0597092001436358459 eveline vine Read online

  “I came with my friends,” I told him quietly, “I saw you in the holidays.”

  “Why were you at the pub?” his voice increased in volume, “You’re not eighteen.”

  “Neither are the triplets,” I said softly, “And I am in a couple of months.”

  “And the clothes?” he all but growled.

  “Well, I can hardly go out naked,” I muttered sarcastically, then bit my lip. I hadn’t meant to say that out loud.

  “You might as well have been!” he shouted at me.

  “Paulie,” I whispered, “You’re overreacting.”

  “We’re worried about you,” he grunted.

  “We?”

  “I called Vicky and Harvey,” he told me in a serious tone, “I couldn’t get a hold of Evan.”

  He didn’t mention Cooper or Logan, so I took it that they’d told him to butt out of my business. But now I had the older triplets to worry about. No one would have told Zane…not for something as small as this. It was an unspoken rule in my family that you never dobbed in a brother or sister. Especially not to Zane.

  “I’m fine, Paul,” I said with a small groan, “I’m actually quite happy at the moment and I’m feeling really healthy. I’ve gained weight and muscle and I’m even eating properly.”

  “What I want to know is who these new friends of yours are that have you dressing like a tramp!” he spat.

  “Paul!” I lost patience with him, but kept my voice low, “I’m not a little girl anymore. I can dress myself!”

  He was silent - probably completely shocked that quiet little Evie had dared talk back to him.

  “Just leave it be,” I pleaded softly, “I’ll see you at Christmas.”

  And I hung up.

  A glance back at my phone revealed three unread text messages in my inbox: one from each older triplet. I pressed delete and re-entered the hut. I was beginning to understand why Logan was ignoring everyone.

  I inwardly laughed when, as though summoned by my thoughts, I received a text from Logan:

  Wat hav u bin up 2 hey? Call every1. Get ‘em off my bak! V, E & H r startin 2 piss me off! I’m goin 2 fly up there & punch fn P!!!

  Translation: The older triplets, close to Logan in age, were breathing down his neck with righteous anger, demanding to know if he was keeping a good eye on me – the ‘baby’. Logan had also lost patience with Paul – the annoying little fly – as Logan liked to refer to him. Paul obviously hadn’t let up in his attempts to reach Logan, and Logan knew full well that Paul was the reason the older triplets were on his back.

  I quickly sent an apology to Logan and looked up.

  Stone was still lying in bed, his now-bare chest looking awfully comfortable and inviting. His eyes were closed, his iPod in his ears, but I knew he was aware of me. I took a step in his direction, but paused when there was a knock on the door. Stone’s eyes opened and I smiled slightly in apology as Donny knocked again and called through the door.

  “We’re going out,” he told us, “Are you two coming?”

  Stone sat up and removed his earphones, so I took that as a yes. With a small groan of disappointment, I stepped into the bathroom to fix my hair.

  ***

  As it turned out, we didn’t ‘go out’ like Donny had suggested. Stone and Alec drove out to buy meat and booze, whilst Fredi and I searched for plates and cutlery as Donny claimed a barbeque area. When they returned, Stone and Alec cooked us a feast and we gorged ourselves as we drank. Stone actually let me drink for once. He’d thrust a bottle into my hands almost immediately, letting me know that I was free to drink whatever I wanted. He’d stayed close by my side that night as Fredi, Donny and I got more than just a little bit drunk.

  I was so drunk that I became a little overexcited and demanding when we finally went to bed. I’d giggled and thrown myself at Stone as soon as we’d cleared the door. He hadn’t reciprocated though. He’d swept me off my feet and carried me to the bed, holding me close until I gave up and the alcohol coaxed me to sleep.

  When I woke the next morning, it was to a splitting headache and shouting from the hut next door.

  ***

  “What’s happening?” I asked sleepily, rubbing my eyes and looking around for Stone. He walked out of the bathroom, our toiletry bags in his hands.

  “We’re leaving,” he said gruffly, stuffing the bags in with the rest of our luggage.

  “What?” I exclaimed, “Why?”

  Stone pointed towards the hut next door as the shouts turned up another notch. It was Fredi and Donny I realised. They were just insulting each other at that moment, so I couldn’t determine the source of the fight. A groan came from one of the bunks in our room and I frowned as Alec tumbled out of the bottom one and onto the floor.

  “Did you sleep here last night?” I asked in confusion, “I can’t remember that.”

  Alec snorted. “You were out cold apparently,” he said, shaking his head, “Lucky you.”

  “What happened?” I asked with a frown.

  Alec coughed on a laugh and ran a hand through his hair. “Fredi and Donny drank too much and made a very big and loud mistake.”

  I looked at him blankly.

  Stone chuckled beside me and picked up our things. “They fucked,” he said flatly, carrying our bags out the door.

  “Oh,” I whispered.

  “Yeah,” Alec said with a wince, “Donny and I are going to stay here for another night and then catch a bus back. Stone’s going to drive home with you and Fredi.”

  “Oh,” I whispered again, a little disappointed our trip had been cut short. Stone reappeared in the doorway and cocked his head at me, indicating that it was time to go. I glanced down at the outfit I’d fallen asleep in and cringed. I was still wearing my ‘Oscar the Grouch’ shirt and camo pants. I was sweaty and nauseous and I needed a good wash. I looked back up at Stone and sent him a pleading glance. He sighed ever so slightly, but gave me a short nod before he walked back out to the car to find me some clean clothes.

  I had the quickest shower in history and shoved the stretchy, purple tube dress Stone had given me over my head. He hadn’t given me a bra, so I just pulled on the clean black, cotton panties, slipped my feet into sandals, and grabbed my dirty clothes as I jogged out the door and towards the car. I opened the passenger door and heavily sat in my seat. As if by some sixth sense, Stone emerged from the other hut at that exact moment, a still swearing Fredi draped over his shoulder.

  At some point during the morning, Fredi must have taken the time to dress, because she was wearing tiny denim shorts and an ACDC singlet. I didn’t think she was wearing much in the way of underwear either. I could see little fingerprint bruises covering her bare thighs, as well as a hickey or two.

  Stone yanked open the rear door to his car and dropped his wriggling load onto the back seat. Fredi, her multi-coloured eyes sparking with fury, tried to push past Stone’s big body to glare at Donny, who was now standing in the doorway to his hut, in just a pair of boxers. From the looks of his chest, he hadn’t escaped the experience unmarked either and I was curious to see what his back looked like. It had obviously been one very wild night.

  My body heated as I switched my gaze to Stone’s impressive form. I’d like to leave some marks of my own, I thought with a blush.

  “Don’t you ever touch me again, Donovan Brody!” Fredi screeched, her blonde and black hair a wild, long tangle as Stone shut the door and she shoved her head out the open window. (I spied several more hickeys along her neck and shoulder).

  “Don’t worry,” I heard him growl, his expression icy cold and so different from his usually playful disposition, “After I scrub your filth off me, I’m going to go out and fuck as many women as it takes to scrub last night from my memory.”

  I heard Fredi gasp very quietly beside me, before she too growled.

  “Good!” she shouted back as Stone started the car, “Because as soon as we get back, I’m going to visit Jenny!”

  Stone calmly reverse
d out of our park and drove toward the exit. I looked back in time to see Donny slam the hut door and Alec throw us a sour wave.

  ***

  We sat in uncomfortable silence as Stone drove down the bumpy dirt road and pulled out onto the freeway. My stomach churned and I sat very still in an attempt to stifle the urge to vomit. I didn’t think Stone would be very happy if I vomited in or on his car…no matter how many blow jobs I promised in retribution. His eyes stayed on the road and he sat casually in his seat, not tapping the steering wheel or humming, just relaxing in his seat as Fredi’s silent fuming filled the car.

  Her anger was almost a tangible force. Though she made no sound or movement, the intensity of her thoughts and feelings were overwhelming. I was choking on the silence, my head throbbing and my stomach still churning as we drew ever closer to the petrol station at the very outskirts of Darwin. Fredi’s feelings changed suddenly, the atmosphere in the car changing from wrathful anger…to defeated. Despair and hopelessness, regret and angst, plus many other more difficult to define emotions, penetrated the quiet, still air of the car.

  I clutched at my stomach as Stone pulled into the service station. “Grant,” I whispered urgently, terrified I’d spew in his car before he came to a stop. My words seemed to shatter the tremulous hold the silence had given Fredi in self-control. I heard a small sob escape from her lips, before she was out of the slowly moving vehicle in a flash, and sprinting past the parked cars to leap over the back fence into a field. Stone pulled into a park right beside the female toilets and I bolted from the car.

  ***

  Yuck.

  There is nothing more unpleasant than vomiting. Okay, so maybe there are a few things…but right at that moment, I couldn’t think of any. When I felt like I could stand again, I flushed the toilet and trudged to the sink, splashing water on my face and trying to rinse my mouth out with the water from the tap. I jumped when Stone barged into the ladies’ room without a care and handed me some Panadol, mouthwash and a bottle of water.

  “Grant!” I hissed, looking around the empty bathroom nervously, “You can’t be in here!”

  He raised an eyebrow and leaned back against the sink, crossing his muscled arms over his broad chest. Everything about his pose dared me to try and make him leave. Too sick and tired to argue, I gratefully took a tablet and rinsed my mouth thoroughly, slightly unnerved by the way Stone was watching me, his face carefully expressionless as usual.

  My eyes drifted from his face to his T-shirt and I eyed the wet splashes on the black fabric curiously. Surely Fredi hadn’t cried on him? Not Fredi! It was an image I couldn’t bring forth no matter how hard I tried. There was no way I could picture Stone holding Fredi as she wept. My eyes flicked back up to meet his and they narrowed on me. He knew I’d seen the tear splotches, and he seemed to be warning me to keep my mouth shut. I forced a cheerful smile and gathered my new belongings, gently slipping my hand in his to pull him from the bathroom.

  Fredi was sitting on the bonnet of Stone’s car, eating an ice-cream and looking completely unruffled when we re-emerged. She shot Stone a naughty wink and shook her head at him, as if playfully remonstrating him for being in the Ladies’ toilets. He pushed her off his car with a glare, wiping off a drip of ice-cream with his shirt. She laughed gaily and stuck her tongue out at him, before sashaying her way to her car door, a sexy confident sway back in her step.

  But as I climbed into the front seat and glanced in the side mirror, I caught the faintest tinge of red in her eyes and a small smudge of black eyeliner…

  …and her eyes were grey, her blue and green contacts conspicuously missing.

  The rest of the long drive home was relatively pleasant in comparison to that small first stint. I curled into a ball on the front passenger seat, cradling my water bottle as I laid my head against the window and closed my eyes, listening to the soft strains of UB40. Fredi was decidedly more cheerful – or so she was portraying – and had some heavy metal blasting into her ears through a pair of earphones. Stone’s hand was comforting as it rested on the skin of my thigh, left bare from where the fabric of my dress had slipped down my raised knees. He was casually reclined in his seat, watching his car eat up the distance through his aviators as his fingers lightly tapped a drum beat on my leg. I smiled to myself as I slowly began to drift to sleep.

  ***

  I was asleep for several hours, only waking as we drew near to Alice Springs. Large, private properties started to appear along the roadside and Fredi sat up straight, tugging the earphones from her ears.

  “Drop me at Jenny’s,” she ordered, with a smile, leaning forward in her seat to drape her arms around Stone’s shoulders. He turned his head ever so slightly to give her a look, keeping an eye on the road out of the corner of his eye.

  Fredi scoffed and rolled her eyes in response to whatever message she’d read in his.

  “C’mon Stone,” she said with an easy laugh, “It’s hardly out of your way. I’ll stay with her for the rest of this week and get her to drop me back before classes start again.”

  Stone’s jaw tensed, but he pulled off at the next turn and drove onto a dirt driveway, yanking up the handbrake and beeping his horn once when he stopped in front of the gate. Fredi was frantically texting on her phone, a big grin in place as she jumped from the car and pulled her luggage from the boot. The roar of a quad-bike starting up made me jump, and soon an average height, pretty brunette was tearing up the long driveway to open up the gate.

  “Fredi!” she shouted jovially, her loud, but feminine voice startling me once again, “What an awesome surprise! I wasn’t expecting you for another couple of weeks!”

  “Hi, Jen,” Fredi purred, wrapping the woman in a tight hug and kissing her cheek, “Can I crash with you for a few nights? It’s break week.”

  Jenny’s face lit even brighter.

  “Sure, love. That’s bloody brilliant!” she ran her eyes over the car and grinned at Stone.

  “Stone!” she shouted, spreading her arms wide in greeting. She pushed her head through the window as soon as he rolled it down and kissed him full on the lips with a hard peck and an audible ‘Mwa!’. I gaped at her in outrage, but quickly swallowed my indignation. Stone shot her a hard look and I began to suspect the cheeky brunette had done it on purpose to annoy him.

  “It was nice of you to give Fredi a lift all the way out here,” she cooed playfully, batting her eyelashes at him. Fredi snorted.

  “We were actually on our way back from Darwin,” Fredi told her with a small smile, “We cut our plans short.”

  Jenny’s eyes flew to Fredi’s face, and then Stone’s. She and Stone conversed with their eyes for a few moments, before her expression cleared and she nodded to herself with a small, sad smile. She looked into the car, her gaze stopping curiously on me. Her grin returned as she looked between Stone and I and I felt Stone stiffen slightly beside me.

  “Well who’s this little cutie?” she asked, grabbing Fredi’s hand and raising an eyebrow.

  Fredi laughed throatily and winked at me. “This is Evie,” she told Jenny with a secret smile, “Adorable, isn’t she?”

  I frowned at her. I’d thought I’d come a long way in the last few weeks or so. I didn’t feel cute or adorable anymore.

  “Undeniably,” Jenny responded, grinning at Stone, “She yours?”

  Stone glared at her through his aviators, but I saw a hint of a smile as he nodded once (obviously agreeing to avoid further questions).

  “What happened to that sexy bitch you had hanging off you?” Jenny asked with a laugh. I wrinkled my nose at the possible reference to Chloe and Jenny laughed harder.

  Stone simply shrugged.

  Jenny leaned back through the window and offered me her hand. “I’m Jennifer Hadley,” she said with a wink, “I’m a…friend of Fredi’s.”

  “Evelyn Vine,” I whispered shyly, “A…friend of Stone’s.”

  Fredi and Jenny burst out laughing and even Stone let out a small chuckle. I bl
ushed and picked at the hem of my dress, unwittingly drawing Jenny’s eye to my exposed legs. I turned even redder and tugged the hem down a little further, before sitting on my shaky hands.

  “Are you coming to my party in two weeks?” she asked me with a wide smile. I looked up at Stone with a frown. I hadn’t heard about it. He gave me a slow nod.

  “I guess…” I said softly, wondering why these people couldn’t just spend a weekend at home for once so that I could study.

  “It’s for Jenny’s birthday,” Fredi informed me, “The band’s putting on a show for her. We’ll be here all weekend!”

  Great.

  Jenny’s mobile rang and she fished it out of her jean pocket with a frown. “I have to answer this guys,” she told us with a tired smile, “It’s my foreman.”