The Chaos by Rachel Ward Read Free Book Online

fifty, a hundred, two hundred miles away this evening, anywhere in the UK. I’ve got the money. I could do it.
    That’s it. I need to get to Paddington.
    Not knowing exactly where I am doesn’t help. I’ll have to risk it – go back to the main road and get another bus. Mum won’t call the police until at least six, will she? And by then, I could be away.
    Yes, Paddington’s the place.
    Back on the main road I don’t have to wait long for a bus. I pull my collar up even though I know it won’t make a difference, and keep my face turned to the floor. I make it toPaddington station, buy a bottle of Coke and try and suss out where the scanners are, find a place where I can look at the departure board, work out where to go, but not be seen. But of course I am seen. As I check it all out, I notice that I’m being watched. 
    A bloke comes up to me.
    ‘You new round here? Need somewhere to stay?’
    ‘No,’ I say, ‘I’m fine. I’m waiting for a friend.’ 
    He looks me up and down and smiles.
    ‘I can be your friend.’
    He’s standing too close to me now. He’s in my face.
    ‘No,’ I say again. ‘I’m all right.’
    ‘Come on,’ he says, ‘it’s not a nice place to be on your own.’ I can smell him now, cheap aftershave fighting with the booze on his breath.
    ‘Fuck off and leave me alone,’ I say, the words braver than I feel. I walk across the concourse, not thinking about the scanners any more, just wanting to get away from him.
    I need to buy a ticket, get on a train, get away from here. I’m not sure where, that’s all. Where I should go. There’s a girl standing near the ticket office. She’s not much older than me. Leather jacket, studs all round the edge of her ear. She’s watched me walking over, making my getaway from the sleaze that was chatting me up.
    I stop and take a swig of Coke.
    ‘They’re sick, aren’t they?’ the girl says.
    ‘Who?’
    ‘The blokes here. Think they can hit on you just ’cause you’re on your own. Wankers.’
    ‘Yeah,’ I say. I hold the bottle out towards her.
    ‘Ta,’ she says, and takes a swig.
    ‘You on your way somewhere?’
    ‘Yeah, out of London.’
    ‘Somewhere good?’
    ‘Anywhere.’
    ‘They’ll ask for ID when you buy a ticket, you know.’
    ‘Oh.’ I didn’t know.
    ‘If you need somewhere to go, I’ve got a flat. You could stay for a couple of days, ’til you get sorted. There’s the sofa …’
    ‘Really?’
    She nods.
    ‘Yeah, course. Been where you are myself. Know what it’s like. You need somewhere to get started. Somewhere safe.’
    I don’t know her. I don’t know where her flat is. But I like her, her attitude. She’s the same as me, she said it herself.
    ‘Well, just for a couple of days …’
    ‘Just for a couple of days.’
    She hands the Coke bottle back to me.
    ‘Meg, by the way,’ she says.
    ‘Sarah.’
    ‘Come on,’ she says. ‘Let’s get out of this meat market.’
    And I follow her through the station. We’re swallowed up in the crowd, hundreds, thousands of people around us, but it’s okay because I’m not on my own any more.
    I’ve got a contact, someone who knows the ropes, and I’ve got somewhere to go.

Chapter 11: Adam
    S he’s disappeared.
    I go to school the next day really psyched. I’m going to find her and talk to her. I can’t wait. But she don’t turn up, not that day or the next one. I start asking people about her – other kids in her tutor group, but no one knows where she is. No one knows much about her at all.
    It’s doing my head in. The connection between us – that electricity – it’s all I can think about. Lying in bed at night, I feel her hand on my face and I break out into a sweat. I didn’t dream it. It was real, just like the ache in my balls is real when I think about seeing her, holding her, touching her …
    It’s so unfair. The only person in that school to get me, to see me for who I am, and now she’s gone.
    ‘Where’s your girlfriend