Read Online Friendship on Fire by Danielle Weiler - Free Book Online

opened it.
Talk after school. Walking home with me, or him?
    So he had seen us. Too bad. I wasn’t going to stop seeing Nate because Roman was funny about it. What was the big problem anyway? He didn’t own my time every morning. When we leave school for good we’ll have to learn to be flexible about whom we hang out with, so this was practice ‘til then. He’d have to get used to life without me one day.
    I churned over the last few days. Nate’s sudden appearance in my life had floored me; consequently, a niggling thought bugged me. I had realised early on that Nate liked the light witty banter I offered, and he liked my company, in private. He steered away from overly-serious conversations, but he touched lightly on serious parts of life when we were alone. However, I felt I couldn’t ask him certain questions. Like, is there anything more than friendship here? I didn’t want to appear impatient, but neither did I want to waste my time. We didn’t know each other very well, but I wanted to ask him what my purpose was to him. Would he use me until he finds this ‘inner peace’ he’s seeking, then take over his father’s business and forget I ever existed? I didn’t like the idea of that. I didn’t want to hear it.
    Hence I never brought it up, even though I should have.

    I waited for Roman in the common room after school. I forgot we couldn’t walk home together because I had a driving lesson straight away. Normally my lessons were on Monday but we couldn’t arrange a time to suit both of us, so it had to be today. The instructor would pick me up in the next ten minutes and I had to be prepared for him. He charged by the hour.
    Rach passed by me and wished me luck. I’d need it. Last time I drove, I backed into Rach’s neighbour’s letterbox.
    Roman walked in the moment I had to leave. I quickly explained the situation and he nodded and kept walking like he barely heard me. I didn’t have time to think about his reaction as I ran out the front to the car park.
    Terence the Terminator was impeccably punctual and fussy with absolutely everything. He would never let a student take off without going through a crazy long checklist beforehand. My anxiety levels while driving with him were very high, but I did my best to do everything he said. After all, he would decide whether I would become a permanent fixture on Twin Rocks’ roads.
    After bunny hopping all the way out on to the main road closest to the school and embarrassing myself to death, I got stuck at lights at the busiest intersection in the suburb. There were about four lanes of traffic on all sides and I felt nervous as I put the gear stick back into neutral and made sure everything was perfect.
    Terry was quizzing me once again on the ‘things to remember before taking off’ when two men wearing only fluoro green Speedos came up to the car and threw water on it. I nearly jumped out of my skin.
    They started scrubbing the windscreen and calling out to us to find some money for their service. I froze. What does one do when hot, but seedy men rub themselves all over a car you don’t own?
    The cars around me started beeping as the lights went green. I pumped the clutch and tried to put it into first gear but it was getting stuck. A learner’s nightmare. Traffic backed up while I tried to ignore Speedo men begging for money. Terry was grunting in impatience yet refused to take over with his set of pedals to help me out. Flustered, I burnt a little rubber as I finally took off into the intersection. A Commodore with too many teenagers in it to be legal was trying to drag me while I concentrated on the road. They were cheering at my take off and making horse and jockey movements in their car.
    Bogans. I couldn’t wait for this lesson to be over. It felt like I’d never get the hang of driving.
    Our last painful exercise was to park the car in the exact