Dan took pity on me and did as I asked.
'Your watch, did you buy it or acquire it?'
'I bought it, you blanker. And I have the receipt and sales certificate to prove it.' Dan frowned. 'You sound just like a Cross copper.'
I held up my hands. 'Hey, it's no skin off my nose where you got it from.'
'Well, I bought it with cash money, made from earning a living rather than dossing at school like some people I could mention.' Dan's frown lessened only slightly.
'And is it accurate?'
'Of course. It's guaranteed to lose only one second every hundred years.'
For the kind of money Dan must've forked out for his watch, it shouldn't lose any time at all – ever. And surely it did more than just turn two strips of arrow-shaped metal through three hundred and sixty degrees periodically?
'So what else does it do?' I asked.
'Nothing else. It's not some digital toy out of a cracker,' said Dan, preening. 'This is pure class.'
'But all it does is tell the time,' I repeated.
'Damn, Tobey. How are we friends? You don't have a clue,' Dan said, exasperated.
'It's a lovely watch, Dan,' I sighed. 'If I ever get married, it'll be to your watch.'
'Feel free to bugger off and die at any time.' Dan scowled.
I grinned. 'Only if you'll bury me with your watch over my heart.'
'Tobey . . .'
'OK, OK. I'll shut up now.'
Dan gave a reluctant smile. He was still annoyed at my lack of open fawning appreciation for his watch, but he'd get over it. I glanced over to the sidelines, wondering which of the girls standing there was Dan's latest girlfriend.
'How's your love life?' I asked.
'Non-existent, thank God!' Dan's reply was heartfelt.
'How's your sex life?'
Dan sighed. 'Non-existent, unfortunately. Talking of sex . . .' His eyes lit up. 'How's Callie Rose?'
Damn! I should've seen that coming. 'Dan, don't start.'
'What?' said Dan, acting the innocent. 'I'm just asking if you two are still an item?'
'We are,' I said firmly.
''Cause if you're not,' Dan continued as if I hadn't spoken, 'I wouldn't mind some of that. She's extra fit – for a Cross.'
'Callie isn't a Cross.'
'She ain't one of us either,' said Dan.
'Then what is she?' I asked, annoyed.
'Extra fit – I already told you.'
We stood in silence for a while. Why had I been so quick to deny that Callie was a Cross? Maybe because I still couldn't quite believe she'd chosen me over Lucas. I couldn't help wondering if she'd wake up one morning and realize . . . realize that she could do better.
'Tobey, chill. I was only messing with your head a bit.'
'I know. Remind me to pay you back for that later,' I replied.
If only I had the money for watches and bracelets and all the things Callie deserved. If only . . . I took hold of Dan's arm to give his watch a proper look.
'That is one cool watch, though,' I admitted.
'You could afford a watch like this too, you know. And more besides,' said Dan.
'You know my job only pays minimum wage.' I shrugged. My Saturday job of almost a year was roughly twenty per cent selling mobile phones and eighty per cent listening to customers whinge. It just about paid for my school stationery and a few textbooks, and that was it. 'So at that rate I should be able to afford a watch like yours in about – what? Five or six years?'
'Selling mobile phones isn't the only game in town,' Dan said pointedly.
'It's the only game I'm interested in playing,' I replied.
'Aren't you tired of having nothing?'
And that was just it. Because I was tired of having no money. All the things I could do, all the things I could be if I had money kept slipping into my head like mental gate-crashers.
'You could just make deliveries like me,' Dan continued. 'Dropping off a package here, picking up a parcel there.'
For the first time, I started to listen. 'I don't know . . .' I began.
Sensing hesitation like a shark sensing blood, Dan pounced. 'Tobey, it's easy money. Think of all the things you could do if you were holding folding. You could save up to get out of this place for a start.'
'Is that what you're doing?' I couldn't help but ask.
'Nah. If I had your brains, then maybe. But it's this or do something like take food orders and nothing else for the rest of my life. And guess what, that don't appeal. But with your smarts, Tobey, in two years you could be anything you wanted 'cause you'd have the cash to do it.'
Packages . . . deliveries . . . Dan made it sound so innocuous. So very easy.
'Who d'you deliver these packages to?' I asked.
'The people who need them or want them or should have them.'
'And who d'you deliver these packages for?' As if I couldn't guess. 'Cause it sure as hell wasn't the post office.
Dan smiled. 'Does it matter? I pick up the packages and the addresses that each one should be taken to and that's all I know or care about. Tobey, think of the money you could make. I'm tired of having your broke arse trailing behind me all the time.'
Waving the two most eloquent fingers on each hand in his direction, I thought about what he'd said.
If I had money, Callie and me . . .
I cut the thought off at the pockets. I couldn't start thinking that way. I'd go mad if I started thinking that way.
But after all, it was just deliveries.
The odd parcel delivery couldn't hurt.
Unless I got caught . . .
I shook my head, trying to dislodge all visions of cascading money. 'I don't think so, Dan. I just want to go to school and keep my head down.'
'School.' Dan snorted derisively. 'I hope your school isn't going to make you forget who you are.'
Inside, I went very still. 'And what is that exactly?'
'You're a Nought, Tobey. And going to your fancy school isn't going to change that.'
'I wouldn't want school to change that.'
'Some of our friends already think you've sold out. It's up to you to prove that you haven't,' Dan told me.
Sold out? What the—?
'I don't have to prove a damned thing, Dan.'
'Hey.' Dan raised a placating hand. 'I'm only telling you what some of our friends are saying about you.'
Friends? My eyes narrowed as I thought of my so-called friends.
Dan stepped back from the look on my face. 'I'm just saying, you have to be careful that your brain doesn't get smart at the expense of your head getting stupid.'
'Wanting to do something with my life isn't selling out,' I said, banking down my resentment with difficulty. 'Wanting something more than all this isn't selling out.'
'Tell that to Raoul and—'
'No, I'm telling it to you. That crap doesn't even make it to ignorant. Going to school so I can think for myself, so I can make something of myself, is selling out now, is it? We don't need the Crosses to keep us down with that kind of thinking. We'll do it to ourselves.'
Dan took another step back. 'Listen, I was just—'
'The next time Raoul or anyone else starts spouting that bollocks, you send them to me to say it to my face,' I said furiously. 'I'm going to go to school and keep my head down until I can get out of Meadowview and that's all there is to it.'
'Tobey, wake up. That's not even an option,' Dan stated. 'And McAuley can protect you. He's great, almost like a dad to me. Besides which, he's one of us.'
One of us . . .
McAuley was a gangster, pure and not so simple. But his being a Nought was enough mitigation as far as Dan was concerned. McAuley fancied himself as a Nought kingpin. He took his cut of every crooked deal that went down in Meadowview – that's if the Dowd family didn't get in first. The Dowds were the Cross family who ran all the illegal activities in Meadowview that McAuley didn't already have his grubby hands on. Or maybe it was the other way around. Wh
o could tell? They both offered protection to any lowlife who pledged allegiance. Bottom-feeding Noughts tended to join McAuley. Scumbag Crosses joined forces with the Dowds. Criminal fraternity segregation.
A while ago some Nought hooli called Jordy Carson tried to take on the Dowds. He vanished like a fart in the wind. And waiting in the wings to take his place was his second-in-command, Alex McAuley. Everyone said McAuley had learned from his old boss's mistakes. McAuley had no intention of 'disappearing'. So he made sure everyone knew his name and his game. Trouble was, McAuley was even worse than Carson. I guess that for the Dowds and McAuley there was plenty of misery around for everyone to make a profit. Those of us who had to live in Meadowview – the poorer Crosses and us Noughts with a whole heap of not much – saw to that. One of us? Yeah, right.
'The point is, the no-man's-land you want to live on doesn't exist, not for either of us,' Dan continued. 'If you don't pick a side soon, you'll be nowhere.'
'Yeah, but Nowhere looks like a peaceful place to be – especially around here,' I said.
'Nowhere will get you dead,' said Dan. 'On the inside you'll be protected, you'll have back up. McAuley looks after his own. What d'you have at the moment?'
'I have you, Dan.' I smiled.
'Very funny.'
'I know you'll always have my back.'
'Don't rely on that, Tobey,' Dan said quietly.
My smile faded. Dan and I regarded each other.
'Oi, you two! This ain't a chat show,' Liam, the captain of my side, yelled out. 'Kick the damned ball.'
Dan and I both made a show of getting back in the game, but although my body ran around the Wasteland trying to look useful, my head was elsewhere. When pain stopped play again, I stood slightly behind Dan as we both waited for the game to restart and the ball to head our way.
I couldn't help thinking about what he had said.
I felt like I'd been asleep and had just been kicked awake. I'd always assumed that Dan would have my back and vice versa. But Dan running errands for McAuley had evidently changed all that. I'd blinked and missed it. Hell, I'd blinked and my world was suddenly a lot more complicated.
Years ago, I thought that getting into Heathcroft High School was it, the be-all and end-all of my existence. I'd thought that all I needed to do was keep my head down and my grades up to make it through. After school, I'd go to university and at the end of all that, I'd be something big in the financial markets. I had it all figured out. I wanted a job that'd make me tons of money. But that was stuff for the future. I'd forgotten that I still needed to make it through the here and now first. The present was filled to overflowing with McAuley and the Dowds and needing to belong to a gang just to be able to walk the streets. The present was all about friends who had your back and turning away from those who didn't. The present was hard work, not to mention dangerous.
I realized Dan had been right about one thing.
The no-man's-land I was clinging to wasn't firm ground at all, but quicksand.
four. Tobey
At school the next day, Dan's words kept ringing in my head. I walked home alone because Callie had a singing lesson after school, and I still couldn't forget what Dan had said. I'd barely shut the front door before my sister Jessica emerged from the living room. She was wearing faded jeans and a long-sleeved red T-shirt that was now more faded pink than any other colour. Her light-brown hair shot out in gelled spikes around her head. Her lips were already pinned back into a mocking smile. My heart sank. I knew what that look meant. I took off my school jacket and tossed it over the banister.
'How come you're not at work?' I frowned.
'It's my day off,' Jessica replied. 'What's with that face?'
'I'm having a bad day, Jessica. So back off.'
'How about we meditate together?' my sister suggested.
And the sad thing was, she was serious. She's into all that hippy-dippy, transcendental, rental-mental bollocks. Or at least, she was this fortnight. A month ago kick boxing had been the way to cure all of society's ills. And the month before that it'd been colour therapy. Apparently the reason I was so permanently irritable was because I wore too much blue and ate too much red and brown.
I walked past her towards the kitchen. 'Jess, I'm not in the mood for your nonsense this evening, I'm really not.'
'Tobey, what you need to do is submerge yourself in Lake You,' said Jess, following me. 'Get to know your true self . . .'
Lake You . . . Godsake!
'Jessica, get away from me,' I said.
'What's the matter, Tobey? Girlfriend giving you trouble?'
'Feel free to drop dead at any time.'
'Ooh! Sounds like you didn't get any under or over the clothes action today,' Jessica laughed.
I glared at her, but from the huge, moronic grin on my sister's face, she still didn't get the message. It took a lot to bring Jess down.
'Just how far have you two gone anyway?' she asked.
I went over to the fridge. If I ignored her, maybe she'd take the unsubtle hint and bog off.
'Come on, Tobey. Tell all. Inquiring minds want to know,' Jessica teased.
I opened the fridge door. 'Jess, what can I get you? Orange juice? Lemonade? Your own business?'
'Your business is my business,' Jessica informed me.
I grabbed a can of ginger beer and pushed past her.
'Tetchy!' Jessica called after me. 'Someone isn't getting any.'
Godsake! This was all I needed. First Dan. Now my sister.
'Jessica, go away,' I told her.
'Definitely not getting any,' Jessica called after me.
I headed out into the hall just as the front doorbell sounded. Being closest, I opened the door.
'Hi, Tobey. Ready to work on our history project?'
I frowned, moving out of Callie's way as she swept past me. I sniffed silently. Callie was wearing the cinnamonspice perfume I'd given her last Crossmas. She never wore anything else now. Damn, but I loved the way she smelled.
'I thought you didn't want to do it until tomorrow.' I frowned. 'And what happened to your singing lesson?'
'Mr Seacole is ill today so my lesson was cancelled. I tried to find you at lunch time to tell you, but you were wearing your cloak of invisibility.' Callie graced me with an accusatory stare. 'I just got home and Nathan is round again, and he and Mum are making cow eyes at each other, so it was stay at home and be sick down my blouse or come and see you.'
'I take it I only just won?'
'It was close,' Callie agreed with a smile.
Callie wore her dark-brown hair tied back in her usual plaited ponytail. She'd changed out of her school uniform and into denim jeans and a light-pink, tight pink, long-sleeved T-shirt. A figure-hugging, curve-clinging, lightpink, tight pink, long-sleeved T-shirt. Dark-blue sandals showed off her unpainted toenails. She was five feet seven and most of it seemed to consist of legs. Legs and boobs. I forced myself to focus on Callie's face before she decked me. She started up the stairs to my bedroom.
'You got our history notes?' she asked, turning back to me.
I dug out my memory stick from my trouser pocket and waved it at her. I didn't go anywhere without it. 'It's all on here.'
'Hi, Callie. You OK?'
'I'm fine thanks, Jessica.' Callie smiled at my sister. 'Tobey and I are doing our history project together.'
'Enjoy,' said Jessica. 'Just remember to keep the bedroom door open and at least one foot on the floor at all times.'
'Ha frickin' ha,' I called out as I followed Callie up the stairs.
Jessica cracked up laughing. She really thought she was funny. My sister was older than me by only eighteen months and although she worked part-time as a hairdresser, she still lived at home. On her wages, she'd be at home until she was a pensioner. I wasn't going to settle for that. No way.
There'd come a day when I'd have money dripping out of cupboards. I'd promised myself that from the time I started at Heathcroft. Success was all a matter of mental a
ttitude. And I had the right stuff. I was going to be rich – by any means necessary. Any legal means, of course. No way was I going to make my money with the shadow of prison hanging over my head. At least the shadow of the noose had now been permanently removed. And about time too.
Callie turned at the top of the stairs to grin at me. I was well aware of how much me and my sister amused her. But Jessica knew exactly what to say to wind me up. Especially when she teased me about Callie. Actually, now I come to think about it, only when she teased me about Callie.
Once we reached my bedroom, I must admit, I closed my bedroom door a little louder than was absolutely necessary. I was more than a little annoyed at my sister's dense comments. What if Jessica's teasing put Callie off coming to my room at all?
'Tobey, should I strip off and lie on the bed?' Callie asked. 'That'd really give your sister something to tease you about!'
'Yes, please.' I grinned. If only.
'You wish,' Callie scoffed.
Yeah, I did actually.
'I can dream, can't I?' I gave a mock sigh.
I took off my school shirt and put on a clean white T-shirt pulled out of my wardrobe. Thanks, Mum! I decided to leave my school trousers where they were, on my body. I wasn't in the mood to listen to Callie tease me about my 'skinny uncooked chicken legs', as she kept calling them. I sat at my tiny desk, connecting my memory stick to the family computer, which stayed in my room as I used it the most.
'Tobey, all joking aside, why don't you tell your sister we're just friends?' Callie stated.
I glanced away so that Callie couldn't see my face. 'I've tried, but she didn't believe me.'
'I've told Jess more than once that you don't think of me as anything but a pain in the neck, but she didn't believe me either. I wonder why?' Callie frowned, sitting down on my bed. She glanced at her watch. 'How long d'you reckon today?'
'I give her three minutes.' I sighed, for real this time. 'And counting.'
'Nah. I reckon seven minutes, fifteen seconds,' said Callie. 'Your sister will want to wait until she thinks we're really into something before she bursts through the door.'
'You're wrong. Two or three minutes at the most. Any longer and she'll be afraid she's missing something.'
'What has she heard about you that I haven't?' Callie frowned. 'Bit of a fast lover, are you?'