You Against Me by Jenny Downham Page B

slid his phone shut and walked back up the slope. ‘Sorry,’ he said.
    ‘That sounded difficult.’
    ‘My sister’s upset. She’s only eight and some people knocked on the door and she opened it and scared herself.’
    ‘Wasn’t your mum there?’
    ‘She had to pop out.’
    ‘Who were the people?’
    ‘Um, no one, just random people. Anyway, I have to go.’
    Ellie scrambled quickly into her skirt as if she’d been thinking the very same thing. Across the grass, he pulled on his jeans and socks and trainers. The moment when they’d kissed felt like a lifetime ago.
    ‘Where do you work?’ she said.
    ‘In a pub. It’s not in town, so you wouldn’t know it. It’s one of the touristy places down by the harbour.’
    She kept quiet, hoping he’d invite her for lunch after he’d sorted his sister out. She could sit at the bar and chat to him, order a sandwich. She’d like that. But he didn’t ask. In fact, he didn’t say anything and his whole face closed down as if he never would again.
    They walked back in silence. Her shoes were too big without her tights and slapped loudly on the path. Her wet underwear felt clammy and rubbed the inside of her thighs and under her arms. She trailed her wet shirt and tights from one hand, letting them scrape the ground, letting them gather dust and leaves and twigs. She didn’t care. She wanted to collect stuff – secret smells and things from the path. She’d examine them when she got home and maybe what happened in the water might seem real.
    But where the path came to the slope, and where the slope led them back to the graveyard and the bench, he stalled. He turned to her very seriously.
    ‘I like you,’ he said.
    He made it sound as if she was bound to disagree with him. She nodded. His face said he was telling her something very important.
    He said, ‘I mean it. Whatever happens, you have to believe that.’
    ‘That sounds a bit dramatic.’
    He looked at his mobile again. ‘I’ve gotta go.’
    They walked together through the graveyard and out through the wooden gate. It was still way too early for school to finish and there was no one around. He seemed nervous standing out on the street. Didn’t he want to be seen with her in public? Maybe she was too ugly. Or maybe he did have a girlfriend and what happened on the phone wasn’t anything to do with his sister.
    ‘Well, I’ll say goodbye here then,’ he said.
    She needed to get back to the main road too, so even though he obviously didn’t want to, they walked together towards the junction. He walked slightly in front of her, head down, hands in pockets.
    When the car pulled up, he didn’t even notice.
    ‘That bloke in the car’s waving,’ she told him. ‘Is that your friend?’
    The car stopped right beside them. The window opened and the driver leaned over. ‘Hey, man,’ he said, ‘jump in.’
    Ellie stood awkwardly on the pavement as he got into the car. She wasn’t sure what to do next. Would he ask her if she wanted a lift? If he did, should she say yes? Or should she make some cool excuse and walk away as if she too had somewhere to be?
    The other boy grinned, said, ‘Sorry to steal him away.’
    It sounded as if the gatecrasher was hers, as if they were a couple, as if she had rights.
    She smiled. ‘That’s OK.’
    They both looked at her then, but she didn’t feel seen. It was as if they looked only at the outside – her clothes, her ridiculous shoes. The gatecrasher’s eyes seemed covered in some glaze that made him different from how he’d been at the river.
    ‘Well,’ she said, ‘see you around.’
    He nodded, barely looked at her as the car pulled away.

Fourteen
    Mikey sat on the edge of the sofa and tried to look normal. He stared at the carpet, then at the cop’s flat black shoes. He crossed his fingers and tried to think of something other than now, other than here. But the only things that came into his head were to do with this woman. What if she opened cupboards