You Against Me Read Free

and was listening, like all the objects in the posh house took a breath and held it in. He touched the wall to steady himself, then knocked again.
    A girl opened the door. She was wearing a skirt and T-shirt. Bare legs, bare arms.
    She said, ‘Yes?’
    He wasn’t expecting a girl. A girl the same age as Karyn. He could hardly look at her.
    ‘Are you with the caterers?’ she said.
    ‘What?’
    ‘Are you here to do the food?’
    Maybe he didn’t have the right house. He checked the door for a number, but there wasn’t one. He looked inside the hallway, as if that would give him a clue. It was huge, all wooden floor and fancy rugs. There was a table, a bench, an umbrella stand, a place for boots and shoes.
    The girl said, ‘Shall I get my mum?’
    He looked at her again – the little skirt she was wearing, the blues and purples of her T-shirt, the way she had her hair in a ponytail that swung.
    He said, ‘Are you Tom Parker’s sister?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Is he here?’
    She narrowed her eyes. ‘No.’
    The sound of a dog barking inside the house. It stopped. Silence.
    ‘Where is he then?’
    She stepped out, pulled the door shut behind her and leaned against it. ‘Are you a friend of his?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Then you know where he is.’
    He fingered the spanner in his pocket. ‘Well, I know the bail hearing’s today. I just wondered when he’d be home.’
    ‘We don’t know.’
    Seconds went past, minutes maybe. For the first time he noticed a raw-looking scar running from the corner of her mouth down her chin. She saw him looking and stared right back. He knew about girls and she felt bad about that scar.
    He smiled. ‘So, what’s your name then?’
    She blushed, but didn’t look away. ‘My dad put a message on Tom’s Facebook page to tell his friends what was happening.’
    Mikey shrugged. ‘I haven’t checked my computer for days.’
    ‘Do you know him from college?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘I haven’t seen you before.’
    He thought of the college in town where he’d gone to ask about catering courses once, and held her gaze. ‘Well, I’m so busy studying, I don’t get time to socialize. I don’t want to mess up my exams.’
    She obviously fell for it because her face softened. ‘Tell me about it. Mine start in May and I’ve hardly done any work.’
    That was ages away, why was she worrying? But talking about it changed something in her. She leaned towards him a fraction, as if she’d decided to trust him. ‘Listen,’ she said, ‘we’re having a party later.’
    A party? Because her brother was out on bail?
    ‘Come if you like. Tom could do with friends around him tonight.’
    But before he could tell her what he thought of that, a woman came round the corner of the house, waving crisply at them. ‘At last,’ she called. ‘I was beginning to panic.’
    The girl shot him a look of apology. ‘She thinks you’re the caterer.’
    The woman came up, swinging a clipboard and looking at Mikey. ‘You’re with Amazing Grazing, yes?’
    The girl sighed. ‘No, Mum. He’s not.’
    ‘Oh, who are you then? Are you the marquee man?’
    He was supposed to answer. He was supposed to say no, but all he could think was that she would realize at once, that she wouldn’t be fooled like her daughter. She would call the dog, security guards, the police.
    ‘He’s one of Tom’s friends, Mum.’
    ‘Oh, I see. Well, Tom’s not due until later.’
    ‘I told him that.’
    The woman turned to her. ‘It’s all right, love. Why don’t you get back to your revision?’
    The girl gave Mikey a quick smile, then went back through the door and shut it behind her. He was left with the mother.
    ‘I hope you don’t mind,’ she said. ‘We really are very busy.’
    He hated her. That she didn’t know him at all, that she dismissed him so easily.
    ‘Come back for the party. All Tom’s friends are welcome.’ She walked briskly away clutching her clipboard, her bony arse barely moving. No meat to her, no