Given Up

Chapter 13

"So you went to a party last night then, huh?"  Kate's voice was forcibly light. 

"Yep." I pushed my eggs around my plate a bit, suddenly feeling like I couldn't quite stomach them. 

"Good night?"

I shrugged.

I jolted as Scott pushed his chair out quickly. "I know what is needed."

He was behind me in the kitchen and I could hear him moving around.  I gave Kate a questioning look and she shrugged and smiled nervously.  He came back with half a glass of water with bits floating in it and placed it in front of me.  He sat down and gave a satisfied sigh.

"Um, thanks?" I eyed the drink with caution. 

"Don't panic, it is just water with some salt and a ton of sugar in it. Best hangover cure out there."

"You are hungover?" Auntie Kate sounded shocked, her eyes blinking furiously.  "You were drinking?"

Scott let out another deep laugh. "Are you serious? I could get drunk just off the fumes coming from him."

Kate's face crumpled into concern. "Well, I..."

"It must have been an eventful night. It's not every day that you see someone with a black eye on one side, and lipstick on the other." Scott's green eyes danced with amusement.

What?  I grabbed my phone and opened the camera. Sure enough there was a bright pink set of lips on my cheek where Cassie had kissed me. I rubbed at it until it had smudged but it wouldn't quite come off. It didn't matter too much as the heat in my face began to cover it up.

"Well, it wasn't obvious to me," grumbled Kate as she stuck a piece of egg into her tightened mouth.

"I guess I am just used to seeing it. You can only imagine how awful those old drunks smell."  Scott said, biting into some toast.

"You must see it all in the Police force."  Kate looked at him almost in awe.

I looked away from the love-fest and took a small sip of the drink he gave me. It didn't taste too bad at all and I took a longer gulp. I was so dry it made me start to feel better almost instantaneously.

"Yep, well it has been 15 years I have been there, so you do get to see the whole spectrum of society." 

I didn't give a crap about his life story. He was unlikely to be around for long.  I decided to try the eggs and managed to swallow some down. They settled in my stomach ok and I felt a pang of hunger so carried on eating. 

"So you are almost 16, right?"

I looked at him and nodded. Kate had obviously talked about me before.

"So you have GCSE's coming up?"

"Don't remind me," I grumbled.

"Not so academic?"  Scott took a long drink of his tea.

"I do alright," I mumbled, stuffing a mouthful of eggs into my throat.

"Your teachers said that they expect you to get all As and B's." Kate smiled. "Sounds more than alright to me...but then again, I was never one for books."

"I dunno K, you always seemed to know what the teachers were going on about."  He smiled at her.

"I was good at faking it."  She said and I caught a wry smile between them. Eww. 

"Scott and I have known each other since we were at school. Kingswood, in fact. We even dated for a bit when we were your age."

It seemed easy to imagine Kate as a school girl. She still looked very youthful. Scott on the other hand:  I couldn't imagine him as a gangly teenager.