Dead Romantic by C. J. Skuse Read Free Book Online Page B

sweet. A peppermint. You came racing in, looking for it. And that’s when you found me.’
    The penny dropped. I did have another memory of him. It burst into my mind like a firework. ‘Oh I remember now!’ I said. ‘I used to love those peppermints. Pee Wee’s they were called. They were really hot and then all chewy.’ Then I remembered something else about that particular peppermint. ‘You were crying.’
    He snorted. ‘Yeah, I thought you’d remember that. These boys were picking on me. One of them’s at our college now – Will Pratt, do you know him?’
    â€˜Yeah. He’s in my Human Biology.’
    â€˜Anyway, I ran in there to hide and then you broke the door down to find your peppermint and when you saw I’d been crying, you gave it to me to cheer me up. I think. Either that or you decided you didn’t want it cos it had been on the floor.’
    â€˜This girl called Lucy had kicked it into the boys’ toilets,’ I told him. ‘She and her friends used to bully me. What happened after? Did we play together?’
    â€˜No. You went and got a teacher, then you left.’
    â€˜If only I’d known you were being bullied. We could have been friends.’
    â€˜Yeah,’ he said, with a laugh.
    Lynx’s shrill laughter interrupted us and my eyes fixed on her and Damian again. He had his hand on her bottom, and then he moved it up to her waist and kept it there, and she didn’t mind. She wasn’t worried he’d grab ahandful of fat or twang her knicker elastic or anything, not that Lynx had any fat to grab and was probably not wearing any knickers. The land train beep beeped behind us and we moved out of its way so it could rumble past. Splodge and Poppy were sitting at the back, chewing each other’s lips off.
    I caught Louis looking at my dress. ‘What?’ I snapped.
    â€˜Nothing, sorry. Just . . . your dress. It’s nice.’
    â€˜Thanks,’ I said, as he tripped over his trailing bootlace. I realised then that he had been drinking and I could smell it on his breath.
    â€˜I’m freezing,’ I said. I thought he might offer me his coat or at least drape his manky cardigan around my shoulders in a gesture of gentlemanliness. But he didn’t.
    We caught up with Lynx and Damian and I could hear what they were saying.
    â€˜. . . I could take you to Fat Pang’s. They do an All You Can Eat Bottom Dwellers Buffet on Saturdays. It’s so they can clean the crap out of the tank.’
    â€˜Yeah, that would be lovely,’ said Lynx, not even trying a hard-to-get act.
    Damian draped an arm around her shoulders like a rope. ‘I can see we’re going to have fun together, my little morsel.’ Lynx giggled.
    We passed an old couple, holding hands. Two dogs sniffing each other’s bottoms. Love was all around me and it blowed. There was no one holding my hand. No one sniffing my butt. It made me cross, the unfairness of it all. I noticed some graffiti on a bench. It said ‘I Love Minge.’ I wished I was Minge. I wished someone loved me enoughto scrawl on a bench for me. I wanted that squizzy feeling people talked about. I wanted to walk around a garden centre at Christmas, holding hands with a boyfriend and listening to carols. I wanted to watch DVDs and eat ice cream and have marathon cuddle sessions in our matching onesies. I wanted what Jack and Rose found on that boat – pure, wonderful, romantic, I-would-die-for-you kind of love. Even though Rose didn’t die for Jack – actually she let him freeze to death cos there wasn’t room for him on her raft thing, but before that they were totes in love.
    Louis coughed, interrupting my thoughts. ‘Did you have a good time at freshers’ the other night?’
    I threw him a look, waiting for the cocky comments. ‘Yes, I’m so glad I went and made a complete fool of myself. I wouldn’t have