Monster Read Free Page B

the image of the blonde assassin from my mind as I stepped out onto the front mosaic to greet Charlie Gossard from the shop and try to be happy. I’d had a substantial crush on Charlie for a while now. His dad ran Bathory Basics and he worked there, serving customers and ‘out the back’ though I never really knew what went on ‘out the back’. It had started with the odd flirty comment about what I was buying whenever I walked there on a Saturday morning for provisions, then it progressed to long looks across the freezer in the summer. Now, we were into conversations and every now and again he’d give me some sell-by pies or sweets if there were any due for chucking out. I hadn’t told him about Seb being missing or anything serious like that—our conversations mostly ran to school or what Xbox game he’d recently bought and what his top score was.
    He caught sight of me as he got out the driver’s door. ‘Hi, Nash.’
    ‘Hi, Charlie,’ I said.
    ‘How are you?’
    ‘Yeah, fine thanks.’
    He was big into gaming, and even though I wasn’t at all, I enjoyed listening to him talk. He could have been reciting the phone book and I’d listen to him. Charlie had short blond hair, blue eyes and always wore tight t-shirts, even in winter, which you could see his nipples through. Maggie said he was a ‘
un renard chaud
’, which meant a hot fox, but I just thought he was lovely. There was always a long white apron tied around his waist, usually smeared with grubby fingermarks.
    ‘Do you need any help?’
    ‘Yeah, if you don’t mind. Thanks.’
    His smile cut a diamond into the early evening light and he went to the back doors of the refrigerated van to unlock them, then reached in to get one of three humungous turkeys out for me to carry.
    ‘She’s a heavy one, mind. You got it?’
    ‘Yeah,’ I said, straining to hold it in both hands and making my way towards the kitchen door. He grasped the other two, one in each hand.
    ‘Dad said make sure your cook knows they’re premium birds. KellyBronze. Free range, the lot.’
    ‘Oh, great,’ I said, struggling a little with the weight of mine as he edged past me and opened the side door to allow me inside. Cook was delighted and, as she and Charlie settled the invoice, I hung around, even though I knew I had no business being there. I was just waiting. For anything. For some little shred of Charlie that I could think about forthe rest of the day. Something to send me to sleep smiling tonight instead of crying.
    When the invoice was settled and he and Cook had talked about cooking times and types of stuffing and ‘succulence’, he walked back out with me to the annoyingly nearby van.
    ‘So,’ he said. ‘I guess you go home for the holidays tomorrow then?’
    ‘Yeah. I guess so.’
    ‘Not looking forward to it?’
    I shrugged. ‘It’ll be nice to see my parents. Yeah. Yeah, it’ll be nice. Presents and Midnight Mass and everything.’
    ‘Oh, we went one year. Pretty boring really.’
    ‘It’s tradition though, isn’t it? My mum and dad enjoy it.’
    ‘Yeah, it is. Gotta keep the old folks happy.’
    ‘Yeah.’
    We both laughed, a nervous sort of laugh that went on as long as it could because it was obvious neither of us knew what to say next. We’d run out of conversation so quickly, I hadn’t seen it coming. I had nothing in reserve to impress him with. I did a bit of subtle eye-batting and leaning in the hope of … What was I hoping for? For him to take me in his arms and ravish me right there in the school driveway? I didn’t know. I just knew I needed something from him. Something more.
    ‘What are you getting for Christmas then?’ I asked, hopelessly. Desperately.
    He laughed. ‘Probably some Boxing Day overtime and a thick ear.’ He smiled, wringing his hands like they were cold. I did the same, mirroring his movements.
    ‘Are yours freezing too?’ he asked, reaching for them and taking them in his. They were warmer than mine, but at