Total pages in book: 150
Estimated words: 143633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 718(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143633 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 718(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Oh, my fucking life, it was the worst possible timing.
Fuck.
Our eyes met.
There was no avoiding the obvious. I was standing there like a criminal with my hand on the banister rail and a bag of half spilling clothes on my shoulder, and she looked at me with piercing eyes.
“Where are you off to?” she asked.
What could I say? I was on the spot, floundering. I couldn’t say I meant to go downstairs, not upstairs, so I faked a grin, hating how much I was lying. I blustered, struggling.
“I thought I’d call in on Bertie upstairs. I heard he was struggling a bit with his crutches, so I thought I’d ask him if he needed anything from the shop on my way back from college.”
She looked at the bag on my shoulder.
“College. Right.” Her eyes were so suspicious they burnt. She turned back to her door to lock up, and I used the chance to give her a bye, catch you later, before I kept on climbing, but I didn’t get far before her voice sounded out again. “Bev said you quit the pizza place. Weird you didn’t tell her, don’t you think?”
I turned back around to face Mum’s best friend. “Yeah, I did quit. It was interfering with college.”
“Right, sure. Does this Jenny girl hang around with you at college, then? I thought she was from the pizza place.”
“No, Jenny isn’t from college.”
“So, where’s she from? Is she local?”
I hated how Trisha felt she was entitled to know everything in the universe. She was a curtain twitcher at the best of the times, and a gossip about every single person in Crenham Drive. I knew that whatever I said would be around the estate within hours, so I opted for another lie, feeling like an asshole, but I daren’t even think about telling her the truth.
“Dine’s Green. She’s from Dine’s Green.”
“Really?” Trisha said. “I know a load of families in Dine’s Green. You’ll probably have seen them around. I’ll ask them to take care of you, don’t worry.”
Her smile was so fake that I knew I was doomed. She’d likely be messaging people from the very moment she had her phone in her hand, and I didn’t have anything to say. I was already dug deep into a hole of my own lies that I couldn’t get out of. So I baulked. Bailed. Bought myself some time.
“I’d better get up there to Bertie,” I said. “I’ve got college soon.”
“Yeah,” she replied, with another fake smile. “You’d best get up to him. Say hi from me.”
Trisha didn’t give a shit about Bertie. Thank fuck nobody really liked her in this place. He’d probably tell her to get lost if she went calling. I just prayed she wouldn’t snoop that far. At least uncovering the no Jenny in Dine’s Green would take a little bit longer.
I bounded upstairs with another see you later, but kept my back pressed tight to the wall around the corner, just out of view, until I made sure she’d left the place. I heard the main door slam closed downstairs, and the true force of our conversation fully hit me. Trisha was onto me…
And so was Mum.
With Trisha fuelling the fire, I had no chance of maintaining the secrecy. I felt sick as I let myself back in to Julian’s, hating how our cocoon of a life was going to be shattered to pieces. It was only a matter of time.
“Hey, sweetheart,” he called out from the kitchen, and I went in to find him pouring out the last of the muesli between two bowls. “I think we’ll be on the remains of my crappy pre-made pasta soon. We’re almost out of decent supplies. At some point I’m going to have to step out of here.”
He caught sight of my bag, with the clothes thrown inside. He mistook it for being a good thing, his face lighting up.
“Excellent. Feel free to use the wardrobe. There’s plenty of space in there.”
If only he knew…
Shit. I’d have to tell him.
There were no more berries for muesli, so he handed the bowl over to me with nothing but milk and sugar. I was shaking as I took it from him, and his eyes narrowed on mine.
“Are you ok? What just happened?”
My God, I was so scared of his response, and his fear, and his freaking out at the thought that we’d be busted. I blabbed it all out in one long stream, to get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
“Mum messaged, she knows I quit work and that there is no Jenny. I went down before she got home to grab some things, and I needed sanitary towels, and I was quick, I swear, but Trisha saw me on the stairs, and I said it was about Bertie, and helping him get some shopping after college, but she knows something’s up, and she knows–”