Page 56 (1/2)

‘She couldn’t give a stuff about Patrick,’ Dad said ‘I told her he rang to tell us he ca, and she couldn’t have looked less interested’ He sipped his tea ‘Mind you, to be fair on her, even I found it pretty hard to get excited about 157th’

‘Do you think she’s ill? She’s awful pale under that tan And all that sleeping It’s just not like her She ht have soed,’ I said I said it with so that Mum and Dad tended to treat me as an expert on all sorts of ! Well, if that’s what long-haul travel does to you, I think I’ll stick with Tenby What do you think, Josie, love?’

‘I don’t knoould have thought a holiday could make you look so ill?’ Mum shook her head

I went upstairs after supper I didn’t knock (It was still, strictly speaking, my room, after all) The air was thick and stale, and I pulled the blind up and opened a , so that Lou turned groggily froht, dustto tellof tea on the bedside table

She blinked atall the neighbours who have booked on to the Bingo Club trip to PortAventura’

She didn’t say anything

‘Lou?’

‘I quit,’ she said, quietly

‘Why?’

‘Why do you think?’ She pushed herself upright, and reached clu sip of tea

For someone who had just spent almost teeks in Mauritius, she looked bloody awful Her eyes were tiny and red-rimmed, and her skin, without the tan, would have been even blotchier Her hair stuck up on one side She looked like she’d been awake for several years But most of all she looked sad I had never seen o through with it?’

She nodded Then she sed, hard

‘Shit Oh, Lou I’m really sorry’

I motioned to her to shove over, and I climbed into bed beside her She took another sip of her tea, and then leant her head onabout it That was how bad I felt for her

‘What do I do, Treen?’

Her voice was s to be really brave Outside we could hear next door’s dog running up and down alongside the garden fence, chasing the neighbourhood cats Every now and then we could hear a burst of ht now, its eyes bulging with frustration

‘I’ you can do God All that stuff you fixed up for him All that effort … ’

‘I told hi to a whisper ‘And he just said it wasn’t enough’ Her eyes ide and bleak ‘How am I supposed to live with that?’

I a I read o to university I am the one who is supposed to have all the answers

But I looked at ot a clue,’ I said

She finally e clean clothes, and I told Mum and Dad not to say a word I implied it was boyfriend trouble, and Dad raised his eyebrows andand God only knee had been working ourselves into such a fuss over Muo Club and tell thehts about the risks of air travel

Lou ate a piece of toast (she didn’t want lunch) and she put on a big floppy sunhat and alked up to the castle with Thoo out, but Mum insisted that we all needed some fresh air This, in et into the bedroo Tho full of crusts, and we negotiated thetourists with an ease born of years of practice, ducking out of the way of swinging backpacks, separating around posing couples and rejoining on the other side The castle baked in the high heat of surass wispy, like the last hairs on the head of a balding man The flowers in the tubs looked defeated, as if they were already half preparing for autumn

Lou and I didn’t say much What was there to say?

As alked past the tourist car park I saw her glance under her briant and red-brick, its tall blank s disguising whatever life-changing dra played out in there, perhaps even at this o and talk to him, you know,’ I said ‘I’ll wait here for you’

She looked at the ground, folded her ar ‘There’s no point,’ she said I knew the other bit, the bit she didn’t say aloud He’s probably not even there