We’d been at Dawn Bundy’s house for a good few hours now. I was a little bit tipsy but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t felt a million times before. I was sober enough to still remember what I was doing there. It’s for Dad, I assured myself, so Dad will be proud. So Dad will really want me to be his daughter for once.

Mel went back inside to see if Dawn had got changed yet. I stayed outside and watched those stupid dogs running stupidly around her stupid garden in the pouring rain.

I didn’t want to be there. No more than I’d want to be at school. But I had no choice really. I knew why and I didn’t want to be repeating it to myself over and over because that would make me feel even worse inside that I already did.

The stupid dogs ran back inside and started to bound up the stairs. I followed them up and waited outside of the door for a second. Taking a deep breath and throwing a smirk across my face I strolled in and grinned at Dawn.

‘Wow, who’s the babe!’ She didn’t look amazing but it wasn’t that bad. She didn’t notice I was lying though because you could tell from her eyes she was getting pretty drunk. I wanted to roll my eyes at her. She couldn’t even stomach a few glasses of something that only barely resembled a proper drink.

I walked around her, nodding my head and smiling approvingly. It was only to gain her trust.

I didn’t want to be in the house of the school weirdo that was probably a lesbian anyway.

I didn’t want to be getting her drunk.

I didn’t want to be pretending that she looked good.

But I did want my Dad. That was enough.

I grabbed some glasses and poured out some vodka. Handing them around I shouted a ‘cheers, hot stuff!’ and downed the glass. Mel said ‘cheers’ as well and downed hers. Dawn did the same and gagged and gasped. I wasn’t surprised.

I started some idle conversation about how she needed a proper bra. I was just biding time really to see if she was properly drunk or not. Then she told me it was her Mum’s bra. Who wears their own Mum’s bra?!

‘I don’t believe it. You’ve got all this money and you’re still wearing your Mum’s bra-’ It was a slip of the tongue. But it was enough. Dawn was sober enough to notice I’d mentioned the money.

I stared at her for a minute, all panicky. I might have blown it all. The whole thing just gone up in smoke. I swore at myself over and over again in my head. Lighting a cigarette and trying to look casual my eyes flicked around the room. I spouted some rubbish about all the gadgets and stuff she had. It seemed to work.

I got back to the previous conversation about how she needed a bra like mine. She seemed to not have noticed so I started undoing my top to show her it properly. Dawn looked away all panicky and weird. Maybe she was a lesbian or she just didn’t like anyone. Whatever it was she was being a real weirdo.

‘What’s the matter with her?’ I asked Mel. ‘What’s she doing?’

‘It’s all right,’ Mel’s practically whispering and I look at her, getting confused. ‘Just do up your shirt.’

‘Why?’ I start. ‘I was only showing her-’

‘Just do it Tay.’ Mel was being really serious now and I just looked at Dawn with a wrinkled nose like she’d just given off a bad smell and did my shirt up.

All I could think was it had better be worth it.

 

We talked for a while about a load of rubbish, making Dawn drink more and more. Until we were pretty sure she was off her head we started talking about her Dad. She started muttering and saying something about caves. She wouldn’t say anything about where the money was.

I was getting annoyed but Mel started asking some other stuff.

‘Your Dad – was he up to something?’ Dawn shook her head. I was getting interested again now. This could be useful.

‘No no no no no.’ Dawn muttered. ‘It was another Dawn… In the cave.’

Not of it made any sense to me and I looked at Mel and rolled my eyes. Dawn looked like she was about to pass out any second. I stood up and downed my drink as Dawn slumped down on her bed.

‘This was a waste of time Mel.’ I said to her. ‘She hasn’t said a thing.’

‘Let’s just go.’ Mel said.

‘Nah I’m going to have a look around first.’ Mel gave me a look.

‘You can go if you want. No one’s going to know. Her Mum’s either high or asleep downstairs and she she’s not getting up any time soon.’ I said, nodding to Dawn.

Mel left the room without another word after collecting her stuff. I picked up the bottles and things after she’d gone and went for a look around the bedrooms. Dawn’s room was a mess but I couldn’t find anything.

I went into another room that was probably her Mum’s bedroom. I poked around it a bit and couldn’t find anything.

This is pointless, I told myself, if there’s anything here, Dad’ll find it.

With that thought I walked out of the house. Annoyed, disappointed and a bit wasted.