‘How gallant of him,’ Miranda said stonily as Ryan pulled away from the kerb.
‘He offered to stay,’ I said, rising to his defence. ‘I told him to leave.’
‘Wise advice,’ she said. ‘If I get my hands on that boy . . .’
‘Miranda,’ I began.
‘Home!’ she said. ‘I’m not having this conversation out on the street.’
We walked in silence down the street to the house. Travis stood by the front door holding a carrier bag of beer from the corner shop. He gave me a sympathetic shrug behind her back.
Miranda slammed the front door and marched into the kitchen. ‘I don’t even know how to begin,’ she said.
‘I’m sorry I let you down,’ I said. Usually the best way of handling Miranda was to fess up and apologise. Repeatedly.
‘Let’s hear it,’ she said.
‘What?’
‘Your account.’
‘Ryan’s dad invited me to stay to dinner,’ I said. ‘And then, since it was getting dark, Ryan offered to drive me home.’
‘Let’s hear the rest of it.’
I took a deep breath. ‘That’s all there is to tell.’
Miranda shook her head. ‘So you didn’t spend the afternoon in Perran Park drinking vodka with your friends?’
‘Oh,’ I said flatly.
‘Oh,’ she repeated sarcastically. ‘Connor’s mother called me a couple of hours ago. Apparently Connor was really sick when he got home this afternoon. He confessed to his mother that he’d spent the afternoon in the park with you and your friends drinking vodka.’
‘I didn’t drink vodka,’ I said.
Miranda put a hand on one hip and looked me up and down. ‘I never thought you’d lie to me, Eden. I thought we were closer than that.’
‘I had a raspberry-flavoured drink. It might have had vodka in it. I only drank one.’
‘According to Mrs Penrose, Connor was concerned because he saw you staggering out of the park, barely able to walk, and he believed you were going to accept a lift home from Ryan.’
I was going to kill Connor.
‘Why would you, of all people, get in a car with an under-age driver who’s been drinking?’
‘Ryan doesn’t drink.’
‘You expect me to believe that?’
I nodded. ‘He doesn’t drink because he drives.’
She sighed dramatically. ‘Let’s talk about the car. Where did he get that from? Was it stolen?’
‘It’s his dad’s. He borrowed it.’
‘He borrowed it? Are you suggesting his father gave him permission to use his car?’
If I said no, Ryan had stolen it. If I said yes, Ben was irresponsible too. I couldn’t win.
‘No,’ I said eventually. ‘But he has his licence back in the States.’
‘Does he have his licence here?’
‘No. But it was just along the coast road from Perran to Penpol Cove.’
‘Your parents
I shut my eyes. We never talked about how my parents died. Or how close to dying I’d been.
‘I’ve spent the last ten years trying to keep you safe from boys like him.’
I said nothing. The rest of the conversation remained unspoken, but the message was loud and clear. Miranda had tried to keep me safe. Miranda had taken care of me even though she was only twenty herself when my parents died. Miranda had abandoned her law degree and dream of becoming a lawyer to take care of her six-year-old niece. Miranda had a string of failed relationships and no children of her own because she had sacrificed her own future so that she could take care of mine. And I had let her down.
‘I’m sorry I upset you,’ I said quietly. ‘I’m sorry I let you down.’
‘I’m disappointed,’ she said quietly. ‘I’m going to have to think about Saturday night.’
‘What do you mean?’ My voice shook.
‘I’m not sure I can trust you to go to the ball with your friends. I’m not so old that I don’t remember what happens at the leavers’ ball. I know there’s alcohol and parties afterwards.’
‘I won’t drink anything,’ I said. ‘And Megan’s parents are paying for a limo to drive us.’
‘I’ll have to think about it.’
I poured myself a large glass of water and went out of the kitchen door into the back garden. The purple sky from earlier was now a deep, endless black and the faint stars were turning on and slowly brightening, like a chain of fairy lights. I went over to the picnic table in the middle of the lawn and lay down on it so that the whole black canvas of night was stretched above me. Instinctively I scanned the sky for Cassiopeia, the reassuring w-shape that reminded me the universe was not an empty swirling mass of chaos. I scanned my eyes across the sky to Perseus and Algol, the winking star that was a sun – three suns – to Eden. Home. Ryan’s home. About to become the best-kept secret in the universe.
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ said a quiet voice.
Travis. I sat up on the table. He flicked open his lighter and held the flame to the end of his cigarette.
‘Spectacular,’ I said. ‘Do you know any of the constellations?’
‘The Big Dipper,’ he said, pointing up at the sky. ‘Everyone knows that one. And there’s Polaris, the North Star. That’s about it though. What about you?’
‘I only know a couple. You see that w? That’s Cassiopeia. And that over there is Algol, the demon star.’
Travis chuckled. ‘Between us we know half the sky.’
‘Did you know that Algol looks like one star, but actually it’s three?’ I asked.
‘How do you know that?’ Travis inhaled deeply on his cigarette.
‘Someone told me,’ I said. I gazed at the sky. Sea mist was heading swiftly inland. In a few minutes the stars would be hidden from view. ‘I wonder if there’s anyone out there, lying in the garden and looking up at the stars and maybe looking at our sun, wondering if there’s anyone out there looking up at the sky and wondering . . .’
‘How much did you drink?’ Travis interrupted. ‘Or are you high?’
I giggled. ‘Stone cold sober. Although from Miranda’s response you’d think I’d spent the afternoon turning tricks on the high street so I could get my next fix.’
‘Did she rip you a new one?’ he asked.
I smiled. ‘You could say that.’
He perched himself on the seat. ‘She’ll calm down. She’ll let you go. I’ll speak to her.’
‘I have to go. Ryan is leaving on Saturday night after the ball. He’s going home and this is my last chance to see him.’
‘You really like this boy.’
It wasn’t a question.
‘I like him more than I can put into words.’ Somehow the darkness made it easier to say.
‘He’s from New Hampshire, right?’
‘Right.’
‘The world is not so big, Eden. You’ll stay in touch.’
‘No,’ I said. ‘It’s complicated. I can’t explain why. But I know I’ll never see him again after Saturday.’
‘Oh, Eden,’ he said sadly. ‘I really am sorry to hear you say that.’
Chapter 14
