The Branded Ones

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The Branded Ones - book excerpt

Melissa Stevens didn’t want to go to the Formal after-party, yet there she was pulling her red Hyundai Getz up outside the old Queenslander. Already after eleven-thirty, she’d been grumbling to her friend Nadia non-stop since they left the hotel venue. The place had managed to squeeze two hundred seventeen-year-olds into its monochrome themed ballroom and she had had enough.

She was dreading the after-party so much her body had started rebelling: stomach a bag of snakes, heart banging on ribs and clammy palms slick on the steering wheel. As much as Melissa tried, it was impossible for her to relax. If not for Nadia threatening to stop hanging out with her for good if she refused, she’d prefer to go home and get into bed with her phone to admire all the photos being posted from afar. Her jitters weren’t healthy, she knew that. It was so easy for beautiful Nadia, though. The boys loved her. Melissa’s awkwardness only seemed to attract the wrong kind of attention.

A group of girls having a smoke by the picket fence out front took a step closer to the vehicle and gawked at them both through the windscreen. Melissa unclipped her seatbelt and glared back.

She stepped awkwardly from the car, ready for them to laugh at her sausage-squeezing dress. She always pretended she didn’t care about wearing labels but the truth was she hated shopping malls and avoided them as much as possible; too many bright lights and annoying fake-smile shop assistants. Her wardrobe basically consisted of bits and pieces her mum gave her and whatever Nadia nicked from her part-time job at Chloe.

Her gorgeous friend emerged from the passenger side with the flare and poise of a Hollywood A-lister. Draped in a sleek silver dress that showed off her amazing figure, Nadia knew exactly how to turn it on. A small tattoo – two stylised hands entwined – on Nadia’s ankle caught Melissa’s attention. When had that happened?

Nadia always said she might as well enjoy the perks of working in retail, even if it was destroying her soul, and constantly tried to get Melissa to try on something new to help release her from her self-imposed fashion chrysalis. It was a losing battle. Both of them were judged whatever they wore. Melissa, because she didn’t give a shit, and Nadia, because outwardly she was as close to perfection as a girl could get.

‘Come on, Lis, don’t worry about those bitches.’ Nadia gave her wrist a flick to set her bangles in place and disrespect the other girls at the same time. ‘Let’s go in.’

The greeting party watched in silence as Nadia sauntered up the path towards the front door. Melissa in her usual role as entourage followed close behind. Nadia was beautiful and she knew it. Everyone yearned either for her or to be like her.

They reached the front door. The sooner they got inside – giving Nadia a chance to have a few drinks and flirt – the sooner Melissa would be able to say how boring it was so she could go home. She didn’t even know whose place it was.

Melissa turned and gave the girls still gawking on the nature strip a final stare. Their phones illuminated their makeup-caked faces as they sent out texts, no doubt sharing that Nadia and her lame wing-girl had arrived. Perhaps she worried too much but she’d been at school long enough with those cows to know that whatever they were saying wasn’t kind.

When Nadia had told her there was going to be a party Melissa knew why. She had her ‘P’ plates and Nadia knew Melissa could never say no to her, so she was a sure bet to get a ride.

Despite their many differences they’d been inseparable since they were five years old. Even though her friend would be pissed off if she knew, Melissa felt compelled to go with Nadia whenever there was a party to stop her doing something stupid. She watched her friend stop beside a front window to dab on some lip-gloss in the reflection.

‘How do I look?’

‘You look great Nards. Please don’t leave me by myself this time.’

‘Only if I get lucky.’ Nadia opened the door and they were hit by a wall of rap music.

Melissa grabbed her arm and held on tight.

‘Come on, you stress too much. Relax and you might have a good time.’ Nadia shrugged her off and entered the fray, shaking out her dark, silky mane.

Melissa shut her eyes for a second. ‘God, help me.’ Curse-filled lyrics thumped from the speakers. She didn’t get rap at all. She was more into raw, acoustic ballads by singer-songwriters like Ed Sheeran. She fought the urge to turn around and head back to the safety of the car.

Two boys huddled under a lone light in the hallway exchanging pills. Melissa rolled her eyes and pushed past. The lights were out in the living room. Heaving, sweaty bodies pressed against her as she fought her way across it. Laughter and squeals competed to be heard above the thumping beat. She finally found some space to breathe by a window, feeling somewhat violated by her close encounter with the gyrating throng. She looked outside at the blue evening sky, aglow with a full moon. The familiar round face was calming, as was the realisation she was basically anonymous in the darkness.

Nadia had vanished, as usual. Resigned to another night alone listening to crap music and watching people getting drunk and dry-humping each other, Melissa picked her way further through the crowd and found an unoccupied chair in a corner. Perfect, she thought, all alone, just like me. She waited in the shadows: eventually Nadia would notice she was missing.

Melissa was thirsty but from where she sat she could see the path into the kitchen was blocked by two footy players she knew from school. It was hard to tell if they were arguing or just trying to get their point across over the noise. Beyond them the benches were piled with packets of chips and drinks.

Nadia reappeared in front of her and impatiently beckoned. ‘Keep up.’

It was just as crowded in the kitchen but this time their arrival, or at least Nadia’s, was greeted with shouts and cheers. It was hugs all round for Nadia. Even Melissa got a couple of high-fives. She knew it was only because she was with Nadia but that didn’t matter; at least the others acknowledged her. This lot were much friendlier than the girls out front. A lot drunker, too.

Nadia grabbed a bottle of vodka off the bench and pulled two plastic cups from a sleeve.

As she filled the glasses Melissa shook her head and glared. ‘I can’t have one. I’m the sober driver, remember?’

‘Chill, one won’t hurt.’ Nadia stuck a brimming glass in Melissa’s hand and raised her own. ‘Cheers!’

Nadia chugged it back while Melissa took a reluctant sip. The vodka burned her throat and she gagged. Everyone stared like she was from another planet. She couldn’t stop herself from letting out a loud, spluttering cough.

‘You’re so soft,’ Nadia said with a grin, and grabbed the cup off her.

Melissa watched her take a gulp from the glass and top it up with lemonade from a bottle beside them.

‘Here, this’ll be better.’ As Nadia handed it back someone caught her eye from across the room. She scrunched her nose in disdain. ‘Oh yuck.’

‘Nadia!’ A tall guy with sandy-coloured hair flopping into his eyes wandered into the kitchen and made a bee line straight for her.

Nadia studied her drink with the intent of a scientist looking through a microscope, trying to pretend she hadn’t heard or noticed him. Amused, he waited patiently for her to look up.

Melissa found herself smiling at Nadia, too, until she received a scowl in return. Nadia finally raised her gaze and locked on the boy’s for a contemptuous moment. As he went to say something she brushed past him abruptly and was swallowed instantly by the seething mass of bodies.