Page 10 of Save Us
I nod and let go of his hand.
James turns to Wren. “The others don’t know yet. Please don’t tell anyone that she’s pregnant.”
Wren nods briefly.
Then James walks down the steps and joins Lydia in the car. Percy shuts the door and walks round to the driver’s side. For a split second, our eyes meet over the back of the Rolls-Royce. Percy looks every bit as sad as I feel.
Then he gets in too and starts the engine. I watch the red rearlights until they’ve vanished through the gate, my pulse racing furiously.
“Shit,” says Wren.
All I can do is nod silently.
We stand there a few minutes longer, staring in that direction, long after the Rolls has driven away. Then Wren sighs.
“Come on,” he says, “let’s think about something else.”
Alistair
Training is shite today. Neither Wren nor Cyril puts in an appearance, and neither of them lets the coach know, so he’s pissed off. He barks orders at us and has us running around like headless chickens, and once the ninety minutes are finally up, I’m dripping with sweat and thanking my lucky stars that it’s over. All I want to do is get my water bottle from the bench, but I don’t get far.
One of the new lads barges into me from the side. He catches me so unawares that I almost fall, only just steadying myself in time. I glare at him, and he just glares angrily back. This is the last thing I need. I take a threatening step toward him.
“Got a problem, Kenton?” I inquire.
“It’s thanks to your fucking pals that Freeman was acting like that today,” he snarls, spitting on the ground by my feet.
“And that’s my fault because…?”
“You can make sure it doesn’t happen again. Some of us actually take this game seriously, you know.”
With that, he stomps off toward the changing room. It’s a real effort not to run after him and show him what I think ofimpudence like that. I grit my teeth and rip open the Velcro on my gloves. I pull them off and shove them in the pockets of my joggers.
Despite myself, my eyes roam over to the goal, where Kesh is picking up the balls and putting them away in a crate.
Any other time, I’d have gone to rant at him. Kesh has the ability to calm me down in situations like this, just by listening to me.
When Kesh listens, you feel taken seriously. He’s calm and chill, and his advice is always sound. That’s one of the things I’ve always liked best about him, especially as I’m the total opposite—quick-tempered and impulsive. We balance each other out perfectly, which is another reason Kesh has been my best friend for as long as I can remember.
Used to be, I correct myself.
Keshused to bemy best friend.
Sometimes I wonder if I should never have got involved with him. Maybe that would have saved our friendship. But then I think back on what we’ve had together and feel an echo of the tingle and the emotions that he stirred up in me.
But we’re over and I can’t see any way of unmaking that mistake. After Kesh had a go at my brother a few weeks ago, things escalated between us. I told Kesh that I didn’t want to go on the way we were and that I couldn’t carry on acting like just friends at school when, anytime it was just the two of us, we were more like an item. That I wanted to be able to kiss him in public, to hold his hand when we were out with the lads. And that, if he couldn’t give me that, then I wanted to go back to the place we were a year ago. I wanted to be best friends again. Just best friends. And nothing more.
Kesh’s answer was a calm “sure,” and while that felt like a slap in the face, it also gave me hope that we could at least give our friendship a second chance now that things were finally cleared up.
But however hard we try to act natural around each other, since then nothing’s felt like it used to do. There’s something between us that I just can’t ignore, and the more time I spend with Kesh, the stronger it gets.
Or the longer I stare at him—I absolutely have to stop that.
I turn my eyes away and walk to the edge of the field, where my bag is lying on a bench. I pick up my water bottle with one hand and pull out my phone with the other. Wren has messaged.
Help! Can Ruby and I come over? There’s some shit going down at the Beauforts’ and we need a change of scene.
“Fuck,” I mutter. This is just what I need.
