MAEVE’S POV
“Muffy!” I called through the house, peering into rooms. “Muffy! Mu – oh, morning Jamesy, do you know where your mum is?”
He looked up at me from where he was sitting in the playroom playing with blocks. He pointed a chubby finger through to his bedroom next door. I kissed him on the head as I passed and went through to find my aunt making James’ bed.
“Morning love,” she greeted me warmly before going back to her work. My aunt was, to put it plainly, a milf. After two kids, a successful job and marriage, she was still as hot as she was at the age of 20, with her awesome figure, long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, unfortunately, those traits didn’t get passed on to her niece. “What’s up?”
“I kind of got invited out to lunch,” I explained and she looked up in surprise. So maybe I don’t have the most raging social life.
“That’s exciting. Who with?” she questioned, definitely intrigued now.
“You know that band from the show, What About Tonight?” I asked and she nodded. “Well them and a couple of girls, one of their sisters and a friend. They’re the ones who gave me a lift home last night.”
“You never did tell me why you didn’t get a lift home with Jane again,” she pointed out. Damn, there was no wriggling out of anything when she got that look and crossed her arms like that.
“Jane kind of got fired,” I said awkwardly. Muffy’s eyes narrowed, Jane was a friend of hers. “And uh… I kind of did as well.”
“What?” She burst. “Why the hell did they do that?”
“They didn’t really say,” I shrugged. “Budget cuts I guess. Please don’t go and bite their heads off though, it’s not that big of a deal.”
I hurried out before she could say anything else, going back through to the playroom where James pushed himself to his feet and held up his arms, the signal for me to pick him up. I obeyed his royal highness and carried him through to the kitchen.
“Morning Bell,” I greeted my other cousin, who was standing on a step at the bench, making herself a sandwich. She is way too smart for her age, I swear.
“Hardly,” she rolled her eyes without looking up from her lunch. “It’s 11:30.”
“Which is my cue to leave,” I deposited James onto the floor where he pouted and crossed his little arms. “I’ll be back later bub. Bella, I’ll help you with that maths homework tonight, alright?” she nodded.
I hitched my bag onto my shoulder and made my way out into the hall.
“Muffy, I’m heading out,” I called back over my shoulder. “I’ll be back later this afternoon.”
“Do you want a lift?” she called back.
“Um,” I glanced at the time on my phone. “Nah, it’s just around the corner on main. I’ll be alright walking, thanks.”
I stepped out into the street to pretty much perfect weather, glad I’d gone with a sleeveless floral dress and ben simons. I made the short walk to the main street and located the café Luke had texted me to meet them at.
They were all sitting around a table in the corner, looking marginally more cheerful than they had last night. They all looked up as I approached. Taylah and Georgia broke into grins and gestured to an empty chair between Brock and Luke.
“Um, hi,” I said shyly as I sat down.
“Hello,” Brock greeted. Was I imagining it, or did he sound a little British when he spoke? Maybe it was just because he was so polite.
“Can I get you guys anything?” a waitress asked, jolting me out of my thoughts. We all ordered, I got some pasta with a fancy name. She brought around everyone’s drinks then left us to our conversation.
“So Maeve,” Georgia said loudly, putting her chin in her hands and looking at me dramatically. “Tell us about yourself.”
“Uh, my name’s Maeve,” I said awkwardly. “I live… well here, around the corner actually. I’m 17, 18 this year. I’m going to be the next JK Rowling, and I like llamas. No really, what do you want to know?”
“That was a pretty good summary,” Luke chuckled. “Okay, why do you work at the show?”
“Worked,” I correct automatically. “They kind of laid a few people off last night. No biggie though, it was just a job. It was fun I guess, but you know.”
“It wouldn’t have been as good without us there anyway,” Mitchel shrugged cockily. Christian laughed, and I noticed he didn’t look nearly as close to tears as he had all the way home.
The waitress brought our food, and the boys telling jokes or stories and everyone else laughing broke the sound of scraping cutlery and people eating. I was listening to Christian and Mitchel saying something about some game they always played when my phone went off. I pulled it out to see a new text.
“Who’s Muffy?” Luke asked as I opened it.
“My aunty,” I said absently. I looked up to find them looking at me weirdly. “My cousin, she’s five, when she was a baby she would call her mum ‘Muffy’, so we all started using it.”
“I had a great aunt once who liked to be called Your Majesty,” Broke said, breaking the silence that had settled and we all started laughing hysterically.
“Broccoli,” Taylah said in a sing-song voice. “Just a friendly reminder that I have a life and have an appointment at four.”
“Of course m’lady,” Brock said sarcastically and we all got up to leave. I walked out to the door with them and we stopped momentarily on the footpath in the sun.
“Did you want a lift home babe?” Luke asked me and I couldn’t help ‘Little Maeve’ doing a happy dance in my stomach.
“No thanks,” I shook my head, smiling back at him. “My lift is just down at the supermarket, but um… I’ll see you guys later?” I phrased it as a question without realising. Would I see them again? I mean, I really, really wanted to… or is that desperate?
“Of course,” Christian grinned, hugging me. The others all followed his lead and said their goodbyes. Luke was last. Damn he smelt good. Oh my god, my mind is such a creep.
“Bye,” I said over my shoulder as I walked down the street, playing nervously with my bracelets thinking they could still be watching me. When I rounded out of sight into the Safeway carpark, I let myself grin and skip a little.
“Well hello Little Miss Cheerful,” Muffy said as I met them down an aisle and took over the trolley. James grinned at me from the little seat near the handles. “How was lunch?”
“Great,” I answered honestly. “This whole socialising thing is fun, I don’t know why I don’t do it more often.”
“You’re a teenager, Hallelujah!” Muffy proclaimed loudly, making an old lady pushing past us look scandalised. We burst into fits of giggles and hurried out as quickly as possible.
