Kaimoana Tales, Ashton 55

She left them sitting around the fire, went to her room and closed the door.

“Do you know what the Plan is, Peter?”

“Yes, Jacob. The Plan is for my parents to be wealthy again.”

“But, what about the details? Do you know how they’re going to do it?”

“No I don’t. No-one’s shared that with me yet. I think that they don’t want me to worry.”

Riley said, “Well, you know, if those cookies are part of the Plan, they just might do it. Have you been wishing on a star, Peter? All of your dreams might come true – rich parents and Ashton in your bed!”

“If I have Ashton for a friend, I’ll be more than happy. I don’t care about anything else.”

“Damm, Peter,” Jacob said. “If Ashton doesn’t come back for you, he needs his head read.”

They didn’t stay long; they just spent a few minutes catching-up on each other’s news, and then Riley and Jacob said that they had to go. “Coll’s out somewhere. We’re trying to crack his MSN Messenger to find out who he’s been chatting to.”

“That’s not nice! If it’s private then you should keep your noses out of it.”

“Should,” Jacob grinned, “But we’re not going to. We think Coll’s got a girlfriend and he won’t tell us who it is, so it serves him right.

“It does,” Riley nodded. “We need to know who our new sister-in-law is going to be.”

“Leave him alone you pair of rogues! Are you trying to marry him off or something?”

“Yeah, we’ve got a plan too you know.”

“We have,” Jacob agreed. “We want to be uncles. We should find his condoms and put pin-holes in them.”

“Jacob Richardson! You bloody better not. Don’t think that I won’t tell him. Colin is my friend.”

“Spoilsport. You’re a good friend, Peter.”

“That he is,” Riley agreed. “Want to fool around while your mum’s not here?”

“You know that I don’t.”

“Yeah, dammit. Well, stand up and give me a hug, and then I’ll go home and fool around with my Jake.”

Riley and Jacob both hugged Peter, wished him luck, and then they left.

Peter tried to read for a few minutes, but couldn’t get into it. After reading the same page for the third time, he gave up. He closed his library book, put the spark-guard up at the fire, locked the door, and went to bed, to, hopefully, dream about Ashton again.

It wasn’t late, so he left the outside light on in case Ashton came back. His mother would growl when she found out, but he didn’t care. He didn’t want Ashton hurting himself in the dark. He didn’t come back.

Peter woke in the morning before his mother did. He got the fire going to warm the room before she came out. He made himself a drink and sat with it, thinking quietly.

He had to go to the library later. If Ashton hadn’t come around before he went, he’d email him while he was there, just to let him know that he was thinking about him, and so that Ashton would have his email address.

He didn’t have to find Ashton’s addy, he already knew it. Silly boy had it on his Facebook page, didn’t he? Not a wise move. He was risking getting mail from any sad lonely gits – like Peter de Groot for instance.

Now that he was away from him, he was aware that Ashton was a star, he was popular and he didn’t need Peter for a friend, not like Peter needed him. But, he had spent the end of a day and a night with him and he saw things about him that, apparently, no-one else did. They were friends weren’t they? Sure they were. They’d made a connection, hadn’t they?

His mother was still not out of bed, so he stoked the fire and went out the back to collect the morning’s eggs from the chook-run. While he was out there, he pinched a couple of ripe strawberries, and then filled the basket with tomatoes that were ready for picking.

The gardens at the back of the house didn’t get a lot of direct sunshine, so they brought the tomatoes inside to ripen, sitting on the house windowsills. They’d need to be making sauce soon, they were running out of room!

Back inside, the kettle was boiling over the fire, so he took it off and left it to the side. His mother came out and took over her kitchen and their day began.

He spent most of the morning doing schoolwork and some gardening. He really should have been collecting driftwood, but gave that a miss. He didn’t want to be away from home in case Ashton came back. There was still no sign of him.

It had never worried Peter before that they didn’t have a phone. Lately he was starting to think that they should.

After lunch, he couldn’t put it off any longer, so he went to the town library. Before he left, he made sure that his mother knew where he was going and when he’d be back.

He returned his books and selected some new ones. Mrs. Braidwood had one of the ones she’d ordered for him! He spent some time on the computer, remembering, of course, to send an email to Ashton. It didn’t say much, just that he was thinking of him and hoped that he was okay.

He hit ‘send’, it worked, so now Ashton would have his address. Computers were great. He logged-off, thanked Mrs. Braidwood, and left for home, carrying his new books.

He knew that he shouldn’t, but he couldn’t resist, so he opened his book and started reading as he walked along the street. He’d been waiting and waiting for this one, and he couldn’t wait any longer.

After the main street, he started along the Esplanade, but on the wrong side of the road. Lost in the book already, he was walking on the grass verge on the side of the street away from the sidewalk along the waterfront.

At the intersection of the first street coming down from the hill, he glanced up the road. A car was coming, but it was way off in the distance, so he kept walking, out across the side-street, still reading his book.

A car came up the Esplanade behind him and went to turn into the side-street. It had to stop and wait for Peter to cross in front of it. He didn’t even see them there until the car horn sounded, loud and long, and it startled him. He got such a fright he dropped his arm-load of books. They hit the ground and scattered everywhere.

He looked around and it was the BMW! It was full, as usual, of teenagers and they were laughing. They were laughing at him! Well, most of them were.

The driver, of course, was Ashton and he wasn’t laughing, he wasn’t even looking at him. It was hard to see them all in there because of the tinted windows, but he could see Ashton’s white face. He was saying something to the blonde girl sitting next to him.

Peter was so embarrassed. He wanted to scuttle away and hide somewhere, but he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t leave Mrs. Braidwood’s books scattered over the road, they’d get run over. He dropped to his knees to start gathering the books together, and trying not to cry, that’d just make it worse. He should be used to being a laughing-stock by now, but he never would.

One of the girls in the back, stood up with her head and shoulders out of the BMW’s sun-roof and yelled at him. “Come on, you Bloody Dork! Move your pansy arse! We haven’t got all day while you’re farting around.”

The windows came down and others were leaning out and yelling abuse and laughing at him.

The car started with a jerk, reversed and turned back down the street where they’d come from. With a roar and a squeal of the tyres, they sped off back towards the main street, breaking all the speed limits and with all the beautiful people still yelling and laughing.

Peter picked up all of the books and carried on home, feeling lower than he ever had in his life. That was so embarrassing! He knew that he wasn’t cool, but why did they treat him like that? He was totally humiliated, yet again.

He was crying his eyes out by the time he got back to the sad little shack that he lived in. He walked into the living-room and threw himself, face down, on his cot-bed.

He’d been laughed at a thousand times before, but it never hurt as much as it did this time. That absolute worst thing about it was that Ashton was there and he felt so betrayed by him.

He’d thought that they were friends now, obviously, he was wrong. Ashton didn’t care about him, he was just using him when he needed somebody. Peter was such an idiot! Why did he ever hope for better?

His mother came in and stood by the bed, looking down worriedly, at him. “What is wrong, My Son? Has someone been upsetting you?”

“Ashton!” he wailed.

“Ashton? I thought he was your friend?”

“So did I, Mother. I’m such a fool! He’s gone back to his friends and they’re all laughing at me. I thought . . . I thought . . . I’m so stupid!”

“Oh, Peter.” She sat down and held him while he cried on her shoulder. “You’re not stupid, My Son. You’re a wonderful boy. If Ashton Woods can not see that, then he is the stupid one – really stupid.”

“No he’s not, Mother. It’s me.” Peter turned away and got some toilet paper to clear his eyes and nose. “I knew that he would be feeling bad about his brother and I thought that I could help him. How stupid is that? I’m just a nobody and he’s Ashton! I’m just the town dork. He doesn’t need me, he’s got hundreds of friends. All of the cool kids are Ashton’s friends, not me. I was a fool to think that it could ever be any different.

I’ve got school work to do, I’d better get on with it. This is my life.”

“My poor boy! We have asked a lot of you, and you’ve never complained, but I know it hasn’t been easy for you.”

“I’ve got nothing to complain about. I’ve got you and Father and I know that you love me. I don’t need anything else.”

“But you do. You need so much more than we have given you, and you deserve it too. We are going to make it up to you. Just a little longer and things are going to change. Your life will get better.”

“My life is fine just the way it is.”

“Now you are being foolish. Your life is not fine, but it will be – I promise.”

Peter blew his nose again and gave a little grin. “The Plan, right?”

“Yes, Son, the Plan. I used to think that Father was dreaming, but not now. He was right all along. Things are starting to come together and it is going to happen.”

“I hope you’re right, Mother. You deserve it too, you both do.

“You are the sweetest boy!” She kissed his head, and then stood up. “You are a very special boy and Ashton Woods is the biggest fool in town. You do your schooling. I’ll do some gardening, and then we will have something nice for dinner. I’ll just be outside if you want me.”

“Thank you, Mother. Thanks for everything.”

“Thanks for what? It will get better, Peter. Wait and see.”

His mother went outside to her work and Peter sat at the desk to get on with his. She was a lovely old thing really, and he knew that she loved him. He didn’t doubt it for a minute, he never had.

She just didn’t understand him and this obsession that he had with Ashton Woods, nobody did. He didn’t understand it himself. He knew that it was impossible, but he loved Ashton. He always had and he always would. What a waste of a life!