Read Online Head of the River by Pip Harry - Free Book Online Page B

I tell the girl behind the counter. This is our Tuesday special. It never changes. That makes me happy.
    While we wait for our rolls to be assembled, I pour a sachet of protein powder into a container of water and shake it up.
    â€˜Let me taste that,’ asks Audrey.
    I hand it over. ‘You won’t like it,’ I warn.
    She swigs and makes a face.
    â€˜My tongue. It’s burning!’
    â€˜It’s not that bad.’
    â€˜It tastes like hell. Here, take your Satan shake.’ She hands it back to me. ‘You are dedicated to drink that.’
    The most exercise Audrey gets is using her mouse hand to play World of Warcraft , working up a sweat on a new earring design and running around muddy paddocks pretending to be a warrior queen. She’s not the slightest bit interested in my training.
    â€˜I wish Harley would spend half the cash that they do on the rowing program on fencing gear for Lucy,’ she once mused. ‘Rowing gets all the attention and all the funding.’
    I couldn’t really argue with her. Everything else did seem to pale in comparison to my sport.
    Audrey pays for our snack – we take turns shouting each other – and we walk towards her house. We’ve got an English essay to do, but we take it slow, chewing on the fresh coriander, strips of carrot, the tangy mystery pate and hot fatty pork.
    We stop and look in the window of her favourite second-hand shop, ‘Release the Hounds’.
    â€˜Should we go in?’ Audrey asks. ‘Get a little something pretty?’
    â€˜Best not. I’m broke. Let’s go back to yours and make a start on The Kite Runner essay. Due tomorrow, don’t forget.’
    We’re studying in Audrey’s bedroom. It’s like being in an enchanted forest. She’s painted the walls dark green, and hand-drawn wood animals with big eyes, creeping vines, forests and snow-capped mountains. She’s got a fish tank with two Mexican walking fish called Weasley and Dumbledore. Audrey says you’re never too old to love Harry Potter. She has a quidditch broomstick in one corner.
    My head’s not in my work. I keep reading the same paragraph over and over, the words losing focus. I put my book down, wondering if I should betray Adam’s trust and spill the details of last night. Would that make me an even worse girlfriend? Some things aren’t for sharing.
    â€˜Do you think I’m the sort of girl who shouldn’t have a boyfriend? Lately I’ve been thinking maybe I should be single,’ I say.
    Audrey looks up from her book, puts her glasses on. She’s horribly short-sighted.
    â€˜You are torturing that poor Adam Langley. You still haven’t put out, have you?’
    â€˜I do put out. In certain pre-specified areas.’
    Adam and I were engaged in an exhausting sexual tug of war. I held onto my virginity on one end of the rope and he pulled his in the other direction. The direction he was used to.
    â€˜What’s sex like, Auds? Worth doing?’
    â€˜Of course it’s worth doing. But only when you’re ready. And when you’re ready with the right guy .’
    â€˜I shouldn’t make such a big deal of it.’
    â€˜It’s the biggest deal,’ says Audrey, sitting up and looking at me intensely. ‘Look, technically, it’s just sticking something in a hole, but it changes everything. Like EVERYTHING,’ she says. ‘You’re not kids anymore. Boom. Like that.’ She clicks her fingers. ‘You gotta worry about the babies and the diseases and taking the pill. Before sex, you’re playing. After, it’s business.’
    â€˜So, Kieren, he’s like the one? How do you know?’
    â€˜I don’t know. But he makes me feel safe and beautiful and we look out for each other. He gives me the jtzooum. ’
    We talk about the jtzooum a lot. That weird, tingly, floaty feeling that some guys give you. Adam doesn’t. Sam