The Keeper

First Kiss

As soon as they were out of the house, Amy got Martha to help her pin up the hem of her dress so that it barely covered her bottom. The party was a twenty-minute walk across town. They left the neat lawns and hedges of Amy's street and walked down the main road, past the old man's pub, newsagent's and bookies and into the town centre. Amy took a hip flask out of her bag and offered it to Martha.

"Seriously?" said Martha.

"It's Southern Comfort. You like Southern Comfort," said Amy as she held out the hip flask.

"On ice. With lemonade. But don't let me stop you; you'll need it to kill the pain," said Martha, looking at the red weals forming on Amy's heels.

Amy shrugged and tipped back the hip flask.

The town centre pubs were full. Muffled thumping of music and shouted conversations seeped into the street. Amy and Martha cut through a car park and crossed the river to a path overgrown with buddleia and lined with bottles and fish and chip wrappers. It emerged into a housing estate cul-de-sac filled with cars that spilled over pavements onto untidy lawns.

"That's the place," said Amy, pointing to a newish brick box with tiny PVC windows and a conservatory tacked onto the front. The door was open and Blue Monday was beckoning them in.

"I love this song," Amy shouted, dragging Martha into the house.

They squeezed their way through the people filling the hallway and followed the music into the lounge. Amy started dancing and then Martha was dancing, too.

Amy nudged Martha and looked towards the stereo. "Stefan Romano is here. And he's brought his cute friend."

Martha looked behind her. "You have got to be kidding. That's Greg. He's such a prick."

"Oh, my god. He's coming over." Martha rolled her eyes as Amy squeezed her hand hard.

"Hello girls, can I get you a drink?"

Amy was speechless for once, but Martha smiled and said, "I'm good, Stefan. But I've got to go to the bathroom – excuse me."

Amy widened her eyes at her, but Martha made her escape. She was back in the hallway, squeezing through the hot bodies holding warm beer that spilled from plastic glasses. Escaping out of the back of the house to a patio and the relief of the cold night air. A blanket of mist cloaked a swimming pool, which was a good twenty metres long, running almost from fence to fence. The guys in the pool were in boxers and most of the girls were in their underwear, though a few of them had come prepared with padded bikinis that pushed their boobs into the guys' faces.

"Are you going in?" said a blond-haired boy through the mist. He sounded familiar.

"I prefer swimming in the sea – that looks like human soup. What about you?"

"No, I prefer it when it's not full of drunks pissing in the water."

"Yeah, gross. I hadn't even thought of that..."

The boy came forward and Martha saw who it was. "Oh, hello, Toph. It's nice to see someone normal here."

"I'll take that as a compliment. So how do you know Brian?"

"Brian? Is this his place? I thought it was Misha's. That's who Amy knows. What about you?"

"Misha is Brian's sister and Brian and I have been mates since we were little. My dad works for his dad's double-glazing company."

"I see..." Martha looked around, wondering how Amy was doing.

"Oh no, I've started to bore you already. That's the end of my double-glazing chat, I promise."