Annie looked around trying to work out a way to help but, if Jess couldn’t walk, there wasn’t much she could do. Jess was a head taller and a good few pounds heavier than her.
‘Hang on. I’ll get Tom.’
She ran back to the tent and threw herself through the open front, breathlessly explaining the situation to a still-half-asleep Tom.’
‘Is it sprained?’
‘How the fuck should I know?’
He flinched and Annie smiled apologetically, unsure whether it was the profanity or the volume that had offended him. ‘Sorry. I’m just worried. She’s sitting on the ground and I can’t get her up.’
‘Okay, give me a minute.’
Annie sat on the grass outside the tent and reflected on the previous night as she waited for him to get dressed. It had been ‘nice’. She’d felt comfortable and sensed that Tom felt the same. But what did it mean? Were they boyfriend and girlfriend now? Or was it a one off?
‘Right, where is she?’ Tom scrambled to his feet and held out a hand to pull Annie up.
‘Near the shower block,’ she said, keeping a firm grip on Tom’s hand as she pulled him across the campsite.
Keely had surfaced from her own tent by the time they got back to Jess. Dressed in a T-shirt and baggy grey pyjama bottoms, blonde hair sticking up at odd angles, she was squatting next to her friend frowning with concern.
‘What the hell did you do?’ she asked, standing up, hands on hips. ‘Jess says you hit her.’
‘No, I–’ Annie said but Jess interrupted.
‘Stop being such a drama queen, Keely. That’s not what I said. Annie flicked me with her towel and I moved to get out of the way. It was an accident.’
‘Yeah, well,’ Keely glanced down at Annie and Tom’s entwined hands. ‘It looks like the holiday’s over so you two can go home and get some privacy.’
Tom ignored her and knelt down next to Jess. ‘Can you move your foot?’ he asked.
Jess nodded and gave her toes an obliging wiggle.
‘What about your ankle. Can you bend it?’
‘A bit,’ Jess said, grimacing as she demonstrated. Tom took her foot in his hands and moved it from side to side.
‘How does that feel?’
‘Stiff and sore.’
‘And you can’t put any weight on it?’
Jess shook her head.
‘It’s probably a sprain but you need to get it checked out. We should probably get you to A&E.’ Tom slid his phone out of his pocket. ‘No signal. Bugger!’
‘There’s a payphone at reception,’ Annie said. ‘We could ring for an ambulance.’
Jess shook her head. ‘No. If it’s a sprain I’d just be wasting their time. I’ll ring my mum. She doesn’t work on Friday and she said she’d be on standby in case we needed anything.’
Annie was struck again by the difference between her life and those of her friends, with their helpful, approachable parents. Maybe it was a teacher thing; she didn’t have the impression that Tom was especially close to his dad even though it had only been the two of them since his mum had died when Tom was in year ten.
‘Okay then,’ Tom stood up and brushed his hands together decisively. ‘Keely, go and ring Jess’s mum. Annie – let’s get Jess back to her tent and then start packing up.’
‘Guys,’ Jess protested. ‘Just because I can’t carry on, it doesn’t mean you three have to go home. I’d feel awful if I ruined your holiday.’
‘And we’d feel bad if you weren’t here to enjoy it,’ Keely said. ‘Look, I’ll ring your mum and, hopefully, she can take us all home. We can do this again when your foot’s better – we’ve still got five weeks of school holidays to look forward to. It’s not like we’d got far anyway. And I don’t think these two are going to be very good company. I don’t know about you, Jess, but I don’t want to be kept awake by Annie and Tom “exploring” their new relationship.’
‘Hey!’ Annie protested but she noticed Tom blushing. Whatever this was between them, it obviously meant something to him. At least if they went home it would be much easier to get some privacy.
Two hours later they turned in to Annie’s street. Jess’s mum had dropped her daughter off at A&E with her older sister who was home from university and then driven the three of them home. Keely had texted her mum, but Annie and Tom hadn’t bothered. It was the school holidays – why disturb them? Annie was the first to be dropped off and she’d spent the previous fifteen minutes trying to work out how to ask Tom about getting together later that day. He’d not said much on the way back and she didn’t want to appear pushy but a casual ‘see you around’ didn’t seem like an appropriate way to leave things.
Just as she was about to suggest a drink later, Tom sat up straight in his seat. ‘What the hell?’
‘What’s up?’ Annie asked, peering through the car window, trying to work out what had upset him.
‘That’s my dad’s car.’
‘Where?’
‘In your mum’s driveway.’
‘Maybe he called round to talk about work.’
Tom shook his head. ‘Your mum’s car’s parked behind his. He’s not just called round. I bet he’s been there all night. I thought he was seeing somebody.’
‘No. I’m sure there’s an explanation,’ Annie said but her eyes were drawn to the closed curtains in her mum’s bedroom. Why was she still in bed at this time of day?
‘Of course there’s an explanation,’ Tom said. ‘My dad’s fucking your mum. I can’t deal with this.’
Jess’s mum stopped in front of Annie’s house and Tom barely waited for the car to stop moving before he jumped out, grabbing his rucksack from the boot.
‘Tom. Can we meet up later? Or tomorrow?’
‘I’m not sure that’s a good idea,’ Tom had said, shrugging on his pack. ‘I need time to think. I’ll call you.’
But, of course, he didn’t.
8
‘Cleaver,’ Cam snapped into the phone. He’d sprinted back from the sixth-form common room and held the
