Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend Read Free

Carena casually strode past me at break time, pretended to look surprised to see me, then said, ‘Oh, Sophie, do you want to go to my house for lunch?’
     
    Just like that. It was comparable, later, to the first time I was ever asked out by a boy (Marcus. Father farmed half of Shropshire. More comfortable talking to animals than girls. His kisses were like being licked by a large horse).
     
    And from then on, we were friends, even when she found out Brad wasn’t actually my extremely glamorous and somewhat paedophiliac boyfriend, but an employee of my dad’s. She enjoyed my obvious admiration and I couldn’t help it - she was dazzling. So sure of herself. My world was confusing and I wasn’t sure of the rules, but Carena seemed to waltz through on an unstoppable cloud of self-belief that she would get everything she wanted and everything would stop for her. And it usually did.
     
    We all smoked our first fags at Carena’s; cadged our first vodka. Her other best friend was Philly, a scholarship girl, and Philly and I vied to be Carena’s closest lieutenants. It was great not having to worry about what I was doing, because Carena always did. I started to adopt her ‘don’t care’ attitude, her slightly supercilious look at the world. Perhaps I got a little mouthier, a little harder. I like to think I was too timid to have tipped over the edge into really bad behaviour - but then Gail happened.
     
     
     
    One Saturday night, Carena was staying with me - I was thirteen - and Daddy came home from a business trip to Prague. He’d been doing a lot of flying recently. He came in late, and I could hear from upstairs that he had someone with him. They were laughing. My dad used to laugh all the time. Lately, not so much.
     
    ‘Who’s that?’ asked Carena, putting on lipgloss in the large gilt mirror that hung next to the staircase and making a sexy face. We were making sexy faces quite a lot at the moment. They were probably not sexy so much as freakish, and scared a lot of our teachers.
     
    ‘I don’t know,’ I said. My dad rarely brought anyone home except for his lawyer, Uncle Leonard (I didn’t call him uncle any more, not since Carena had heard me and made fun of me).
     
    The large door swung open.
     
    ‘Sophia? Darling?’ My dad’s voice floated up the stairs. ‘Are you home?’
     
    I made a humphy noise of assent which I’d noticed Carena doing a lot recently.
     
    Daddy came into the hall. He looked tired and he was putting on weight. But he had on a broad smile, and his eyes had crinkled up at the corners.
     
    ‘Sophie, I’d like you to meet -’ and almost with a flourish, he announced - ‘Gail.’
     
    Gail stepped forward with an anxious smile on her face. She was pretty and blonde, with an upturned nose and cute rabbity smile that at the moment looked extremely nervous.
     
    ‘Sophie!’ she said, her voice slightly too bright. ‘I recognise you from your photos!’
     
    I was so taken aback I could barely speak. It was totally obvious what was going on. He’d gone and got a girlfriend without telling me! I was genuinely knocked sideways. Carena made an gasping noise. I stared at her. My father was still looking up at me hopefully. On one side was Carena. Downstairs was my dad. And standing right in front of me was the biggest affront I could imagine. And she had lipstick on her teeth.
     
    ‘Hello . . . Gail,’ I said simply, without smiling or getting up. Gail’s smile faltered immediately. And suddenly, this made me incredibly cross; what was she expecting, that I run down the stairs and give her a huge hug and beg her to be my new mummy?
     
    My dad took Gail’s elbow.
     
    ‘Gross!’ said Carena. I glanced at her, completely in shock. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s go.’
     
    For a moment I was torn. Then I turned and followed her.
     
    ‘Who was that ?’ said Carina loudly as we reached my bedroom. The worst thing was having to admit that I didn’t even