Boy

WHERE ARE WE going?” I ask Caitlyn as she pays the taxi driver. We are not outside the gym.

Caitlyn flicks her long ponytail back over her shoulder and then slides on her Prada sunglasses she got for her fourteenth birthday. She adjusts her Paul’s Boutique handbag on her shoulder and then links her arm with mine. She drags me along Hong Kong pavements. “You didn’t seriously think I'd take you to the gym, did you? I’m not even dressed for it.”

I roll my eyes. “Caitlyn Harvey, you are –”

She interrupts me and breaks away from me. “Oh shops! C’mon, Jordan!”

“Well, you’re just a girl,” I sigh. I have to chase after her; girl can sure run in flip flops.

“Wow!” she gushes, removing her sunglasses from her eyes.

I walk in and get attacked by a gust of cold air conditioning, and then I get blinded by the lights in the shopping centre. “Whoa! Cait, I think you should put those back on. Someone could get overwhelmed with light in this place.”

She laughs. “Come on, Jordan. We haven’t shopped together since...I was in year 7! What happened to you?”

“I grew up, and became too cool for girly shopping?” I suggest.

She rolls her eyes and enters a clothes store. “Right. Mr Jordan Cool. I forgot all the girls fall to your feet when they see you at school.” She searches through the racks. “Oh, I’ve been meaning to ask you, how’s Amber?”

I stop in my tracks, and then I remember how to move. “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

My little sister shrugs. “Just asking. Haven’t heard from her in ages, which is probably a good thing. Why do you always date bitchy girls?”

“Hey! When have I always dated bitchy girls? Which bitchy girls have I dated?” I ask as I walk out of the store.

She raises her hands in surrender. “Chill, bro.” She walks up to the ice cream stall. “Two vanilla cones, please.” She turns to face me as she waits. “There’s Amber...”

“Yeah, that’s it!”

She continues, “Megan before Amber. She was way bitchy. The way she treats us – I’m glad she dumped you.”

“Caitlyn!”

“I know, that was in, like, year seven when you had no idea what was going through that spotty pre teen head of yours,” she says, rolling her eyes again. She takes the ice cream and passes me mine.

“Thanks,” I say.

She devours the Flake first. “Now...”

“Now?!”

“Yeah, it’s Stephanie. What a bitch. I think she’s the worst.” She pauses to think. “No, she and Amber are on the same level. So what’s up with you two?”

I take a moment to finish the ice cream before I answer her. “Caitlyn, Amber and I broke up – ages ago.”

Caitlyn’s eyes are wide. She almost drops her waffle cone. “Are you serious?”

“You knew that,” I tell her.

She shrugs. “Yeah. I’m glad you ditched her. But I don’t like Stephanie.”

“I noticed.”

She ends up buying five bagfuls of clothes and gifts for her friends back in England.

“Home time?” I ask.

She takes out her phone that has been fitted with a Hong Kong chip. “I’ll ask Mum and Dad to meet us out here. We might have dinner out finally.”

I wait as she phones Mum. I wander around. When I decide to sit down on a bench, I think I see her. I go closer, almost following her. Okay, I am following her. She and a friend walk into a restaurant. I quickly return to Caitlyn.

“They said they’ll be here in ten minutes,” she tells me.

I drag her to the restaurant. “We’re eating here.”

Caitlyn frowns. “Why?”

Suddenly I don’t know what to do. I shrug. “Erm, it looks nice.”

Caitlyn studies the restaurant for a moment. “Fine,” she sighs finally. “I’ll go tell Mum and co. to meet us here.”

I smile. “Great.”