Page 32 of Everything That Kills Me
“Alice, I’m not looking to go out with anyone. I don’t want you to think that I—”
“Of course not.” Her smile was too bright. “Friends, right?”
No, not friends.But he said nothing.
They’d reached the computer room and Jack held the door open for her. Zeph was already in his seat. Jack dropped down between the two of them. Zeph didn’t even acknowledge his presence.
“You okay?” Jack whispered.
He clearly wasn’t. There was a vivid bruise on his cheek and his glasses didn’t hide the dark circles under his eyes. Zeph looked at Jack, then down at his keyboard and touched the N and O keys.
The teacher started speaking. They were required to team up on a coding exercise and Alice was tapping Jack’s arm.
“Shall we work together?” she asked.
“I’m working with Zeph.”
Her face fell but Jack knew he’d done the right thing. Except when he shifted his chair over to screenshare, Zeph looked even worse than he had a few moments ago.
Jack tappedWhat’s wrongonto the screen.
Zeph deleted it and typedI can’t tell you now. At lunch? Manor Park by the swings. Meet you there. I brought you a peanut butter sandwich.Then he deleted it.
Jack wroteOK.
Zeph was already waiting when Jack arrived in the park. Zeph jumped off the swing, walked over to a bench and Jack joined him.
“Sorry to be a bit MI5ish.” Zeph handed him a sandwich.
“Who hit you?”
“My dad.”
Shit.“Why?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Of course it fucking matters. What are you going to tell me? He didn’t mean to hit you? Said he was sorry?”
“He wasn’t sorry. He meant to do it.”
“You should have called me.”
“No phone. I had it taken off me along with my old one. You better block my number in case my dad calls. He won’t know it’s you. I used 7850, not your name.”
“The density of steel in cubic metres.”
Zeph smiled.
Jack took out his phone and blocked Zeph’s number.
“What did you store me under?” Zeph asked.
“Trouble with a capital T.”
Zeph chuckled.
“Tell me what happened,” Jack said.
