Page 2 of A Smile in a Whisper

For two years, Evie had been doodling amorous vignettes in her study notes: Nikolai picking her up in his car for a picnic, writing her a song on his guitar, snogging her face off in front of a crackling bonfire. However, kissing was as far as her swoony reveries ventured. While the idea of “doing it” with Nikolai—with any boy—was titillating, it was also terrifying, until Jake and Amanda’s tender tryst heated up her television screen. Nikolai, the cute and dreamy pin-up you could bring home for your mum’s Sunday roast, was now the smouldering, thrusting sex god responsible for setting Evie’s mind and panties ablaze with all manner of lascivious possibilities.

There was no going back.

“I can’t stop thinking about him naked!” Evie squeezed her best friend’s arm. “Whatcha reckon? Has he done it, like, for real?”

“Of course he has,” replied Sunita. “It looked real.”

“How would you know?” A soft lilt butted in.

Letting go of Sunita, Evie spun around. Fiona Groundwater, a student from the island of Eday, blinked back. Like most teens from Orkney’s smaller islands, Fiona came to the Mainland for secondary school and lived in the halls of residence during the week. Then on Friday afternoons, she’d take the ferry back to her family on Eday, returning to residence on Sunday night. Eleven months into her time at Kirkwall Grammar and shy Fiona was still finding her feet. Her busy schedule of schoolwork, fiddle practice, and ferry sailings home didn’t leave much time for socializing with her Mainland friends. She had, however, forged a bond with Evie through their shared appreciation of dogs, scrapbooking, and of course, Dalston Grove.

“And how would you know?” Sunita retorted. Her eyes flew down the footpath, ensuring their teacher was out of earshot. “You’ve done it?”

Fiona tugged a hair tie around her messy brown locks. “No, but you can’t say it looked real when it didn’t show…you know.” Her elfin facial features widened. “It was just kissing.”

“And hands. Lots of hands,” said Evie, her cheeks warming despite the brisk wind. “I swear he grabbed her boob.” The thought of Nikolai touching her non-existent breasts made Evie reel with dizziness.

“Alaia said it looked real,” said Sunita, the only member of Evie’s inner circle with a female sibling considerably older and wiser at the ripe ol’ age of seventeen. “Their faces, you know? That was real. Nikolai knows exactly what to do.”

“I wish I could’ve seen it at yours.” For Evie, it was one thing crushing hard on Nikolai Balfour and turning her bedroom into a pin-up-plastered shrine, but quite another drooling over his fictional teenage sexploits in front of her entire family.

Sunita winced. “Your mum and dad still watching with you?”

“Yep. Sam, too.”

“Eww. I’m so glad I don’t have an older brother,” said Sunita. “Talk about embarrassing.”

Evie recoiled. “They went on about pregnancy and safe sex for, like, an hour afterward!” She lowered her voice as she shrugged off her backpack, her tiny roller skate and orca bag charms swinging wildly. “I’m not a kid! I know where babies come from.”

Fiona’s upturned nose scrunched as she plowed into her school bag. “My parents still refuse to have The Talk. It’s so dumb. We live on a farm for god’s sake!”

Evie and Sunita eyed each other and broke into giggles.

“Although, my cousin did get pregnant at fourteen.” Fiona pulled out a rolled-up magazine. “She got shipped off to Inverness and everything.”

Evie’s jaw dropped. “Her parents sent her away? Like, forever?”

Either Fiona didn’t hear the question or chose not to answer. “Have you seen this?” She uncurled the glossy pages.

TEMPT HIM! LOOK HOT NOW! GOSSIP EVERY MONTH—the magazine’s cover lines orbited around the cheesy grin of the bleached blonde presenter from Top of the Pops.

The July issue of Flirty Girl? Evie’s stomach flipped, remembering the bright, bold advertisement in the back of the previous issue: a special Dalston Grove pin-up “Not To Be Missed Next Month”. It had to be a poster of Nikolai. The magazine’s editors weren’t stupid. Nikolai’s full lips, high cheekbones, and furrowed brow guaranteed that tens of thousands of British teens would happily part with £2 to take Jake home with them—Evie included. She chewed the inside of her cheek. “Where’d you get that?”

“Stromness,” said Fiona as the wind rifled through the pages, making them flip and crackle. “Mum and Dad came in, took me there for dinner. We popped into the newsagent for sweets after and there it was! Had to get it.”

Sunita threw a concerned glance Evie’s way. Every four weeks, the shop in the neighboring town of Stromness received a single copy—a copy that for the past two years was put aside for Evie then picked up by her dad when he drove home from his dental practice. Someone had messed up. Terribly.

Fiona flung open the center pages. “Look!” A crumpled mini poster of Nikolai smiled back.

Nooo! A lovesick pang wrenched Evie’s heart. Adorable dimples teasing, Nikolai rocked his Dalston Grove uniform like Paris couture. His school tie was casually loosened and the sleeves of his white button-down were rolled up, showing off a serpent tattoo winding its way around his left forearm. With one hand, he nudged his thick brown hair from his sparkling eyes while the other, punctured by a staple, clutched the neck of his acoustic guitar. He really was the most beautiful boy Evie had ever seen.

She settled into a pouty sigh. “So gorgeous.”

“Especially when he sings for Amanda,” added Fiona.

“Awwwww,” the two girls cooed.

Sunita laughed and shook her head. “You guys…”