Kitabı oku: «Essex Girls», sayfa 3

‘Don’t be so silly. You shouldn’t delete yourself. You never did anything wrong.’

‘You’re right,’ Jade agreed. She felt stronger already talking to Kelly. ‘Do you still have your laptop? I’ll change my status now. That’s if he hasn’t already done it.’

‘He won’t have,’ Kelly assured her, jumping to her feet and hurrying out the room.

A minute later, Kelly returned with the laptop. Jade signed into her Facebook account, apprehensively. She was slightly relieved when it still stated she was ‘in a relationship with Tom Noble’ on her profile page. She wanted to be the one to change it, not him. She clicked and checked the single box. Done. She then checked his page and was relieved to see he didn’t have any updates in over two weeks, indicating he hadn’t been online. Clicking on his friends list, she searched the name ‘Louisa’. Her heart was hammering in her chest as she knew she’d be on there. A plain-looking blonde girl appeared on the screen.

‘I’ve found her,’ Jade told Kelly as she shifted in her chair.

‘Let’s see,’ Kelly replied, turning the laptop round to face her. She gasped. ‘She looks fat!’

‘Do you think?’ Jade said hopefully, knowing full well she wasn’t. She appreciated Kelly’s attempt though; slagging the other girl off was what friends did, it was completely understandable. Louisa was definitely not drop-dead gorgeous, just your average everyday type, but by no means was she fat.

‘She looks like she’s been eating far too many pies in her profile picture. Damn, that’s the only one we can see, she’s set it to private. She has two chins for God’s sake, what on earth was he thinking?’

‘Do you not think she’s at all pretty?’

‘Jade, take a look in the mirror and now take a look at fatty on Facebook. You win, hands down. Tom is an idiot!’

They were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell; Lisa had arrived. Jade reached up to hug her friend.

‘Hi,’ they both chorused happily.

Jade had forgotten how amazing Lisa’s figure was. Wearing her skin tight wet-look leggings, her long legs looked phenomenal. She looked like a supermodel. She was five foot nine and it always made Jade laugh when she walked next to Kelly, who was only five foot one. The two of them usually made her stand in the middle.

After discussing how vile Louisa was and updating Lisa on the situation, Jade was well and truly finished with the subject.

‘So you two, how are your love lives going? They’ve got to be better than mine.’ She turned to Lisa. ‘Are things still all good with you and Jake?’

Jake was Lisa’s long-term boyfriend. They’d been together since they were sixteen after meeting at an under-eighteens nightclub, and were practically inseparable. Jade and Kelly both really liked him; he was like one of their own friends.

‘Yeah we’re good, the usual.’ Lisa beamed, unable to hide her happiness.

‘You two will be married soon,’ Kelly teased. ‘Let me be bridesmaid, remember?’

‘You’ll both be my bridesmaids, but give me a break, I’m only twenty-one still.’

‘You’re lucky to have a decent man like Jake. My love life is crap. Can’t find anyone I fancy,’ Kelly moaned. ‘All the blokes round this way are either ugly or love themselves. I’m so bored of it all. I wish I could go somewhere else. I don’t want much. Just a nice man, preferably older and more mature, good looking and maybe rich too. ’

Jade and Lisa laughed.

‘I’m not being shallow but he’d have to be. I’m not going to be a millionaire beautician, am I?’

‘Maybe you should put the prices of your spray tans up,’ Lisa joked. ‘You are good.’

Kelly giggled. ‘Can you imagine if I said I’d had lots of good feedback, was the best in Essex and put them up to fifty quid? My clients would have a heart attack.’

‘Well at least you have a job,’ Jade complained sulkily. ‘I still don’t even know what I want to do with my life.’

‘I can always see if they need people at my place?’ Lisa offered.

As much as Jade appreciated her looking out for her, Lisa worked at a television company, something that didn’t really interest her.

‘Thanks, but I’ll be okay. I’ll find something soon hopefully.’

Kelly squeezed Jade’s hand gently. ‘Cheer up Jade. I know you’ve been feeling down lately but today is going to be a good one now you’re with us, I promise. You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy clothes – and that’s close enough.’

They laughed and Jade decided she was going to make an effort to brighten up now she was back with her friends.

‘Where are we going today anyway? Shopping I take it?’ Lisa asked, running her fingers through her long dark hair.

‘After I’ve sorted my face out and you’ve told me what outfit looks best – I’ve got three options – I was thinking shopping in Loughton, lunch, then The King William pub and Nu Bar for old times’ sake?’

Jade and Lisa both agreed with Kelly. This was just like the old days.

*

The girls teetered down Loughton High Street in their heels and sighed as they were stopped by yet another group of girls wanting to stroke Lord McButterpants.

‘How do you get anywhere with this dog?’ Jade asked Kelly as the gushing girls finally walked off in the other direction. ‘We’ve been stopped about ten times already!’

Kelly looked down at the dog proudly. His little head was curiously poking out her brown and beige Louis Vuitton dog carrier. ‘Ahhh, he can’t help it that he’s pure beauts, can you Lord McButterpants? He’s a babe magnet, especially in his cute little leather jacket I’ve dressed him in today. Totes brings out the colour in his eyes.’

‘He sure is cute,’ Lisa agreed, slowing down as a white dress in the window of a boutique caught her eye. ‘Let’s go in here, girls.’

‘Are you sure you don’t want to go in there instead?’ Jade joked pointing to the baby shop next door and nudging Lisa teasingly. ‘You and Jake will be having kids before you know it. You may as well get started on a wardrobe for them.’

Kelly’s face lit up. ‘Oh, please let me be godmother! And you can’t use the name Evangelina for a girl or Parker for a boy; they’re my baby names.’

Lisa wrinkled her nose. ‘Evangelina and Parker? It’ll be hard not to pinch those two,’ she laughed playfully. ‘What are you two on about anyway? I don’t want kids for a long time. I want a career and to travel before even thinking about becoming a mum. That’s years away in my opinion.’

‘What about Jake?’ Jade asked, as they made their way into the boutique. ‘He loves kids, doesn’t he? It wouldn’t surprise me if he’ll be wanting them soon. Probably as soon as you move in together.’

Lisa hesitated. ‘Well, he does talk about kids and that he doesn’t want to be an old dad, but I’m just nowhere near ready. The thought freaks me out a bit so I just change the subject every time Jake mentions it.’ She pulled out a navy dress from the rail. ‘What do you think of this?’

‘Stunning, hun. Your legs will look unreal in that, and the colour will compliment your dark features. You have to try it on, it would be rude not to,’ Kelly said, eyes sparkling with excitement as she made her way over to the shoes.

After lunch in The King William, they dropped Lord McButterpants back to Kelly’s mum’s house, re-applied their make-up and made their way back to Loughton. Seeing as it was a Saturday night, Nu Bar was packed and the girls were feeling tipsy after two bottles of wine. Jade glanced around her, memories flooding back from previous nights spent there before she went to university. It was like a different world. Girls were preened to perfection, with either perfectly straight hair or immaculate curls, not a strand out of place. Jade caught glimpses of designer bags by Gucci and Dolce and Gabbana. Their killer heels were gigantic and their skirts minuscule. False, long eyelashes were fluttering everywhere and there wasn’t a pale person in the whole bar. It was like a competition for the most tanned person; and that included the boys. Thank goodness Kelly had given her a make-over otherwise she definitely would have been the palest! Or the most normal, whichever way you wanted to look at it. The boys had made the same amount of effort as the girls. Their gelled hair was swept over, faces glowing, trousers tight and smart shirts tucked in. Oh yes, Jade was definitely back home.

‘Shots!’ Kelly shouted above the music, as the shot girl wearing tiny hot pants and a matching top made her way over to them.

‘I’m crap with shots,’ Jade worried. ‘Honestly, I’m always sick. I never did them at uni, I just couldn’t.’

‘Oh come on,’ Lisa said. ‘Live a little!’

Okay, Jade thought, one shot won’t hurt. She downed the sambucca in one and gagged, passing the glass back to the girl. I would rather drink my own urine than this, she thought. Never again. To her horror Kelly was passing her another.

‘Why are we doing another? What’s this? I’ve just downed one.’

‘It’s on me, babe. A welcome home shot.’

Not wanting to look boring or ungrateful, Jade downed it on the count of three along with Lisa and Kelly.

‘Cheers babe,’ Kelly said to the shot girl, handing their glasses back. She complimented her, ‘Reem outfit.’

‘Thanks. This is one of the more boring ones; we get to wear all different sets.’

‘Oh my God, shut up! I’d love to dress up like that while I was working.’

‘You should get a job with the company I work for, the money is great,’ the girl suggested. ‘Look online. The company is called Sexy Shots.’ She walked off to some men calling her.

‘Oh please one of you get a job as a shot girl with me,’ Kelly pleaded, smiling. ‘It looks so much fun and I could do with the extra money so badly. Come on Jade, you need a job?’

‘Why not?’ Jade replied, thinking it would be great to get a fun part-time job while she was searching for a career. ‘So long as I don’t have to drink them. It has to be better than serving miserable customers in Café Rouge.’

‘Count me out,’ Lisa answered. ‘Jake would go mad if I was dressed like that and walking round bars chatting to men. I am a tad jealous though; my friend’s mate does it and on good nights makes over two hundred pounds.’

‘You’re kidding! In one night? Me and you will definitely look tomorrow then,’ Kelly said to Jade.

After a couple of hours, Lisa, who had been texting on her phone for the last thirty minutes, decided to call it a night.

‘I’m off, girls. Jake is picking me up and I’m staying at his.’

‘I’m so jealous, you cow. You’re getting your lovely boyfriend to come get you and leaving us surrounded by these creeps,’ Kelly sulked, looking around at the unappealing men left in the bar.

Jade agreed, silently. She’d had an excellent night with the girls, but seeing the men she had to choose from now she was single was depressing. No one here was as good looking as Tom, not even close. She kept looking at her mobile, wishing he’d text again, but knowing it was best if he didn’t. She just needed to be reassured he felt as miserable as she did, wherever he was at that precise moment. She was drunk, but not drunk enough to make the mistake of contacting him though, so she pushed the thought from her mind.

‘Go on. Go have sex with your gorgeous boyfriend and leave us moping about our pathetic love lives in here.’

Lisa smiled, cheekily. ‘I may just do that. He’s just texted saying he’s outside, so I’m off. Bye girls.’ She kissed them both on the cheek. ‘See you soon.’

Jade watched as Lisa walked off and saw some of the men eyeing her up on the way out. She was naturally very pretty. She was half Spanish and had beautiful long dark hair, which was glossy and shiny because it had never been touched with hair dye; it was the envy of every woman. She never went over the top with make-up, because with her dark, olive complexion and coffee-coloured eyes, she didn’t have to. Personally, Jade thought she looked prettier without any make-up on anyway.

They decided it was time to go home, so waited for a taxi outside. Kelly seemed a bit bored.

‘Honestly, I just feel fed up with it here. As much as I love doing beauty, I’m always skint. I had to save for like, two months to get my new Marc Jacobs bag and I’m sorry, but that’s just not on. I know everyone wherever I go and can never find a man I’m interested in. I feel like I just need to get away somewhere,’ Kelly explained in the queue.

‘We could always go away somewhere new for the weekend. What about Brighton? Or Newcastle, somewhere up north?’

‘Nah, never understand their accents, babe.’

‘What about Brighton then? People in Brighton don’t have accents,’ Jade said.

Kelly thought for a moment. ‘You sure?’ she asked, doubtfully.

Jade shook her head and laughed. Most people would think Kelly was joking, but Jade knew her well enough to know she was being serious. Kelly paused and thought for a second, then a smile slowly crept up on her face.

‘Oh my God, babe, I’ve got the best idea ever,’ she said, excitedly.

‘What? Where are we going?’

‘Marbella! I went last year on holiday and loved it. But I only went for a long weekend and it wasn’t long enough.’

Jade looked at the floor sadly. ‘I remember. I couldn’t go because I went to France with Tom.’

‘You’ll love it, it’s brilliant. But I was thinking, instead of just going for a week, why don’t we work there? I saw so many girls last year working in clubs and that and they looked like they were having the time of their lives. It’ll be so much fun – imagine our tans! We could stay for a few months. It shouldn’t be too hard to get a job in a bar or something and we can save up some money for flights by doing shot work. What do you think?’

Jade thought about what Kelly was asking her. It was perfect timing to do something like this. She didn’t have a full-time job yet and when she did, she would never be able to work away for the summer. Was this her last chance to do something spontaneous and fun? She wasn’t happy thinking about Tom all the time, so surely working in Marbella would take her mind off things? It would be great. She could see herself now, sunbathing all day and getting a gorgeous tan, chilling out over sangria and then off to her fun bar job in the evenings. It sounded perfect. Jade started to get excited.

‘I think it’s a great idea! Let’s do it!’

*

Lisa snuggled up to Jake in his huge warm bed and thought about how lucky she was to have him. It was so nice to go out with her friends, without the worry of looking for a boyfriend; knowing that she already had the perfect one. Jake was different to most men they knew. For one, he was mature and wanted to settle down, even though he was only twenty-two. She thought about poor Jade and how Tom had cheated on her. She couldn’t imagine how painful that must have been. If Jake ever did that to her she would fall apart. She trusted him one hundred per cent, and genuinely didn’t feel like there was a chance of that ever happening.

It was so nice to have Jade back home, to have the three of them back together again. If she was honest, it took the pressure off her always having to go out with Kelly. Lisa loved going out, but not every single weekend, and she felt guilty when she had to let Kelly down. Sometimes she just wanted to spend her free time with Jake. Jake worked around the clock as a carpenter and she worked long hours for a TV company so any free time they had was precious. Plus, as she wasn’t looking for a man, she usually preferred just going to the cinema or for a meal, but Kelly always insisted they went to a bar or club.

‘You okay babe? Can you not sleep?’ Jake asked, when she cuddled up close to him.

‘I’m fine,’ she said, finding his lips in the dark and kissing him.

‘Good,’ he said, drawing her closer. ‘I forgot to mention something to you actually, so I’m glad you’re awake. You know the other day when you were talking about getting a new car? Well I was thinking, instead of us both getting cars, why don’t we just buy one between us? I’m sure we’ll be moving in together soon and let’s face it, seeing as you’ll only be needing the car at weekends, it works out perfectly. It’s silly us both getting cars, especially when I already have my work van too. That would mean we’d have three vehicles between us.’

Lisa thought for a moment, considering what he was saying. He was right; three vehicles between two people didn’t make any sense. Jake had a work van already, but wanted to buy a nice car to drive round in when he wasn’t working. Her heart was set on getting a Range Rover though, and she knew he hated them as he was often saying how common they were in Essex and how bad they were for the environment. She’d also been looking forward to having her own freedom and being able to go and see her friends as and when she liked. If they shared a car, she’d always have to ask permission and vice versa. She yawned. ‘I’m not so sure, Jake. You know how much I’ve been looking forward to getting a Range Rover.’

‘Yes, but it makes so much more sense for us to share a car. I’m sure there’s one we can both agree on. What about a Golf? We won’t need a big car and it’ll save us money. When we move in together, we’re going to need to watch what we spend. We’ll have bills to pay, council tax, food shopping; the list is endless.’

Lisa wrinkled her nose at the thought. She didn’t want a Golf. She wanted a Range Rover, and had done for ages. The thought of saving money and being careful with every penny she spent sounded so grown up and tedious. Bored of the conversation, and deciding not to discuss it further she rolled over onto her front, away from Jake. ‘Let’s just talk about it another day, yeah? I need to sleep.’

‘Okay, well think about it. Night. I love you,’ he said.

‘I love you too, Jake,’ she said sleepily. ‘More than you know.’

CHAPTER 3

‘Would you like any drinks?’ the pretty air hostess asked them.

‘A Diet Coke please,’ Kelly asked.

‘Will you be paying in Sterling or euros?’

‘Can I not just pay in pounds?’ Kelly asked, scratching her head thoughtfully.

The air hostess looked confused.

‘Sterling is pounds,’ Jade told her, stifling a giggle.

‘What? Really? I’ve never even heard of it,’ Kelly replied, completely miffed as she searched through her purse.

An hour later the pilot announced they would be landing and Jade was relieved. She hated flying with a passion. The fact that they had bought the cheapest flight was partly to do with it, as they’d had to be up, washed, dressed and out the door by four thirty a.m. Jade tried to stretch in the confined space in her seat. Honestly, these seats were made for children, not adults with legs longer than a metre. She looked beside her at Kelly who had just dropped off into a sound sleep. She was so lucky. Jade could never sleep on planes at all, even if she’d only slept for four hours the night before; it was impossible. The three men laughing and talking loudly a few rows up weren’t helping either. How the hell did they have so much energy? She rolled her eyes when she heard one of them ask for a beer from the air hostess. Seriously, at this time in the morning? Probably their first stupid lads’ holiday.

However, Jade’s mood improved when she felt the warm sunshine through the tiny windows on the plane. Three months of glorious sunshine beckoned and it couldn’t come quickly enough. For the first time in a long while she actually felt excited about meeting new men too. She wasn’t in a rush for a serious relationship, but a bit of fun wouldn’t kill her. In fact, she craved it.

Jade thought back to the last month. Becoming shot girls had actually worked out perfectly. It had given them a taste of what to expect in Marbella and Kelly’s friend had given them the details of the manager of TIBU nightclub, Joe. They’d contacted him and he had agreed to hire them both; they’d squeeze in a one-week holiday to relax before they started. Jade just hoped the money was as good as shot work as some nights they had made up to one hundred and fifty pounds, and it had been fun working together with Kelly and chatting to men, convincing them to spend their cash getting drunk. It hadn’t exactly been hard. Then they’d met Stephen, a nightclub promoter who had asked them to be nightclub hosts, which basically meant hosting a table with a load of men, getting them to buy bottles of drink and getting paid for it. Of course, they’d agreed. They’d really enjoyed it at first as it just felt like partying for free, but after a while constantly dealing with sleazy drunk men started to get annoying. Despite that, Jade had enjoyed herself; being single wasn’t as bad as she had first thought. She had met some men that were quite nice and had cheekily snogged a couple like a teenager at the end of the night. Even though she couldn’t honestly say she was over Tom one hundred per cent, she was getting there. He had texted her once asking how she was, but she’d ignored him. It had made her feel stronger, knowing that she had the power to not reply like he had probably expected her to. She was ignoring him – not the other way round.

The captain announced they were landing and Kelly stirred.

‘Morning sleepy head!’

Kelly groaned as she tried to stretch. ‘What time is it? Are we there yet?’

‘Only about thirty minutes away.’

Forty minutes later they were leaving the plane. Kelly pointed to a girl in front with dark brown hair scraped up on top of her head.

‘I know that girl,’ she whispered.

The girl turned as if she had heard her and caught Kelly’s eye. She smiled and waited for them to catch up as they disembarked.

‘You alright Kel, babe?’ She hugged her. ‘How are you?’

‘Really well, hun. Haven’t seen you for a long while. Oh my God, you look tanned already!’

She was right, Jade thought to herself. Kelly’s friend had a lovely dark tan and was wearing tiny denim hot pants to show off her slender legs.

‘Yeah, I only went home for five days. I’ve been working out here in TIBU club for the last month. I’m back now to do the rest of the summer.’

‘Oh shut up!’ Kelly gasped ecstatically. ‘We’ve got jobs there, and we’re out here for three months now.’

Her mouth opened wide. ‘You’re joking babe! Cool. You’ll love it here, it’s so much fun and you can earn alright money as well.’

Kelly nodded and then introduced Jade to her. ‘Jade this is Adele. Adele, Jade.’

Adele said hello and then started to walk off. ‘Go to Plaza Beach today and I’ll meet you there. It’s where everyone goes.’

Kelly waved her off. ‘I remember that from last year. Cool hun, we’ll see you there.’

Adele disappeared and Jade asked Kelly about her.

‘She seems nice, how do you know her?’

‘I did a beauty course with her. I’ve always thought she was okay, but loads of girls hated her and said she was a bit of a bitch. Don’t see why though.’

‘Well at least you know someone we’re working with already. I’m a bit nervous about it,’ Jade replied, as they made their way to the toilets to freshen up.

‘Hun, trust me, we’ll be fine. We’re only going to be waitresses; all you have to do is host tables like in Essex and serve their drinks. But let’s not even worry about working until next week. Firstly we have a week’s holiday to do nothing but sunbathe!’

‘You’re right,’ Jade agreed. ‘Let’s just enjoy it.’

*

Adele walked over to the baggage claims searching for her case, which had a huge pink bow on so she’d find it easily. Much to her disappointment it wasn’t there already, so she waited, getting her phone out and texting Lee, her new boyfriend, to say she’d landed safely.

She was glad Kelly was working in Marbella too. She didn’t know her that well, but she’d always seemed quite nice at beauty college. She’d been out with her once before on a night out, she recalled, and couldn’t help but feel slightly jealous when she uploaded her photos on Facebook and received messages from loads of blokes asking who Kelly was. She wasn’t that pretty, Adele told herself. She looked just as good as Kelly when she was done up with her false lashes and hair extensions, surely? Plus, Kelly was really photogenic, so she looked better in pictures. Adele did like her though; it was hard not to, seeing as she was so friendly. Kelly’s friend, Jade, seemed nice too. She was also attractive, Adele thought, a little bit resentfully. She could tell they were best friends and thought how nice it must be to go away and work with someone you were really close to. Adele had never really had a best friend. If she was really honest, she preferred the company of men and always thought it must be because she had three brothers. Sure, she had girl mates, but no one she liked the best particularly.

Adele took a mirror out of her bag to check her appearance. Her hair was a bit of a mess and her new hair extensions were actually really hurting her head. She’d had weaves put in this time instead of glued ones because it was cheaper and quicker, and they’d done nothing but give her a headache so far. Her eyelash extensions looked good though. They were as thick as spider legs, just how she liked them. She needed to get back to her apartment, let her hair down, put a bit of make-up on and she’d be ready to go to Plaza Beach to sunbathe.

*

Kelly and Jade arrived at PYR Hotel in Puerto Banus, which they had booked after being told that this was one of the most fun places to stay. They were just about to leave reception to go to their room when a loud group of boys, who were obviously over-excited about their holiday, stopped them.

‘Alright girls?’ one of them said in a Welsh accent.

‘Yes thanks,’ Jade replied, too tired to make conversation.

‘Where you from?’

‘Essex,’ Kelly replied.

‘Oooh Essex girls,’ he said happily to his mates, as though he’d won the jackpot.

‘Seriously, do blokes still get all excited when you say you’re from Essex?’ Jade whispered to Kelly, irritated that Essex girls had a name for being ‘easy’. What a load of rubbish. Did they also think they wore white stilettos and danced around their handbags too?

‘Where are you from then?’ Kelly asked.

‘Cardiff,’ he replied. ‘You should come visit me when you get back home,’ he said, trying to impress his mates.

‘No thanks, Scotland is miles away,’ Kelly replied, dismissively.

‘Scotland?’ the boy asked, confused.

Jade tried not to laugh. ‘Come on Kelly, let’s go,’ she said taking their keys from the receptionist and walking away.

Kelly followed, confused – Jade could hear the blokes laughing that Kelly had thought Cardiff was in Scotland.

‘Cardiff is in Scotland isn’t it?’

‘No, you dope. It’s in Wales!’ Jade answered laughing as they reached the lift.

They were happily surprised with their room. It was basic, but very large; they had plenty of space and even a small kitchen. They unpacked their suitcases as quickly as they could. Despite being so tired, Jade was excited to see everything and get in the sun.

‘Right babe, what bikini are you wearing today?’

Jade didn’t really have many bikinis with her. She absolutely hated shopping for them, as there was nothing worse than stripping off in the changing room mirrors and seeing a body you didn’t exactly love staring back at you. She was happier not looking. She’d dropped a dress size when she first split up with Tom, feeling far too sad to eat; whenever she was stressed in life she lost her appetite. Luckily it hadn’t taken too long to get it back though; spending time with the girls had soon cheered her up and now she was back to her healthy size ten figure. She wasn’t by any means big in any way, but in her opinion her boobs were too small, hips a little too big and she hated her bum, which she wished was more toned, although everyone told her otherwise. She pulled out a plain black and white striped one she’d bought from Primark last year from her drawer.

‘I’ll probably just be wearing this,’ she said, showing Kelly.

Kelly nodded, her face impassive.

Jade looked down at her bikini and then back up at Kelly. ‘Why, what bikini are you wearing?’

‘I’ll wear my least dressy one if you’re wearing plain black and white, so I won’t look out of place.’

Jade frowned. ‘“Least dressy”? What do you mean? Show me what you’ve brought.’

Jade’s heart sank as Kelly pulled out an array of colourful bikinis. The bed was soon a mass of sequins, beads, diamantes and tassels. Jade had never seen anything quite like it. She lifted up a white, all-in-one, cut-out swimsuit with beautiful coloured gems encrusted round the centre, off the bed. ‘Kelly, are you kidding me? What’s this?’

‘That’s a monokini, babe. You can borrow it if you like.’

Jade couldn’t hide her shock. ‘Where did you get all these from? They’re amazing!’

‘Mostly online from America. I did say Marbella was dressy and to bring your best stuff.’

‘Best stuff? I’ve never seen anything like this,’ she said, pulling a hot pink tasselled one from the bed admiringly. ‘I thought you meant at night, not for the beach. All mine are bloody Primark and H & M. They’re all plain and boring,’ Jade said sulkily.

‘You can borrow mine. Honestly, any one you want, just take.’

‘Thanks,’ Jade said, knowing that she wouldn’t and couldn’t fit into Kelly’s double D cups even if she wanted to. ‘I’ll just wear this plain one for now.’

Kelly could sense Jade was a bit gutted. ‘I think there are a couple of shops that do really nice dressy swimwear here. We can look there before we go to Plaza Beach if you like?’ she offered.

Jade perked up a bit. ‘Really? Okay, sounds good. Let’s definitely do that then, as otherwise I’ll be plain Jane for the summer if this is the sort of thing people wear.’

‘I remember seeing Sonia Lopez here last year; remember her from our old school? She bought one that was gorgeous and showed me where the shop was.’