After Forever Ends - Ramone Melodie - Страница 20
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“Yes, you, too! Give your parents my best!”
“I will!” Oliver closed the door.
I turned in my seat to see him watching us as we drove away. He saw me and raised his hand as if to wave, but he didn’t. Instead, he stood there with his arm stretched up and his hand wide open, almost as if he were reaching. I put my own hand against the glass and twisted to get a better look at him, but we were already around the bend in the drive that took us from Bennington. He was out of view.
It was amazing how extremely alone I suddenly felt.
CHAPTER FOUR
When Oliver and I first met at fifteen, we really were just children. Although charming in most every way, he had been a little too thin and quite gangly. He had turned sixteen the last day in April and after leaving Bennington for the summer, began working in May at a flour mill in Newtown. Spending all his holiday loading bags of flour on to and off of the back of trucks had caused a period of radical physical change for him. He had grown taller and his shoulders had broadened. His arms had doubled in size and he had gained a considerable amount of weight, but it filled him out from almost too skinny to having a lean, muscular physique. His voice had deepened into a man’s and was smooth and gentle when he spoke. Oh, my heavens, he was a beautiful boy! One touch from his long fingers could send chills all across my body.
When we’d meet on the weekends, he’d embrace me and lift me off my feet so that I was dangling in his arms. He’d kiss me like he had been away from me for months and whisper, “It’s just us now, Sil. Me and you.” Every time it was the same. Every time my heart soared. Every time I fell more and more in love with the boy I’d met at school, the one who now was rapidly becoming a man.
Physically speaking, I became a young woman that summer as well. I had my sixteenth birthday on 14 May, just two weeks after the twins. I had always had a large bust for my frame, but I found that none of my bras were fitting properly and that my knickers had become snug around my groin. I thought I was gaining weight until I stood on the scale and discovered that the amount was minute. I had transformed, plain and simple. My waist had narrowed, my breasts had filled out and my bum had turned round overnight. My uniforms for school looked comical.
I told my dad that I needed all new clothes. “I'm sorry, Daddy. Nothing fits,” I explained, sucking in my stomach so my jeans wouldn't cut into me. It was horribly uncomfortable.
He nodded without a word and reached into his pocket for his wallet, “I thought you’d grown. Amazing how you girls do that. It happens overnight, doesn’t it? See what you have that Lucy can use, then get a taxi and go get whatever else you need. Take your sister with you or she’ll pout. Don‘t worry about spending, I trust your judgement.” He handed me his credit card.
“Thank you, Daddy.” I tucked the card into my pocket and began to leave.
“Silvia, wait,” He called. When I turned to face him, he scratched his head. “I just had a thought. Why don’t I toss Ana a bell and see if she’d be willing to take the two of you shopping in Powys? I could send you both down on the train and you could get your school uniforms direct. That way you could both be fitted at the shop. I really have no idea what size your sister is these days, either.” He paused blankly, and then added, “You're both getting so big,” as if we were toddlers having a growth spurt.
I didn't think much of what he said at the time, but in retrospect he must have been remorseful about our growing up. As usual, however, I was only thinking of myself. I loved his idea. Ana and I had become great friends over the summer. I adored her. She'd taken me shopping before once or twice and I'd embraced it since I'd never had a mother with whom to shop. It didn’t hurt, either, that the outing would give me the opportunity to spend some extra time with Oliver. Sometimes my father was brilliant without effort. Life was good. Life was very good.
Lucy and I caught the train south the next morning at seven. She was tired and difficult. “Have a kip!” I finally snapped at her after she practically burst into tears over dropping a pasty.
“I'm not tired!” she swore, but her eyes were pink and puffy.
“Right,” I mumbled, agreeing to avoid any further argument. I was quite relieved when she nodded off five minutes later and left me to my book.
Ana met us at the station, dressed in blue jeans and a rose coloured satin shirt, all full of excitement and smiles. “So this is Lucy!” She held out her arms, “It’s so wonderful to meet you, Darling! Oliver’s told me all about you! He said you were just as lovely as your sister and you are!” She shook her head, still grinning. “Where did the two of you get that gorgeous hair?”
“Both Mum and Dad are gingers,” Lucy said quietly, accepting the hug. “That’s where.”
“Well, it’s beautiful,” Ana rocked her in an embrace. “It’s going to be a wonderful just us girls together on the loose! We’re going to have so much fun it’ll be sick!” She grinned at me, released Lucy and took me into her arms instead. “Hello, Silvia Sweetie!” Now she was rocking me. “I was thrilled that your dad phoned me and asked me to take you both shopping! Ollie and Xan are working until five, but they have something planned for this evening for the four of you, so the whole day should be loads of fun...let's go! Let's go!”
We went to first to be fitted for uniforms as our father had suggested. It was Lucy’s first year at Bennington and I was looking forward to having my sister closer at hand. We had never attended the same school and I saw it as a chance for the two of us to become tighter knit. I’d always loved my sister, but I was five years older and we’d never had the opportunity to be very close since I was away at boarding school by the time she was two. Unlike me, our father had chosen to keep Lucy home until she was eleven before he sent her off to board. I'd only known her after that on occasional weekends and holidays.
“I can’t imagine what my life would’ve been like without Alexander if our parents had decided to split us up,” Oliver told me when I explained my sister’s and my relationship. “Very boring, I imagine. Sad, really. Lonely, for sure. Mind, I hate him sometimes, but at least he’s there for me to hate,” He paused, as if contemplating that, and then asked slowly, “Have you ever hit her?”
I laughed. “Lucy? No!”
“Oh, God!” He was amazed, “You’ve never hauled off and walloped her straight in the face-like?”
“No!”
“Then you have to spend more time with her!” He was so sincere. “If you don’t love-hate your sister and have never set a bruise on her then you don’t know her well enough! Gor blimey! We’re going to remedy this situation immediately! You‘ll be beating the crap out of Lucy by the end of the summer if I have anything to do with it!”
Now knowing the situation in full, Oliver began making it a point to invite Lucy along on some of our day trips when he came up North. Lucy adored him almost as much as I did.
“Is he coming here tonight?” She’d ask on Friday, her eyes twinkling, “I don’t have anything to do tomorrow if he’s going to be here then, either! Can I come along with you two? Do you mind?”
Sometimes I did mind, but I took her along anyway. She was, after all, my sister and I was supposed to want to black her eye every once in a while.
We did all of our shopping that day with Ana, giggling and being silly as girls are known to do when set loose in a department store with their father’s credit card. I didn't go mad with it, though. I was frugal even then when it came to money and could stretch a pound further than dough.
Ana noticed it. As we were standing in the middle of the cosmetic section in a department store she turned to me, “Silvia, you have such lovely skin. You should start taking care of it now. Let me buy you some cream, Sweetie. It's never too early to start moisturising!” She took my chin in her hand and smiled, “And we'll get you a good cleanser as well, nothing harsh. Always make it a point to pamper yourself. It's most likely that nobody else is going to do it for you, so you have to do it for yourself. No matter what, always remember that you deserve it.”
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