Sammie pokes her head around the door of our bedroom. "Are they here yet?"
"No, and you lot are not going to be seeing them."
"But I want to see your friends, you never have your friends round our house and you met my friends like Ella and Anna and Keesha and I haven't met yours," She takes a breath. "But I'm not friends with Keesha anymore she told Ella that I was mean to Melanie but I'm even not friends with Melanie I don’t talk to her so why would I be mean to Melanie?"
"Exactly," I say with a sideways grin at Sam. "Now, how about we get you off to sleep. Or maybe you can read for a bit?"
"Or can we watch a film?"
"We don't have a DVD player. Come on Sammie, into bed." But she is pulling something out of her schoolbag.
"Look, Anna gave me her tablet to use. We can watch Frozen!"
"Good lord you need to be really, really careful with that thing. We don't want to have to buy Anna a new one, do we. Okay you can watch a film but make sure you don’t make too much noise."
"Yay!"
"And don't tell all the others – just Tash, I don't want everyone in there, squabbling."
"You'd make a good mother," Sam remarks.
"I already am a bloody mother," I grumble. I do feel like one sometimes. But to be honest, despite my grumbling, I do enjoy looking after the kids. The doorbell rings. It's Quentin, followed by Marjorie who has brought a bottle of cider.
"Hi!" Marjorie says, giving me a hug. Sam and Quentin do one of those awkward man-hugs and we all go to sit down in the living room . Quentin and Sam quickly get wrapped up in a conversation so it's just me and Marjorie until the others get here.
"Are we first to arrive then?" She asks. A bit of a stupid question but there you go.
"Looks like it."
"How many people are coming?"
"Oh only about eight or nine," I say.
"You wish! Hun, the news of this party will have spread like wildfire on Facebook."
"Well I wouldn’t exactly call it a party… just a few friends over. And I was careful to make sure it stayed that way," I reply, mildly irritated at her patronizing tone.
"Never mind. Let's just have a bit of a laugh," Marjorie says, obviously sensing my annoyance. "Mind if I crack open the cider?"
"Be my guest. I'll get some glasses." The doorbell rings again and Francis along with Todd Stewart, Sam's other friend come in, yelling raucously – obviously already having drunk a bit already. Predictably Francis has brought beers. Turns out Marjorie and Todd know each other well but Marjorie didn’t know Todd was coming until now so they end up chatting. Francis and Sam are caught up talking about an upcoming gig so I'm left with Quentin, who's an all right kind of bloke, though it's difficult to have an intelligent conversation with him. I put on the Now 80 CD which fills the silence a bit and attempt to start a conversation.
YOU ARE READING
When Nothing is Ever Simple
Teen Fiction"Taking care of my six out-of-control little sisters twenty-four seven is not a piece of cake..." Jade Gardner is sixteen and has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her mother is an alcoholic, and leaves Jade to care for her six other daughte...
