Chapter 10

co-written by

Skykat & I love music

Impressions

"No way do you like that movie!" Dani Sutherland sat back on the sofa, hands on hips, and raised a disbelieving eyebrow at the boy who sat opposite.

"I do, I do!" Will insisted, while knowing he was protesting in vain. It was blatantly obvious she could see right through him but he so badly wanted to impress her.

"I tell you it's my favourite chick flick and suddenly it's your favourite movie? I never met a guy yet who liked it!"

Dani tried to look frosty, but against her will her lips twitched into a smile. She'd had serious doubts about coming here tonight. She hadn't been in Summer Bay long enough to know anyone, just a couple of days, but it had been long enough to make the usual quota of enemies. The red-head who'd shot the poisonous glares in the Diner for one. Trouble was, Dani made enemies easily and ironically none of it was her fault.

When she wasn't even trying, guys loved her and hence their girlfriends saw her as a threat. She'd been pretty damn sure, for instance, that the red-head would turn up tonight even though she hadn't seen her around to begin with. That type didn't give up easy. Dani had once had a chunk of hair pulled out by a jealous rival she didn't even know she had when Becky's boyfriend had been staring at Dani all night without Dani even knowing Lewis was. Despite everything though, including risking being frozen to death by the red-head's glares, she was glad she'd put in an appearance. Will was good fun. Easy to talk to and more than a little cute. And single. That was important. Dani had been doing a little digging while working behind the kiosk and discovered Will Smith was one hundred per cent over a certain Gypsy Nash. Dani had done nothing wrong and there was no way the ex could fly at her ready to scratch her eyes out. She hoped.

Will grinned back. He knew when he was beaten. Time to go for the honest approach. "Alright, I admit it, maybe I didn't like it that much."

"I knew it!" Dani's expression was one of pure delight at having been proved right and Will's grin grew even broader. He loved this side to her, the feisty determination, the strong will, the fight. Just what he looked for in a girl.

Such thoughts automatically made him look in the direction of another girl. One with similar qualities. But looking at Gypsy now disgusted him. Shamelessly draped all over Holden and Holden was a fool for allowing her to be. Sure, Martha was Hayley's mate and a bit of a pain, but Jack was a fool if he dropped her for Gypsy. Gypsy only cared about herself.

Still it wasn't as if he hadn't warned him often enough. The guy knew what Gypsy was like so it was his funeral. In the meantime, the beautiful, sexy Dani Sutherland was looking expectantly at him.

"Alright! The movie totally sucked. But my sensitive side impressed you, didn't it?" Will turned on his most charming smile. The cheeky grin had got him his own way so many times.

"Nope! But just remind me to pick what we watch when we go the movies, alright?" She punched him playfully but Will's mind was fully focussed on her comment. He felt his mouth drop open in surprise and quickly recovered his composure, but inside he was cheering as though at a footie match.

"Was that an invitation?" He looked at her eagerly, too eagerly and he knew it, but he just couldn't help it. So much for being Mr Cool. Dani was smiling at him and his pulse rate increased rapidly.

"Would you like it to be?" Dani was well aware that Will liked her and she liked him too. But that didn't mean she was going to make things easy.

"Yeh, I reckon that'd be alright," Will replied calmly, inwardly patting himself on the back for regaining his coolness.

"Just alright?" She was teasing him. Her eyes were challenging him and, god damn her, she was gorgeous. Will instinctively moved closer to her, his fingers resting gently on her arm. He was desperate to touch her, to feel her soft skin.

"Well maybe more than alright."

The two were so close now that if Will moved just a fraction of an inch, he'd be kissing her. Her eyes were locked with his, inviting him, and Will edged forward.

"Will!" Kim's voice suddenly cut through Will's head and destroyed the moment.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The party house overlooked the harbour below, where moonlight and lamplight were shimmering on the night-time river and lines of boats were bobbing gently on their moorings with rhythmic creaks. The pretty scene caught Hayley's attention only briefly. She had more important things on her mind.

"Sooo...Alone at last. Like they say in all the best corny movies."

Her giggle pierced the night air and she gave Kane a meaningful sideways glance, taking in his strong, manly features outlined by the soft moonlight. Then the smile abruptly left her face. He was standing here with the most beautiful girl in Summer Bay and he wasn't even looking at her!

He was leaning against the old Victorian garden wall, his back, ramrod straight, his shoulders strong and square. Yet he looked so natural, so completely at ease. Hayley watched, fascinated in spite of herself, as he lit a cigarette and inhaled. Hayley despised smoking. The smell, the way it lingered on her clothes, in her hair. She hated the taste and that horrible, sickly feeling the morning after a cigarette the night before. Yet somehow when Kane was smoking he made it look sexy.

So when, barely moving or even looking at her, he offered her a cigarette, she accepted it and allowed him to light it for her. Placing it between her lips she took a slow drag and instantly coughed as the mix of tar and smoke filtered down her throat to her chest.

Quickly she glanced at him, just to be sure he hadn't heard her cough. She didn't want him thinking she was a sook! Everyone in Summer Bay High knew she wasn't but Kane was new to the neighbourhood and it wouldn't do for him to get the wrong idea. It wasn't as if it was her fault that she was getting a chest infection now, was it? To her relief, he hadn't noticed the cough. Then it suddenly dawned on her the reason why.

He was looking down at the harbour, at first she thought at the colourful decorative lamps that lit up the river and the crowds strolling among the bars and restaurants, until she realised his eyes were following a girl with a great figure and very little covering it.

"You're meant to be with me, not checking out other chicks," she said petulantly.

"You want me to look at you instead?" He turned to her and suddenly she wished he hadn't.

There was something in the way he turned. Maybe it was his voice. Or the coldness in his eyes, the slow smirk that crossed his face. But she pushed the unease to the back of her mind. Kane Phillips was a challenge and Hayley Smith enjoyed a challenge.

She allowed herself a small, self-satisfied smile but that same, almost sarcastic grin as he looked her slowly up and down almost weakened her resolve. Usually Hayley loved being appraised by guys. Most guys couldn't help themselves. But there was something about the way Kane Phillips looked. Like he was amused. Like he was mocking almost.

"Yeh. Not bad, I guess," he drawled.

She flinched involuntarily and he shrugged and turned away.

"Oh, well, if you don't wanna know after all..."

But there was something attractive, compulsive about the danger. And it'd be worth it, she told herself. Anything to see Cassie's face when she told her Kane said he had the hots for Hayley. In fact, she'd embellish it a little.

Cassie had really annoyed her tonight and needed a Hayley Smith ready-cooked put-down special. "Cass, I'm sorry, I hate having to tell you this, but as your friend I think you should know. Kane laughed when I told him you were interested. He said you were a dingo, Cass, and it made him sick just to look at you..."

Hayley's smile returned along with her confidence. "No!" She caught hold of his arm. "You and me, we're good together."

"We are?" His eyes flicked momentarily in the direction of Whitelady Copse, his intention clear. All she had to do was give her consent.

Hayley swallowed. Nobody actually said so but everybody knew. Whitelady Copse was where couples went when they wanted some privacy. Dark, hidden. Voices didn't carry from the copse. The wind and the sea and the trees whispered their secrets to each other there and told no one else.

It was a small, neglected area of land covered by thick bushes and trees, surrounding an abandoned restaurant, disused from the early sixties when it was realised that the dozens of steep, winding stone steps leading down to the end of the harbour could have killed many a potential diner before he or she sat down to dinner. It was rumoured Emma Taylor, who'd had to leave Summer Bay High suddenly last year, had got pregnant in the copse, though no one ever found out who the father was. It was a choice of two and Hayley, who owed Emma for upstaging her at the Xmas party, had enjoyed bagging out the slag.

Kane was grinning and a small warning voice rose inside her. But Hayley silenced it. She'd been eating guys for brekkie ever since kindy when Paul Evans had given her that sloppy wet kiss. There hadn't been any warning about the sloppy wet kiss. Neither was there any warning before Hayley furiously crashed the heel of her shoe down on Paul's foot. Oh, but the satisfaction when she saw the look in his eyes!

She'd seen that same look heaps of times in guys' eyes since. And she had never lost the thrill of her power over men. Kane Phillips was just another guy. She'd decide exactly what did and didn't happen in the Whitelady Copse.

She smiled and moved closer. "You know it."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So do you think I stand a chance with Kane?" Cassie asked hopefully.

Martha sucked in a breath and glared impatiently at her friend. She had been in the middle of ranting about just what on earth did Jack see in that whore Gypsy and Cassie was interrupting her to ask about Kane! She turned to Cassie, eyes blazing, ready to vent. But the look on Cassie's face stopped her dead.

Her friend looked so young. So vulnerable. Martha suddenly didn't have the heart to yell at her.

"Sure you do! Hayley's putting in a good word for you isn't she?"

"Yeh, she said she was but…" Cassie shrugged and hugged herself for reassurance.

"You cold, Cass?" Martha asked gently, like she'd ask a child.

They had moved outside, mainly to get away from the sickening sight of Gypsy and Jack pashing, but they hadn't ventured far from the Smith residence. It was a calm summer night with just a hint of damp in the air. Crickets chirped and a soft breeze lazily rustled through the trees. The moon was half hidden behind the veil of dark clouds that almost obscured the sky but here and there a handful of stars had found gaps and were glistening brightly against the blackness.

"No, I'm okay. Just thinking." Cassie seemed engrossed in the glass she was holding. "I wonder why Hayley wanted to go for a walk with Kane? Couldn't she just have talked to him inside?"

"Maybe she just wanted to speak to him out of your gaze, make you feel less weird about it." Martha knew she was fishing for excuses. She wasn't exactly sure what Hayley was up to but she had a bad feeling about it. Hayley could be both nasty and vindictive and her game playing was second to none.

Cassie however seemed happy enough to accept her friend's answers. She looked up, the ghost of a smile lighting up her pretty face. "Yeh, you're right. I'm just being a dag. I hope she does put in a good word for me."

"You know something, Cass?" Martha smiled fondly. "Thinking about it, you don't really need a good word putting in for you. If it's meant to be, you'll win him over all by yourself. He won't be able to help falling for you."

"Yeh. Ri-ight!" Cassie's tone was self-defeating and Martha looked at her in bewilderment. Cassie was a beautiful person both inside and out, the kindest, most caring friend she'd ever known. And she was stunning. Her skin was flawless, her figure sensational, legs that went on forever. She was gorgeous but she really and truly didn't know she was.

"Of course he will." Martha insisted.

Cassie sighed heavily. "I hope he does though. I have to have a boyfriend."

"No, you don't! " Martha said, amused.

"You don't understand, Mac. I do. I have to fit in."

Martha looked at her, again in surprise, but something about Casse's tone broached no argument. And besides what did you say to that? Maybe it was time to change the subject.

"I'm just going to go find Megan Ashcroft. I want to get the rest of that vodka off her. I'll be back in a minute, yeh? You go back inside. I won't be long."

"Oh, right. Sure."

Cassie wasn't really listening. How could Martha really understand? Pretty, popular Martha McKenzie had lived her whole life secure and loved. She had never been betrayed, she had never felt isolated or controlled. Martha had everything. The perfect family, the perfect life, the perfect looks. She could have had any guy she wanted if only she wasn't so hung up on Jack Holden. How could Martha ever have any idea what it felt like to be the outsider, never to fit in? What would Martha know? She hadn't lived the life that Cassie had, never had to question the motives of those closest to her.

But then Martha's family hadn't been like Cassie's. Martha's Granddad was loving and warm. Not like Cassie's Uncle had been. Cassie shuddered involuntarily at the memories.

She had to have a boyfriend. She had to be...normal.

Cassie wanted Kane and she would do anything to get him. He was an outsider, just like her. He was on the edge, just as she was. He had to see that Cassie was perfect for him. He just had to. Hayley would talk him round. Hayley was popular and got on well with guys. Hayley would know what to say.

Cassie wiped a hand across her teary eyes, drew a deep breath and turned back into the house.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Thanks Meg. You don't mind if Cassie and I finish it off do you?"

"Go for it, babe!" Megan grinned.

Martha accepted the bottle of vodka with a smile. Megan Ashcroft seemed too far gone to care.

Leaving Megan slumped against a tree, she headed back towards the house. And then a familiar voice made her stop suddenly. Her eyes followed the voice and she gasped. The voice belonged to Hayley, the hand she held was Kane's and their destination was very definitely Whitelady Copse!

Whitelady Copse was a place where couples went. Not where people doing their friends favours went. Martha felt her heart sink to her stomach.

Cassie would be devastated.