The Things We Do to Our Friends(53)

“This is so nice, isn’t it!” she cooed as we sat there. “It’s all on me, everyone have whatever you want, and to drink too. Order something fabulous, Ava.”

Ava took charge as usual. Poker-faced, she ordered bottles of red, and far too much food: a swede sculpted into a delicate fan; a whole Peking duck with a glossy rust to its skin, the dark sauce frosted solid, like a meaty, hard-boiled sweet; a heavy dish of something called Szechuan prawns, spiked with spring onion confetti. The fish curled around floating clots of red sauce.

After we’d had a few drinks, we settled into the evening. The chat flowed, even if the mood was a little stilted, and Tabitha rose at the end. She tapped her glass and declared we should open our fortune cookies.

She announced hers to us: “Like a lion hunting its prey, if you maintain great focus on your quest, you will be triumphant.” She held her hand to her chest and chuckled. “Brilliant! I think there’s something in this. Imogen?”

I was fully expecting Imogen to roll her eyes, but she didn’t. It was the first time I’d focused on her that evening. When I looked properly, I could see that the energy had been sapped from her. Hair frizzing at the sides and even more frowning than usual. Cautiously, like something living might jump out, she opened up her cookie and squinted at it angrily like she knew it wasn’t going to be in her favor. She read the fortune out to us: “Your intelligence is an asset to be shared. Seen by all, it will be rewarded appropriately.”

She looked up and crumpled the scrap in her hand. “I don’t believe in any of this.”

“Oh, Imogen, you think I don’t recognize your intelligence?” Tabitha replied.

They stared at each other over the hunk of duck in the middle of the table and Imogen looked away first. “Oh, whatever,” she said huffily.

“Don’t sulk!” Tabitha said breezily. “Everyone open theirs, please! What fun!”

I opened mine.

    You will create your own world.



Although I knew you could read just about anything into those cookies, this felt right. I had created my own world, the one I had always wanted. I’d never envisaged living like this, of course, but the last few months had been some of the best of my life. I hadn’t just slotted in; I had become an important part and everything we’d done I’d help create.

I wondered if she’d make us all read them out, but she didn’t, she just raised her glass in the air.

“A toast! To us all.” She tapped her head to each of us in turn.

“Samuel, you’ve changed so much. Look at you! Compared to school!”

It was condescending and Samuel looked very tired. The Samuel who’d rolled around on the floor licking Tabitha’s arm only days ago seemed like a different person.

“And you two.” She lumped Ava and me together for some reason. “You’ve both done so much for this. We’re doing something to be proud of.”

Nothing for Imogen.

We all raised our glasses dutifully to meet hers. The mood was still stiff and Imogen left after we’d finished the meal. Samuel slunk away from us too. He headed to the adjoining bar, where he could still peer into the private room, and I went over to him.

He was sitting looking miserable with a glass of mineral water in front of him.

“Is Imogen okay?” I asked.

He took a long sip before replying. “She’ll be fine. Always drama isn’t there, with girls.”

A silly, sweeping generalization, but he seemed so down I didn’t pick him up on it. “I guess,” I said. “I think she likes you, though. Likes you. You know.”

“Imogen?” he questioned, quite lightly.

“Yes.”

He didn’t seem phased at all. “No, no, you’re misreading it. She’s like a little sister to me.”

He shook his head, disregarding the idea, but he was so calm. I could tell he already knew and he just didn’t care to examine it. She meant so little to him, he couldn’t even be bothered to discuss it with me.

I didn’t push him on the subject, and we sat there in silence for a while; Ava and Tabitha were still at the table talking.

“They seem good, don’t they?” I said to Samuel.

“Yes. Good,” he nodded.

“And you. You’re good?”

He wasn’t looking at me much. His eyes kept jumping back to Tabitha at the table, and to his phone as well. “I’m fine. With Imogen and me, we’ve all been friends for so long. It’s just not as plain sailing as it could be at the moment.”

“Oh. Right.” I was surprised, but I tried not to show it. “Anything you want to share?” I asked.

“Honestly, it’s…fine. There are issues that have popped up. I think it’s what you have to expect when you’re doing hard things.”

I nodded soothingly, hoping he’d reveal a bit more. If there was one part I excelled at, it was the empathetic listener.

“I didn’t think so much about what would happen…afterward,” he said finally. His words had been chosen with much caution.

“Afterward?” I asked.

“Yes,” he said quietly. He was watching Ava and Tabitha, who were coiled into each other at the table, the debris of the meal and so many glasses piled around them. Ava’s murmur was so soft that you could barely hear her, and Tabitha’s laugh loud and harsh, especially in our private room.