Read Online Midnight by Jacqueline Wilson - Free Book Online Page A

waves.
    â€˜You’ve got lovely hair,’ said Jasmine, brushing it with a beautiful silver-backed hairbrush.
    â€˜Nowhere near as lovely as yours.’
    â€˜So we’re the hairy girls as well as the flower fairy girls,’ said Jasmine, and we both fell about laughing.
    â€˜I’m starving. Let’s have tea,’ she said.
    I thought about my own tea waiting at home. I knew I should go right that minute. Or at the very least phone. But I still couldn’t bear to break the spell.
    â€˜Yeah, great, let’s have tea,’ I said.
    I thought Jasmine’s dad would be in the kitchen but there was no sign of him. Jasmine rummaged in the fridge, selecting stuff.
    â€˜Where’s your dad, Jasmine?’ I couldn’t understand why he hadn’t come out to say hello. Why didn’t he want to know how she’d managed on her first day at the new school? Why didn’t he want to give me the once-over. My dad would have given any friend a twice- or even thrice-over.
    Jasmine shrugged. ‘I don’t know. He’s maybe at the theatre, checking stuff. There was a problem with the lighting. Or maybe he’s gone out with Georgia some-place. Whatever.’
    I couldn’t believe she said it so casually. The tea arrangements were casual too. There was lots of luxury food in the fridge, strawberries, special cheese, asparagus, fresh prawns, Greek yoghurt, chocolate éclairs, olives, ice cream, but not the makings of a proper meal. Jasmine didn’t seem bothered about proper meals. She’d had one nibble at her gift KitKat and hardly touched her school dinner. She’d just eaten a few chips and half an apple, that was all. She didn’t eat properly now even thoughshe’d said she was starving. She fixed herself a fancy little mouse-meal, one prawn, three olives, six strawberries and half an éclair. No wonder she was so slender. Her wrists were so thin her bangles clinked right down to her knuckles and she was forever hitching them back into place.
    â€˜Help yourself, Violet,’ she said.
    I was hungry enough to eat everything in the fridge but I matched my meal exactly to Jasmine’s.
    â€˜What would you like to drink?’ she said, clanking the bottles in the fridge door. She brought out a gleaming green bottle. ‘White wine?’
    â€˜You’re allowed to drink
wine
?’
    â€˜Sure,’ said Jasmine. ‘I prefer red though. We’ll have that, OK? Let’s take the food back into my bedroom, like a picnic.’
    I took both our plates back to the bedroom, worrying about the wine. I was going to be in serious enough trouble as it was when I eventually went home. If I was also drunk I’d be grounded for ever.
    â€˜Here we go,’ said Jasmine, coming into her bedroom with two big blue glass goblets filled to the brim. She gave me one and clinked hers gently against mine. ‘Here’s to us,’ she said.
    â€˜Yes, here’s to us,’ I echoed. I took a deep breath and sipped my drink. Jasmine burst out laughing. It was cranberry juice.
    We ate our tiny meal and drank our juice and listened to Lisa in the candlelight. Jasmine had strung Christmas tree fairy lights across the ceiling and now it was gettingdark they twinkled red and green and blue and yellow. I felt as if I was in true Casper Dream fairyland.
    It got darker and darker, later and later. My heart thudded when I thought of Mum. Dad would be coming home soon. If I wasn’t back then he’d call out one of his police cars and start a search for me.
    â€˜I think I’ll have to go home now, Jasmine.’
    â€˜No, please. Not yet. We’re having fun,’ said Jasmine. ‘Look, I want to play you some of my other albums and show you all my drawings and stuff. Please stay.’
    â€˜I want to,’ I said desperately, ‘but it’s really really late. I know it sounds pathetic but my mum will be so worried. You know what