Page 25 of Everything That Kills Me
“Was the house a wreck after the party?” Jack asked.
“Nothing that couldn’t be put right. Well, not that I found. I cleaned up before I caught the bus. I hope my dad doesn’t look in the recycling bin.”
“Was Alice okay?”
“No one was up when I left, but…”
“What?”
“She was in a state last night. Crying. Said I’d disappeared with you and stopped you dancing with her.”
“Oh God.” Jack tipped his head back and looked at the sky.
“I said I didn’t think you wanted to go out with anyone. I hope that’s okay.”
“I’m out with you.” Jack nudged him.
Zeph was so tempted to lean in, but he couldn’t bear the disappointment of being rejected. Now he had a taste of how Alice felt.
He forced himself to laugh. “Well, I don’t think you’d have persuaded Alice to go for a run.” Though, when he thought about it, he suspected she’d have said yes to anything Jack asked her to do. Just as he’d have agreed to cold-water swimming.Get your head out of the clouds.He and Jack were friends. That was all. It was enough.
“You might need to actually make it clear to her that you’re not interested. She can get a bit…intense. It was a Korean popstar she mooned over last year. Her walls were covered with posters of him. She was talking about going to Korea and throwing herself in front of his car. Not when it was going fast, obviously, but just so she was slightly injured. She thought true love would follow.”
Jack looked at him in horror.
“You’re all right. You can’t drive. Unless you’re seventeen. Are you?”
“Not yet. She really said that?”
Zeph nodded. “I tried to make her see sense. Not having the money to get there was the first issue.”
“If I need to, I’ll speak to her.”
“You’ll probably have to. Life’s never simple. My mum used to say that life was like some beaches. Mostly pebbles but with big rocks you have to climb over. So that’s what you do. Climb over and keep going.”
“A smart way of looking at it.” Jack pushed to his feet. “Bit faster on the way back?”
Shit.“Okay. Don’t let me hold you up.”
Zeph did his best to maintain a similar pace to Jack. Even though his lungs and thighs were on fire, there was no way he’d stop running, but he did slow down. When he was in sight of the bandstand, he dropped to a fast walk so he’d get there with his breathing normal rather than sounding as if he was going have a heart attack. There was a guy with dark grey hair and sharp features sitting on a seat in front of the bandstand and Jack was stretching next to him. Zeph joined them.
“This is my Uncle Thomas,” Jack said.
Zeph wiped his hands on his shorts before he offered one. “I’m pleased to meet you.”
Thomas gave his hand a firm shake. “Good run?”
“I decided to let Jack win this time. Probably do that every time if I’m honest.”
Jack laughed. Zeph pulled his bottle from his backpack and finished his water before he stretched.
“Do you do cross-country runs too?” Jack asked.
“Only at school. Cross-country starts next week. That was what I opted for. I tend to stick to roads when I run.”
“Can we give you a lift?” Thomas asked.
“I’m fine. The buses run regularly.”
