Peppermint Kiss by Kelly McKain Read Free Book Online Page B

narrowed my eyes at her.
    She smiled wanly and took a tissue from the box, then dabbed at her running mascara and blew her nose. Then she looked right into my eyes, and she suddenly seemed so small and vulnerable. She still looked like Saff, but completely different too. “It will be okay, won’t it, Abbie?” she asked.
    I suddenly felt like the big sister.
    What could I say? I just nodded, put my arm round her and squeezed her tight. But I couldn’t get rid of the horrible churning feeling in my stomach. I mean, seriously, how
would
it be okay? There was no money for the rent, and time was running out. So I’d made some friends at my new school, but what was the point of that if I’d have to leave again next week?
    I wondered what happens when you get chucked out on the street and you finally, actually, have
nothing
– no money and absolutely nowhere to go (and no car to go there in). Would they put us in a dodgy B&B somewhere that was even worse than the flat? I imagined a scary place with loud music and banging doors and people drinking and taking drugs.
    Would we be split up? Would I have to move schools again? For a moment I thought of saying all that to Saff, to give her a reality check about her problem of not having the latest designer clothes. But I knew it wouldn’t help. She was freaking out enough already. And I knew there was no point in me thinking about any of that either until it happened –
if
it happened.
    So instead I picked up a welly. “Bet I can beat your throw,” I said, hurling it into the road. It went just past hers.
    â€œNo way! Right, rematch!” she cried.
    So we gathered up the wellies and shared them out fairly (i.e. we each got one of Dad’s big, heavy ones) and took turns flinging them as hard as we could. When I picked up Dad’s one I felt a bit sad for a moment, and wondered where he was, and what he was doing, and whether he was slipping around in the mud somewhere and needing them. Then I just felt really angry with him and threw the welly so hard, Saff cried, “Jeez, Abs, mind that parked car!”
    After a while, all the wellies were in the road, and we’d been glared at by several passers-by, but at least my sister was smiling.
    â€œJelly baby?” I said, offering her the half-finished packet of sweets. That made us both giggle. A couple of ladies walked past just then and I realized what we must look like – two girls sitting on the pavement on a picnic blanket, eating jelly babies and having some kind of welly-throwing competition. “I thought the people were weird round here but they’re nothing compared to us,” I said.
    Saff hugged me. “I don’t think I could get through this without you, Abs,” she said. “You’re so strong.”
    That was nice of her. But for some reason it just made me feel really, really sick.
    A little later, we tumbled into the flat, me with the picnic blanket like a sack over my shoulder with all the wellies in, like a really rubbish Father Christmas. Saff was clutching the tissue box and other bits. Grace was studying at the kitchen table and Mum was kneeling on the (now spotless) kitchen counter giving the window such a good clean that I said, “Are you trying to wipe the glass actually
off
?”
    She smiled grimly. “No, I just thought it would be nice if we could see through it.”
    â€œI waited at the gate for you,” Grace said to me.
    â€œYeah, sorry, I got held up,” I replied, trying to keep my voice normal and not think about standing by my locker for ages like a lemon, hoping for another coffee invite from Marco that never came.
    I let the blanket fall open and all the wellies clumped out onto the floor.
    Grace looked up at last. “Why are you bringing those in?” she asked. “It’s June. Surely it’s better to leave them in the car? There’s nowhere to put anything in this place.”
    Saff