‘That top,’ she says, ‘you know, the one we got when we were at the Belfry last week. With the hearts on it. With my black jeans.’
‘Oh yes,’ her mum replies, ‘that’ll look lovely.’
Tallulah smiles. It’s not the most amazing top in the world but it’ll hide her post-baby stomach, which just won’t seem to snap back into shape no matter how hard she tries, that’s the important thing.
An hour later she comes downstairs. Her mum has Noah on her lap and they’re watching CBeebies together. Ryan is at the dining table with headphones on, doing his homework.
‘You look gorgeous,’ says her mother. ‘Just gorgeous.’
Tallulah leans down to kiss Noah on both cheeks.
‘How are you getting there?’
‘Chloe’s giving me a lift.’
Her mother nods.
‘Are you sure you’ll be all right?’ Tallulah asks, touching the crown of her baby’s head. ‘I don’t have to go if you’d rather I didn’t?’
‘Of course we’ll be all right. It’s bath time in a minute, isn’t it, my angel?’ Her mother’s voice rises an octave or two as she turns to address Noah. ‘And after that we’ll have a lovely story and a lovely long sleep. Yes! Yes we will!’
Noah turns and smiles at her and Tallulah’s mum kisses him hard on his cheek. ‘Off you go,’ she says. ‘Have fun. Let me know if you’re going to be late.’
‘I definitely won’t be late,’ she says. ‘Chloe’s mum wants her home by eleven, so that’s when I’ll be back.’
Tallulah hears the sound of a car pulling up outside and dashes to the front door. Briefly, she appraises herself in the mirror there.
She looks, she thinks, quite pretty.
The first hour is every bit as crap as Tallulah had expected it to be. Shit sound system playing bad music; the hatch in the wall where the dinner ladies usually serve their lunch open and serving beer in plastic bottles and wine by the glass. She and Chloe sit on a bench with their backs to the wall, each holding a beer, watching the party unfold around them. Chloe went to school with Tallulah, primary and secondary; they were never particularly great friends, but have come together out of necessity during this first term at Manton.
Then a buzz passes across the room, and inside the frame of the double doors appear Scarlett Jacques and her gang. They’re laughing between themselves and none of them has made any effort to look nice. Scarlett’s faded-blue hair is tied back into two short pigtails. She’s wearing baggy jeans and a leopard-print vest top and an oversized fake-fur coat. The whole atmosphere of the room changes as they enter.
Chloe tuts. ‘What the fuck are they doing here?’
Tallulah turns. ‘Why wouldn’t they be here? They helped to plan it.’
‘I would have thought they were waaaay too edgy and cool for this sort of thing.’
Tallulah feels a strange wave of defensiveness pass through her. ‘They’re just people,’ she counters.
But she knows this isn’t true. They’re more than just people. They’re a mood, a feeling, a vibe, an aspiration. They’re like a music video or a trailer for a really cool movie. They’re a billboard poster for a hip clothing brand. Within the tiny fishbowl environs of Manton College, they’re basically celebrities.
‘Want another drink?’ she asks, getting to her feet.
Chloe shakes her head. ‘This is my limit,’ she says, miming driving a car.
‘Coke?’
‘Sure,’ says Chloe. ‘Diet, if they’ve got it.’
Tallulah tugs down her heart-print shirt so that there’s no gap between the waistband of her jeans and the hem of her shirt, no glimpse of the rice pudding mess left behind by her pregnancy.
She heads to the hatch just as Scarlett and her crew arrive. They smell as though they’ve been drinking already, making akind of mockery of Tallulah’s sober hour in front of a mirror, her quiet farewell to her baby son on her mother’s lap, her brother sitting at his laptop, diligently doing his homework. How different their pre-party evenings have been.
Scarlett stares at her phone while someone else queues to get her a drink. Her fur coat hangs off her shoulders, revealing a tattoo on her upper arm and a chiselled collarbone. She takes the beer from her friend’s hand and as she does so she catches Tallulah’s eye.
‘Oh!’ she says. ‘It’s Tallulah from the bus.’