Broken Angel

Chapter 13

Chapter 13

‘I cannot believe you did that,’ I moaned at Georgia who was laying down some blankets, ‘why did you invite him?’

‘I didn’t, the guys over there did. I didn’t know that they would invite him, I didn’t even know that they speak to Ace.’ Georgia explained to me.

I had found Georgia leaning on the fence that surrounded the car park, at two o’clock on the dot. All I had to do was look across the car park and I found Ace hanging out with a group of boys at school. He looked like he was enjoying himself... until his gaze locked with mine.

‘Let’s just ignore him and have some fun.’ I strained a smile at Georgia. ‘Aren’t we meant to have more fun than him, you know, show that we’re better off without him?’

‘Yes, definitely,’ Georgia sat down on the blanket, ‘let’s gossip, check out some guys and then we can eat snacks around the bonfire they’ll be doing later.’

Within five minutes, a group of well-built boys carried in a trampoline – like the ones they have at school. Then two girls ran across the beach, one carrying twister and the other carrying a bunch of pens and paper. As time went on more people brought things like cards, deck chairs, drink coolers, beers, fizzy drinks; someone even brought a barbecue. When it the sun began to set Sean and his friends showed up. That’s when the boys started the bonfire. Watching Georgia jump on the trampoline with a couple of other people, I dug through my shoulder bag. Sean came over and pretended to be interested in the people on the trampolines.

‘Won’t you be cold?’ Sean asked, not taking his gaze off of the trampoline.

I was wearing my denim shorts, a vest top and my converses. ‘That is why,’ still digging through my bag as I spoke, ‘I brought this.’ I pulled out my woolly cardigan. It made me feel a little uncomfortable that Sean had noticed what I was wearing... I glanced around to make sure that there were a lot of people surrounding us.

Don’t talk to him, Ace seeped into my head, move away from him – come stand with me.

Ignoring Ace, I put on my cardigan and stood up, leaning on the edge of the trampoline. It looked like fun but I’m not very good at trampolining; the best I can do is seat-drops – not very sporty.

‘I know you want to have a go,’ Sean said flirtatiously, ‘you should; trampolines are fun.’

‘No... Thanks. Maybe later, I might have a go.’ I shrugged and went to get myself a drink.

Sean had followed me and got himself a beer. ‘Why don’t you try one?’ He tried to hand me a bottle of beer.

‘I don’t drink.’ I grimaced at the bottle and opened my bottle of coke. A group of people began to cheer around the barbecue. I guessed they had managed to start it up.

‘Hey, Ryvre,’ Georgia called – she had gotten off of the trampoline and stood around the bonfire with loads of other people, ‘come over here.’ When I got closer to her and the others, I noticed that they were holding a pen and a piece of paper. ‘We’re writing down the people, or things, that we hate on the paper and then we throw it into the fire.’ She explained to Sean.

‘What’s the point in that?’ Sean scoffed as he handed me a pen and a piece of paper.

‘It’s tradition.’ I answered, glaring at him. ‘We read out what we wrote and then we burn it.’

When everyone had written something down we went in a circle, reading out what was written down. Some answers were funny; others were stupid and some were serious.