‘Planet?’ Alex suggests.
‘Yeah, cool,’ Lou affirms.
‘I don’t have any more money on me,’ I murmur to Josh.
‘I’ll lend you some.’ He downs his pint and stands up. Everyone else does the same so I quickly knock back the last of my cider and get to my feet.
Whoa. That was my fourth drink and I am feeling more than a little bit pissed. I stumble out past the tables to the pavement. Tiff skips on ahead, dragging two of the boys with her, while Lou turns around and starts to beg Josh for a piggyback.
‘Go on, then,’ he concedes eventually as we all head down a side street away from the busy part of town. She climbs onto his back, giggling annoyingly. I watch as her long, tanned legs wrap around him.
I wish I had legs like that.
No, Lily, no, you don’t.
Yes, you do.
You’re fine as you are.
Could do with a tan though.
Oh, whatever.
‘She’s been trying to get into his pants for weeks,’ Shane says from beside me. He nods ahead at Lou and Josh.
Here we go again with the jealousy. You’d think alcohol would dull your senses, but if anything it makes it worse. ‘What’s the hold-up?’ I manage to ask.
‘She just split up with her ex. Big, beefy, Army bloke. Josh is scared shitless of him.’ He starts to laugh.
‘What are you laughing at?’ Josh shouts back at us.
‘Nothing,’ Shane replies, still sniggering, then to me, ‘It’s only a matter of time.’
Great. Now I hate her even more.
There’s a queue stretching out from the venue. We tag onto the end and wait until it finally dwindles down to our little party when the bouncer utters those two tiny letters that chill every underage teen to the bones.
‘ID.’
The others reach into their pockets, producing driving licences without a second thought. I stand there, quaking in my Birkenstocks.
‘ID,’ the bouncer says again, when the others have all filed through. I want to shout, ‘Wait!’ But I don’t.
‘I don’t have any with me,’ I reluctantly admit. ‘But Iameighteen.’
‘Sorry, love.’
He looks straight past me to the next person in the queue and I know that no amount of persuasion is going to change his mind so I step away from the door. My face burns as everyone stares at me. What the hell am I going to do now?
‘Lily!’ Josh calls to me from the door.
Phew!
‘He won’t let me in. I forgot my ID.’ I give him a meaningful look.
Josh turns to the bouncer. ‘Oh, come on, mate, she’s just come all the way from England. You know what these Pommies are like.’
‘I don’t give a possum’s arse if she’s just come from Buckingham Palace. If she doesn’t have ID, she’s not coming in.’
