Past Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

deliciously. ‘Let’s try to get into a grownup club.
    Come on, in a few months, we’ll have left school and we’ll be the only people in our class to have never done anything interesting, Ella. Everyone else has gone to clubs they’re not supposed to be able to get into, except us because we’re the sensible ones.
    I’m fed up being sensible.’
    Sensible was nice when you were thirteen and adored by all the teachers, but less so when you were nearly eighteen. The girls who never had their homework done and never got top marks in exams seemed to be having all the fun now, which seemed like an unequal division of spoils.
    The too,’ Ella breathed. ‘And I’ve just thought how we can do it.’
    Amber’s eyes glittered. ‘How?’
    This feeling of dissatisfaction had in fact been incubating for weeks. Fed up with studying for exams and stifled by the pressure-cooker atmosphere at school, they felt the need to do something wild and rebellious for the first time ever, but their options were limited.
    Most of their pocket money went on clothes or their mobile phone top-up cards, so they had little cash left over for wild behaviour.
    Smoking was considered cool by some of the older girls, who insisted that it kept them thin, but cigarettes were too expensive to be more than a rare treat. Alcohol was easily available, like hash and ecstasy, but Amber’s mother had a nose like an airport sniffer dog and could smell badness anywhere, so coming home drunk or stoned was
    hardly an option. Faye would have had a fit and grounded her for a month, not to mention being hurt by her daughter’s behaviour, which would, in turn, make Amber feel bad for failing her beloved mother.
    And that was the crux of the matter: their family unit was just two. Two people who adored each other, two people who’d gone through it all together, who protected each other from the world.
    But sometimes, that could be a burden too.
    At least Ella had three brothers who could share living up to their parents’ expectations: Amber had the weight of her mother’s hopes and dreams resting squarely on her shoulders alone. And unlike Ella’s parents, who seemed to understand that their kids eventually tested their wings and flew the nest, Faye Reid still seemed to think that she and Amber would be together for ever.
    ‘What’s the plan?’ Amber asked now. ‘Where are we going? Nowhere round here, surely? There’s nothing but boring pubs.’
    ‘Exactly. So forget about round here.’ Ella grinned excitedly. ‘Marco’s going into town to a club tomorrow night, and if we went with him, we could get in without being carded.’
    Marco was Ella’s middle brother and they both realised he was their best bet for an illegal excursion.
    Her eldest brother wouldn’t dream of taking two schoolgirls into a city nightclub, while her youngest brother was too square to go at all. But twenty-three-year-old Marco, who had his own latenight show on a small radio station and went to all the coolest places, just might be persuaded to take them with him.
    ‘Where?’ asked Amber. ‘Highway Seven.’
    ‘That’s twenty-ones and over.’ It was hopeless.
    Doormen were up to speed on the best fake IDs.
    Amber and Ella didn’t even have fake IDs. All the best clubs were over twenty-ones only. They’d be, busted before they got in the door.
    ‘Yeah, but there’s a gig on there tomorrow night, some new band Marco’s going to check out for his show,’ Ella explained. ‘He’ll be on the guest list and he’ll be going in the back door of the club, so the bouncer will let him in no hassle, and if we’re with him …’
    ‘… We’ll waltz right in,’ laughed Amber gleefully. ‘You are one clever chick, Ella O’Brien. But how do we get Marco to take us in the first place?’
    ‘Bribery and corruption.’ Ella had thought it all out. ‘We’ll twist his arm this evening after school.’
    Marco looked a lot like Ella: dark eyes, pale skin and the same dark