Page 60 of Butterfly

Ollie shook his head. “Of course not. And you don’t hate me?”

Leo shook his head. “No, never.”

It was one thing to read the words in a letter but another to hear them in person. Maggie dabbed her eyes with a tissue while watching their embrace. When Leo pulled away and retook his seat, Ollie scratched the back of his head, eyeing his auntie. He didn’t know whether to try to hug her, didn’t particularly want to, but didn’t want to be rude.

She seemed to understand and patted the seat in front of her. “Come sit.”

Ollie exhaled, striding around the table.

He sat down on a blue chair, not knowing quite what to say but knowing what hedidn’twant to talk about.

“You look really good,” Ollie said to his brother.

And it was true. They both had blond hair and brown eyes, but Leo’s hair looked vibrant, healthy. Ollie remembered him with paler skin and bags under his dull eyes. He remembered him skinny, with tatty clothes and scuffed-up shoes.

That wasn’t the Leo in front of him. This Leobeamed. His clothes fit. He had product in his hair. He smelled of aftershave.

“Except the tash.”

Leo slapped a hand to his lips. “It doesn’t look that bad. It matures me.”

“The hairs look like pubes.”

Maggie chuckled before excusing herself and gesturing to the tuck shop by the door.

Ollie barely noticed her leave, too transfixed staring at his brother. “Is that…is that an earring?”

Leo nodded, flicking the gold hoop in his left lobe. “Does it suit me?”

“More than the caterpillar that’s crawled over your top lip.”

Leo cocked his head. “You look good too.”

“Me?”

“Yeah, you look…”

Leo looked Ollie up and down, lost for words before deciding on ‘really good’.

Ollie smirked. “How articulate.”

“Oooh, fancy words.” Leo sniggered. “But you’re…smiling. I can’t remember the last time I saw you smile.”

“I’m happy,” Ollie admitted. He ducked his head. “You should’ve seen me an hour ago. I was a sweaty mess, almost to the point of hyperventilating into a bag.”

“I was the same on the drive here.” Leo gestured to the half-drunk cup of orange juice on the table. “Maggie got me that. She thought I might pass out if I didn’t get something down me. I didn’t eat anything this morning.”

“Me neither.”

Leo smiled, then glanced around the room. “So this isn’t at all what I thought prison would be like… It’s very colourful.”

“It’s like this through the whole prison. My cell has giant daisies on the walls, and I sleep on a waterbed.”

“Really?”

Ollie snorted. “No, not really.”

Leo shuffled in his chair, looking affronted. “Well, I don’t know.”

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