Erebos Read Free

twenty-five push-ups.
    On the way home Nick rang Colin twice, but there was no answer. Damn it.
    Why was he so upset? Just because Colin was acting stupid? No, he decided after thinking it over. Stupid would have been okay. But by the look of it, Colin had cut Nick out of his life completely overnight. He at least owed Nick an explanation.
    When he arrived home, Nick bolted into his room and flung himself into the wonky swivel chair at his desk. He booted up the computer and opened his email program.
From:    
Nick Dunmore
To:    
Colin Harris
Subject:    
You okay?
    Hey dude! Are you sick? Is something wrong? Did I off end you or something? If so, I didn’t mean to. And by the way, what’s up between you and Dan? The guy is weird. I thought we both agreed about that . . . Are you going to be at school tomorrow? If there’s a problem, we should talk about it.
    CU
Nick
    He clicked Send , then opened his browser and entered the basketball club chat room. But no-one was there, so he surfed over to deviantART. To Emily. He looked to see whether she’d posted a new manga or a poem. She was incredibly gifted.
    He found two new sketches, which he saved on his hard disk, and a short blog entry. He hesitated before reading it. He had to overcome an invisible barrier each time, because he knew it wasn’t meant for him. Emily had taken trouble to stay anonymous, but she had friends who talked.
    He shook off the thought. Here, on this page, he was close to her.
    Emily wrote in her blog that her head felt empty. She wished she could move to the country, away from the giant moloch that was London. Her words felt like stabs to Nick. It was unthinkable that Emily would leave his city and his life. He read the entry three times before he closed the page.
    Another check for emails: not a word from Colin. No new tweets either, not for days now. Nick sighed, thumped the mouse down on the desk somewhat harder than necessary and shut down the machine.
    Chemistry was a punishment from the gods. Nick pored over his book with increasing desperation and tried to understand the problem Mrs Ganter had saddled them with for this lesson. If only getting a C at the end of the year would do. But if he got less than a B he could forget it – and what he really needed was an A. Medical schools didn’t take Chemistry duds.
    He looked up. Emily was sitting in front of him, with her dark plait falling down her back. It wasn’t one of those narrow elfin backs; you could tell she did swimming training. Her legs were long and muscular too, and . . . He shook his head as if to force his thoughts back to the right place. Damn it. How many moles were in 19 grams of CH 4  again?
    The bell rang all too soon for the end of the lesson. Nick was one of the last to hand in his work, and he was convinced that Mrs Ganter wouldn’t be pleased. Emily had already gone. Nick automatically looked around for her and spotted her a few metres down the corridor. She was talking to Rashid, whose enormous nose cast a beak-like shadow on the wall. Nick sauntered a few paces closer, and made as if to look for something in his schoolbag.
    â€˜You’re not allowed to tell anyone, got it?’
    Rashid was offering something to Emily – a flat package wrapped in newspaper. Square again. ‘It’s important. You’ll be amazed – it’s the coolest thing.’
    The scepticism in Emily’s voice spoke volumes. ‘I don’t have time for silly stuff like that.’
    Nick stood off to one side and studied the chess club notice board earnestly.
    â€˜No time? Rubbish! Here, just try it!’
    A sidelong glance revealed that Rashid was holding out his newspaper package to Emily, but she wasn’t taking it. She took a step backwards, shook her head and walked away. ‘Give it to someone else,’ she called over her shoulder to Rashid.
    Yes,