Haterz Read Free Page A

have had to develop to put up with Danielle. Either that or she woke up at 5am. But that didn’t work either. She’d be at the gym first thing. So did that mean that she put the make-up on after...?
     
     
    “D AVID ?”
    “Oh, sorry. Miles away.”
    “Thought so. You looked like you were about to lick me, mate. You okay?”
    I winced, just a little. There was something about the way she used words like mate .
    “Yes, sorry, miles away,” I repeated.
    “What’s the malarkey?”
    “Oh, you know, work...”
    “Nightmare.” Danielle grimaced. She had her phone in one hand, pressing the keys on it over and over. She thumped it down on the table again. “What a mental idea, picking a venue with no signal. What is the point? What is the point?”
    She looked at me over her wine, her smile bent around by the glass. “Do you... you don’t fancy me, do you? A little?”
    “I...”
    “It’s just that you keep looking at me. You do!” She laughed. “That is hashtag hashtag!”
    I know what you’re thinking. Hashtag hashtag . That’s the moment when you decided to kill her.
     
     
    B UT IT WASN’T. It was the next drink.
    I’d got her a drink just for a moment’s grace. I’d stood at the bar, feeling jostled and helpless, picking away at some bar snacks, strands of other people’s nylon red hair in my face. My own hair was itching under my wig, I felt hot and out of place. The drinks were expensive. I thought about paying with my card, but I could just get a wine and a soda water and change from a tenner. That’s a thing, right there. If I hadn’t got that extra £10 out when passing Boots, then I probably wouldn’t have killed Danielle. I would have known that there was a card receipt, nestling in a stack behind the bar. I’d have remembered and thought twice.
    I brought the glasses back over, rubbing salty snack debris from my fingertips.
    “Imagine you having a crush on me—just wait till I tell Guy!”
    “Well, please don’t,” I pleaded. It was useless to say “I don’t fancy you” or anything like that. In truth, Guy would probably laugh it off. I’d stood at the bar, surrounded by loud people, enjoying the silence, trying to work out if I did, in any way, find Danielle attractive. Is that why I found her so annoying? The problem was, I kept getting words back like ‘pretty’ and ‘striking.’ Each one rang false. Like I was being polite.
    It must be terrible to have worked so hard to be beautiful and to find that people just think you’re kind of sort of hot.
    That was it. I’d realised it as I’d tucked into the free snacks at the bar. I felt sorry for Danielle. All that loudness, all that look-at-me. Inside, somewhere deep inside, was someone who wanted to be told that it was all okay.
    And that’s when I knew why she loved Guy. Because Guy was reassuring, and comforting, and kind, and never failed to tell her how good she looked. Whenever she posted a picture, he’d comment below. Danielle wanted reassurance, and she had that with Guy, broadband and on-demand. And now, stuck in a bar without any mobile signal, she was floundering. No Guy to gossip with, no you-go-girl from friends. At a networking event where, thinking about it, she wasn’t even networking, she was just sat in a corner, getting drunk with the boyfriend’s best friend she didn’t really care for, because there was no-one else here to talk to.
    I was sat there, opposite Danielle, and I finally knew her and understood her. I only found her kind of hot. But I did kind of like her. Hashtag hashtag and all.
    “What are you doing?”
    I was rubbing my fingers again.
    “Oh...” I rubbed up the dirt from between two fingers into a thin, tiny green worm. “There were rice crackers at the bar. I love those... but the coating. I wish I knew what the coating was. It’s like Northern Line snot, really, isn’t it? I guess it’s wasabi and seaweed...”
    Danielle wasn’t interested. She was pushing the wine glass