A Year in Fife Park Read Online Free PDF Page A

eyeliner was, or if she was wearing any.
    ‘Oh, yah,’ she said. ‘It’s a really nice colour, hmm? It’s just from Boots, but I had to go out to Dundee to find one big enough to stock the colours that suit me.’
    ‘They’ve got like a fucking aisle and a half, in St. Andrews,’ I said.
    ‘I know,’ she said. ‘These tiny provincial branches only stock the popular stuff, and that means that people with unconventional colours are out of luck.’
    ‘You have unconventional colours,’ I said in a monotone, unsure of the appropriate inflection.
    ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘And you’ve got to know your strengths. Take red for example. I can’t do red, especially not on the lips. It makes me look like a harlot! I can’t do any reds.’
    ‘Hmm,’ I said. ‘You wear pink lipstick.’
    ‘You know,’ she said. ‘You haven’t the first idea about any of this.’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Well, what’s it like living with him?’
    ‘He’s a pain in the arse,’ I said.
    ‘I know, right?’ she said. 
    ‘He’s so fucking particular. He demands we put the vegetables into the stir fry in a precise order, or he refuses to eat it.’
    ‘More for the rest of you.’
    ‘Or pay for his share.’
    ‘Oh.’
    ‘And he’ll bitch about it all the next day.’
    ‘You liking Fife Park?’ Darcy asked. ‘I thought it was a shithole.’
    ‘It is,’ I said. ‘But it’s cheap, and...’
    ‘Well,’ she said. ‘At least it’s cheap.’
    ‘No, there’s something about it,’ I said. ‘Something really different. Not like other places I’ve stayed. It feels like freedom.’
    ‘Well, it’s kind of like camping,’ Darcy said.
    ‘It’s not that bad,’ I said. ‘Hell, you can live anywhere, if you get on with the people.’
    ‘You know he wanted us to move in together,’ she said, suddenly.
    ‘I didn’t know,’ I said.
    ‘That’s why he was dragging his heels over getting the place with you guys.’
    ‘I didn’t know. He never said.’
    ‘That boy hates himself,’ she told me.
    ‘He hates a lot of things,’ I said. ‘Let’s not start drawing lines.’
    ‘Frank’s lovely,’ she said. ‘He’s so nice. You know he’s the only person who’s said ‘Hello’ to me since we got back this year.’
    ‘Apart from me.’
    ‘Mart crossed the street to get away from me.’
    ‘Mart just doesn’t know what to say,’ I said. ‘He’s not good with awkward situations.’
    ‘It is awkward,’ she said. ‘I’m so glad you came in for tea. It’s not awkward now you’re here, right?’
    ‘Well, there’s knickers all over the place,’ I told her.
    ‘They’re not mine,’ she said. ‘I haven’t done laundry yet.’
    Somehow that made it easier to look at them.
    ‘Done your Phil essay, yet?’
    ‘No,’ she said. ‘And neither have you. Even though it’s a week late.’
    ‘I’ve got to worry about Psychology, first,’ I told her. ‘Fucking stats is my kryptonite. What’s your excuse?’
    ‘Better than yours,’ she said. ‘Saw the dick in English yesterday. Didn’t even look my way.’
    ‘That’s your excuse?’
    ‘No, fool. I was just saying.’
    We sipped our tea, slurping a little at the same time. She laughed. I took another biscuit.
    ‘I remember the first night I knew you guys were in trouble,’ I said. ‘The James Bond Ball, back at the end of first year?’
    ‘We’d been in trouble for weeks, by then.’
    ‘Yeah, well. That was the first night I knew. You were frosty.’
    ‘Like a Bond villain? I was a bit of an ice queen.’
    ‘Yeah, but you still went through all the boyfriend-girlfriend stuff. Buying each other ice creams and playing games. You weren’t into it, though. It was just obvious.’
    ‘Like we were at each other’s throats, secretly.’
    ‘No, worse. Like you were desperate to save it and overcompensating.’
    Darcy didn’t say anything.
    ‘It was just… sad.’ I fumbled for words, wishing I hadn’t started in on it all. ‘You were all over each other,