Page 45 of Real Rocks
“Saff!” A familiar voice cut through the air. I turned to see Annie and Col walking towards me.
“Um, hi. What are you doing here?” I dropped my unfinished cigarette to the floor and ground it out with my heel.
Annie enveloped me in a hug. I caught a strong whiff of her perfume, something cloying and overpowering. I tried not to cough as the sickly scent hit my nostrils.
She released me. “We’ve been speaking with Tris’ lawyer, the one your cousin arranged, and he suggested we come up.”
“Set off at some ungodly hour to beat the traffic on the motorway.” Col rolled his eyes. “Which we would have done if someone didn’t need to stop at every service station on the way.”
Annie elbowed Col in the ribs. “It’s the nerves, Col. I’ve never been to court before.”
“Me either,” I added, not sure why I felt the need to mention it.
Darren arrived with coffees for me and him. “Oh, sorry, should I have got some more?”
“Don’t worry, love, I’ve had enough coffee to float a ship this morning. I’ll be fine.” Annie beamed at him.
“Col?” I asked.
Tris’ uncle shook his head, unsmiling. I guessed they’d been in this situation before, waiting to find out what was going to happen to their nephew.
“How are you, Saff?” Annie turned her attention to me, lightly squeezing my arm. “It must have been awful witnessing the fight.”
I wondered exactly how much she knew. Did she know about me taking heroin? Did she know why Carl had been at the gig the other night? Had she seen the pictures onThe Goss?
As the questions ran through my head, I forced myself to act naturally and answer. “It was pretty frightening.” Flashbacks of Tris and Carl throwing punches at each other clouded my vision and I shook my head. “I know Tris was only doing it to protect me though.”
“Of course, he was, why wouldn’t he?” She rubbed my forearm, a sympathetic smile forming. “And you told the police, didn’t you?”
On autopilot, I nodded. “I honestly hope he doesn’t hate me.” The words came out without thought, even though I knew they were the truth.
“Christ, Saff. He wouldn’t hate you,” said Darren. “You’ve seen the lengths he’ll go to just to look after you.”
Annie nodded. “Exactly, why would he?”
Her tone didn’t do much to quell my anxiety.
The four of us stood awkwardly, not speaking for a few moments. It was still too early to go inside. I desperately wanted some time to myself, to be alone before I saw Tris in court, but it didn’t seem as if that would be possible. Annie would probably follow me if I went to the toilet.
The uncomfortable silence was broken by my phone ringing.
“Shit, I need to turn that to silent before we go in.” I tried to make a joke as I scrabbled in my bag. It was a London number and, if I wasn’t mistaken, looked like it could be the record label. I just missed picking up the call. “Oh well, I guess they’ll leave a message if it’s important.” I dropped the phone back into the depths of my bag, only to hear the notification I had voicemail. “Excuse me, I should probably get this.” Stepping away from the others, I listened to the message, my body turning cold. As soon as I’d heard enough, I dialled Jonas straight away.
He answered immediately. “You got the call then?”
“You knew?”
“I probably found out at the same time you did. Adrian called me as well.”
“What are we going to do?”
“You’re going to get your ass on a train and get down to London as soon as you can.”
“But Tris will be in court in a minute. I need to see him. Can’t I wait?”
Jonas huffed down the line. “Your choice, Saff. I don’t think I can save you this time if you don’t go.”
I took a moment to glance over at Darren, who was making polite conversation with Col and Annie.
