Chapter Seven

As Kit had predicted, she wasn't alone in attending the gig that Eddie had recommended at The Cauldron the following Friday night. Not only was Zoey surprisingly excited about the whole thing, but Hermione had also expressed an interest, and decided to tag along, sans Sky, which Kit was more than a little grateful for.

The band playing were named The Razors, and they all appeared to be friends of Eddie's, who was already there when the three of them arrived. The Cauldron itself was a small, dim club, with dark red walls and old wooden furniture arranged haphazardly, a bar at the far end, and a stage at the other. There wasn't much light in the place, and on having noted the stickiness of the floor, Kit wasn't sure she wanted to venture to the bathroom anytime soon. In short, it was exactly the kind of place she could see herself coming back to.

As well as Eddie, Matt and Ollie were also there, much to Zoey's ill-disguised joy, and Zoey's friends Juliet and Kerry, whom Kit had met the previous weekend. Looking around at the handful of familiar faces made Kit feel much more relaxed about her ever-increasing stay in the new town, but at the same time it made her feel uneasy. She still didn't feel as if she belonged, and she wondered if she ever would, given that all of this seemed like something of an extended vacation, and nothing more.

"I'm gonna go say hello to Ed," Zoey announced as they entered the club, and not wanting to witness the requisite territory marking that Zoey always initiated before she spent the rest of the night ogling Ollie, Kit turned around with the intention of finding her sister. Instead, she found herself face to face with Juliet, who worked on the school newspaper with Zoey.

"Hey, Kit. How's your week been?" Juliet, as Kit remembered, was extremely chatty, and last time they had crossed paths, she and Zoey had been more than able to lead a conversation anywhere they liked, leaving Kit and Kerry rather trailing in their wake. Kit offered a brief, non committal reply, which Juliet apparently found sufficient enough to get the preamble over with.

"So, what do you think of Ollie, then?" Juliet said conversationally, steering Kit towards a free table. Kit sat down, wondering where this was going. Juliet folded her tall frame into the opposite chair, and awaited Kit's response.

"Erm, he's okay. I haven't really spoken to him that much," Kit offered, trying to remember what had been said the last time she and Ollie had been involved in the same conversation. "But yeah. He seems like a nice guy." If truth be told, Kit had started to wonder about Ollie, and how much of a part he played in collecting female admirers, but she kept that to herself for the time being.

Juliet twirled a piece of her long brown hair around her finger and nodded, as though this was satisfactory. "He is a nice guy," she stressed. "Really cool." And Kit, who had been wondering if Juliet suspected her of liking Ollie, now started to wonder if Juliet herself was guilty of that crime. "Don't you think?"

Juliet seemed quite desperate to get Kit's approval on this, and Kit nodded in what she hoped was a convincing way, unnerved by the single-minded look that had given Juliet's pale blue eyes a rather steely edge. "I just think he'd be good for Zoey," Juliet continued, "you know, they get on so well, and Zoey really likes him." She grinned. "I'm sure you'd picked up on that." Kit nodded and smiled. "It's just- what do you think of Eddie?" she said, abruptly, and Kit blinked.

"Um, he seems nice," she said, aware that it rolled off the tongue a lot easier than it had done when Juliet had questioned her about Ollie. "From what I've gathered, anyway." She tried to remain casual. Juliet pulled a face. Evidently, thought Kit, that hadn't been the right answer.

"I mean, I'm sure he's nice," she said loftily, looking distinctly like she wasn't sure of that at all, "but… I don't know. He just doesn't seem Zoey's type." This Kit could agree with, and she inclined her head slightly to let Juliet know that she wasn't about to contend that point. "And he's so…" Juliet glanced to her right, and, following her gaze, Kit realised she was looking over at Eddie, who was deep in conversation with The Razors' guitarist. "Well, I don't want to say he's not attractive, I'm sure Zoey must think so, but, really. She could do better."

Kit bristled at this slur, and decided not to respond. Juliet didn't look perturbed, and at Kit's silence, simply stood up and smiled, gave Kit a breezy, "talk to you later", and ambled over to Zoey, who was chatting to Matt and looking over his shoulder at Ollie as she did so. Kit sat for a moment, going over the conversation with Juliet and wondering whether it had all been some kind of strange test to see if she was worthy of Zoey's inner circle. When she snapped out of her daze, she found Kerry hovering shyly in front of her.

"Are you alright?" Kerry peered at Kit with some degree of concern, and Kit smiled, shaking off her thoughts.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kit nodded, and Kerry looked relieved, pulling out the chair that Juliet had vacated and sitting down. "I just wondered," Kerry added, "because I saw Juliet over here, and, well, she's been a bit…" Kerry paused. "All she's talked about all day is Ollie and Zoey," she said finally, "and I got the feeling she was giving you a hard time about it. Mostly because she's been giving me a hard time about it," she added wryly, and Kit risked a smile, hoping this wasn't a second test revolving around the issue of loyalty. "I'd hate for you to get caught in the middle of it."

Kit shook her head. "Not at all. I'm a little confused by it all, to tell you the truth, but…" She shrugged. "I think I've got the basics."

Kerry grinned. "Sometimes I wish I didn't know anything," she said, and Kit decided that Kerry was probably being genuine. "I mean- Eddie's a good guy. And I know Zoey isn't actually doing anything… She's always had a thing for Ollie, it's the worst kept secret ever. But I feel bad for Eddie, and Zoey refuses to see that she's being unfair to him." Kerry pulled a face, and then shook her head slightly, as if to clear it. "I'm sorry," she apologised. "I didn't mean to…"

"Seriously, it's fine." Kit smiled. "I mean, Eddie seems pretty cool. But Juliet was adamant that Zoey should carry on pursuing Ollie… I didn't know what to say, it's none of my business really." That didn't ring quite true, she realised, but before she could dwell on that, Kerry had spoken again.

"Well, I used to think that. But Zoey has a knack of making it your business, if she wants, and I got the impression she'd already done that with you." Kerry shrugged, and tugged at a stray red curl that had escaped from her ponytail. "I love her to bits, I really do, but I didn't want you to think we were all encouraging her." Kerry shot a rather dark look in Juliet's direction.

Kit shook her head. "Not at all." Kerry looked relieved. "I'm gonna go to the bathroom," she added, spotting Hermione by the door marked "ladies" and hoping to share what was bound to be a grim experience with someone else, "but I'll see you later, yeah?" Kerry nodded, and Kit made a beeline for Hermione, only to be waylaid by Matt, who was looking rather animated.

"Kit!" He waved enthusiastically, giving her no chance but to stop and talk to him, abandoning the plan of visiting the bathroom. "I didn't know you'd be here tonight." Matt's usually neat hair seemed to sticking up on end, and there was a twitchiness to his movements that gave him an overall look of being rather unstable.

Kit nodded, ignoring Matt's bouncing from foot to foot. "Yeah. Eddie invited me the other day. He told me the band was gonna be pretty good."

Matt bounced up and down a couple more times and raised the glass he was drinking from in agreement. "Yeah, they're pretty awesome. I've seen them a couple of times. So!" he said, and Kit wondered what exactly was in the glass he was drinking from, "you and Hermione, eh?"

Kit raised her eyebrows at him. "Me and Hermione?" she repeated, and Matt nodded emphatically. "Yeah! You're twins!" He looked pleased with himself. "That must be cool." He put his hand up to his head and felt his hair for a moment, before pulling a face and withdrawing his hand.

Kit tried not to laugh, and shrugged. "I guess so," she told him, not wanting to cloud his illusions, "although we don't know what it's like to not be a twin, so…" She gave him an appeasing look. "I was just-" She motioned towards the bathroom, but Matt ignored the hint and carried on.

"So how come you don't look alike, then?" he asked, looking genuinely interested in the answer. Kit had forgotten what it was like to meet strangers who found the twin issue endlessly absorbing, and tried her best to forge a short answer that would allow her to escape.

"We're not identical," she offered, and Matt nodded thoughtfully as though this was the most intriguing piece of information he'd received all week. "Hermione…"

Despite his already charged demeanour, Matt seemed to brighten considerably at the mention of her sister's name. "Is she around here?" he asked eagerly, and Kit tried not to smile at his frantic scanning of the room to try and spot her twin's blond head in the crowd. Kit motioned vaguely behind her, and Matt used the hand that was clutching his glass to waggle his fingers at her in goodbye before shooting off in the direction she had just indicated. Kit grinned, relieved to find that seconds later, the main lights dimmed even more, compensated for by a blast of bright white light from the stage that announced the arrival of the band onstage. Kit shuffled away from the wall by the bathrooms, and headed towards the small crowd that had formed around the front of the stage, looking for Kerry, or maybe Hermione, to chat to whilst the band played. It wasn't too difficult- the club was only half full, and Kit had already accounted for everyone by the time she reached the small cluster of people. Everyone, that was, except for Zoey. And Ollie.

Pushing that thought to the back of her mind, Kit squeezed into the space that Eddie and Kerry had made for her when they had seen her approaching. "Is Matt drunk?" she hissed at Eddie, who broke off from watching the band to grin at her in amusement.

"He's hyper," he told her, nodding towards the spot where Matt was shifting from foot to foot restlessly and half-dancing to the band. "It's only coke in his glass," he explained, when Kit looked puzzled, "he's not really meant to have sugar. It sends him crazy."

Kit laughed at Eddie's explanation, watching Matt for a few more seconds before turning back to the band, who seemed to be quite a regular fixture in town, given that half of the audience seemed to know all the words to the first couple of songs. Soon becoming absorbed in the band's set, Kit forgot all about Zoey and Ollie until The Razors' lead singer announced a quick break, and the crowd started to disperse to grab another drink before the band started up again.

It was entirely plausible, of course, that Zoey was simply in the bathroom. Kit didn't know why she suddenly felt responsible, but she had a bad feeling about what would happen if she didn't locate her friend. Kit pushed open the bathroom door, ignoring the sticky floor, and was relieved to find someone already in there- but as she took a second look, she realised it wasn't Zoey at all, but simply Hermione, who looked up from washing her hands as Kit entered.

"Enjoying it?" Hermione asked, and Kit nodded distractedly, looking around the bathroom in the hope of spying an occupied stall. "Have you seen Zoey?" she asked her sister, and Hermione shook her head, looking curiously at Kit as she did so.

"Are you alright?" she asked, and Kit nodded quickly, not wanting to alert her sister to a possible liaison between Zoey and Ollie. Kit hadn't discussed it with Hermione, primarily because Hermione was Sky's confidante, and Sky had made it abundantly clear that she had her own designs on Ollie. Kit just hoped Sky hadn't told Hermione about her own little crush on Eddie.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just wondering where Zoey was, that's all." Kit turned on a tap and rinsed her hands without really paying attention to what she was doing. Finding there were no paper towels, she dusted her hands off on her jeans and tried to appear untroubled.

Stepping out of the bathroom, Kit noticed that the band were poised to start playing again, and headed back towards Kerry, only to bump into Eddie, who was facing in the opposite direction, away from the stage, leaning against the wall just along from the bathroom. "Sorry," Kit apologised, pulling a face at her own clumsiness. Eddie smiled and waved away her apology, then looked at her quizzically, much as Hermione had done just moments before. "Are you alright?" he asked, echoing her sister's words, and Kit forced herself to adopt a less worried expression, less Eddie should push for the reason why she was chewing her lip and tugging at her fringe in obvious agitation. Telling him she suspected his girlfriend was being less than faithful wasn't something Kit fancied doing.

"I'm fine." Kit smiled back and pushed her dark hair out of her eyes. "You wanna go back and watch?" she added, noting that Eddie didn't look much like he was about to move back towards everyone else. The lights dropped again, as The Razors' stage lights kicked back in, and Kit struggled to see the expression on Eddie's face.

"In a minute," he said, and paused for so long that Kit was about ask him if he was feeling alright himself. Before she could, he spoke again, sounding more urgent that before. "Can I ask you something?"

Kit blinked and nodded, before realising he probably couldn't see her do that. "Sure," she told him, not for the first time that evening wondering where this conversation was going. Had Eddie found out about Zoey and Ollie? Did he think Kit knew something? Despite the loud music covering the sound of most conversations, Eddie edged a little closer and lowered his voice slightly. Neither the prospect of being quizzed about Zoey, nor the proximity of Eddie's body to hers, was doing much for Kit's state of mind. He leant towards her ear so she could catch what he was going to say, and his hair fell against her shoulder. Kit's skin felt warm.

"Do…"

Eddie started, but never got to finish his sentence. In a blast of fury, a voice interrupted the conversation and sent both Kit and Eddie stepping backwards in what Kit hoped wasn't a guilty manner. Zoey's blue eyes flashed angrily as they landed on Kit, who winced at Zoey's furious tone.

"How could you?!"