The Story of Me (Carnage #2)(29)

“Skye, how ya goin’? Georgia, meet Skye, an old mate of mine.” Skye puts her hand out and I take it. She’s about my age and very pretty in a pixyish sort of way. She looks me over in the exact same way as she looked at Roman, and I just know he’s still staring at me, waiting on my reaction… Bastard!

“Nice to meet you, Skye,” I say in my best British accent.

“Oh, wow, you’re English! Love the accent. Did you meet Roman while he was over there?” Roman puts his arm around my shoulder and pulls me in to his side.

“No, we met here. Georgia’s here visiting family in Byron, and we met in a bar a few weeks back.”

She gives, what looks like a genuine smile. “Cool.”

She makes herself comfortable, sitting facing Roman and me, and they talk about people they both know as I just sit and watch what’s going on around me. Someone is playing guitar and singing what sounds like a Bob Dylan song, and there are people paddling in the ocean, as well as some lying, sitting or standing on the beach. There are couples kissing and some are full-on dry-humping each other. I catch the smell of cannabis in the air every time the wind blows gently over my skin. Roman nudges my arm and passes me a joint.

“You okay?” he asks as I take a draw. It hits me instantly and my head spins.

“Shit, what’s in that?” I ask, my limbs instantly feeling like jelly. I pass it back to Roman but he shakes his head.

“No, I want to be able to look after you; have another puff. This stuffs a bit trippy; it’ll help you let go. Don’t worry, I’ll look after you.” I look from him to Skye.

“It’s good stuff, Georgia; take another couple of hits,” she says. I look back at Roman, still not convinced. I’m on a beach in the middle of Australia with a man I’ve only known a few weeks, surrounded by a load of weirdo hippies, stoned and tripping off their nuts.

“You need to learn to trust people again, Georgia. I’ll look after you. I promise; please, trust me.” I nod slowly, thinking to myself that if it turns out they’re a bunch of Charles Manson types and this ends badly, at least I’ll get to see Sean again.

Skye and I share the rest of the joint. After the initial dizziness, I feel fine, the effects creeping up on me slowly. Skye moves closer and starts to chat to me about London while Roman goes off to have a wee in the bushes. Despite my drug-induced state, I’m still guarded about what I tell her about myself. She has no idea who I am, and I want it to stay that way. I tell her I work in the fashion industry, and she seems happy enough with that. Everyone around me seems to have a silvery glow coming from their skin, and it looks beautiful. Roman comes back and sits next to me; I’m hyper-aware of how he smells, and I suddenly feel extremely horny.

“Do you model, Georgia? Is that what you do?” Skye asks. She’s already told me she’s a dancer, but I’d sort of guessed that by her posture; shoulders back, neck straight, head held high. It’d been years since I’d gone to dance classes, but I would never forget Madam Yvette screeching at the top of her lungs if one of us wasn’t standing right. She shouted at me once too often when I was about eight; I took off one of my points and threw it right at her head. I was banned from the entire dance school, and my mum was called to come and collect me. I hated ballet, didn’t mind tap, but was pissed off as I loved disco and modern but they barred me from the whole school, so I never got to go back. Madame Yvette and her silly accent, what a bitch. She wasn’t even French; she came from Bethnal Green, the lying cow. Thinking of the look on her face as the block from my point shoe hit her on the head suddenly gives me the giggles.

“Georgia works more in the retail side,” Roman says from beside me, pulling me back to the beach and the conversation. I look up into his face; his eyes are bluer than I’ve ever seen them before, and he smiles down at me. “Feel good, baby?” I smile back and nod.

“I feel f*ckin’ great!” I hear Skye laugh, and it’s like a bell. A little bell tinkling, I think to myself.

“I told ya you would. Let everything else go and just feel it.” I nod at him.

“Well, you’re quite beautiful, Georgia; you could easily be a model.” She’s sitting with her legs crossed in front of me; her blonde hair is short and spikey. Her skin is pale and her eyes are huge and blue.

“You look like Tinker Bell,” I say without thinking too much about it. Roman laughs from beside me, and I turn and look back at him. “What? She does! Tink’s cute. Skye’s cute, shush you,” I say to him. I look back at Skye; her eyes are looking over my body, then back up to my face.

“Thank you, Georgia. I’ll take cute, if that’s all that’s going, but I’d rather you thought I was sexy.”

Fuck. I don’t quite know what to say to that. I look back to Roman; he smiles and shrugs.

“Well, do ya?” I look her over.

“Yeah, you’re sexy.”

Skye smiles. “Thank you, Georgia. Ya know, I really wanna kiss you right now.” She bites down on her bottom lip. “Have you ever kissed a girl? I mean full-on kissed a girl?”

My heart is pounding in my chest; there are a myriad of colours bouncing off the waves of the ocean as they roll onto the beach. The noise from all the other people has disappeared, and all I can hear is Skye, Roman and the water.