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Despite
that, I could feel my mouth moistening and the tightening in my own
body as I imagined touching her nipples with my tongue. I could
almost feel the silk-like softness of her skin against my lips and
palms. Her smooth, pale body above my dark one.
    ‘. . . creep
with a jealousy complex. He deserved it.’
    Only from the
silence that followed did I realise Lara was expecting a reply.
    ‘Were you even
listening?’
    ‘Sorry. Miles
away.’
    ‘I’ll say. I
said he deserved it. He’s not your boyfriend any more, just a creep
with a jealousy complex. Why do you think I did it?’
    ‘You’re crazy,
that’s why.’
    ‘No.’ She
grinned. ‘I did it because he thinks you’re stupid. That you’d go
back to him after how he treated you.’
    ‘He said
that?’
    ‘Near enough.
But I knew you wouldn’t.’
    Lara’s gaze was
hot on mine, eyes widening. I recognised the signs; I knew she was
trying to tell me something. Part of me wanted her to simply say
it, but the rest of me worried what the words would be. So I didn’t
ask. Instead, I settled on something safer.
    ‘But did you
have to shave his head?’
    She grinned,
and the gesture sent slithers of warmth coursing through my body,
as far as my toes.
    ‘It’ll grow
back.’
    In my mind’s
eye, I saw Malcolm storm from the house, fingering the inch-wide
strip of exposed skin along his skull from forehead to the nape of
his neck.
    ‘Feeling sorry
for him?’
    ‘God no, I
just—’ I had no words to finish the thought.
    ‘Vic, you’re my
girl. You must know I’m going to stand up for you. Whatever
happens.’
    My girl.
    The words gave
me a warm glow I had no right to feel.
    A smile played
around my lips. My shoulders relaxed into the mattress. ‘What did
you do with it?’
    ‘The ponytail?
Binned it; mullets went out years ago. Why? Did you want a
souvenir?’
    My smile
blossomed into a grin, complete with laughter. ‘Gross!’
    Chuckling, Lara
pantomimed her earlier actions with the razor. ‘Bzz!’ she cried,
jabbing the air near my face with a bunched-up fist. ‘Let’s see him
fix that without going for a complete skin-head!’
    ‘Thank
you.’
    ‘Don’t be
stupid.’ Lara reached over and yanked me into a bone-crunching hug.
She seemed not to notice when I stiffened beneath her. A twist of
her hips pressed her whole body against mine.
    Her proximity
made my nightshirt utterly pointless. I could feel everything from
the heat of her skin, to the patch of sweat on her chest and
stomach which soaked through my nightdress. Her breath whispered
across my face: cheap wine laced with chicken Madras, mango chutney
and cheap lipstick.
    I closed my
eyes and inhaled.
    Never had I
smelled anything so good.
    ‘I love you,
Vic.’
    My eyes snapped
open.
    I jerked away,
spitting strands of red hair out of my mouth. ‘What?’ I wiped my
sweaty palms on the front of my nightshirt and tried to tell the
joyous leap in my stomach that she couldn’t possibly mean what I
hoped she did.
    ‘You’re my best
friend,’ she continued. ‘I don’t know what I’d do without you.’
    ‘You’re drunk.
Anyway, it’s more like what I’d do without you .’ I
frowned. ‘Malcolm would have—’
    Tension rushed
back into my body. The gut-churning sensation of impotent fear
crawled through my limbs as they remembered the feel of his large
calloused hands gripping my arm. Slapping my face.
    I pressed my
legs together.
    ‘How did you
know where we were?’
    ‘You looked so
scared, I followed you,’ she said. ‘No one else noticed.’
    ‘Good.’
    ‘It’s not.
People need to know what he’s like. He’s lucky Bill didn’t
see.’
    I tried to
imagine the night’s outcome if my brother had found out what
Malcolm had done. ‘It would have continued the trend of birthday
arrests.’
    Lara smirked.
‘And Malcolm isn’t worth going to prison over. So I dealt with it.’
She patted my shoulder and peace oozed through me.
    The tiny hairs
on my arms and legs stood