Page 7 of The Guilty Girl

‘How do you know him?’

‘We play online games.’

‘What type of games?’

‘Used to be FIFA, but F1 is the latest craze. He’s good, too. He could be a champion gamer. He live-streams. You can subscribe to it on YouTube. Listen, why don’t we get out of here and I’ll tell you about it? We could grab a coffee. I’m sure the Bean Café is open late on Friday nights.’

He watched her as she glanced at her phone. Checking the time? Or looking for a way out?

‘A few minutes ago I was thinking of calling a taxi to go home, but now I don’t think it’s such a good idea.’

‘In other words, you don’t want to give Lucy McAllister the satisfaction of knowing she got to you?’

She smiled. ‘Something like that.’

‘I’ll hang on with you for a while, if you like.’

‘I suppose there’s no harm in that.’

He inched closer, a broad smile spreading across his face. He might just have been totally right to gatecrash Lucy’s party.

5

The party was definitely not Sean Parker’s usual scene, but a few of the lads in his year were going with the intention of getting plastered and getting a girl. Sean couldn’t be bothered about either, but he’d turned seventeen in April and hadn’t even celebrated. When he’d mentioned Lucy’s party at home, he sensed his mother was hoping he wouldn’t go. It wouldn’t surprise him if she was parked across the road from Lucy’s house watching to see him leave or else waiting to knock on the door at one in the morning to haul him home.

He made his way through the crowd towards the makeshift bar, where he spotted Cormac chatting up a girl.

‘Hi, Sean,’ Cormac said. ‘Didn’t think this would be your thing.’

‘I’d rather be in my room playing F1.’

‘Me too.’

Big mistake, Sean thought as the pretty blonde stepped away from Cormac.

‘Hi, I’m Sean.’ He introduced himself, trying to rescue the situation.

‘Hannah.’ She kept her head turned away.

‘Nice to meet you.’

She looked at him then and rolled her eyes. He felt a blush scream up his cheeks. He was as bad as Cormac, awkward as anything.

‘I’ll leave you two nerds to talk gaming,’ she said. ‘I want to see who else is here.’

Sean couldn’t take his eyes off her long legs as she elbowed her way through the dancing crowd. She was a stunner.

‘Thanks, bud,’ Cormac said.

‘For what?’

‘Ruining my night. I didn’t know you’d be here.’

‘Trying to get one up on my mother.’

‘Is she being the usual pain in the arse?’

‘Something like that.’