Page 20

20. Charlie :

(Real v crocodile = angry Charlie)

Charlie:

Mate, are you around later? Need to chat.

Brooks:

Is this about how weird Oz is being? I think he might be losing it.

Charlie:

No, but we should probably talk about that too.

Violet:

Say hi to Gordon for me. I think he likes me.

Charlie:

Everyone likes you.

Violet:

Awww. 3

Charlie:

Don’t forget I like you the most.

Violet:

Never.

Brooks:

Cool, yeah see you later.

Charlie:

You better not. Or else.

Brooks:

Huh?

Charlie:

Sorry, wrong thread.

Fuck.

My heart gave a nervous thump, while my belly flipped in relief that I hadn’t sent something less easily explainable to Brooks, and I slipped my phone into my pocket before I did it again.

Thankfully, it had been innocuous enough that he’d likely have forgotten about it the second he shut his phone. It wasn’t like I’d asked him to send a picture of boobs nestled in the green bra to get me through the next few hours.

Because that would have had disaster written all over it.

I’d have fallen at the final hurdle, before I’d even managed to tell him about Violet.

It was today’s plan. Tell Brooks. It was literally all I had on my list.

If I left it any longer I’d be mainlining Alka Seltzer for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

My mind was still flipping between thoughts of Violet’s boobs and how I was going to break the news to Brooks when I almost tripped over a large pile of books. A pile of books along with a girl in a giant beanie who appeared to be crying, based on the volume of the sobbing.

‘Shit, are you okay?’ I bent down to help, only to stand back up when I saw who exactly was crying.

What were the goddamn chances? I mean, seriously. What were they?

Looking around, I’d never seen it so quiet on the path leading along the side of the physics building. I’m sure it was usually much busier. Nearly everyone used it as a cut through between buildings. Surely there was someone else around who could help.

There had to be.

Of all the people who attended Oxford, lived in Oxford, walked down the streets in Oxford , why did I have to be the one to stumble upon her, and crying of all things.

Another loud sob and I tried hard not to roll my eyes. Tried.

I’d had experience with this particular brand of crying. It was usually of the crocodile variety, though from this close up and the angle I was standing, they did look kind of real. Which was unusual.

‘Charlie?’ Evie wailed. ‘Are you just going to stand there?’

I sighed, though I stopped myself from telling her I’d rather walk off, because my mother had always drilled it into me to behave like a gentleman, and she did genuinely look in some kind of pain, so I bent down.

‘What happened?’

‘I don’t know,’ she sniffed. ‘I was walking and then I must have rolled on something and my ankle gave way. I think it’s broken.’

I glanced to where her ankle was stuck under her other leg. It didn’t look broken, and I’d broken bones before. She’d be in way more pain.

‘You’ve probably just twisted it.’

‘It hurts so much.’

Again, I tried hard not to roll my eyes because one thing I remembered about Evie was her flare for the dramatic. Spider – scream – any type of creepy crawly – scream – one time I’d suggested we go camping by a lake near to my parents’ house. I never made that mistake again.

‘Can you feel and check?’ she sniffed again , uncurling her leg and sticking it out to me.

I didn’t need to feel it to know it wasn’t broken. It didn’t even look swollen in the short black socks and those thin flat shoes girls wore.

‘It’s just twisted, Evie. Get some ice and compression on it, tomorrow you’ll be right as rain.’

‘Can you help me up at least?’ Her hand shot in the air for me to grab.

I briefly wondered what I’d do if I’d actually been given the choice in the matter. I mean, I wasn’t a total dick but I also really didn’t want to see, speak to, or touch Evie. I definitely debated it long enough that Evie started waving her arm at me, and eventually the better part of my conscience won.

‘Thank you,’ she smiled, her tears drying as she wobbled about on her other foot before she found her balance. Then I realized she was waiting for me to collect all her books.

‘Why weren’t they in your backpack?’ I asked, gathering them together, and piling them back into her bag. Her zipped bag.

‘I was in a rush.’

I stood back up and held the bag out to her, at which point I realized we were not about to part ways.

‘I can’t carry that, silly. I need you to help me.’ She grabbed my arm again as if to illustrate the point.

My eyes snapped to the clock as it struck the hour. Ugh, I know it was only a study session but I’d definitely hear it from Gordon if I was late. I mean, I was late. I was going to hear it.

‘Come on,’ I slung the bag over my shoulder. ‘Let’s go, there’s a first-aid nurse in the building, I’ll take you to her.’

‘Oh, thank you,’ she replied, this time wrapping her arm around my waist. I could feel her fingernails digging into me. ‘I know I don’t deserve you being nice to me, but honestly thank you.’

Her words came out in a stutter as her breath caught, and I let out a deep sigh.

‘You’re welcome. You’ll be fine.’

‘Do you remember how clumsy I always was? Remember that time I walked into the doorframe at home, and had a bump on my head for a week.’

‘Um –’

‘I went to the summer ball with a purple eye …’ she pressed, leaning into me as we walked/hopped down the path. At least it wasn’t that far, though far enough considering Evie now seemed to be wrapped around me.

‘Oh, sure. Yes,’ I replied, though I actually had no idea what she was talking about.

‘You were always saving me from some mishap or another. And now here you are again. We’re quite the pair, don’t you think?’

‘Mmm,’ I mumbled, as she moved her hand up to grip my shoulder so she could hop up a step.

‘So, how’s your philosophy group going?’

‘Good. Gordon’s cracking the whip. But we’ve got a great, hardworking group. We’ll come away with a first. I’m actually on the way there now.’

‘Oh, right. You meet today. We meet on Tuesdays. I’m so sorry I’m keeping you,’ she replied, her tone almost martyr-like, and very un-Evie. ‘You can leave me here if you like. I’m sure I can manage to hop the rest of the way.’

‘It’s fine, we’re nearly there.’

‘Bet your group is so fun. We always had fun revising together, didn’t we?’

Again, for the life of me I didn’t know what she was talking about. I couldn’t recall any time we’d ever done work together. We went to different schools for one, so we could have only revised during the holidays, but I couldn’t remember that either.

Maybe I’d blocked out the memory.

‘Do you have any plans for Easter?’ she asked, while I was trying to hurry her along. It would be much quicker if I carried her, and I was seriously debating picking her up, but the thought of my face being that close to hers was enough to stop me.

Maybe I could give her a piggy back.

‘No, the Boat Race is the weekend after, so I’ll be here. Might go home for the day if Coach lets us.’

‘How are your mum and dad? Say hi to them for me.’

‘Sure.’

‘And a hug for Magic. He was so cute as a puppy.’

‘Okay.’

God. I wished she’d stop talking. I was also pretty sure she’d never found Magic cute, especially after he’d chewed a pair of her favourite shoes.

‘I think I’ll be staying over the holidays too, my parents are away and I need to revise. I can take you out for a drink to thank you for helping me.’

The side door to the building was less than twenty-five metres away. My eyes had been trained on it ever since we’d turned the corner but if I didn’t know better I’d swear we were slowing down.

‘Can you hop a bit faster?’

‘Sorry,’ she puffed out, appeared to take a giant leap, though I think she’d just landed back on the same spot.

The clock struck the quarter hour. It had taken us fifteen minutes to walk less than a hundred metres. Up to this point, Evie had only been clinging onto me as I’d carried both her and my backpack, but fifteen minutes was ridiculously slow under any circumstances, and roping my arm around her waist and hoisting her the rest of the way was the price to pay for not having to spend the rest of the hour listening to Gordon complain about timekeeping.

‘We’re here,’ I announced as we crossed the threshold, and I almost dragged her halfway down the corridor to the first-aid room and knocked on the door. Dropping her bag on the floor, I managed a smile, ignored the fresh tears brimming in her eyes, and thumbed behind me. ‘I have to dash. Hope it heals quickly.’

‘Oh, Charlie, thank you. I’m so glad you were there to help. I don’t know what I’d do without you,’ she called after me, just as the nurse answered the door.

She would no doubt be thrilled at having to deal with the mundanity of a twisted ankle instead of electrocutions, or singed body parts, and whatever else usually went on in physics labs.

It was safer than the chemistry building though, that’s for sure.

I sprinted up the stairs, managing three at a time, and powered down the corridor fast enough that I was out of breath by the time I reached our study room.

I burst through the doors. ‘Sorry, I’m so sorry I’m late.’

All six of them turned to look at me. Gordon’s mouth opened, I knew I was about to get the telling off I’d been expecting since I’d found Evie. This guy was going to make a formidable professor one day.

I held my hand out before he could speak. ‘I wasn’t late because I forgot. I was helping Evie, she’d fallen over,’ I explained, hoping it might cut down his lecture from ten to maybe two minutes. Three if I was lucky.

‘No she didn’t.’

‘Didn’t what?’ I asked dropping down in the nearest empty seat and removing my laptop.

‘Fall.’

‘What?’

‘Evie didn’t fall over.’

My eyes flicked away from my screen to find him staring at me intently, ‘What d’you mean? I just helped her up and took her to the nurse. It’s why I was late.’

‘But she didn’t fall. I was looking out of the window, and saw her sit down and scatter her books around on the ground. I thought it was a bit odd, but I don’t know girls very well.’ He shrugged. ‘Anyway, now you’re here can we get on with this session? It’s the final one and we have to hand our paper in to Professor Rivers tomorrow. We were just talking about –’

‘Hang on. Go back. What did you say about Evie?’

‘She didn’t fall over.’ He tutted loudly, pushing his glasses up his nose, and glanced out of the window. ‘Look, there she is.’

I stood up so quickly my chair fell over. But there, walking normally without any sign of a twisted ankle or the need for someone to cling on to, was Evie.

‘Now where are you going?’ cried Gordon as I threw open the door and sprinted back outside just as quickly as I’d arrived.

I ran quick enough to stand in front of her and block her path. ‘That healed quickly.’

Her eyes flared in surprise, but only for a second and to give her credit she didn’t even try to pretend she’d faked it.

‘What d’you expect me to do? You won’t talk to me.’

‘I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO YOU. WHY CAN’T YOU GET IT INTO YOUR HEAD?’

‘Don’t shout at me.’

‘You need help. You really do. What the fuck is it going to take to get you to leave me alone?’

The black gloss on her fingernails shone as she tapped her forefinger against her cheek. ‘Hmm. What about … you’ve got a race this weekend, haven’t you?’

‘Yeah, and? What’s that got to do with anything?’

‘Win it, and I’ll leave you alone.’

I blinked, checking to see if I’d heard her properly. ‘What?’

‘Win the race at the weekend and I’ll leave you alone. We don’t have any more classes together after the end of term, so you don’t have to see me again if you don’t want to. I’m sure we’ll bump into each other though.’

‘Evie, what are you talking about?’

‘Win the race and I’ll leave you alone.’

‘What game are you trying to play? I’m not interested.’

‘No game, Charlie. I promise.’ She smiled, so saccharinely sweetly it set my teeth on edge. She was every Disney villain rolled into one and I’d never seen it before now. I couldn’t even remember why or how I’d ever liked her. The Evie tinted glasses I used to wear had been well and truly smashed.

I’d always known she was manipulative, but I could finally see her for what else she was – nasty, spiteful, vindictive.

Yet it had taken her for me to find Violet.

Violet who was nothing but sweet, kind, thoughtful – she wasn’t just the antithesis to Evie, she wasn’t even in the same stratosphere. There was no comparison.

Violet, who I had a sudden overwhelming urge to see.

‘We win the race on Saturday and you’ll leave me alone forever ?’

She nodded.

‘Fine, done.’

‘But …’ my stomach sank, I should have known. There was always a fucking but with Evie. ‘If you lose then you take me on a date, and we try again.’

‘Why if I lose? Because you think you’re my consolation prize? You aren’t,’ I scoffed.

‘Because you can’t throw a win,’ she said simply. ‘Just putting myself back in the game, and you’ve lost the last two races, so odds are in my favour I’d say.’

I stared at her; none of this was a coincidence. She didn’t just know the race results off the top of her head, and she knew exactly that I’d have figured out her fake ankle and run out after her. It was true, we had lost, but we’d lost because Coach had switched the teams around – he’d been trialling a couple of alternative Blue Boat options. We hadn’t rowed with a full-strength crew and this weekend we would be.

We’d win. No doubt about it.

‘There’s no game, Evie. At least not one anyone else is playing. But you have yourself a deal. We win, you leave me, Violet and anyone else alone.’

She held her hand out for me to shake, only for her smirk to grow when I stared at it instead. ‘Deal. Just like that.’

‘Yeah. Just like that. We’re not losing.’

I didn’t bother to wait for her response, just turned on my heel and marched back to my class, though I’d missed most of it. I owed Gordon a massive apology.

The familiar buzz of a message vibrated in my pocket and I pulled my phone out.

Brooks:

Hey, get home will you? We need to call a house intervention.