Page 58 of Love at First Sight

‘I’ll make sure you get in safe,’ he says. ‘I hope he’s okay.’

‘I really appreciate this,’ I tell him. ‘I really am sorry if—’

Cal puts his hand over mine, holding my fingers as he cuts me off: ‘It’s fine. You don’t have to be sorry about a single thing. Okay?’

‘I hope you guys can fix it.’

Cal blinks.

‘Do you?’ he says.

I look at him, unable to lie and yet unwilling to tell the truth.

Cal nods as if that’s all the confirmation he needs, and the conversation is over. I get out and close the car door as quietly as I can so as not to wake the neighbours, bending down to wave goodbye through the window. Cal raises his hand in response.

The light is on in Dad’s front room, a bright postage stamp in an otherwise dark road. If it seems unusual that he hasn’t drawn the blinds, after I pass through the front gate, I understand why: he’s passed out on the sofa, an almost-empty bottle of Jack Daniel’s beside him. It’s then I remember I don’t have his house key: it’s back at my house, and my house keys are in Ali’s kitchen. Urgh. Ilightly rap on the window to try to rouse Dad, but I don’t think a marching band in the front room would be able to wake him.

‘Everything all right?’

I jump.

‘Cal, you scared me!’ I whisper. ‘Jesus!’

‘Sorry. I was trying not to wake the neighbours. Are you locked out?’

I gesture to the window and Cal takes a look. ‘Ah,’ he says. ‘Right.’

‘Yeah. And I don’t have my key.’

‘Breaking and entering?’ he suggests.

‘Gonna have to be,’ I say. ‘Come on, round the back. I used to sneak out that way all the time when I was a teenager. It never occurred to me that one day I’d be gagging to sneakin.’

Because the houses on Dad’s road are terraced, the way to the back means walking halfway down the street so we can double back on ourselves around the rear, which is a good five-minute walk.

‘Were you a naughty teen then?’ Cal asks as we navigate the dark pavements.

‘Me?’ I say. ‘Naughty? Nooooo.’ I’m smiling, though. He knows I’m kidding. ‘All right,’ I admit. ‘Maybe a little. I smoked and drank when Dad was out at work, messed about with my mates, that sort of thing. I don’t think anyone would have cared if I’d kept my grades up, but they slipped a bit.’

‘Good grades aren’t everything,’ Cal says.

‘Spoken like a regular C-student,’ I tease.

‘Bs, really,’ he counters. ‘But I was a terrible teenager. I didn’t rebel, didn’t go out and do stupid things.’

‘Really!’ I say. ‘You were a good boy, then?’

‘Chronically uncool,’ he replies. ‘If I’d smoked and drank and had sex, it would only have been with myself.’

‘Awww. I can’t imagine you as uncool. Everyone wants to know you.’

‘I don’t know about that.’

‘I do,’ I say. We reach Dad’s back gate, and I have to hop up onto a ledge in the wood of it so I can reach over and unlock it. I do it on the first try, and get down to swing the thing open.

‘Smoothly done,’ Cal whispers. ‘My compliments.’

‘You haven’t seen anything yet.’

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