Winter of Discontent (Four Seasons Book 1) by T.S. Harvey Read Free Book Online Page A

in at home was only slightly less boring than being stuck in the hospital. Day three, however, bought a little light relief when there came a knock at the door. I have to say I was more than a little shocked to open it and see Erik stood there.
     
    ‘Hi. I … erm … I heard about the accident. I have a free period so I thought I’d come see how you are.’
    ‘Oh … erm … right, OK, wanna come in?’ I stammered, almost as clumsily as he had.
    Erik smiled and just nodded before following me into the lounge.
    The first few minutes were really awkward. Polite phrases like, ‘So how are you feeling?’, ‘Does it hurt?’ You know what I mean; no threat to Jay Leno that’s for sure.
    ‘It doesn’t hurt that much really. Have I missed anything at school? Any gossip?’ I said cheerily, trying to keep things light.
    Erik raised his eyebrows at this, almost in disapproval.
    ‘I’m sorry, that was a bit shallow. It’s just this is a bit weird, you know, after the photo and all.’
    ‘Would you rather I went?’
    ‘No. No. Not at all.’
    Erik was the only visitor I’d had all week. Aunt Suze was out the house by 6.30 a.m. and not back ’til around almost 4 p.m. I’d exhausted my DVD collection, and daytime movies weren’t up to much, not unless you’re into the whole ‘Who will love my children’ genre. I took a deep breath; I needed to try to rescue this somehow.
    ‘Shall we start over? Hi, I’m Sarah,’ I said, smiling as I held out my hand.
    You could have cut the air with a knife as I waited what must have been an hour for his response; well actually it was probably more like three seconds but you know how painful these pauses can be.
    ‘Erik Zauber, pleased to meet you.’ He grinned broadly as he took my hand. ‘I’m not sure this is any less weird but hey, it beats the hell out of homework!’
    We both laughed, loudly and genuinely. His laughter was infectious, I hadn’t noticed that before. His eyes were a dark bluey-gray and they lit up his face almost as much as his smile. Surely this wasn’t the same geek that had blanked me on my first day? The guy sat on the chair opposite me was attractive. No, it was more than that; he was hot, really hot. As he started to tell more about what he liked, about his brother, his favourite films, favourite bands I couldn’t help but let my mind wander. His voice was almost hypnotic, soothing, I started to imagine what it would be like if we got to know each better, if we dated even.
    ‘So? What do you think?’
    ‘I’m sorry, think about what?’
    He smiled back at me, but not mocking like before, ‘Pizza? Saturday?’
    ‘Oh. Sorry, I can’t. I promised to visit Kacey. She’s not been well.’
    ‘Right. Of course. No problem.’
    If I hadn’t looked so closely at his eyes earlier on and seen how the light danced in them when he smiled I never would have realised just how disappointed he was. He shrugged off my ‘no’ of course but his eyes betrayed him.
    ‘We could go over to Mainland Park on Sunday though if you’re not doing anything. Apparently they have a great burger van there.’
    The light returned almost instantaneously.
    ‘Yeah, that’ll be great. I’ll call round for you about 1 p.m.’
    As he walked down the path toward the road my mind went back to that damn photo. How the hell could I have done that to such a great guy? And how the hell did I get into such a state? I wanted to talk that through with him but how could I? I didn’t want to go backwards, remind him of how much of an idiot I’d been. No, I’d say nothing, after all I knew I’d have enough coming to me from the girls when I went back to school. ‘What the fuck, dating a geek, not cool’ – I could almost hear Britney’s cursing tones but I didn’t care. He’d been the only one to call round to see if I was OK. I’d been surprised when he’d turned up out of the blue but I’d been even more surprised by how well we’d gotten on; he was no longer the