A Hole in the World Read Free

presses a button and she dies and promptly pouts at him. ‘No,’ he says, ignoring her with practiced ease. ‘Girls at my school are all stupid. Or lesbians. Sometimes both .’
    ‘Are ya sure they’re not just, I don’t know, not interested ?’ She gives him a grin and it’s his turn to pout, which she ignores just as effortlessly.
    ‘It does my ego less harm to think they’re all stupid lesbians rather than just not interested. I like to think that if they were smart and/or straight they’d be crawling all over me.’ He stands up from his bed and reaches for two cans of pop, one of which he hands to Bianca with a smile.
    ‘What time you gotta be home for?’ he asks.
    ‘Tea,’ she replies, ‘which means I have at least one more hour to fail at this game. I think you could probably kill me another thousand times or so.’
    He grins at her. ‘Rematch it is, then.’
    *
    Bianca looks up from her tea, food half way into her mouth, and catches her brother’s speculative gaze.
    ‘What?’ she says.
    ‘I wondered if you could burn my school down, too,’ he says, quietly.
    ‘I didn’t burn the school down, Topher,’ Bianca snaps. ‘It wasn’t me, it was Angela. She did it. I wasn’t even in the room . She just used my lighter.’
    ‘Why’d you have a lighter?’ Topher enquires.
    ‘Because, I like looking at flames.’ And because Melissa gave it to her. But she’s not going to tell the winner of Annoying Younger Brother 2010 that.
    ‘So, you burned the school down because you like flames, then?’
    ‘It wasn’t the school, it was the library , and I didn’t do it,’ she snaps again. ‘Get your facts straight, you little worm.’
    ‘Topher, stop encouraging your sister,’ Julia warns from the end of the table. She looks across at Bianca. ‘We won’t always be able to stop them pressing charges,’ she tells her. ‘We don’t want you to end up in jail.’
    ‘I didn’t do it!’ Bianca exclaims, throwing her hands up. ‘How many times do I have to say that before you believe me?’
    Bryan glares at her. ‘Don’t talk to your mother like that.’
    ‘Dad, I’m sorry,’ Bianca says, ‘but I didn’t do it . And she won’t believe me!’
    ‘Who’s ‘ she ’? And it’s not that we don’t believe you, it’s more that the evidence points right at you! You did keep telling us how much you hated it there, after all...’
    ‘I did , Dad,’ Bianca says, plaintively. ‘But not enough to set fire to a library .’
    ‘I wish you’d liked it more, Bianca,’ he says. ‘It cost me such a lot to send you there.’
    ‘Us,’ Julia coughs around her cup of tea.
    Bianca and her father ignore her. ‘I think I’ll do better at The Lodge, though, Dad. St. Mary’s wasn’t a good learning environment for me.’
    Her father sighs. ‘As long as you don’t burn any more schools down,’ he mutters.
    ‘It was the library !’ Julia and Bianca exclaim at the same time.
    Topher looks up from his food after a moment and says, quietly, ‘If I burn my school down, can I not get in trouble, too, Dad?’
    *
    The phone beeps at two in the morning and wakes Bianca. She groans to herself, wishing death upon whomever texted her, and reaches out of bed. When she sees who texted her, she immediately retracts her wishes of death. Scotty.
Welcome home. Missed u. Come see me again 2mo. We’ll hang out. xx
    She smiles at the text and quickly writes Scotty back.
Dont hold ur breath, still in dog house. Might b grounded dunno yet. Txt u tomorrow. U woke me. Go to bed!xxxxxxx
    She hits send and checks her inbox. There’s another text.
I’ll explain it was me. You shouldnt get the blame for my mistake. We’ll talk soon. A. x
    Bianca sighs. She doesn’t want Angela to explain it was her. She doesn’t want to have her expulsion retracted and have to go back there. She wants to stay at home , with Scotty just down the street and a whole new school to make friends in.
    Even if it does mean dealing with her