Girl Saves Boy by Steph Bowe Read Free Book Online Page B

really that special,’ said Al, shrugging.
    I gave him a disbelieving stare.
    He frowned. Then he said very quickly, ‘Okay, I think she’s fantastic. But, God, she’s never going to think of me that way.’
    ‘I really think you should just go for it,’ I said.
    ‘I really think you should just mind your own business,’ retorted Al.
    ‘Look at it this way,’ I said, holding up my hand to silence him. ‘You pretty much decimated all of your pride with regard to True when we were thirteen. It’s not like there’s anything left to lose.’
    ‘We’ll probably end up going to different universities at the end of this year, anyway,’ said Al. ‘There’s no point even asking her.’
    ‘ Exactly ,’ I said. ‘But you should ask her. It goes badly, in a couple of months’ time you’ll never have to see each other again. If you don’t ask her, you’ll both go off to your different universities, and I guarantee you’ll regret that you didn’t ask her out. Then a few decades pass and you die a lonely old man.’
    ‘You didn’t need to add that last bit.’
    I nodded. ‘Point taken.’
    ‘But seriously,’ said Al. ‘When did you turn into Emma?’
    ‘Emma?’
    ‘Emma. From the book by Jane Austen. Of the same name. Emma .’ Al’s face reddened as he explained.
    ‘You read that?’
    ‘No,’ snapped Al. ‘Course not. My sister read it.’
    ‘Someone in your family reads ?’
    ‘It’s been known to happen,’ said Al. ‘Anyway, what are you going to do at the end of this year? Are you going to go to university with me, or with True?’
    I shook my head. ‘I’m not going to university.’
    ‘Where are you going then?’
    ‘I…I don’t know.’
    Al gave me a dubious look. ‘You have to go somewhere, Duck. Haven’t you got any plans at all?’
    ‘Let’s not talk about this now, hey?’ I said.
    ‘Okay,’ said Al. ‘Should we get away from the whole deep and meaningful thing right now, and play kick-to-kick or something? God, you’re such a girl, you know that.’
    ‘Only on Tuesdays,’ I said.
    ‘You could always be a drag queen,’ said Al, a look of utter seriousness on his face.
    ‘I won’t rule it out,’ I said dryly.
    ‘So what do you wanna do now, then?’ Al grinned again. ‘Did I tell you Mason bought the new Halo? It’s a bit faulty and the colours are off because he got it off these pirates at the markets— not actual pirates, ha, that’d be funny, but you know those ones that—’
    ‘Um, Al?’ I interrupted.
    ‘What is it?’ he asked.
    ‘I actually do have stuff to do at home,’ I said. ‘I’m gonna have to go, if that’s all right.’
    ‘But what about dinner?’ he asked. ‘The food’s on the way.’
    ‘I’d better have dinner with Dad,’ I said. ‘He’s in a bit of a state at the moment.’ That was sort of true.
    Al nodded slowly. ‘All right. I’ll drop you home.’
    He grabbed his keys in the kitchen, and when we were out in the driveway, before we got to the car, he touched my shoulder and I paused.
    ‘You know you can talk to me, right? About what happened on Saturday.’
    ‘Oh God,’ I groaned. ‘Everyone has said that, Al. It’s okay. I’m fine.’
    ‘I mean it,’ he said, and his voice was thick with concern.
    I felt sick: sick of myself mainly, for reasons that were unclear. ‘Thanks,’ I managed.
    I trust Al. I trust True. I trust my dad, even though I’m pissed off at him and Mr Carr. But I’m not ready to talk to them yet. I don’t know whether I will ever be ready to talk to them. I dodn’t know if it would help.
    Sometimes I argue with myself in my head, a sure sign of insanity, I bet. One voice says: There’s nothing worse than keeping it to yourself—tell someone! Tell anyone!
    The other voice is calmer, sounds more like me. Because of this, I trust it. It says: They don’t need to know. Protect them from having to know about you being sick. They don’t have to pity you, they don’t have to lie awake and