Mars? Yeah Right!

Chapter 15

15

One look and I am sold, You've got me on my knees

You steal all my innocence, a lovesick melo-

"Waaah!"

I shot up out of bed and grabbed my mobile off my bedside locker just as it was about to vibrate off the edge and mashed the green button with my thumb, cutting off Andy Biersack midsentence.

"What?"

"Aine! Are you free today?"

I pulled the phone away from my ear, glanced at the time, then swore loudly. "Terry! What the hell is wrong with you, it's half eight in the morning!"

"Just answer the damn question!"

I sighed down the phone at her, contemplating how well I would do in prison when I was tried for first degree murder. "Yes, I am. Why?"

"Because I forgot to buy Mam a birthday present and I need someone to help me pick one."

"No."

"Please! Her birthday is tomorrow!"

"Why can't you get your dad or your brother to help you?"

Teresa snorted. "Hello! They're men! Do you really think they would have good suggestions for me?"

I thought back to my own mother's face when she unwrapped the hideous magenta jumper Dad had bought her for her last birthday, the first time in fourteen years I wasn't there to help him pick. "You have a point there."

"See! So will you help me?"

"Hmm...." I said, exaggerating the noise. "I dunno...do I want to help someone who spent an entire night sucking face with her boyfriend thus leaving her absolute saint of a best friend at the mercy of an annoyingly persistant neighbour and a douchebag wannabe rockstar?"

There was an extremely long, pointed silence.

Then Teresa coughed nervously. "Um...would it help if I said I was really really sorry about that?"

"It might. If you said sorry and promised to buy me lunch in town."

"Deal."

"See you in a bit."

                                                                               ***********

"Ohmigod Teresa will you just pick something!"

We had been wandering around the shopping centre for two hours and Teresa still hadn't bought anything. She glared at me over a display of ornaments with various mother-related slogans on them. "Will you shut up and stop whining? I haven't seen anything Mam would like yet!"

"She's your mother! You could get her a freaking dog toy and she'd tell you she loved it!"

"Aine!"

Past my limit now, I grabbed one of the ornaments off the shelf, a fat little cherub holding a banner bearing the legend 'My Mum Is My Best Friend.' I forced it into Teresa's hand. "Here, get that for her."

Teresa stared at it and made a face. "Ew, no! It's so tacky!"

A woman passing by glared at us and I saw with some chagrin that she was holding the exact same statuette. "Could you say that a bit louder?" I hissed. "I don't think that lady quite heard you."