“I wonder how Angie and Scott are getting on,” I say, pulling a scary face while we stroll slowly through the field.
“I doubt they’re together much. I get the feeling Scott isn’t keen on her, but he wants to end any bad feeling for your sake.”
I can’t stop myself from telling Ash how I really feel. “I’m still not sure about Scott being my brother. We’re trying to make it work, but I have times when I have doubts about trusting him. Not yet. I wish I’d been more prepared to learnthe truth, but then again, how do you prepare for something like that?”
“I’m glad you brought it up. I’ve wanted to talk to you about this for a while.” Ash puts his arm around my shoulder. “I feel guilty I knew before you, but I hope you understand it wasn’t my place to say anything. It was solely down to Scott.”
“Yeah, I know. I’m sorry if you felt caught in the middle, Ash.”
“Don’t be sorry, it was a difficult situation. Scott didn’t intend to tell you straight away, but he panicked when you started grilling him. He was planning on how to break it to you when he called and roped me in. He thought you’d appreciate the support.”
“I’m pleased you were there,” I say, running a hand over the ripples of his chest under his fresh blue t-shirt. “It was such a shock.”
“I get it,” Ash says, dropping his hand from my shoulder and slipping his arm around me. We stop walking and he pulls me flush against his body. He looks down towards me. “It’s going to take some time, that’s all. I bet you have a lot of questions too. It’s a shame your dad isn’t here to answer them.”
I shake my head. “See, there’s another problem. I don’t think of Scott’s dad as my dad. My dad is the man who walked away from my mother when she was pregnant. He is the person I never understood, and I decided at an early age, I wouldn’t give any time in my headspace. If he didn’t want me, why should I bother trying to find him? Now I’ve got to think about him differently, I mean, we’re not even related. He’s just my mum's first husband I suppose and someone I feel sorry for. He must have been pretty devastated to find out the woman he loved—the woman he’d probably given up hisown family for—was pregnant with another man’s child. How hideous is that?” I ask Ash, knowing he wouldn’t have any answers.
“I reckon it would fuck any man up.”
“Exactly. What was my mum thinking?”
We’re about to continue our slow walk when I sense someone behind us. I glance back over my shoulder, to see two giggling girls.
“I think we’re being followed,” I whisper, but Ash seems completely oblivious until he turns around.
“Oh my God, it is you, isn’t it?” a petite girl with violet hair asks.
Ash looks at me with complete confusion before replying, “Who are you looking for exactly?”
“Ash Chambers, right?” she giggles.
“Err, yeah. Do I know you girls?”
I’m pretty confident he doesn’t. Both are giggly as hell and awash with excitement.
“We saw your set with the band—Koolum Law, right?”
“Oh, cool,” he responds, not really knowing what to say. It’s kind of cute.
“You were A. Maze. Ing. Wasn’t he Jackie?”
“Absolutely,” the brunette, with a similar bobbed hairstyle to her friend, drools. Both must be a year or two younger than us but act like a couple of pre-teens. Ash doesn’t know where to look. He sheepishly replies, “Thanks. I appreciate that.” There’s an awkward silence while the girls solely focus on Ash, so he grips me close. “This is my girlfriend, Calla.”
They cast their disapproving eyes over me, and with the most unenthusiastic tone, say, “Hey.”
“Cool,” Ash says again. I’ve never known him to be tongue-tied. To fill another silence while they busily look him up and down, he adds, “Thanks for your support.”
“Can you sign our T-shirts? I have a sharpie. It’s black…and reminds me of you and the colour T-shirts you wear on stage. We’ve seen you perform before you know.”
The pushy girl steps right into his personal space, thrusting the T-shirt under his nose and almost knocking me out the way. I have to press my lips tightly together to stop myself from laughing. These two are a little besotted. It’s cute.
“Who shall I make it out to?” he asks with a nervous chuckle.
“Kay, with a K,” she giggles. “K. A. Y.” She giggles again.
“Riiiight…”
He dutifully signs, and after multiple, “Thanks so much,” and “You’re amazing,” Ash gets away. We nearly sprint across the fields in case they’re on our tail. I look over my shoulder at one point, and they’re waving us off, in fact, they keep waving until they’re a blip in the distance.
