The Marbury Lens by Andrew Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

plastic-mannequin business guy who you’d see on an airplane.
    “Going to London all alone?” he persisted.
    “I’m on my way to school. In Kent.” My voice sounded detached, like someone else was answering for me.
    “Oh,” he said. “Your friend’s not coming along?”
    “Next Monday.”
    Go away.
    I looked around, hoping for an empty seat there in business class. All of them were taken. I pretended I was trying to sleep.
    “Well, you guys are going to have a lot of fun.”
    Something about the way he’d said it made me start to feel angry. I knew what he was getting at.
    He went on, “I have an office in London. If it’s your first time there, I’d be happy to show you around to all the exciting spots this weekend.” He stuck his hand out. “My name’s Gary.”
    I didn’t shake his hand.
    He leaned closer, half-whispered, “I know the best clubs. You know what I mean.”
    I whispered back, “Leave me the fuck alone.” I plugged my headphones into my cell phone, turned away from Gary , and shut my eyes.
    It was going to be a long flight.
    I woke up four hours later when the flight attendant asked me what I wanted for dinner. Gary had his hand under my blanket, rubbing my leg. He’d been trying to unbutton my fly.
    And I thought, Why is this happening to me? I wasn’t sure what the attendant had asked me, so I just said a quick yes, and then I lowered my tray, looked Gary straight in the face, and said clearly enough for the closest ten people to hear: “If you don’t get your goddamned hand off my crotch, I’ll fucking kill you.”
    Gary jerked his hand out and turned his eyes forward, pretending he didn’t know anything about what was going on. The stewardess looked worried, maybe a little scared. She backed away from her cart without serving either of us any food, and went to the front of the cabin, taking a quick look through the curtain that separated us from first class.
    Gary cleared his throat and fidgeted nervously with his tray.
    If I could have jumped out the window, I would have done it. I tried thinking about Conner, about meeting him in a few days, about having fun again; but I kept running myself back to Freddie’s house, tied to that bed—and then seeing him all twisted up in the middle of the road.
    Panic.
    I felt like I was going to black out, do something really crazy. I remember shrinking back into the corner of my seat, wondering why the hell I’d gotten on this goddamned plane in the first place, convinced I would never make it through the next two weeks. Gary pushed the serving cart up the aisle and retreated behind me to the toilet. I watched the red OCCUPIED sign light up above the bulkhead.
    The flight attendant came back. Her eyes were soft and focused on me.
    “Sweetie, there’s an empty seat up in first class,” she said. “Let’s grab your things and you come up there with me. Would that be okay?”
    I nodded.
    “Okay.”
    For the entire flight, it felt like I was still on those drugs Freddie gave me. I didn’t watch the movies; and slept a couple of times through the shortened night and into the next morning.
    I never dreamed.
    I never saw Gary again, either. The flight crew managed to get me off the airplane ahead of everyone else and I raced down the endless corridors at Heathrow so I could disappear into the masses of people waiting to get passport stamps in the enormous arrivals hall.
    And after I’d picked up my backpack, I had to walk through the customs area, a gauntlet of eyes where uniformed men watched me, maybe looking for the telltale indication that something wasn’t right about this pale kid showing up all alone. And how could they miss it? I felt so lost, like nothing made sense, so I kept my eyes fixed on a yellow sign with an arrow on it that said WAY OUT TO TRAINS , and concentrated on making my feet move toward it, afraid to look back, afraid to stop.
    God , I felt so sick.
    This is when it started falling apart.
    I know that