Page 92 of From Now On

‘Why did you floor him anyway?’ Duke asks.

‘He said something about Nina and—’

‘Did he call her weird?’

‘No.’

‘A freak?’

‘No.’

‘Did he—’

‘It doesn’t matter what he said.’

But it did to Duke. Was it worse than the names he was called every day? If it wasn’t then surely Charlie should protect him too.

‘Charlie.’ Duke lowers his hands onto his lap. He’s going to tell his brother everything. All of the things he’d been scared to say before, scared that Charlie wouldn’t be able to cope with the thought of home-schooling Duke. That, if he knew the truth, he’d run off to London and leave them again with Aunt Violent but now… Now he knows that Charlie cares. Properly cares. He can see that from his bruised knuckles. From the droplets of Sean’s blood on his sleeve.

His brotherisbloody epic.

But before he can speak, Charlie is talking again.

‘When we get home I’m going to ring Aunt Violet and see if you and Billie can stay there tonight. I need to go and find your sister.’

Duke had almost forgotten that they’d gone to Maeve’s in search of Nina. ‘Where is she?’

‘She’s run away.’

‘Run away? Why?’

‘Nina’s gone to… She thinks…’ Charlie drums his fingers on the steering wheel. ‘She just needed some space but I can fix it, I promise. I’ll bring her home.’

‘What if you can’t find her?’ Duke feels a bit sick. The world is a big place. What if he never sees Nina again? Sure, she can be annoying and mean but…

‘I’ll find her,’ Charlie says quietly.

‘I want to come.’

‘You can’t.’

‘Why not? If she’s left because of all the shouting yesterday then it’s you she’s run away from, not me?’ But Duke isn’t quite sure that is true. Has he been a bad brother? He knows he embarrasses her. What if all the shouting was about him?

‘It’s… complicated. Anyway, you like Aunt Violet now?’

‘Yeah. We had a good talk about vegetarianism last week. She really listened to me. I told her how cows were slaughtered.’

‘I thought she looked a bit green during lunch. She didn’t each much of her roast beef.’

‘Perhaps she’ll stop eating meat too.’ It was cool that Charlie ate veggie meals most nights now. ‘Anyway, she’s okay now I’ve got to know her. Not that I’d want to live with her again or anything,’ Duke shoots a worried glance at Charlie.

‘It’s only for one night, I promise.’

‘Okay. Actually, can I stay at Evie’s instead? It’s the talent show tomorrow and I need to practise.Last Sunday, when I asked Aunt Violet to choose a card, she kept telling me what it was before I’d had enough chances to guess.’ He’s sure that Derren Brown must have needed more than twelve guesses when he first started out.

‘Okay. I’ll call her. At least you’ll get a decent meal tonight. Bet her mum’s a better cook than me.’

‘Everyone’s a better cook than you.’

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