Page 43 of Seven Letters

‘You humiliated yourself,’ Zach snapped. ‘And what is he doing here?’

‘He came to help me.’

‘What? Help you start a fire? I’m sure you could have managed that all on your own. You just like to have Shocko around as your adoring lapdog.’

‘I’m no lapdog, dude. I came because she’s my best mate and you treated her badly. She deserves better.’

‘If Riley has something to say, she can say it to me alone.’

Riley turned to Shocko and motioned for him to wait on the road.

‘Thanks for making a big mess in my garden. Jesus, Riley, if you wanted to talk to me, you should have just called.’

‘Why Zoë?’

‘Because she gets it. She gets my passion for the high jump because she feels the same way about the hurdles.’

Riley rolled her eyes. ‘She doesn’t give a shit about hurdles. She’s just pretending so you’ll like her.’

‘She’s actually amazing at the hurdles. She’s number four in Ireland. The hurdles are actually a really –’

‘Screw the hurdles!’ Riley threw her hands into the air. ‘I don’t want to talk about the bloody hurdles. I’m sorry you feel I mocked you, but you really hurt me at that party, Zach. It was not cool.’

Zach put his hands in his pockets and shrugged. ‘Well, you hurt me.’

‘Are you going out with her now?’

‘Dunno, kind of.’

‘Do you like her?’ Riley swallowed tears.

‘We have a lot in common. It’s easy.’

‘But you said you liked me because I was different. You said Zoë and those blonde, perma-tanned girls were ridiculous.’

‘I do like you cos you’re different, but it’s just easier with Zoë. I was wrong about her and her friends. They’re actually pretty cool.’

‘Cool?’ Riley snorted. ‘Are you having a laugh?’

Zach looked at her. ‘Yes, actually, I am having a laugh. We laugh all the time. She’s not like you, Riley. She doesn’t question everything and take things so seriously and bang on about gun control in America and equality and feminism and religion being a scam and all the stuff you obsess about. She just wants to have fun.’

‘Oh, my actual God, can you hear yourself? So that’s what you want! To be with someone who is happy all the fucking time, like a puppy! Zoë laughs all the time because she has nothing to say. She has nothing to say because she has a brain the size of a pea. She thought Gandhi was a rapper. A rapper!’

‘So what?’ Zach stamped out the remaining embers of burned things with his boots.

‘Are you kidding me? Do you really want to go out with someone who is that stupid?’

‘Maybe I do. It’s better than going out with someone who keeps giving me books aboutLeaning Inand stuff by Maya Angeline, or whatever her name is. Maybe I want to lean the hell out.’

‘It’s Maya Angelou and fuck you. You said you liked me knowing so much about women’s rights and history.’

‘Well, I lied. In the beginning it was OK, but then it all got way too intense and preachy. I’m sixteen. I want to have fun with my girlfriend, not a lecture.’

Riley pushed him back with both hands. ‘Enjoy your life with Zoë and her pea brain.’

Zach poked her in the chest. ‘I will, thank you.’

‘I hate you.’

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