Dangerous to Know Read Free Page B

Nadine said.
    Silence.
    I thought about my father. It was more then two years since I’d seen him. He wouldn’t exactly win prizes for being the most amazing dad in the world, but that was no one else’s business. I was getting angrier and angrier, listening to that silly cow judging my family.
    “Anyway,” 1664 said at last, making no sense but filling the quiet. “Anyway.”
    “Mum?” I heard someone ask. “Can we go in yet? I really want to see Dad.”
    I looked up and a girl came walking into the canteen wearing the contraceptive St Agnes’s uniform – burgundy skirt and blazer, nasty grey socks – but I hardly noticed that. Her black hair was loose around her shoulders, pinned back behind one ear with a blue silk rose. A string of amber beads hung around her neck, just visible behind the unbuttoned collar of her shirt. She was tall for a girl, too. I’d never seen her around. She had to be new in town. Her face was milky white against the black of her hair; she had light brown freckles on her nose and wore no make-up as far as I could tell – but some girls are clever about that, aren’t they? I remember Sammy asking his sister why she never wore any and Leila rolling her eyes, saying, “Listen, Sam, the aim’s to look as if you’re
not
wearing it.”
    As I sat there, I thought of the other girls I knew: Georgie Hicks with that tidemark of orange make-up halfway down her neck; Gemma Lord’s bleached blonde hair and drawn-in eyebrows; Amanda, who was cool but just, well, nothing special. Mousy.
    She left them all standing, this tall, pale girl.
    I won’t have to crick my neck bending to kiss you.
The next second,
You’ve only just seen her. Christ, get a grip.
    But she was looking at me, too.
    I don’t know how to say it – I felt I’d known her before, that this girl I’d never met in my life was someone I recognised.
    It was like looking at my own shadow: she was part of me.
    Suddenly, I felt too hot. Then too cold. I looked down at my hands and they were shaking. Actually shaking.
    1664 turned and left with her and it physically hurt, watching her go, as if I’d been kicked in the stomach. 1664 said something to Nadine about a tennis club on the way out but I didn’t really hear. I was just looking at the girl as they walked off down the corridor towards the oncology ward. Cancer.
    I loved the way she walked, quick and graceful like a dancer.
    Shit
, I thought.
Shit. I’ve got to see her again. I’ve got to find a way of seeing her again
.
    I knew, even then. I just knew.

FOUR
    “I’m getting the fear,” Jono said as we climbed over the first fence into a wide, dark field studded with trees. “This is well creepy.”
    Bethany rolled her eyes at me. Seemed like she felt the same way about Jono as he did about her.
    Jono sat down in the grass, clutching fistfuls of it.
    Sammy crouched down beside him. “It’s OK, Jon. Come on, we’ve got to get on site.”
    “They’re coming for us,” Jono whispered.
    I watched as Bethany knelt at Jono’s other side. “It’s all right,” she said in a soothing voice. “We’ll be OK. Let’s just get in there and have some beers and a nice sit down.”
    “No,” Jono hissed. “We can’t sit down, we can’t. Oh, shit.”
    Bethany patted him on the shoulder. “It’s all right,” she said, kindly. “There’s really nothing to worry about, is there? We’re going to be fine.”
    And all the time Bethany was talking Jono out of his freak-out, I was thinking,
I don’t want her ever to leave. I want her to always be here. She’s amazing
. I mean, she didn’t even like the guy. It wasn’t as if Jono had gone out of his way to be friendly.
    At last, Jono got shakily to his feet. Bethany linked arms with him, nodding at me. I took his other arm.
    “It’s all right, Jono,” I told him. “We’re going to be fine, man.”
    “It’s cool,” Jono said, shrugging us away, standing up on his own. He sounded more like his usual cocky self