So that’s what I do.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
“Billy? Lily’s dating Billy?”
“No. Not…” James looked away, still driving slowly through the night-time streets. “They’re not dating. At least, it’s not gonna last, it’s just a…”
“A what?” Oscar pressed him, the shadow of a grin on his lips.
“I don’t know what. That’s the problem. She’s never done this before. Much less with….”
“Hey come on,” Oscar turned to his friend. “There’s no way she’s gonna choose a runt like that over you!”
James didn’t answer.
“Oh my God,” Oscar went on. “That explains everything. Your dumb ass behavior tonight. Picking on those nerd types.” He chuckled, then when he spoke again his voice was serious. “So what are you gonna do?”
“Do? What am I gonna do?” James drove on silently, as if this was the first time he’d been able to think clearly about the issue. “I’m going to get her back, that’s what. And I’m going to fuck that little prick right up, too.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
I don’t go over to Lily’s on the Friday night, because I have to work, an essay (The Meaning of Biology and Its Different Fields – so still really basic stuff). Then, just as I’m about to leave my house on Saturday afternoon, I get an email from back home. It sort of throws me. It’s like two worlds crashing together.
I can’t tell you who the email comes from because I set up the system to be anonymous. I thought it would encourage more people to use it, but now someone has, it’s actually a bit annoying since I can’t contact them to ask more questions. I guess I should explain. The email came through my website against the expansion of the Fonchem site in the north of Lornea Island. After I discovered that the bay just to the south – which Fonchem wants to take over – is an important breeding ground for Lornea Island sea-dragons, I was worried about them being so close to a site where they make all these horrible chemicals, so I set up an anonymous tip line, where people could email through reports of chemical spills or environmental damage. And then – well to be honest, then I forgot about it, because no one emailed, and most of the time I didn’t even remember to put the anonymous tip email address on the posters. But I did put it on some of the posters, and now someone’s emailed me.
Whoever it is has included photos, and they’re sitting on my computer now. They’re pictures of the high tide line, you can’t see where exactly, but I looked at the metadata from the photos – that’s additional information most cameras capture when they record images, it tells you the date, and what equipment was being used, and on cameras with built in GPS it also includes location data – so I know it’s in the bay south of the Fonchem site. And there, dried up and dead, and looking almost identical to pieces of seaweed, are three little corpses of sea-dragons, their tails curled up. But I still want to ask questions, like how many there actually are, and whether there’s been any strong winds there in the last few days, that might have thrown up unusually large waves and washed them ashore. Or, whether there’s been any residue on the water surface, or on the sand, that would indicate a spillage, or some other reason why they might have died. But I can’t do any of that, because I don’t know who sent the email. So instead, I just study it for a while, and then I’m in a rush because I said I’d get to Lily’s house in time to help her get things ready for tonight. So you can see why I’m a bit conflicted. One half of me is campaigning against a chemical giant probably poisoning the sea, the other half of me is sort of in love with the daughter of the CEO of the exact same company.
When I get there, Lily’s decided we’re going to have a games night. She thinks that will give everyone something to focus on. So they’re not all thinking how weird it is that she’s with me now, and not James. While she’s cooking, I follow her instructions, going into the library and bringing out all the games they have in the house. I like the library in Lily’s house. It’s not a massive room but all the walls are just bookshelves, from the floor to the ceiling. There’s even a ladder on rails, that you can slide left and right to get at the books which are too high to reach, and I spend a bit of time climbing up and down and looking over the books. But I find the games in the end, they’re in a cupboard made of really dark wood, and there’s pretty much every game you could think of. There’s Scrabble, Monopoly, Risk, various different types of charades-type games – I don’t really have a preference for which one we play, so I yank them all out and take them through to the dining room table. Then I make a fire in there, because it’s a cold room, and the weather is turning now it’s the fall.
Eric is the first to arrive, and he gets all over-excited when he learns we’re playing games. But I can tell Lily is more like me, still nervous about how tonight’s going to go. And when the others arrive –Jennifer and Oscar and James all come together in his big SUV – I have to take a deep breath before I open the door to them. But pretty soon I can tell it’s going to be alright after all. Oscar has a bunch of flowers he’s brought for Lily, and Jennifer gives me a kiss on both cheeks, like she might have
