Donna Joy Usher - Chanel 02 - Goons 'n' Roses Read Online Free Page B

a morsel of it pass my lips since I read that it gives you cellulite.’
    I could see Susie staring in bewilderment at Martine’s legs, which were long and lean. There was no place at all for cellulite on those legs.
    ‘You, by the way,’ Martine said to Susie, ‘look fabulous. And what is that I see sparkling on your left hand?’
    ‘Oh,’ Susie said shyly, ‘my boyfriend Liam and I got engaged.’
    ‘No way,’ Martine shouted. ‘Girlfriend, that’s fantastic. Oops, I nearly forgot.’ She rumbled around in her ginormous handbag, finally pulling out a bottle of bubbly. ‘Chanel, get the glasses.’ She reached back into her bag and pulled out another bottle. ‘And put this in the fridge.’
    ‘Are you going to be able to fake tan my arm if we drink all this?’ I asked.
    ‘I take offence at that question. It’s not even a whole bottle each.’
    ‘True,’ I said as I popped the spare bottle into the fridge. There was a knock on the door as I was reaching up to get the champagne flutes out of the cupboard.
    ‘I’ll get it,’ Martine said.
    Mum was standing at the door with a couple of bottles of bubbly in her hands. ‘Welcome Susie,’ she said, prancing into the living room. She shoved the bottles at me and then swept Susie up into a hug.
    I could see the look of confusion on Susie’s face.
    ‘You remember my Mum, Lorraine?’ I said.
    I’m sure she remembered her. She just didn’t remember this woman. The Lorraine she had met had had a tight perm, and worn a dour brown dress to my graduation ball. This Lorraine dazzled and shone, with her glowing skin and her stylish clothing.
    ‘Geez,’ Susie said to me, ‘when you said she’d changed…’
    ‘I know,’ I shook my head, ‘suddenly I’m competing with my own mother.’
    Mum laughed in delight and flopped down on the couch.
    There was another knock on the door. When I opened it, Bruce was standing there with Lancelot. ‘This isn’t what it looks like,’ I said.
    ‘You mean you aren’t really having a party that you didn’t invite me to?’
    Lancelot saw Cocoa and started yipping in excitement. Bruce released him from his lead and the two dogs ran off together, racing around and around the living room.
    ‘Susie is going to think this is a mad house,’ I said over the noise.
    ‘Speaking of Susie,’ Bruce said, handing me a bottle of bubbly and a cheese platter. ‘I thought she should meet me and Lancelot before you go. Otherwise she might think I’m some weirdo.’
    ‘She’s still going to think you’re a weirdo,’ I said affectionately, as I closed the door after him.
    Martine commandeered my iPod, rang for more pizza and the party really took off.
    We had to leave for the airport at 8 the next morning so I kicked everybody, except Martine, out at 11pm. She stayed to tan my arm.
    ‘Should we put masking tape around the top?’ I asked her drunkenly, as we viewed the delineation between my natural tan and the area which had been encased in the cask.
    ‘We’re not painting a room,’ she said. ‘We want it to blend.’
    I watched in concern as she rubbed the tanning lotion into my skin while muttering about albino scarecrows.
    ‘We probably should have done this a little earlier,’ she said when she’d finished.
    ‘Why?’
    ‘You’re meant to let it dry completely before it comes into contact with clothing.’
    ‘Why didn’t we do it earlier?’
    ‘I usually do it naked. I forgot we were only doing your arm.’
    ‘Don’t worry,’ I said, trying not to picture Martine naked, ‘I’ll wrap it in a sarong to protect it.’
    When she had gone I wound a sarong around my arm and hopped into the right side of the bed so that Susie was lying next to my untanned arm.
    ‘That stinks,’ Susie said.
    ‘I know, sorry.’
    I’d closed my eyes and was almost asleep when Susie said, ‘Hey, can we turn that glow light out?’
    I flicked my eyes open. The glow light, a small, glowing plug in a power point, was my vigilante