doesn’t matter!” she yelled, coiling her hands into fists. “It was you that started this mess!” I held out my hands in an appeasing gesture. “Ella please calm down,”
“Don’t you dare tell me to calm down!” she screamed, swiping a vase of flowers off a side unit. It smashed against the far wall in an explosion of water and glass. Fresh tears were streaming down her face. “I thought we were meant to be friends. How can I trust you now, when you hide things from me?”
A sudden burst of anger surged through me. “Are you seriously talking about trust? After the number of times you lied to me?” I thrust out a finger towards the photograph on the mantelpiece. “You even lied about your dead parents!”
As soon as the words had spilled from my mouth, I knew I’d gone too far.
Gabriella slapped me across the face.
A sharp streak of pain swept across my cheek. I tasted blood in my mouth. I stared at her in utter disbelief. She looked down at her own hand as if it had acted without her permission. “Gabriella, I-“ “Just go home,” she said in a voice completely devoid of emotion. “But-” “Go home,” she repeated. Without another word I left the apartment.
I didn’t sleep at all.
When my alarm finally buzzed, I couldn’t even bring myself to pull the photograph out of the handbook — making it the first time I’d ever consciously not spoken to Dad’s picture. The fear of The Sorrow tracking me mixed with the regret of the conversation I’d had with Gabriella. It settled into a feeling of malaise that hung over me like a cloud.
I broke my promise of telling Mikey, because frankly I didn’t have the energy to deal with the barrage of questions that would follow. He seemed to know that it wasn’t the right time to ask, so we settled engaged in stilted small talk on the drive to school. He tried to cheer me up by telling me about an amazing new girl — some redhead he’d met at the party he’d gone to, but I was barely listening. I gripped the steering wheel, trying to shake the images of my fight with Gabriella from my mind. Eventually Mikey got the message and switched on the CD player, sinking into his seat with a glum expression on his face.
The day dragged. The worst part of it was that Gabriella wasn’t there. I spent English throwing constant hopeful looks at the door, whilst Mr Hanley rattled on about the lack of self-belief the narrator had in Rebecca. All the way through the lesson, I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that something was wrong.
Afterwards, I couldn’t stop myself from ringing her. It rang until the voicemail kicked in. I hung up and slammed a hand into a nearby locker, creating a palm shaped dent in the metal.
Luckily no one was watching.
During my lunch break, I tried to track down Rachel. I asked the sinewy secretary at the front desk to help me locate my Science teacher. After clicking the mouse a few times, she informed me that Mrs Steel was off sick. The feeling continued to gnaw at my stomach.
By the time the afternoon came around, my malaise had grown into an almost overwhelming sense of dread. I tried dialling Gabriella a dozen more times and each time it rang out. Something’s wrong. I knew she was probably still furious at me and rightly so, but to completely ignore me after what I’d told her? It was too extreme. I inwardly cursed myself for not taking the numbers of the rest of Orion.
Mrs Carter was late for History. Whilst the drone of conversation buzzed around me, I stared down at my phone, willing a call or a message to come through.
I sensed someone standing over me.
“Ella,” I said, snapping my head up. Instead I saw an uncomfortable looking Grace standing by my table. Of course it isn’t Gabriella idiot, she doesn’t even take History. “Sorry,” I apologised, putting my phone away in my pocket. “I thought you were someone else.”
“Clearly,” she said, fiddling with a pink ring on her thumb. “Anyway, I uh- I thought you were going to text me over the weekend.”
I remembered the promise I’d made to text her after the night out. A knot of guilt twisted inside my stomach, adding to the growing amount of discomfort there.
“I’m really sorry, I had a pretty crazy weekend,” I confessed truthfully.
“That’s okay,” she said with a sweet smile. “Listen, I wanted to ask you something, but I just need to know first, you’re not like with Gabriella are you?”
The name cut through me like a hot knife. God please be okay. “Um…Alex?” “No,” I snapped. Grace filched from my harsh reply. Her smile crumbled. “Fine, if you’re going to be like that-”
“No, wait Grace, look I’m sorry. I’m having a bad day, that’s all.” In the friendliest tone I could manage, I said, “no, I’m not with her.”
Some of the smile returned. “Okay great. Well then, I was wondering whether you’d given any thought about who you were going to take to the Christmas Ball.”
With everything that had been going on, the normal world felt completely surreal, as if it no longer properly existed. Her words made no sense at all.
“Huh?”
“You know…the Christmas ball that the sixth form is having?” Her voice was losing confidence by the second. I carried on staring blankly until the cogs in my stressed out brain finally turned.
“The Ball!”
“Wow, you are having a bad day aren’t you?”
If only you knew. I gave a fake laugh. “To be honest I haven’t given much thought to who I wanted to take.”
Grace glanced at her friends, who were eagerly sneaking glances over their shoulders. “Oh right. Well I was wondering, you know, if you weren’t going with anyone…then maybe…” she flicked her hazel eyes up, “you might want to take me?”
I let the information register and tried to think of a reply. If she’d asked me a few weeks before, I would have jumped at the chance. In fact it was more likely the universe would have imploded from the anomaly. But still, things had changed. If I went at all, there was only one person I wanted on my arm. And I don’t even know if that person ever wants to see me again, or even if she’s okay, I thought miserably.
I didn’t want to be nasty. After all, Grace was a really sweet person — even if she’d only chosen to speak to me after learning about my new car.
“It’s really nice of you to ask, but I’m not even sure I’m going to be able to go. Can I get back to you?” I said, trying to look as conflicted as possible.
Grace exhaled in a deep whoosh. “Uh yeah okay. Well you’ve got my number so-” she half laughed and then turned and returned to her desk, where her friends leaned over in search of gossip.
I groaned and flopped my head onto my bag.
My phone rang.
I was lying on the bed, staring at the picture of my father. Gabriella’s phone had refused to go beyond ringing tone all afternoon. After an internal battle, I’d left a deeply apologetic message and pleaded with her to call me. The dread gnawed at the pit of my stomach, each bite telling me that something was definitely wrong. The number came up as unknown. My heart skipped about fifteen beats. I dived across the bed and scooped it up to my ear. “Hello?” I breathed. “Alex? It’s Mum.” A surge of disappointment rushed through me. I collapsed down onto the bed. She sounded panicked. “What’s wrong?”
I paused. Pretty much everything. “Nothing Mum, I’m fine. “Oh I’m relieved, you had me worried for a second. Is Mikey okay?” “He’s fine Mum. Everything’s fine.” “Good. Well things aren’t so great here. I’m calling from the hospital.” I tensed up. “Is it Connie or Edgar?”
“No, no they’re in top shape. It’s John. He’s come down with some kind of food poisoning. Nothing too serious, just lots of vomiting and uh…the other end, but the hospital want to keep him in for observation for a few days just to be sure. It means we won’t be able to fly back tomorrow though.”
I nodded. So this is what Faru had in mind to keep them away. It was wrong, but I couldn’t resist a brief smile. “Don’t worry about it Mum. Tell John to rest up and come back when you’re ready.” “I will honey. Use the emergency money if you need to. Depending on flights, we should be home by next Friday at the latest.” “No problems. I’ll see you then.” “Alex, are you sure everything is okay there? I had an odd feeling.” “Honestly Mum,
