Audrey took the fiver. ‘Sure.’ At least it was a reprieve – time off for good behaviour.
Last night Audrey had gone out for a walk at nine o’clock and Veronica had all but blocked the front door until Audrey told her to go with her if she didn’t believe her. She’d backed off then and Audrey had made her way to the small high street where there was nothing open but an off licence. All she wanted was a wander, a bit of space, and after a lap she went back towards Gran’s and sat on the swing in the playground opposite the house. She stayed there until the sun began to fade. She’d seen Veronica’s shutters move a few times when she was over there too – Gran seemed to think because the wooden slats gave her a lot of privacy, nobody could detect when they moved from their tilted position to more horizontal enabling her to see out – but if she had a curfew and was supposed to be home, Audrey decided her gran should stop being lazy and come over to get her. Honestly, it was the height of summer and Veronica hadn’t so much as walked to the end of the path and down the road. She’d get sores from sitting too long if she wasn’t careful.
Audrey pocketed the fiver and decided she’d call Sid before she went to the shop. Over in the playground she sat on the swing the second a young boy vacated it. She messaged Sid to see if he could talk and when he called, it was a relief to hear a familiar voice.
‘You’re so far away,’ he told her.
‘Miles,’ she said. ‘How’s work?’
‘Last day today. I think Dad sees me as more of a hindrance than a help. I talk too much apparently.’ It was something he was forever being told off for at school. Sid wanted to be an actor, a choice his parents didn’t wholly approve of, and a reason why he and Audrey understood one another so well. ‘What’s it like living with your gran?’
‘She’s pretty strict and she watches me, like, all the time.’
‘Is she watching you now?’
‘Well no, but…’
‘She must have her own life.’
‘Not really. I wish she did. Then she’d have some hobbies so there’d be less focus on me. But she does have a visitor right now so I took the chance to escape.’
‘When are you coming home?’
Home…interesting word, given that the house she’d grown up in and that she loved probably wouldn’t be theirs for much longer. Sid’s parents were at least still together and they were a family. They might not understand him but he still had a solid foundation. Audrey felt as though her world was too messy to make sense of; she didn’t feel like she had a solid place in it. She knew her mum cared about her but she didn’t see her, not really, not beneath the surface anyway. All she saw was what she wanted to see, the troubled teen, the girl getting in trouble. She said she supported Audrey’s dreams and aspirations, but Audrey wouldn’t mind betting the pressure to go on to A levels after GCSEs and not enrol in a make-up artist course would soon be back.
Audrey and Sid chatted until Audrey’s phone battery died but she still didn’t go back to the house yet. She wanted to taste a bit more freedom, so she walked around the block, past the bigger houses with their grand gates, a couple of cute thatched cottages, another playground where she went on the roundabout before she got bored. She went back to the playground in front of Gran’s house and went on the swing again. She could do this for hours, soaring higher and higher towards the clouds, the different colours above that took the sky from day to night as the sun set.
When she eventually went back to the house, she had one foot on the stair to go and put her phone on charge before she made some toast before Veronica appeared. ‘I thought you’d be in bed,’ she smiled, but it soon faded when she got a glare in return.
‘What time do you call this?’
She looked at her watch. ‘Ten fifteen.’
‘You know what I mean. Didn’t we say no staying out late on a school night?’
‘Er, I don’t go to school.’
‘Same rules though, Audrey, and your mother did ask me to keep them in place until summer.’
There was no way she wanted to completely take the piss and have her phone confiscated. She didn’t even want to be sent home, much as she missed Sid. ‘I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.’
‘Thank you. Now, have you had enough to eat?’
‘I’m going to make toast after I put my phone on charge.’ She held up the device as though to justify her trip up the stairs.
Veronica let her get on with what she was doing. Her phone plugged in, Audrey went to make toast, cutting off thick pieces of bread which she slathered in butter and jam. She’d just put her plate in the sink and mumbled a goodnight when Veronica called her back.
‘Audrey, you’ve left crumbs everywhere, the side of the jam jar is smeared with raspberry jam, and the plate should go in the dishwasher.’
Eyes sent heavenward and cheeks puffed out, she sorted the mess, wiping the sticky jar and slotting the plate in the bottom rack of the dishwasher. ‘There, happy?’
‘There’s no need to be rude.’
‘I’m going to my room.’
Veronica’s voice followed her. ‘Audrey, where are the toilet rolls?’
She pulled the fiver from her jeans pocket and left it on the shelf in the hallway. ‘I forgot.’
‘But Audrey, we don’t have enough left.’
‘Then stop being so lazy and go get them yourself!’ She hadn’t meant to be
