Kiss My Name Read Online Free Page B

Drinker’ ads. If you hadn’t witnessed Colin’s theatrics several times a day, you would probably have thought he was hilarious. Joey and I didn’t even smile. I wish we had, Colin was always trying so hard to impress us, but more often than not, he failed.
    “What’s she here for anyway?” Colin asked after his dance.
    “Don’t know really,” Joey answered, “she comes here all the time. Her Mum and Dad were friends with mine, but her Mum died.”
    “I know,” said Colin matter-of-factly, he was ten, empathy wasn’t his greatest quality, “Simon told me...what are we going to do this afternoon?”
    We had just had lunch. There were a few grey clouds threatening the blue sky, but we chose to ignore them.
    “I fancy a game of cricket down the park,” Joey piped up, “do you Muscleman?”
    “Not really. Do you reckon Nicky would join in? It’d be different then. We haven’t got enough for cricket otherwise. With three we’ve just got a batter, a bowler and a wicky, but with four, we’d have a fielder too. You need a fielder for cricket.”
    I was hoping my desperation to have Nicky there would be masked by cricketing necessities. I enjoyed being around Nicky. I wasn’t sure how long she’d be at Joey’s for, but if she was stopping around, I didn’t want to be going off playing cricket without her. I wasn’t really a sporting type anyway.
    “I reckon she’d play if we asked her,” Joey replied.
    “I want to play!” Colin said excitedly, “I love cricket! Bagsy batting first!”
    “That’s fine, Col. You can bat first, as long as Nicky can play,” I reassured him but added my caveat. I wasn’t going to play if Nicky didn’t agree to. If she did, I didn’t care who batted first. I was probably best not batting at all if I wanted to impress her. I wasn’t the greatest at batting.
    A couple of minutes later, Nicky came out of the Neill’s back door, carefully carrying a tray with four glasses of lemonade on it. Her tongue pointed out of her mouth to provide a better equilibrium.
    “More lemonade everyone! Joey, your Mum said can we collect up all the empty glasses and put them on the tray when we’re finished.”
    “OK. Fancy a game of cricket, Nicky, after we’ve had the lemonade?” Joey asked.
    “Here? In your garden.”
    “No, down at the park.”
    “I’m batting first,” Colin added for good measure.
    Nicky shook her head as she put the tray down alongside us.
    “We won’t be able to.”
    “Who says?” asked Colin, clearly aggrieved.
    “Joey’s Mum was just saying that the forecast is for rain later, so she said once she’s done her hair and put a bit of make up on, she’ll take us all to the cinema to see Top Gun! Isn’t that brilliant?”
    “Wow! Excellent. I’ve been wanting to see that!” I said with genuine delight. Not much excited me, but my Mum and Dad had kept promising to take us to Top Gun, but as yet had failed to do so. I thought it was probably down to money, I often overheard them saying we were short. This way we wouldn’t even have to pay, Mrs.Neill always paid for us all.”
    Colin was less enthused.
    “What’s Top Gun?”
    “It’s that new film I keep asking Mum and Dad to take us to,” I explained, “it’s meant to be brill. It has fighter planes in it and loads of action, you’d love it!”
    I wasn’t entirely sure Colin would love it, but I wanted to give off the impression that he would. I really wanted to go. He must have sensed my doubt.
    “Sounds crap. I want to play cricket, Si.”
    “We can play cricket any time, Col. Come on, how often do we get to go to the cinema? Mrs.Neill often buys us ice cream, popcorn and a drink. Mum and Dad only ever let us have a Kia Ora.”
    “We hardly ever go because Mum knows I don’t like it. It’s boring just sitting there for hours watching people speak.”
    Colin wasn’t a fan of TV. He was too much of a fidget to sit down for long. Cinema was even worse for him. It was a two hour