Chapter Text
Opening her eyes just a crack, Matilda felt the usual dizzying head rush of having her dreams snatched away as a familiar weight clambered on her bed. It happened often enough when her younger sister Dolly came into her bedroom the second she woke up and made her boundless energy the problem of her older sister.
Less often did Matilda open her eyes to see the sight of a thin, slithering tongue enter her line of sight and a pair of red eyes staring wide at her.
Making a sharp noise of protest she quickly shot up in bed to see her younger sister, Dolly, sitting perched on the corner with her pet corn snake Milkshnake coiled around her wrist, smiling and completely unaware of the way Matilda felt her heart hammer nearly out of her chest.
“Dolores Marie Maguire,” Matilda said, her voice slipping into the stern older sister tone that made Dolly quickly clamber off her bed, chastened. “What have I told you about bringing Milkshnake into my bedroom?” Matilda raised an eyebrow as her younger sister did a shuffle of her feet on the rug before answering.
“To… not do that.”
“Yes, to not do that,” Matilda said with a tired groan, sliding back into bed with an exhausted sigh when she saw the time – it was a bit early to be up, even on a school day and doubly so after a long bout of insomnia kept her up late last night. “I’d also love it if you remembered that I try not to wake up before my alarm. Now please Dolly, I’ve got fifteen minutes of sleep left. I want to take advantage of every second of it.”
“I just wanted to show you Milkshnake finished shedding…” Dolly explained with a pout before turning her head to her pet snake, “Let’s go show Mummy and Big Fella. Maybe someone else will appreciate your fancy new scales.”
Matilda sighed, settling back against her pillow, the heaviness of her eyelids made it easy to slip back into a sleep state as she heard the faint sounds of Dolly yelling for their Ma and Da, “Mornin’ Mummy! Mornin’ Big Fella! Look at Milkshnake!” outside her door.
It was extra warm under her blankets from the few hours of sleep she had managed last night, and she turned back on her preferred side of the bed, nuzzling into her pillow to enjoy the warmth properly.
Which is when she felt a strange, scratchy tickle against the tip of her nose. One eye lazily opened to see a coiled shape on her pillow that was not there the night before and, with an undignified panicked noise, Matilda recoiled in a tangle of blankets straight onto the floor. Once she fought with her comforter and won, she stood in the nest of blankets and peered at the offending coil, realizing with a light wave of nausea that she had been nuzzling up to the snake shed that Dolly left on her pillow.
“Jesus Christ!”
Matilda slowly made her way down the stairs, her blonde curls that she normally had to tame with only a bobbin and a prayer splayed out all over the place. At the very least, the snake shed incident made sure that for the most part, she was already dressed for school, just leaving tidying her hair for last.
She could take a little extra time with breakfast and hopefully decompress what had just happened before she had to see her friends - and Jason Joyce - at school today.
... It had also given her time to leave Milkshnake’s remains on a certain little sister’s pillow.
To her surprise, when she came downstairs it wasn’t just her Ma, Da, Dolly and Joseph, her youngest brother, gathered – Sienna, her older cousin, was sitting on their couch where Dolly was showing her Milkshnake. God bless, Sienna was trying her best to be engaged with the chat and yet Matilda could see the wariness in her gaze when Dolly gestured too close with the hand holding her pet.
Acting fast, Matilda put her hands on her little sister’s shoulders and gently pushed her away from Sienna, reminding her to wash her hands before breakfast. Dolly, to her relief, simply agreed and walked off to put her snake back in the tank so she could go wash up for breakfast.
“Thanks for the save,” Sienna breathed out once Dolly was out of earshot, giving Matilda a truly grateful look.
Matilda took the spot Dolly had previously been occupying to talk to Sienna herself. It wasn’t often she was able to see Sienna these days since she was always off on her own and touring different venues with her dance troupe, so Matilda felt downright giddy being able to catch up.
“Hey! I missed you,” Matilda greeted cheerfully, smiling big and wide and reaching over to give her older cousin a hug.
“Missed you too,” Sienna said, giving her an extra fond squeeze before releasing her.
Before she could ask why Sienna was stopping by so suddenly, her Ma leaned down, her hands on both their shoulders. “Girls, breakfast is ready! Don’t let it get cold now, you can catch up at the table.”
Sienna opened her mouth to politely refuse, “Aunt Erin, I’m not-”
“Yes you are,” her Ma interrupted before she could finish and walked back to the kitchen, expecting both to follow her.
Sienna glanced at Erin and then shrugged her shoulders, “Well, far be it for me to turn down a free breakfast, right Tilly?”
“You don’t have a choice either way,” Matilda responded with amusement as they sat down at the table and found pancakes and sausage for each of them – normal ones for herself and Sienna, and mouse shaped ones for Dolly.
Matilda could only watch Dolly swallow one small mouse-pancake whole before she directed her attention back to her visiting cousin. “So, what brings you by? You don’t usually have time to fit in surprise visits.”
“You’ll see...” Sienna teased with a wink, bringing a fork to her mouth before Matilda could ask any follow up questions.
Together the three of them ate at the table, talking amongst themselves and with her parents. Matilda hid a laugh behind a forkful of pancake as Sienna passed on a message from Auntie Michelle to her Da reminding him that he was a dickhead, when she suddenly heard her other cousin, Cleo, in the doorway.
“Auntie Erin, did you and Auntie James buy the good pop tarts this time? I don’t care for the strawberry ones - Sienna!”
Cleo ran over from where she had been standing with Auncle Orla and hugged Sienna from behind, before glaring at Matilda. “Why didn’t you text me? I would have come way quicker if I knew Sisi was here!”
Cleo was here every morning, the two of them close enough in age to attend Our Lady Immaculate College together, albeit Cleo in the year below. Matilda scoffed and finished the last bite of her pancakes. “I shouldn’t have to tell you to get here on time before school, you should just want to be responsible.”
Cleo made sure Dolly wasn’t looking before flipping Matilda off. Matilda reached over to swat the offending gesture down playfully. Sienna smiled at the pair and began to reach into her bag.
“Well, now that you’re both here, you can have my surprise,” Sienna said.
Sienna held out an envelope that both girls reached for before Cleo narrowed her eyes with determination and snatched the envelope before Matilda could. “Ha! Too slow!”
Matilda stuck her tongue out as Cleo eagerly ripped the envelope open. She shot straight up and stared down at the contents in awe. “No FUCKING way!”
“Cleo! Language please,” her Da cut in, giving Cleo a warning glare and gesturing to where Joseph sat. Matilda didn’t think her little brother even noticed that Cleo had said anything, too young and too engrossed with his wee toys that he was. Nevertheless, the warning made Cleo sit in the remaining seat quickly.
“Shit! Ach, I mean… sorry.”
“I’m sure he’s heard worse from Michelle in fairness, James,” Auncle Orla said, taking a bite of their own pop tart before handing the other to their daughter. Cleo took a big bite of the pastry to shut herself up before she cursed again. “I remember Cleo’s first word was ‘bitch’ on account of Michelle taking her to the trampoline park and some Ma and her kids cutting in line.”
Auncle Orla laughed, lost in the memory, not even noticing that her Da was moving to take Joseph out of the room in case anyone said yet another curse word.“That was a cut up trying to explain to daycare!” Orla said. “They really hoped she was saying ‘itch’ and she was not . Aye, you should be lucky wee Joe hasn’t said anything.”
Matilda watched her Da awkwardly agree that it was, indeed, very lucky that Joseph didn’t have that as his first word and took him upstairs out of earshot. Once he was out of the room with Joseph, Matilda nudged Cleo and asked, “So, what was it that made you say ‘fuck’ in front of my little brother exactly?”
Cleo half-choked on her pop tart as she remembered why she had been so excited, “Matilda you will not believe what Sisi scored!” Cleo held out the open envelope for Matilda. Inside were four tickets for the Charli XCX concert in Belfast!
Matilda felt a rush as she looked up at Sienna. “Really?”
“Friend of mine had the hookup and reserved a few tickets for me and my friends, except we have a gig that weekend and can’t make it. So, I thought, who else has a group of four that could use these… and here I am! Dropping it off just for you girls before I head off to Dublin,” Sienna said with a flourish. Matilda and Cleo both swarmed Sienna with hugs and ‘Thank yous’ .
Her Ma gave Sienna a brief grin before pouring herself another cup of coffee, “That sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for thinking of the girls.”
“Of course, Aunt Erin,” Sienna said as if it was nothing. Matilda beamed. Sienna always did think of them, even when she had no reason to. “Try to get there early on Saturday, entering the venue can be crazy for these big events trust me.”
“Saturday? As in this Saturday?” Matilda turned to her Ma who had paused from stirring in her sugar to look up at Sienna, who nodded.
Furrowing her brow, Matilda watched as her Ma checked her mental calendar. “Sorry girls, but I can’t take you that night. I have a dinner meeting with Mindy. I know your Da can’t either, cause he’s on a tight deadline for his assignment, that’s why I’m taking Joesph to your grandparents’ house for the weekend.”
Matilda and Cleo exchanged a worried glance as her Ma turned to Auncle Orla, “Orla, do you think you can drive the girls up to Belfast that night? Cause otherwise… ” her words trailed off and yet both Matilda and Cleo could guess the unspoken bit - otherwise there wouldn’t be a concert on Saturday.
“Ach, bad luck so it is. I’m taking the wee’er wains up to an escape room that very weekend,” Auncle Orla reminded her Ma, who gave her a nod, remembering that was where Dolly was supposed to be that weekend while Joseph was staying with their grandparents.
Only Matilda was meant to be staying in the house because, without these plans, her Ma and Da knew she could take care of herself and be left to her own devices. Her only plans had been to simply stay in her room and continue programming her latest project on her computer all weekend.
Of course, now she’d much rather be seeing Charli XCX.
“Christ Mammy, they can go to an escape room whenever! We only have one chance to see Charli XCX! Can’t you reschedule?” Cleo urged her own ma, reaching over to grab their hands and plead with her eyes, hoping to sway Auncle Orla.
“No way!” Dolly piped up loudly, her hands pressing on the table as she made herself a bit taller to glare up at Cleo, who glared back with annoyance. Cleo let go of Auncle Orla.
“We called dibs way before you did,” Dolly insisted. “And we’ve been training for weeks! Phoebe learned how to unscramble letters, Benedict learned how to pick locks and I’ve been training Milkshnake to crawl in-and-out of tight spaces. We’re gonna break the record for quickest exit for sure!”
“As I said, bad luck,” Auncle Orla shrugged, always one to abide by the rules of dibs. “You can still go… you girls just hafta go up by yourselves. Maybe take the bus there, that’s what Erin and I did back in the day. At least until we had to hitchhike.”
“I’m not sending my child alone on a bus all the way to Belfast, are you absolutely mental?” Erin said, throwing up her hands. Orla shrugged, not seeing the problem with it.
“Listen, I can’t tell you what to do with your wain, Orla - if Cleo wants to go by herself she can. I just won’t let mine traipse about Belfast with no adult supervision,” she continued, in a voice inviting no argument on the matter. “Lord knows what they’ll get up to by themselves…”
“If we managed to make it to see Take That in one piece, I think our girls can. Exceptin’ of course they’re going to see Charli XCX not Take That...” Orla pointed out, arguing the matter anyway.
“I will not be taking that chance. We nearly got attacked by Travelers and then hitched a ride with someone who I’m still not entirely sure wasn’t a serial killer. Never mind the escaped polar bear,” Erin recalled, her gaze now very distant as she was transported to all the potential dangers their gang had faced before, colored a lot differently when she thought about the same happening to her Matilda.
Matilda blinked. She was always a bit confused whenever a bit of lore came out about her parents' younger days. She could never quite decide if it all happened as her Ma remembered it so.
“… I can’t imagine that is an experience that would happen a second time Mammy,” she said.
“Be that as it may, I still don’t feel comfortable with my teenage daughter by herself at a massive concert in a different city for half the night,” her Ma said firmly.
Sienna looked apologetically at the pair. “Well shit, now I feel bad for getting your hopes up. So should I take the tickets back then, see if I can’t find a different concert for you girls to go to?” she asked, reaching for the tickets.
Matilda watched as Cleo jerked the envelope with the tickets back against her chest, looking as if she’d hiss if anyone tried to take them from her vice grip.
“Absolutely not! We have friends we want to take with us, surely one of them has an adult who can take us on Saturday!”
Her Ma gave a tilt of her head in concession and took a sip of her coffee. “As long as you have supervision, you have my blessing, if you don’t…”
“We’ll find proper adult supervision; don’t you worry Auntie Erin,” Cleo reassured, one hand stuffing the tickets in her uniform pocket and the other hand on Matilda’s wrist as she began dragging her out for school, clearly gunning to secure a ride as quickly as possible.
Matilda could barely protest and only just managed to squirm away long enough from her cousin to grab her school bag before they were out the door.
Matilda walked side by side with Cleo toward the bus, still trying to fix her hair last minute. Jesus, Cleo could have given her a minute before just dragging her out the house. Matilda just hoped she didn’t look too disheveled as she pulled her hair into a messy, curly ponytail.
Cleo, meanwhile, was determinedly trying to concoct a plan to find someone to give them a ride to Belfast.
Matilda wasn’t sure that’d be as easy as Cleo thought.
“So, what’re we going to do if we can’t find a ride? Because it’s entirely possible we won’t…” Matilda said, expecting and then receiving a glare from her cousin in response.
“Wise up Tilly, we’ll never find one with that attitude! You have to stop being a fuckin’ downer, you melt my head sometimes,” Cleo huffed, nudging her shoulder to bump Matilda lightly off the path.
Matilda gave a shoulder bump back, never one to back down unless she chose to take the high road to be mature. “And just who are we going to find at the last minute? It’s already the middle of the week. We’re not exactly spoiled for choice here Cleo.”
“Did you forget we have at least two more friends with parents?” Cleo asked, looking at Matilda as if she was an eejit. Matilda was all too eager to bring her back to Earth with a reminder.
“One, we have one. Jason doesn’t count.”
“Girl, you have to stop pretending Jason isn’t our friend at this point,” Cleo said, one eyebrow raised in judgement, making Matilda feel a strange prickling in her fingertips. “You’re just too much of a shite the tights to admit you like him a wee bit.”
“That’s not even what I meant!” Matilda said, her voice more sharp and defensive than she would have liked.
Jason wasn’t a full friend. Maybe half at best. He was more of a rough-looking mouth, an annoying lingering presence who happened to hang out with her other friends every day and share her dinner table a few nights a week.
He’d only shown up a few months ago after his ma had shipped him back to Derry from the States when he got expelled (“Recommended to leave,” Jason always insisted) from his school for causing too much trouble – trouble that he’d never elaborate on or that he’d even been responsible for, if you were to believe his side of the story (which Matilda made sure never to do). So what if his mammy had been an old school acquaintance of her parents and aunties? She didn’t know why that meant he had to follow her, Cleo, and Elsie around all the time, and she definitely didn’t know why it meant he had to go to school with them, no matter how much her Da insisted it was because he’d promised Mrs. Joyce to keep him out of trouble.
Jason was trouble, all on his own and Matilda definitely wasn’t being a shite the tights about anything. If he was really a friend, she’d have no issue admitting liking him.
… Not that she was even talking about that.
“Jason doesn’t have parents here, remember? I doubt his grandparents are going to be keen to drive us to Belfast and back so late. That leaves his only other option, my parents, who already can’t take us. So, our last hope is if Elsie can convince her Ma, and if she can’t -”
“Then we just get creative,” Cleo said firmly, sounding a lot like Matilda’s Ma when she left no room for argument.
Matilda maturely chose to let it go. There would be time to argue back later.
Elsie was at the bus stop early as she always was, her gaze fixed on the Kindle that she carried around everywhere. She didn’t pay much attention to anything around her when she was reading, so hardly noticed when Matilda and Cleo approached.
Jason, who was leaning against the bus stop pole next to Elsie, looked up from scrolling through his phone as Matilda and Cleo approached.
“Ey! Cleo’s here! Looks like the party can start!” Jason greeted Cleo with a light slap to her shoulder, her cousin returning the gesture fondly.
His grayish-hazel eyes swept over Matilda and she ignored the rushing swoop of anticipation as steeled herself for his inevitable comment. His one dimple always made itself known on his cheek whenever he had something to say that would set off a reaction. “Ah - wait - Til’s right behind, there goes the party,” Jason sighed. He slumped back against the bus stop pole, looking at her like he was daring her to respond.
Matilda set her shoulders and narrowed her green eyes at his. Cleo and Elsie disappeared from her periphery as she focused directly on Jason, the synapses firing in her head to prepare to duel for the last word. She opened her mouth… then shut it promptly when Cleo pressed her hand over Matilda’s mouth to shut her up.
“Look, as much as your morning flirt time right before school is an important part of my day -” Cleo interrupted her, looking from her to Jason in a way that made Matilda flush with indignation.
Matilda hastily wrenched Cleo’s hand away just as the bus arrived. “Wh! No! I am not!” Matilda sputtered as Jason chuckled. “We are not -!”
Ignoring her protests, Cleo climbed the bus steps. “We need to have an important debrief.” She turned back only to tug Elsie by her sweater sleeve. She’d been left behind once or twice before. “Come on.”
Matilda huffed out a sigh as Cleo and Elsie vanished into the bus. Cleo could never let her have the last word.
“Y’know, you can flirt with me whenever you want, not just before school,” Jason drawled as he climbed the bus steps. “If you do it someplace private, we won’t be interrupted next time.”
“Trust me, you are the absolute last person I would flirt with,” Matilda insisted, pointedly rolling her eyes as she followed close behind him. “Cleo says these things to wind me up, not because they’re true. In fact, it’s because they’re not true that it winds me up.”
“Suit yourself, Matilda,” Jason said, shrugging at her answer. Instead of boarding the bus, he stepped to the side and gestured for her to board first. “Ladies first.”
“We’re all ladies during school hours. That’s what you agree to when you put on that Lady Immaculate uniform every morning,” Matilda reminded him. He was always trying to tell her what to do, and she refused to let him. “So you can board first, it’s allowed.”
For a moment they held each other's gaze, neither backing down, before a stern clearing of the throat from the bus driver snapped them out of it. Jason gave in first, climbing onto the bus and leaving Matilda to preen from her victory as she boarded just behind him.
Once they were all sat near the back of the bus, Cleo began to explain their concert predicament to Jason and Elsie. Jason took a moment to tilt Elsie’s head up from her reading so she would pay attention.
“So, can you text your Ma and ask if she can take us this weekend?” Cleo asked Elsie.
“Oh! Yeah, yes, can do. Let me just…” Elsie fished for her phone in her school bag which was filled with loose papers, school books, and all sorts of random things that Elsie threw in there and seemed to forget to ever take out again. Her fingers flew over the screen, typing out a text to Ms. Coyle. “Okay, that’ll do it.”
Not a minute passed before the phone lit up with a notification. Unfortunately, that had been just enough time for Elsie to once again be occupied with her book again. Matilda exchanged a glance with Cleo and Jason as they waited to see if their space case of a friend would notice on her own.
“... Fuck it,” Cleo muttered as she snatched the phone up, much too antsy to keep waiting, and read aloud the answer for the others. “‘Sorry Elisabeth, I can’t. Saturday is my turn to host Charcuterie Night.’ ... And just what does that mean?” Cleo wondered aloud with a tilt of her head. “What is a ‘Charcuterie Night’ supposed to be?”
“Bunch of people gather around to eat tiny fancy meats and cheeses to soak up all the wine they drink while they gossip about stuff,” Jason answered casually. Matilda and Cleo stared at him. “…What? My mom has ‘em all the time.”
“Looks like that’s all the adults we know,” Matilda sighed, sinking into the bus seat.
“Fucks sake!” Cleo groaned.
Setbacks didn’t seem to stop Cleo McCool for long. Cleo hadn’t dropped the topic all day, sneaking up on Matilda during passing periods and suggesting different possible chaperones that Matilda had to gently remind her probably couldn’t make it back to Derry on such short notice.
It was lunch now and the four of them occupied a bench with their food spread on their laps as they continued to discuss.
“Okay, I really don’t think you can bribe Dennis to take us this weekend, you’re sort of grasping at straws at this point,” Matilda said, interrupting Cleo who had been in the middle of a nonsensical tangent.
“He can always use more money,” Cleo insisted. “That wee shop of his can only be netting so much profit and I make a killing in allowance ‘cause of the child support.”
“I don’t think even Jason has enough money that would make Dennis leave his wee shop and take us anywhere. He’s old… and crotchety,” Matilda said. Jason nudged her knee with his own. She gave him an annoyed nudge right back.
“Crotchety?” Jason laughed. “God, you talk like you’re old.”
Matilda narrowed her eyes at Jason’s grin. Cleo opened her mouth to once again interrupt them before they could have it out, likely to suggest combining all their money to bribe Dennis or another equally unlikely suggestion, knowing her, when she was cut off by the most unpleasant interruption possible.
“Hi girls!”
Matilda couldn’t hide her grimace as she heard the familiar haughty trill of Salome Michael from behind them. Neither could the others, their faces each showing different degrees of displeasure at the interruption. Even Elsie could only hide her frown by lifting her Kindle to cover her face entirely.
Their reactions were very much earned, in Matilda’s opinion. Salome had made herself the enemy of their wee group by always trying to get them into trouble. Not that they were strangers to it on their own, of course. Even Matilda could admit that they could be a handful from time-to-time – yet, with Salome it got to a point. She would run to the headmistress with anything she could on the four of them, no matter how small.
It definitely didn’t help that the headmistress was Salome’s aunt, who she resembled to a startling degree. Salome had long straight hair and blunt fringe that resembled a wimple, something that Jason had brought to their attention the first week he started at their school. They’d all had a good laugh about that, at least until Salome had overheard and ran to head office carrying on about bullying. Unfortunately, with Salome being Sister Michael’s niece, she was able to get away with constantly bothering her more than most, meaning they would often find themselves in the headmistress’s office even when they didn’t deserve it.
Salome’s eyes swept over their messy lunch spread on the bench before zeroing in on Jason, not unlike the way hunters do when they spot a choice bit of prey.
“Hiiiiiiiiiiii Jason…” Salome purred, her smile stretching predatorily across her face.
Despite their own complicated barely-friendship, Matilda felt a bit of empathy for the critter as she watched Jason wrestle back his distaste to a publicly appropriate level. Matilda already hated having the attention of Salome in a negative context, she couldn’t imagine how much worse it was to be fancied by the unpleasant witch.
“I couldn’t help overhearing that your gang was having trouble finding a ride to the Charli concert this weekend. It really is such a shame,” Salome said, speaking only to Jason and ignoring the other girls.
Matilda couldn’t help the annoyance bubbling up in her chest. Her palms made a loud smack as they fit the old wooden bench, finally drawing Salome’s eyes away from Jason and to her instead..
“You could help over hearing if you didn’t always spy on us,” Matilda said. Salome narrowed her eyes at Matilda. Matilda narrowed hers right back.
Salome was the first to break eye contact, though she tried to brush it off with a condescending smile. “It isn’t spying if it's against troublemakers. In that case, I’m simply being a good prefect and keeping the halls of Our Lady Immaculate College safe and calm for my Grauntie George.”
Matilda grimaced. She hated that nickname and, hazarding a guess, she would say Sister Michael wasn’t too fond of it or the obvious nepotism that Salome tried to invoke that came with it either.
“Who, by the way, is taking me to the concert,” Salome continued. “On account of the fact that she’s working as security for the event.”
“Seriously?” Jason raised his eyes in a skeptical way, not quite able to believe their elderly headmistress was capable of working security. Matilda had enough experience to know that, while Salome was often full of it, she was likely telling the truth in this case. Sister Michael was just built different.
“Mmhm, it’s her regular side hustle. She takes me to concerts all the time,” Salome bragged.
‘Poor Sister Michael’ thought Matilda as she imagined the old nun driving Salome around everywhere. It was enough to want to make a commitment to never be a part of any trouble again; she clearly had enough on her plate.
“So, I thought I’d offer to let you ride up with us!” Salome exclaimed, as the others all exchanged confused looks.
“Really?” Cleo asked cautiously, not sure what the catch was in that offer. She ran her hand through her hair and Matilda was reminded of all the times that Cleo had found trouble for her dyed hair when Salome told their teachers that Cleo hadn’t covered it up and was distracting her from learning - which was rich, when Salome didn’t even share classes with her. “That’s… unusually class of you to let us ride with you Salome …”
“Us? Who said anything about you three coming along? This is an offer for Jason and only Jason,” Salome said with a scoff at Cleo.
“There it is.” Matilda said flatly.
“So, what do you say? We can really get to know each other if we go together, y’know, without any distractions…”
At the word ‘distractions,’ Salome shot Matilda a very ugly look from the corner of her eye. Matilda’s lip curled. It was hardly her fault Jason wouldn’t look twice at Salome. For all his flaws, he seemed to have decent enough taste and that taste simply didn’t include Salome.
“I mean I’d love to-” Jason began, making Matilda’s spine go rigid. Was his taste starting to include Salome?
“You would?” Matilda hated the alarmed pitch of her voice. She had meant to say it with an entirely different tone, but he'd caught her off guard.
Jason shot her a “be quiet” look and nudged her knee with his again. She shut her mouth. “But I just wouldn’t feel right leaving the girls behind. They’d be lost without me.”
Matilda resisted an eye roll.‘Lost without him’ was such a stretch. Still, she relaxed as she realized he was just trying to butter Salome up for a ride, not seriously considering a date with her.
Jason’s voice was extra slick as he continued, “You sure you can’t make room for ‘em? I’d really owe you one...”
Salome seemed to truly consider it for a moment, clearly weighing if it would be worth it to have his attention if it meant riding up with the rest of them before she shook her head. “Can’t do it I’m afraid. I loathe them more than I fancy you.”
Salome gently touched Jason on the nose with the tip of her finger, ignoring that he instantly tried to wipe her touch off with the back of his hand. “If you do manage to make your way to Belfast though, I can try to get you backstage,” she said smugly, this time more at the other girls than at him before she walked off.
“Eh, I tried.” Jason shrugged, looking much more relaxed now that Salome wasn’t hovering over him. Matilda knew the feeling.
After school, all four of them returned to Matilda’s house, unusually quiet after having exhausted the debate about how to get to Belfast for the concert before their bus ride home.
Matilda slipped her earbuds out of her ears and back into their case as the others followed her inside. The house was silent – except for the sounds of quiet laughter and other, more… pressing sounds from just inside the living room that hit her ears. Matilda felt an embarrassed flush bloom on her cheeks at one particularly insistent noise as she barricaded the group from entering with an arm.
“Wait,” Matilda said quietly, avoiding the others' eyes as they looked at her, confused. She closed and opened the front door again, this time intentionally swinging it shut with a loud thud. “Mammy! Daddy! I’m home!” she called out.
She watched with chagrin as the others begin to catch on. She answered their wide-eyed stares by flattening her lips into an awkward grimace of confirmation as the startled sounds of interruption and hasty shuffling emerged from the living room. Sighing, Matilda gave it an extra few seconds before walking into the living room. She was relieved to see that her Ma and Da had taken the hint and were now apart, a bit ruffled yet otherwise decent.
She could tell her parents were trying their best to look as if they hadn’t just been all over each other and yet the telltale signs were obvious. Her Ma pressed her lips together to disguise the way they looked very kissed and tried to flatten herself against one edge of the sofa. Her Da matched her on the other end, clearly keeping his distance as he ran a hand along his curls to fix the spots where her Ma had probably run her fingers through.
It wasn’t unfamiliar to Matilda, the way her parents clearly loved each other with everything they had, and truthfully, she hoped that one day she’d find a love that shone as brightly as the one between the two of them.
…And that she’d learn to hide it from her own children better than they did.
“Y’know traditionally it’s the parents catching their teenagers in these sorts of compromising positions, yet here we are,” Matilda quipped, unable to resist giving them a bit of shite for it.
Her Ma cleared her throat sternly, the result not quite as effective with the way neither of them could meet her gaze. “Less of the cheek you,” she said simply, before changing the subject. “So, did you wains manage to find a ride to your concert?”
Before Matilda could say a word, Cleo stepped in front of her and spoke with a honeyed voice, “We’re just waiting to hear back from our perspective adult chaperones, Auntie Erin. We expect to have one by tomorrow.”
Although Matilda didn’t see how that could possibly be the case, Cleo had clearly spent the bus ride thinking up a plan. Matilda was just going to have to trust her.
“Wonderful!” her Ma said with a smile, standing up and smoothing the front of her blouse. “James, why don’t we leave them the run of the place while we pick up Dolores and Joseph.”
“We don’t have to pick them up for another-” her Da started, but quickly picked up the hint after a pointed look from Erin. “Oh… yeah, we should get a head start. Traffic can be rough this time of day...”
Matilda’s lip curled in distaste, but her parents didn’t seem to notice as they purposely avoided her gaze and hastily made their way to the door. “We’ll be bringing home dinner, you three can stay if you like. See you in a bit!”
Once they were gone, Matilda sighed with relief. The last thing she needed was to walk in on that again today, not to mention how mortifying it was that it’d happened in front of her friends.
“So, they’re definitely just leaving so they can smash right?” Jason asked into the silence. Once again, heat rushed to Matilda’s cheeks. She closed her eyes tight to block out the vision of anything to do with parents and “smashing.”
“I need you to just… please drop it. Right now,” Matilda insisted as the four of them headed upstairs to her bedroom.
Surprisingly, Jason dropped the subject – just as he tossed his school bag aside and dropped himself down onto her bed with a content noise. She glared at him and his relaxed form. He hadn’t even taken off his shoes. Who knew what was on that blazer of his? And his neck was pressed up against her pillow. Eugh. Matilda was sure it was going to absolutely reek of whatever cologne he slathered on himself every day when she went to bed that night. She made a mental note to change her pillowcase before bed that night.
“Fine, sure, everyone just make yourselves at home, I guess,” she muttered, plopping herself down on her desk chair while Cleo sat at the foot of her bed and Elsie spread out on the rug.
Matilda waited for Cleo to jump into whatever new plan she had for the concert now, but instead, Cleo stayed silent, her eyes glazed over in thought.
“So…what’s your plan?” Matilda asked after a long beat. “Or were you just talking shite to my Ma about us having a ride by tomorrow.”
“Half plan, half talking out my hole,” Cleo confirmed. “So, Auntie Erin said she didn’t want us alone on the bus to Belfast, right? So, I figure that maybe, instead of an adult we just need an adult car.”
Matilda raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth to speak, but Cleo interrupted her with a hand wave. “Hear me out Tilly. We will have a safe ride to and from the venue that way, not on the city bus with a bunch of strangers. And if someone lends us their car, they’re basically supervising us, since they’re willing to have something of theirs out with us! I’m sure it’ll be a lot easier to borrow a car than borrow someone’s time. Jason, you can drive, can’t you?”
“Yep, lucky thing I brought this from home,” Jason answered, pulling out his New York State driving license out.
“See, so Jason can drive! It’s perfect!”
“Okay, ignoring all the leaps in logic in your argument - and the fact that it’ll be a cold day in Hell before I let Jason drive me anywhere except up a wall,” Matilda began, taking satisfaction in his offended ‘Hey!’. “Where are we going to find someone willing to lend four teenagers their car for an entire night?”
Matilda knew she was right when Cleo didn’t answer. It was satisfying to be right, even if it meant they still didn’t have a plan for the concert. “Exactly,” Matilda continued. “No one here would ever do that so there’s no way we’re finding a car to use.”
“I know where you can find a car Tillybean!”
Matilda whipped her head around to find Dolly in her doorway. “Dolly! Get out!”
Jason snorted. “Tillybean? Really?”
Dolly smiled brightly, seemingly not noticing or caring that Jason now knew her most private endearment.
“Wait. Hold on young lady. What do you mean you know where we can borrow a car? You’re ten, the only cars you should be able to lend out are the toy kind.”
“Benedict knows where his Da keeps the keys to his car,” Dolly said in a chipper voice, seemingly unaware of how devious her suggestion was. “And Mr. O’Reilly is staying over with his lady friend this weekend since we’ll all be at the escape room. I figure you can use the car and put it back before anyone even knows you have it.”
Matilda felt a wave of nervous nausea at the plan. It was a bit adjacent to stealing… no… it was outright stealing. Even if they somehow managed to get away with it - and that was a pretty big if, with their track record - it didn’t entirely sit right with her…
Cleo didn’t have the same qualms. She sprung up and hugged Dolly tight, who squeaked and tried to get out of the hold. “Oh! Have I ever told you that you’re my favorite cousin?”
“Never! Now get off!” Dolly sprung out of Cleo’s grip and shook herself off, looking not unlike a dog shaking water off their fur.
“So, what, your friend is just going to give us his dad’s car keys?” Jason asked skeptically, raising an eyebrow at Dolly. Matilda was begrudgingly grateful that he also couldn’t believe it could be that easy.
“If I says so,” Dolly said. “One day it’ll be my car by marriage, so I figure Benedict and I are just lending it out in advance.” Dolly smiled with all her teeth before leaving the room. Her younger sister was clearly taking Ma and Da’s advice to ‘marry your best friend’ a bit too literally.
To Matilda’s bewilderment, Jason and Cleo seemed satisfied with the answer Dolly gave and had already turned to each other to plan the pseudo-heist. Matilda stared disbelievingly at them.disbelievingly at them.
Seeing that Matilda was about to be reasonable, Cleo leaned over and pulled Matilda into a shoulder hold. “C’mon Tilly, we have to. This isn’t just about a concert anymore, it is a statement.”
“What, that we just think Charli XCX is really class?” Matilda asked, fixing Cleo with a skeptical look.
“NO. Well, okay, yeah - she’s absolutely class,” Cleo agreed. Everyone made sounds of agreement. This was possibly the coolest concert they had the means to go to. “Look, this goes deeper than just the concert itself. We should be able to do fun stuff our parents were able to do, for God sakes they hitchhiked , and we can’t even go if we don’t have supervision? Talk about hypocrisy. Besides, teenagers all over the world have less freedom to do anything cool since quarantine.”
“Oh quarantine… my monthly reading totals were never higher,” Elsie said wistfully, clutching her Kindle to her chest and reminiscing about when she would just spend whole days in her bedroom with nothing to do besides finish several books at a time.
“Just ignore her,” Cleo said flatly as Elsie made a small noise of offense. “We need to do this to remind the world that teenagers are still allowed to have fun!” Cleo said, her voice rising with a grandeur that sounded as if she expected applause.
When she didn’t receive any, Cleo added, “… Also, because if Salome can go and we can’t she’ll never let us forget it.”
Matilda could tell immediately Jason and Elsie had been fully convinced. While, admittedly, that was the most tempted Matilda had been to listen to her cousin, she remained unsure. “I don’t know why you’re so up in arms, you’re the only one of us still allowed to go.”
“And just go without friends? Jesus, that'd be pathetic,” Cleo scoffed. If Cleo was going, they all would be whether Matilda liked it or not.
“We can just go together, Cleo. Unlike these guys I don’t have any parents to answer to, they’re all the way back in the States,” Jason said, nudging Cleo on her back with his shoe.
“Except that’s not true, is it?” Matilda said. “You answer to my Ma and Da, remember? And if they’re not letting me go without supervision, they’re sure as Hell not letting you go. My Ma and your Ma go way back, and she’s not letting yours think she isn’t responsible.”
She knew how much her Ma wanted to stick it to Mrs. Joyce by keeping an extra close eye on her son, which she also knew Jason wasn’t exactly thrilled about. He’d gone from no supervision back home to extra supervision while in Derry. Jason glared at her, but had no response…
Matilda grinned. She loved having the last word.
“It’s the best plan we have Tilly,” Cleo said. Unless you can think of a plan somehow, we’re going with mine.”
There was no time for further protest as Matilda’s ma called everyone downstairs for dinner. Cleo skipped down the stairs and Elsie trailed absently behind, slowly, to not fall down the stairs while reading. Matilda was stewing on how much of a disaster this could be as she slowly got up from her chair to follow.
Not for the first time, she wondered how she managed to find herself entangled in these messes. She really did try her best to be above these sorts of things and yet here she was, this close to participating in a sort-of Grand Theft Auto.
“Psst , hey…” Jason’s breath was warm on her ear, jolting her from her thoughts. While she’d been in her own head, he’d managed to get very close.
“What?” Matilda asked, her voice as quiet as his.. She turned into him, heart hammering about what he could possibly have to say to her this closely.
“… Tillybean~” She could practically feel the grin on his face, he was that close. The tone of his voice singsong-ing her family nickname in her ear made her blood run hot inside her veins.
Shoving him away as he laughed, she stomped the rest of the way downstairs.
Later that night, when Matilda managed to wrench herself away from her computer and lay in her bed, she buried her face into her pillow hoping for sleep to take her quickly – only to realize that she never had changed her pillowcase as she’d meant to. The scent of Jason Joyce’s cologne filled her nostrils. Unwillingly, she remembered how close he had been earlier, how warm the breath on her ear had been when he whispered her nickname. She could hear it as clearly as if he was there right now. She closed her eyes and sighed; all told it wasn’t as bad as she thought it might be.
He clearly had an expensive taste when it came to certain things. His cologne was unexpectedly tasteful for a teenage boy… she could even see him right now in her memory, lounging on her bed with his neck pressed against the very spot she was pressing her nose against with the flash of a dare in his eyes for her to do something about it…
Her eyes opened wide and her face got unpleasantly warm when she realized exactly where her thoughts were going. She chucked the damn thing across the room and hit her bedroom door with it.
She didn’t need a pillow that badly.