Fourteen
As they left the beach, three hours later, Beth’s face was becoming extremely hot.
‘Um … I think you might have overdone it.’ Michelle looked worried.
‘Overdone what?’
‘The sun. Your face is … really pink.’
‘Is it?’ Beth reached up to touch her cheek. ‘Oh, blimey.’
‘We’d better stop at the shop and get you some After Sun.’
‘I don’t want to waste money on …’
‘Trust me, you can’t see it. This won’t be a waste. I thought you put sunscreen on?’
‘I might have missed my face …’
Michelle’s expression caused Beth concern.
By the time they arrived at the Rugby Club in the evening, Beth was starting to look ridiculous. Her face was giving off a hell of a lot of heat.
Sitting themselves down at a table next to a large crowd of people, Beth noticed, with great embarrassment, that a couple of them kept glancing at her face.
After half an hour or so, the large crowd had somehow absorbed the new girls, and they found themselves in the thick of the group.
‘You just arrived?’ asked a girl with beautiful long blonde hair and a fabulous tan.
‘Yes, how did you …?’
The girl interrupted Beth’s unnecessary question. ‘We all did it, at the start. You mustn’t underestimate the power of the sun here. It’s like, wow, it’s like nothing we’ve ever experienced, you know?’
‘Oh well, I’ve learnt now and at least it can’t get any worse.’
There was pity in the other girl’s face.
Beth noticed she was sitting cross-legged in her chair and was kind of crocheting with coloured threads. Her elegant, slim fingers moved constantly, but she barely glanced down at her work.
‘Would you like one of these? Everyone wears them.’
‘I … um.’
Lisa butted in. ‘Take one or else you’ll seem rude.’
‘Yes, please.’
‘What’s your favourite colour?’ The girl held out a selection of silky threads.
‘Um …’ Beth pointed to the various shades of pink. ‘What are you making?’
‘Friendship bracelets. Watch.’ Before Beth’s eyes, this amazing girl proceeded, at startling speed, to produce a bracelet from a handful of threads. She stopped occasionally, to sip her beer, or tuck her irritatingly beautiful hair behind her ear, and before Beth knew it, the girl was tying the bracelet onto her wrist and whispering, ‘Friends forever’. Beth noticed the girl had several bracelets up both arms, the difference being that hers were all snagged and faded.
Following Beth’s gaze, she advised, ‘You must never take them off. Once someone’s given you a friendship bracelet, you must wear it forever, or the friendship will stop.’ Her innocent blue eyes grew large and sorrowful at the prospect that any friendship might come to an end.
‘Right. Got it.’ Secretly, Beth wasn’t sure she was going to want to wear hers once it became nothing more than a grubby piece of string, but the girl was lovely, she didn’t have the heart to tell her.
Reaching out, this gentle creature’s fingers grazed across Beth’s face. She winced as the heat almost burned her. ‘You poor thing. I might have some Tiger Balm …’ She began rummaging around in her large cloth bag.
‘Oh, it’s fine. I’ve put some After Sun on, Aloe something, it’ll be OK.’
The girl gave her a look of contradiction, but chose not to comment. Instead, she said, ‘I’m Sky. You need to know that, so you know who your new friend is.’ She pointed at the bracelet.
‘Yes, it would help. I’m Beth. Thanks. It’s beautiful.’
‘Would you like another?’ Sky began rummaging in her bag again. She was clearly addicted to manufacturing the things.
‘No, no. It’s fine. I love this one though.’
Sky was what Don would have described as an ageing hippy. She sat differently, spoke differently and dressed differently. Nanna would have loved her! Even with these differences, Sky was totally happy in her own skin. She loved being Sky, there was no doubt about that, and Beth was quite envious of her ability to simply be herself. Admittedly, it must be much easier to be yourself without the condescending voice of your dead twin constantly nit-picking at your every decision.
As Beth contemplated how freeing it must be to be alone in your own head, Sky moved on to Michelle and asked her to choose her favourite colours. The manufacturing process began again.
Throughout the evening, each new, cold bottle of beer Beth received was duly held up to her cheeks for at least two minutes, before she was allowed to begin drinking it, as per Michelle’s instructions. Provided she didn’t look in the mirror when she nipped to the loo, she could almost forget her face was on fire.
She was standing at the bar, waiting to be served, when the guy next to her turned to seek out the barman and caught a glimpse of her. ‘Bloody hell fire, what have you done to your face?’
Beth was immediately aggravated by him. She didn’t need some random northern bloke reminding her that her face was scorched; it wasn’t helpful.
Making an attempt to appear uninterested, she replied, ‘Nothing you need to worry about.’ With that, she walked away from him, leaving the bar behind. She’d get her round in, she wasn’t a Scrooge, but she’d do it later, when he’d moved away.
‘What a tosser. Who asked him to comment?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s not like it’s your fault you look like a fucking radish.’
‘No, Lisa. IT’S YOURS!’
Within seconds, the guy had followed her. Apparently, he was also prepared to lose his place at the bar. ‘Sorry. Wait.’ He grabbed her arm loosely. ‘Seriously, that was such a stupid question.’
‘Yes, it was, rather.’
‘I’m sorry. I was just shocked. It’s … well, it’s really red. Is it sore?’
Beth sighed. ‘The honest answer is yes. It stings like a bastard. But the drink is helping.’
‘You should try holding the beer on your cheek, it’s dead cold and …’ He noted her raised eyebrows. ‘And … let me guess … you’ve already been doing that all night and you don’t need my advice?’
‘Absolutely right.’
He looked slightly embarrassed. ‘Sorry … again! Look, I’m James. Can I buy you a drink?’
‘No, thanks. I’m in a round with some other people.’ Beth gestured over towards Sky, Michelle and all the others. ‘I was next to be served at the bar, but …’
‘But you met me.’
‘Yep.’
‘So, there’s no way I can make it up to you? For being so bloody unhelpful.’
He seemed like a nice guy. He had beautiful, soulful eyes and a gentle smile (when he wasn’t looking horrified). He was cute, and if she was honest, she rather liked the melodious tone of his voice. Had she been anyone else, he would probably have had no problem in winning her over. But Beth was ridiculously embarrassed at the state of her face, and anyway, she wasn’t interested in men.
Giving him no further chance to chat to her, she excused herself as politely as possible and headed to the toilet to splash more cold water onto her poor, painful face.
As Beth left the Rugby Club that night, Sky gave her a hug. ‘Your face, honey … it’ll get worse before it gets better. Try not to panic.’
Sky was right! Waking the next morning, Beth initially thought things had improved. Certainly, the heat had died down, her face was cooler to the touch. However, upon further investigation, she realised it was kind of lumpy.
Too frightened to get out of bed and look in the mirror, she simply lay in bed, crying. Thankfully, since they’d moved to this tiny room with just one set of bunk beds, only Michelle witnessed this spectacle. Slowly coming to, she asked, ‘What’s up? Are you … Beth, are you crying?’
Beth gave no answer, other than the continued sniffling.
Michelle’s legs appeared over the edge of the bunk, and she jumped down with a thud. ‘Seriously. What’s up?’ She pulled away the sheet Beth was using to hide her face.
Beth looked up and met her gaze full on.
‘Oh shit!’ Michelle’s eyes widened in surprise.
Beth silently begged for information.
Michelle shook her head. ‘I don’t … you need to look in the mirror.’
Beth gently explored her face with her fingers. There was no doubt, there were large painful lumps. ‘I can’t look.’ Her arm shot out from under the sheet grabbing at Michelle’s leg. ‘Help me. PLEASE?’
Michelle took her hand and gently eased her out of the bed. As carefully as a parent leading a small child, she walked her over to the dusty mirror, which was positioned over a large, old- fashioned sink in the corner. Michelle continued to hold Beth’s hand as she tentatively examined her reflection.
What Beth saw frightened the hell out of her. In three places on her face a water blister had developed under the skin.
‘Wow. Fuck me. Those are some blisters!’ Lisa sounded disgusted.
Beth chose to ignore her.
‘I mean those are not “my new shoes are a little too tight” blisters. Let’s be honest, sis, those things are enormous, and if I’m not mistaken they’re full of some kind of horrible liquid pus or something.’
Beth’s first thought was to long for the humble pimple she’d been worrying about the day before. ‘I’m never taking advice from you again, Lisa. I mean it.’
‘WHAT? What the hell did I do?’
Tears flowed down Beth’s face, dribbling off her lumpy chin. ‘What’s happened?’
‘I don’t know. I’ve never …’ Michelle wasn’t sure what medical assistance to offer.
‘I’m going to be ugly forever!’
Michelle was extremely kind, but she was way out of her depth. ‘No, of course not. It’ll heal up soon.’
‘What is in these blisters?’
‘Beth, I don’t think you should touch them …’
Too late. One of the blisters burst.
‘For God’s sake, don’t poke any more, OK?’ There was genuine panic in Michelle’s eyes. ‘You are such an idiot. We’ve only just arrived!’
‘I know. I know. My mum would absolutely go ape if she saw me right now.’ Somehow, when Michelle called her an idiot it was OK, not like when Lisa did it.
Michelle offered to go to the chemist for her. Beth had decided never to leave their room.
Whilst Michelle was out, Beth lay in bed ignoring Lisa as she made disparaging retching sounds in the background.
Returning, Michelle informed her the Aloe Vera they’d bought the previous day was the best thing to use. ‘They reckon you’ve basically burnt your face, something like second degree burns. You’ve got to keep it as cool as possible and don’t …’ she slapped Beth’s hand away from her face ‘… fiddle!’
‘It’s impossible not to touch. It feels weird.’
‘I got you a bag of ice from the shop. Now I’m going to make you some tea and toast. Do you want to come to the kitchen or …?’ Michelle saw the look of horror on Beth’s face and concluded, ‘You know what? You stay here, and I’ll bring it to you.’
The next two days were spent hiding out. Beth only left their room to run to the nearest toilet block and back. They ate many rounds of toast and drank endless mugs of tea. Michelle was marvellous, she could have left Beth and gone off and had fun meeting new people, new people who looked normal, but she didn’t. She stayed with Beth. Continually slapping her hand away from her face, and jumping out of her skin every time someone walked past their door. She was just as eager for her friend not to be seen.
Beth was embarrassed. ‘I feel as if we should have a big cross on our door. You know “do not enter!” that type of thing.’
‘Like the plague?’
‘Yeah, or like when we went to visit that little farm with the school, and they had Foot and Mouth.’
‘Beth, we never went to a farm where they had Foot and Mouth!’
‘Didn’t we?’
‘Definitely not.’
‘Well, then, what was it when we had to wear our wellies to that farm?’
‘Um … raining?’ Michelle laughed, as she left the room to make them even more tea.
Beth called after her, ‘Very funny, you wally.’ To Lisa, she said, ‘She’s been great, hasn’t she?’
‘Who has?’
‘Who has? How can you ask that? I’m talking about Michelle, of course. She’s been amazing.’
‘If you say so. A bottle of After Sun and a bag of ice don’t say “Good Samaritan” to me, but if you think so, who am I to disagree?’
‘Are you jealous?’
‘Of what?’
‘My friendship with Michelle?’
‘No.’
‘I’m sorry if I’ve not had much time for you since we arrived. It’s just my face, you know. And Michelle’s been so understanding.’
Lisa yawned. ‘Have you finished now?’
‘Yes. I suppose so. I just …’
‘When are we going to get out of this room and see something of this friggin’ place?’
‘Soon. I promise.’
‘It’d better be. I can’t stand much more of this.’