Raven wasn’t entirely sure how, maybe it was Trevor shouting do it, do it, do it as she pedalled about as slowly as any human could without falling off up the final, excruciatingly steep hill up to the castle, but she did it. And when she got there it was like arriving at a party she’d never known she wanted to go to. A party where she wouldn’t have to press herself against the wall and pretend that’s where she liked standing. A party where she tried to start up conversations with some of the cool kids only to realise the only reason they were talking to her was to wait for a gap in a much cooler kid’s conversation. Not that she was a party expert or anything.
‘Raven! Raven over here!’ She looked up and saw someone waving a huge sign emblazoned with the Big Boned Goth Girl logo she’d posted a few days back. Wait. There were four more signs being jigged around behind Dylan’s. Sweet mother of Holy Ganges rivers. Was that her – ‘Mum? Dad?’
Shyly beaming, Dylan ushered her parents towards her, cemented as she was to the spot, her bicycle serving as a security blanket (something she’d never had in real life because, derrr … Gandhiji wouldn’t have wandered round with a stinking blankie and his thumb in his mouth, would he?). And then her sister appeared, not so much as a single thread of a power suit in sight. Then her brother, a child hanging onto each leg as he Frankenstein Daddy stepped towards her. And then all of a sudden they were all talking and laughing and yes, blubbering a little bit because it was like, totally emotional.
‘We’re so proud of you, Sunita. Raven,’ her mother corrected herself. ‘We can’t believe what a beacon of hope you’ve become to young people.’
‘Sorry. What?’
Her sister gave her a smirk. ‘We’ve all been following your Insta feed.’
‘How did you know about that?’
Every member of her family began looking round until their eyes landed on Dylan who was standing by a petite woman with mousy hair and a slightly timorous, but distinctly happy smile. Dylan gave her a thumbs up and said, ‘Peace out, Raves. Soz, but I had to let your fam-damily know you were like, a total star.’
‘But how did you even know who they were?’
He looked at her like she was an idiot. ‘I get my mum’s stuff from your parents, innit?’
A whole series of little lightbulbs went off. Yes, she’d seen him at school, but only because she’d seen him a whole lot more at her parents’ pharmacy.
Citalopram had been the first prescription. Then Prozac. That hadn’t worked. It had given her headaches. Then Paxil, Tritellix, Viibryd, then Lexapro.
She looked at Dylan’s mum. ‘Thank you.’
‘For what, love?’
‘Raising such a brilliant son.’
She flushed and went a bit glossy eyed as Dylan tucked her under his teenaged arm with a ‘who’s the best mum in the world, eh?’ He flicked an apologetic look at Raven’s mum. ‘Present company accepted, Prof.’
Prof? He called her mum Prof?
Dylan nodded at her mum and then her dad. ‘They saved my mum’s life.’
Her dad began to do that little wobbly head shake of his that suggested the details weren’t exactly right. ‘We just noticed some discrepancies was all.’
‘Yeah, but – she could have died, innit? You saved her life.’ Dylan was refusing to let whatever this was slide. He turned to Raven and began to explain in a way that suggested Raven would see sense. Raven would be the one who understood and it made her want to hug Dylan so hard but that would be interrupting and if she’d learnt anything over the course of this trip was listening, really listening to someone was one of the finest forms of friendship.
‘Her doctor, right?’ Dylan was saying. ‘Her doctor went on holiday and my mum went for a check-up with a locum and that doctor wasn’t paying attention to what my mum was telling him and he gave her a new prescription to take with her old one and the two together?’ He made a kaboom noise.
‘Maybe not quite so bad as that, but …’ Her father’s head tipped from one shoulder to the other and then said, ‘We’re just pleased we could help.’
‘Sunita,’ her mother began in an all-too-familiar voice. ‘I think you’re looking a bit peaky. When’s the last time you ate. Stick out your tongue. Ohmygod, Sunil! Would you look at your daughter’s tongue? She’s dehydrated. Come, come. There’s a drinks stand somewhere. Vineeta? You push your sister’s bicycle, she must be exhausted. Sanjay, take your jacket off and give it to her. We can’t have her catching a chill? Not after riding all that way.’
Raven, for the first time in her life, happily complied as layers were tugged off, the state of her body was discussed in great detail, where they would eat, what they eat, why they shouldn’t have fish and chips like all of these other people because a fatty diet after such strenuous exercise would make her feel bloated and who wanted to feel bloated when they had such a long journey home?
Home.
Raven pictured an amalgam of her room at Sue’s and her childhood room, not entirely sure where she fit anymore, but not in a bad way. More in a way that signaled another transition was on the horizon. Another change. But this time, a good one.
As she was being shuttled off towards the High Street where her brother said he had spotted not one, but three restaurants that would fit their mother’s criteria, she caught eyes with Sue who was surrounded by her family and a whole lot of other people she hadn’t seen before.
Dylan gave Dean a big old wave. ‘Alright, boss?’ Dean did one
