Read Online Dot (Araminta Hall) by Araminta Hall - Free Book Online

and it was maybe time to accept that.
    Dot arrived just as the bus was drawing up and they silently made their way to the top deck as they always had done, although Mavis felt heavier now, less like pulling herself up the stairs.
    ‘I think we should start in Topshop,’ Dot said, pulling out a copy of Grazia in which she’d marked a page depicting an impossibly beautiful girl wearing a dress that their Topshop would never stock. Mavis groaned.
    ‘Any other ideas then?’ Dot asked, turning to her friend.
    Mavis shook her head. ‘I’m not buying anything so it’s your call.’
    ‘Seriously?’
    ‘Seriously.’
    The bus puttered onwards or backwards, depending on how you looked at it. Cows and horses were eating grass, birds were flying in the sky, cars were overtaking them; Mavis had to swallow back her tears.
    ‘You are still coming though, right?’ asked Dot and Mavis hated the whine in her voice. She had to pinch the inside of her hand to stop herself from screaming.
    ‘I said I would, didn’t I?’
    ‘I don’t want to force you.’
    ‘For fuck’s sake, Dot, I’m coming, don’t ask me to be happy about it as well.’
    ‘Mave, what’s wrong?’ Dot’s tone was tender and concerned, so that without planning it, Mavis turned to her friend to tell her. This was the perfect moment, this was the point that could make it all better. Dot might even have a solution.
    But the words slipped and slid around her head; saying them out loud would make it real and she didn’t know if she was ready for that yet – ever. She chickened out. ‘What colour’s the sky?’
    ‘What?’
    Mavis knew she was starting to piss Dot off and who could blame her. ‘What colour’s the sky?’
    ‘Blue? Are you on something?’
    ‘Ha! Why d’you say blue?’
    ‘Mave, you’re scaring me.’
    ‘Because the sky’s always blue, right? Because that’s what all the fairy stories tell you, because you painted it blue with your mum.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Look, just answer the question.’
    ‘OK.’ Dot looked out of the window. ‘Right, it’s completely grey. So?’
    Mavis sat back, pleased with herself but lost as to how she might go on now.
    ‘Are you trying to say something?’ Dot asked and the question made Mavis want to punch her.
    ‘We don’t all spew our feelings everywhere you know, Dot.’
    ‘Are you talking about me and my dad?’
    ‘Fuck, no! Not everything’s about him. He left, Dot, and you need to get over it.’ Mavis knew she’d gone too far, could feel the tension radiating off her best friend like electricity. ‘Sorry, ignore me, I’m a bitch. But I mean, what do you want from him now anyway?’
    Dot shrugged. ‘I dunno. I wonder that myself sometimes. Like, it’s probably too late, right?’
    Mavis wanted to put her arm round her friend because they were both alone, really. ‘I’m sure it’s not.’
    ‘I wouldn’t mind asking him why he called me Dot.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Come on, it’s such a crap name. A dot is the smallest, most insignificant thing there is. And it’s a full stop, so an ending. I mean, who on earth would call their child Dot?’
    ‘How d’you know it was him? Maybe your mum thought of it.’
    Dot snorted at this. ‘Come on, Mave, can you imagine my mother doing anything as definite as choosing a name?’
    ‘Fair point, but at least you’re not called Mavis after your dead gran.’ Dot laughed and for a moment they could have been anywhere, but the thought scared Mavis in its possibilities and she shook her head, trying to shake the tears away from the corners of her eyes. Her fear mutated into a desire to sabotage her life. ‘Look, I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’m not going to go to Manchester.’
    ‘I said you should go for Oxford. I don’t mind, really.’
    ‘No, no. I’m not going, to university at all.’ Mavis fixed her eyes on her hands; she could feel her face reddening under Dot’s persistent gaze.
    ‘What are you talking about? We’ve only just