The Great Gatenby

Author:John Marsden
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pan Macmillan Australia
Published: 1989-02-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

We took a cab to the party. (I paid, Mum, in case you’re reading this.) It was raging away in good style by the time we arrived. Although it was a pool party lots of people were inside, but the night was warm and we were young, so we headed out to the lawn as soon as I’d been introduced to the girl whose party it was, and her parents. To this day I can’t remember any of their names. The choice of drinks was light beer or wine or punch; we both went for the wine.

The guys all seemed to be from Pelham College and they mostly looked older than me. The girls were mainly Ainsworth. Melanie knew everybody. And then it turned out that they sort of knew me. This might seem unlikely, but I’d more or less forgotten about the afternoon’s swimming — too much culture shock since maybe — but some of the Pelham guys recognised me, so for five minutes I was the flavour of the night. Most of them just wanted a chance to get a few one-liners off their sad little chests, but a few guys were genuinely interested, and nice and all. Melanie stood off to the side, watching with a funny smile. I was embarrassed. I was more used to being a black hole than a star.

After a time it got a bit more relaxed. We found ourselves sitting in quite a big group at one end of the pool, drinking and talking. People wandered in and out of the house, joining and leaving our group. A few people were swimming. Inside the house there was dancing, so most of the people who came out were hot and sweaty. Occasionally plates of food were offered around. As people drank more — some of them had smuggled in Southern Comfort — the noise began to build up. The dancing got wilder and a few people got pushed into the pool. Some guy was vomiting behind a tree by the tennis court. It was the usual scene, but not a bad party when it was all said and done.

Mel and I went in and danced for quite a while. God, I saw something then. She was the hottest girl I’d ever danced with. I hate girls who just shuffle their feet and look embarrassed when you try anything different. I like to cut loose when I’m dancing, and so did Melanie, so between us we were sizzling. I mean, I’m not saying it was like one of those old movies where everyone else stops and moves to the edge and watches in admiration, before they all clap at the end. We weren’t quite that good. But we whipped up a little action.

And after a while it worked out the way I’d hoped. Some slow songs came along on the tape, starting with an old Presley song that I really liked: ‘Are You Lonesome Tonight?’ God I loved that old song. I got them to play it over again when it finished the first time.

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