Hacked by Tracy Alexander Read Free Book Online Page B

’un like that,’ said Dot with a big belly laugh.
    ‘Actually, he’s solar powered,’ said Ruby. ‘Works fine as long as I keep him outside.’
    ‘I thought he was a wind-up,’ said Ted.
    Everyone laughed again.
    ‘Leave the lad alone,’ said Isaac. ‘The poor boy’s not a radio, he’s —’
    Ruby interrupted. ‘Nothing like as useful as that.’
    I’m not saying it was the wittiest banter, but it was nice. They really liked her, and she liked them.
    Ruby had made us a picnic – peanut butter sandwiches, salt and vinegar crisps, apples and Ribena. It was like days out with my gran and grandad, sitting in the fresh air, wrapped up warm, fiddling with sticks and chatting.
    ‘What is it this week, then, Ruby? Black Forest gateau?’ asked Ted.
    ‘
You’re
the wind-up merchant,’ said Dot. ‘You shouldn’t take things for granted. She might not bring one, one day.’
    Ruby had already reached into her rucksack and brought out a tupperware.
    ‘She’s a wonderful girl,’ whispered Isaac. ‘Always brings a cake.’
    ‘Always a Victoria sponge,’ said Ruby. ‘I don’t know how to make anything else.’
    ‘You can’t beat jam and cream,’ said Dot.
    ‘I didn’t know you could bake,’ I said.
    ‘Nothing our Ruby can’t do,’ said Ted, taking a huge bite and losing most of it.
    It tasted delicious. Everything did that day.
    In the afternoon I helped Isaac cut back some of the trees and bushes while Ruby did some bramble bashing. She was wearing a faded grey fleece and old jeans and walking boots, but she didn’t look drab because her cheeks were pink and her freckles orange and her hair shining, and her smile …
    ‘We’re very fond of Ruby,’ said Isaac.
    I felt like I was talking to her dad, asking for her hand in marriage.
    ‘I am too.’
    He nodded – I think I’d passed the first test.
    On the way home, listening to them all going on, I was a tiny bit flummoxed by how much I’d enjoyed the day, and how much I really did like her and how much I wanted all the oldies to like
me
. It wasn’t a typical date,but that was the thing with Ruby. It wasn’t like being with anyone else.
    The first week we hung out between lessons, went to the café and ate cake after school, and, on Friday, went to the cinema. In the dark I finally got round to kissing her – it was so different from Soraya’s sticky pink lips. Ruby’s mouth was simply a better fit all round. She came over to my house the second week and stayed to eat, and as that went surprisingly well, she came a lot more. I went to hers once, straight from school. Never again.
    Her mum came into the hall to say hello.
    ‘You must be Dan,’ she said. No handshake. No smile.
    ‘Hello,’ I said. And then, because it was a bit awkward, ‘Pleased to meet you.’
    ‘And you,’ she said. Tight lips. Nasty blue dress.
    She managed to look
only
at Ruby, which was clever given how close to each other we were standing, and say, ‘Supper’s at six-thirty so …’
    ‘Dan’ll be gone by then.’
    Ruby turned to go up the stairs.
    ‘Stay downstairs, please, Ruby,’ she said.
    Did I look like a rabid animal about to attack her daughter?
    ‘Mum!’
    Ruby’s mum made a face that looked like constipation to me but presumably meant something to Ruby, who took my hand and led me into the room with the funny frosted glass door.
    ‘Am I the first boy you’ve brought home?’ I asked.
    ‘Yes, and I won’t be tempted again,’ she said.
    We watched telly, with Ruby’s mum popping her head in every few minutes.
    ‘Is she always like this?’ I asked.
    ‘You mean like a guard dog?’ said Ruby, making her hands pretend to be cocked ears. That made me laugh. A lot of things she did made me laugh.
    ‘Overprotective,’ I said, trying to be diplomatic.
    ‘Only child in a single-parent family, what hope is there?’ said Ruby.
    She gave me the shorthand version of how her dad ended up living in Scotland.
    ‘… Dad couldn’t breathe without