Page 7 of Summer at Harbour View House
‘Wow, that was quick.’
‘Yes, I know. Look, I’m sorry, but I didn’t know who else to ask. You know me so well, after all. I need a place to crash. Brad just kicked me out.’
3
A Stunning Revelation and an Unexpected Offer
The bed wasn’t reallybig enough for them both, but Hannah was petite enough that after she had cried herself to sleep, Natasha was able to shove her close enough to the wall side that she could lie down. Hannah had an annoying habit of sleeping in a fetal position, and whatever nightmares she was having about the end of her relationship with Brad were causing her to jerk her knees forward, knocking Natasha in the back. In the end, she forewent a pillow in order to squeeze it between them, making do with a rolled-up bath towel instead.
Then, lying in the half-dark that was the best hotels ever seemed to offer these days with their thin curtains and nightlights that never went out, she tried to sleep.
When she came out of the shower the next morning, she found Hannah sitting up in the bed, her knees bunched up, a pile of bedsheets cascading over them like the aftermath of an exorcism.
‘I’m so sorry to have imposed on you like that,’ Hannah said. ‘I didn’t know where else to go. My best friend was at spinning class and my mother hates me calling after seven p.m.’
‘That’s all right,’ Natasha forced herself to say. ‘That’s what … friends are for.’
Hannah brightened up. Even with her hair a frizzy mess and her makeup smeared, she looked gorgeous, like a young Helena Bonham-Carter modelling for a punk magazine.
‘I’ll be out of your hair by this afternoon,’ Hannah said. ‘Once I find a place to stay.’
‘I can’t believe Brad kicked you out. I mean, you’d only been there what, a day?’
‘Twenty-seven hours,’ Hannah said. ‘He got upset because I did a little bit of reorganising in the kitchen and I threw away some out-of-date cans. He told me I was taking over his life, that I was too controlling.’ She gripped two clumps of her hair and rocked back and forth as though trying to roll herself upside down. ‘I love him so much! My life is over!’
‘It’s really not,’ Natasha said.
‘How would you know?’
‘I’ve been dumped,’ she said, turning around the desk chair and sitting down. ‘Three times, actually.’
‘How did you survive?’ wailed Hannah. ‘I feel like giving my life to the cloth.’
Natasha sighed. ‘Don’t worry, you’re not convent-bound just yet. Give it a few days.’
‘I don’t know if I can. I’m not strong and independent like you.’
Natasha rolled her eyes. ‘You mean, old and single?’
‘You’re not that old.’
Natasha smiled. ‘One too many words in that sentence. Look, I’ve got to go to work. It’s the last week of term, and I have to finish up a couple of units in the textbook and then take out my frustration by lumping my Fourth Years with summer homework. You just take it easy. Watch the TV or something.’
‘I’ll be gone when you get back, I promise.’
She wasn’t. She had tidied up a little, but when Natasha came in from work that evening, Hannah was sitting on the bed, watching a shopping channel. As she noticed Natasha, she scrambled up, attempting to straighten bedsheets that hadn’t been made, brushed the crumbs of some crispy snack on to the floor, and gave Natasha a guilty grin.
‘Er … hi. Yeah, I’m still here. I know I said I wouldn’t be, but I think I’m depressed. I don’t want to be homeless. Living under a bridge with all those smelly bearded people in duffel coats. You know, I’ve never tasted Special Brew. Is it bad?’
‘I’ve only ever drunk it once. Not many people drink it twice.’
‘Oh … were you once homeless?’
‘A teenager. You know, what you were not that long ago.’
Hannah’s face crumbled. Even apparently heartbroken she still looked like she was faking it for a fashion magazine shoot.
‘I’m so naïve … I thought we were going to live happily ever after.’
