Heartless by Casey Kelleher Page B

casual tops and jeans.
    As for the venue, the house itself was okay but it wasn’t exactly a happening and cool place unless you were into floral prints and dingy looking furniture: she should have brought her gran. Megan was willing to give the party a chance though, Tommy’s parents may not have had much taste when it came to décor but she could see that they certainly had money and she thought that her friend Sophia had landed on her feet with this new boyfriend. Apparently he had a twin, too.
    Scanning the room, however, she felt let down. The boys at the party were just that: boys. Megan liked men and, because she looked older than her age with her hair done and her make-up on, they liked her too. As Megan glanced around the room she turned her nose up at the lack of talent. The room was full of immature boys throwing themselves about to the music and they all had more chance of pulling a muscle than they did at pulling her tonight.
    Even the food was disappointing: cheese-and-pineapple sticks and overflowing bowls of sausage rolls sat cluttered on a bright pink tablecloth strategically placed around the grand centrepiece: a home-made Victoria Sponge birthday cake. The whole thing reminded Megan of a child’s party.
    “They do know you’re sixteen and not six? It’s a bit shit, don’t you think?” Megan said sulkily, as she searched the table for anything alcoholic. The Spice Girls’ squeaky voices were now blaring out of the stereo at full volume and she figured that she would need a few drinks to help her through the evening.
    “I’m having a good time,” Sophia said.
    “I can’t believe that I let you drag me here.” Megan scowled. “When you said party, this,” she indicated the kids that were dancing dementedly around her, “wasn’t what I had in mind. This Jonathan had better be worth it.”
    Sophia sighed. Megan was hard work sometimes, and why she was clutching on to the idea of Jonathan she had no idea: Sophia had warned her that he was nothing like Tommy. In fact he was the complete opposite. As for the party, her own thoughts couldn’t have been more different. Tommy had clearly gone to a lot of effort for her, and she thought that the party was amazing. Okay, so the buffet and the music were cheesy, but that’s what birthday parties were supposed to be and unlike her friend, Sophia thought that the trouble Tommy had taken to make tonight special was sweet.
    “Oh my God, please tell me that we’re not drinking fucking Ribena all night.” Megan had spotted the cartons of soft drinks all lined up in a neat row on the sideboard. Realising that she was about to launch into another of her long-winded rants, Sophia nudged her hard in the ribs.
    “Shush, here come the boys.”
    Tommy and Jonathan made their way to where the two girls were standing. Sophia gave Tommy a beaming smile, ignoring Jonathan.
    Staring from one twin to the other, Megan sniggered. They were dressed in matching red checked shirts and black jeans. “Oh my God, don’t you think you’re taking the whole identical thing a bit too far? Are you wearing the same pants too?”
    Megan vaguely recognised the boys as being in her year, but up until now she had never actually spoke to either of them. Looking from one boy to the other she tried to see if she could spot any differences. Sophia was smitten with Tommy, and Megan could see that out of the two he did seem to be the nicer one. He seemed softer around the edges, and came across as shy. The other boy, Jonathan, had beady eyes and the way he was standing there leering at her didn’t help. Either way neither of the boys were the heartthrobs that Sophia had made them out to be and wealthy or not, Jonathan didn’t stand a chance with Megan.
    “God, don’t ask.” Tommy pretended to laugh, feeling stupid. He had meant to change after his mum had gone, but she had been so busy fussing that by the time everyone they had invited from school had started to arrive Tommy had