Page 219 of Save You
Stunned, I look from James to Cyril and back again.“What?”I whisper.
James doesn’t respond.He’s just staring at Cyril, who is standing there, head aslant, hands deep in his pockets.
“Go on.Tell her,” he insists.
“What the fuck are you talking about, Cyril?”I ask, digging my fingers into James’s arm.
Cyril raises a challenging eyebrow.“Ask him, Ruby.Ask him who took the photos.”
I look back at James as he stands there motionless.
“James?”I whisper.
As I say his name, he seems to come out of his stupor.He turns to me and gulps hard.
I look into his eyes.
Panic rises up inside me.
This can’t be true.
“Who took those photos?”
James is breathing faster now too.He slowly raises a hand as if to touch me but doesn’t dare.“It’s not like…”
“Who, James?”
James opens his mouth, then shuts it.He pinches his eyes together and I see him swallow.Once.Twice.
When he opens his eyes again, it feels like someone has stabbed me in the chest.
“He’s right, Ruby.”
The ground beneath my feet shatters into millions of tiny shards.
“I took the photos.”
And I’m falling.
Epilogue
Ember
I feel like a traitor.
My gaze darts to the clock, to the counter and the barista behind it, to my cappuccino, and back to the café door.Then the cycle begins again.And again.
Every minute seems to pass more slowly than the one before.
I’ve missed a whole period of school now.I’ve never felt this guilty before, not even when Mum caught me pinching a scone from the counter in the bakery after she’d said I couldn’t have one.
But this is a million times worse.This time, I’m doing something really wrong.
The excitement builds and I can hardly keep still.I fidget in my chair, wondering if the cappuccino was a bad idea.I don’t drink much coffee, really, but I got so little sleep last night, I thought the caffeine would do me good.Probably would have been better off without.
Ten more minutes.
I ask myself if I can hold out.I think about packing up my stuff, getting up, and walking out, only to reappear in thirteenminutes like I’ve only just arrived.But even I think that’s a bit over-the-top.
