Page 78 of One Step Behind

Sophie leaves school the moment the bell rings and cries as she walks home.

Matthew is sitting on the doorstep waiting for her, taking photos of the sky.

‘Don’t you have a key?’ she snaps.

‘I lost it.’

‘Mum’s going to kill you.’

‘No, she won’t.’

He’s right, too. Her mum never tells Matthew off. It’s not fair, Sophie thinks. Nothing is fair.

‘You still going tonight?’ he whispers even though their mum won’t be home until really late.

‘No,’ she snaps. ‘And it’s all your fault. There’s no way I can leave you, is there? Mum never tells you off, but she’s always laying into me and she’ll kill me if I go out tonight. So thanks for that.’

Sophie waits for a reply she knows won’t come.

‘I wish …’ she says, feeling the hurt from Flick and Vicky’s betrayal tear through her chest. ‘I wish you’d never come to live here. I wish it was just me and Mum and Dad, like it used to be. They’d still be together if it wasn’t for you.’

Sophie stomps up the stairs, already feeling crappy, but too angry to turn around and apologize.

At the top of the stairs she glances down to the front door where Matthew is still standing. His eyes are screwed tight shut and his hands are two clenched fists by his side. She hasn’t seen him do that for years.

Sophie almost says something then, almost backs down, but then she thinks of Vicky and Flick and the night out she’s missing, she thinks of Matthew’s smug ‘No, she won’t’ comment and storms into her room, slamming the door behind her. She’s sick of everyone tiptoeing around him. She’s sick of her mum treating them both like babies.

Sophie yanks the wardrobe open and pulls out her favourite black denim skirt that her mum only lets her wear if she puts leggings on underneath because it’sso short. She throws it on the bed and pulls out a green halter neck which makes her boobs look great. Flick and Vicky can’t stop Sophie from going out, and it’s not as if Matthew isn’t old enough to look after himself.

Chapter 47

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Are you ready?

Neither of us can escape what’s coming.ARE YOU READY?

Chapter 48

Jenna

My eyes shoot open and I sit up, staring frantically around the bedroom. How did I get here?

The sun is streaming in through the gaps in the curtains and the air is humid and smells of sleep. Images of the bonfire in the garden zigzag through my thoughts. I saw someone in the garden, I saw the sticks, but now I’m in bed and I don’t remember how I got here.

Was it all a dream?

I leap out of bed and run down the stairs. The house is still. Empty. I glance at the kitchen clock and see it’s already gone ten. Stuart must’ve taken the kids to their swimming lessons and decided not to wake me.

I throw open the doors in the kitchen and step out into a wall of heat that causes a queasiness to tumble in my stomach. I reach the fence where I saw the sticks last night and a gasp escapes my mouth.

They’re gone.

I stumble back inside and turn on the coffee machine just as Diya calls.

‘Hey,’ I say. ‘I’m sorry, I was meant to call you, wasn’t I?’