Read Cathy Hopkins - [Mates, Dates 05] for Free Online Page B

but…’
    Mum nodded. ‘You don’t
want just any boy?’
    ‘Exactly. Going out
looking for one only made me more aware than ever that I don’t have one. Then
last night Tony turns up with a new girlfriend and now I’m beginning to feel
that I’m the only one without anyone and I’ll never meet someone new.’
    Mum put her hand on my
arm and gave it a squeeze. ‘A gorgeous girl like you - course you will.’
    ‘No, I won’t. I must
be doing something to put boys off. What’s wrong with me?’
    ‘
Wrong
with
you? Nothing.’
    ‘Or maybe I shouldn’t
be so fussy. Maybe I’m aiming too high, for someone who doesn’t exist. Maybe I
should just go out with whoever’s available?’
    ‘Never,’ said Mum.
‘You just haven’t met the right one yet. I remember when“ I was a teenager, I
used to be quite stroppy and say exactly what I thought and that
definitely
seemed to frighten off the boys. A friend of mine said that I had to learn to
compromise - that boys liked girls to be cute, like kittens, and that I’d have
to learn to shut my mouth. Yuck, I thought. I could never be one of those
whimpering girlie girls who don’t know their own mind. But there were times
when I doubted myself and thought, what’s wrong with me? I thought I’d never
meet the right boy or one who I could be myself with. It was rubbish. When you
meet the right boy, he likes you exactly the way you are and you don’t have to
put on any act. You hold out until it really feels right. For
you
and
not your friends or anyone else.’
    ‘So how do you know if
it’s right?’
    ‘You just do. You
can’t stop thinking about him. You’re happy around him. But mainly because you
can be yourself with him. More yourself than with anyone.’
    I nodded. I knew what
she meant. I felt like that when I was with Tony.
    ‘I’m off now,’ said
Mum, getting up. ‘You have a lie-in, you lucky thing. Holidays. I
wish
.
And Dad told me to tell you that the offer’s still open for you to go with him
next weekend to that workshop if you want. You never know, you might enjoy it.’
    I shook my head. ‘No
thanks.’ Being stuck with a load of adults straining to contort themselves into
yoga postures wasn’t my idea of fun. ‘But thanks for the tea and sympathy,
Mum.’
    ‘Any time.’ Mum
smiled, then began singing as she went out the door. ‘Some day Lucy’s prince
will come.’
    ‘
Mu-um
,’ I groaned. ‘Let the whole house
know, why don’t you?’ Honestly. She could be really lovely and sensitive one
minute, then completely blow it the next.
    Steve was slumped over
a cup of tea at the kitchen table when I got downstairs.
    ‘What’s up with you?’
I said, looking at his long face.
    ‘TJ’s off today,’ he
said. ‘Scotland. She wants you to call her before she goes.’
    Of course. She was
going on holiday with her mum and dad. Poor Steve. He looked really down in the
dumps about it.
    ‘It’s only for a
week,’ I said. ‘You’ll live.’
    ‘Uh,’ he said, then glanced
up at me. ‘You all right after last night?’
    ‘Uh,’ I answered,
making an effort to speak his language.
    That was as close as
Steve and I ever got to a heart-to-heart. He’s not very good at talking about
his feelings, but maybe that’s just because he’s my brother and he’s different
with other people. Sometimes I wonder what he talks to TJ about. Or maybe he
doesn’t. Maybe she likes the silent types or men of few words, like ‘uh’ or
‘nah’.
    Lai, on the other
hand, is different altogether. He’s like Nesta - says what he thinks, asks what
he wants to know.
    A thumping on the
stairs announced his arrival and he burst into the kitchen and helped himself
to a large bowl of Shreddies.
    ‘So, Lucy,’ he said,
sitting opposite me at the table. ‘I heard you left Ben’s party early last
night. What was all that about?’
    ‘And who are you?’ I
asked. ‘The Spanish Inquisition?’
    He took no notice.
‘You and Tony? Or not you and Tony? Have