The Shattering by Karen Healey Page A

bigger than Mark, bigger than Luke, huge white hands grabbing Luke at the scruff of the neck like a cat would a kitten. ‘Who taught you to hit girls, sunshine?’ he asked, and his voice was soft and heavy.
    Sione saw it cross his face, the exact moment when Luke realised that he’d pushed a local white girl in front of a local white cop. He didn’t protest Sergeant Rafferty’s hand on his neck. His eyes flickered over Sione’s face, oddly pleading, as if he couldn’t work out what was going on, as if he couldn’t work out how he’d got to this moment, what he’d done to make this happen.
    It was exactly how Sione felt, and he hadn’t pushed anyone. Aroha was explaining what had happened, voice high and angry over Mark’s faltering explanation that Luke had been only joking, and Sione turned away, feeling sick. He hadn’t done a damn thing.
    â€˜And you’re okay?’ he heard Sergeant Rafferty ask, and looked over his shoulder. Janna was flicking sand out of her cleavage, looking more irritated than anything else, but the sergeant wasn’t talking to her.
    â€˜I’m fine,’ Takeshi replied. ‘May I go?’
    â€˜Sure. You’re sure you’re okay, though? We’ve got the ambos on standby.’
    Takeshi hesitated — probably because he couldn’t work out ambulances from ambos — and then looked at Janna.
    â€˜We’re okay,’ she said, and stepped toward Sione as the sergeant, still shooting worried glances at Takeshi, walked away to make sure the boys left the beach. ‘What happened?’ she asked.
    â€˜He called me a potato,’ Sione said. His voice sounded strange — well, of course it did; it was the first thing he’d said since the whole thing began. His messenger bag was heavy — why the hell had he brought it to the beach? Did he think it would make him look like less of a dick?
    â€˜What —’ Takeshi began, and Sione broke.
    â€˜Brown on the outside, white on the inside, okay?’ he snapped. ‘ Fia palagi . Not really Samoan. Rich boy in his fancy clothes, too smart, no mates, pathetic tosser who only wants to be white —’
    â€˜Sione —’
    He whirled away from Janna’s hand on his shoulder. ‘I’ve — I’m done, okay? You’ll have to do it.’ He gestured at the spectators, all the curious young men. ‘ You’ll have to.’
    â€˜Of course. Sure, no problem.’
    â€˜You need to — Luke’s not really like that,’ he said. ‘I could have handled it, okay? They weren’t going to do anything!’ That was a lie, he knew . Luke was massive, and he’d been so weirdly aggressive, for no reason Sione could pin down. It couldn’t have been that he was with Aroha, who was watching him with an unreadable expression. Those guys hit on palagi girls all the time. He’d seen them.
    Sione was afraid it was just him, Matthew-less him, with no reason for anyone to be tolerant or halfway nice. Had Luke really hated him all these years?
    â€˜I could have handled it,’ he repeated to Takeshi’s confused face, and took off up the hill, bag thumping against his side.

CHAPTER NINE
    JANNA
    Janna watched Sione run through the dunes toward the road. God, the poor guy. Of course, this meant that now she was stuck doing all the work herself.
    â€˜I guess it’s just us,’ she said. ‘Aren’t you lucky, Takeshi? Two pretty girls at the beach.’
    â€˜All the people will envy me,’ Takeshi said calmly. The way he pronounced vee made Janna’s knees wobble in her boots, and she was seized by the totally inappropriate urge to stick her tongue in his mouth.
    Someone stumbled past them and threw up into a patch of sand grass, which sort of killed the impulse.
    â€˜Lightweight,’ Janna said, and cast a practised eye over the beach. Most of the people were strangers,