Storms. Chris Vick

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СКАЧАТЬ sitting bolt upright, looking at the screen. Frowning again.

      ‘Don’t stress,’ said Jake. ‘You haven’t done anything wrong. He’ll be okay, as long as he knows you’re all right. Let’s go for coffee: we can drop you in a bit.’

      Hannah shot him a look like he didn’t understand. Like he didn’t have a clue.

      ‘No. I know we – I – haven’t done anything wrong. Look, I just don’t want to do a whole lot of explaining. We have to get there before him. Goofy, I’ll give you directions.’

      *

      They parked outside the drive of Phoebe’s house. What now? Jake thought.

      Number swaps. Arranging to meet. But definitely meeting up? Or super-casual, yeah-I’ll-text-you vagueness?

      Not this time. He wanted to see her again. He wanted her to know it. Fuck playing cool.

      Hannah glanced up and down the road before turning to Jake. She opened her mouth to speak. But before she could a sleek, blue Merc sped round the corner and pulled up in front of the van.

      Hannah’s father got out and stood square in front of the windscreen, hands on hips, looking from Goofy, to Jake, to Hannah.

      He wore pressed jeans, deck shoes and a white shirt. He was tanned and smooth, but serious-looking.

      ‘Look, maybe you guys should go,’ said Hannah.

      ‘Why?’ said Jake. She smiled, weakly. Clearly, he still didn’t understand.

      ‘Can’t just scarper, can we?’ said Goofy. ‘I know your old man. Be rude not to say hello.’

      How would it look if they just revved out of there? Like they were running away.

      When Hannah got out, Jake followed. Goofy got out of the driver’s side.

      ‘Dad. Hi.’ She kissed him on the cheek. ‘We just went to get some … things for breakfast. The boys came over this morning.’ Her voice was high and forced. She was a bad liar.

      ‘So where are the breakfast things?’ said Hannah’s dad. He didn’t move, or raise his voice, or blink. Hannah shrank in his gaze.

      ‘The shop was closed,’ said Jake.

      ‘You know Goofy,’ said Hannah. ‘This is Jake.’ Pete Lancaster looked him up and down.

      ‘All right, Mr Lancaster,’ said Goofy.

      Lancaster nodded at Goofy, then turned his eyes back to Jake.

      ‘Good party, was it?’ How he said it. It was a simple question, but loaded.

      ‘Yeah, we had a great time last night,’ said Jake. Hannah bowed her head.

      ‘Hannah, you don’t look like you had much sleep,’ her dad said.

      It was true. Gorgeous as she was, she looked washed out. Party-broken.

      ‘I’m fine, Dad.’

      ‘Anything you need to get from the house?’

      ‘No. The girls are asleep. I can get it later.’

      Pete Lancaster turned back to the car, opened the passenger door, then went and stood on the driver’s side, waiting.

      Jake hadn’t had a chance to say goodbye. Now he had to do it with this guy watching.

      ‘Bye, then,’ said Jake.

      Hannah looked to her father and back to Jake. She put her hand on the door, about to get in.

      Then she bit her lip, thinking for a second, and ran to Jake. She kissed his cheek, bringing her lips close to his. Lingering. She whispered her number in his ear.

      ‘Got it?’ she said.

      ‘Yes,’ he whispered back.

      Hannah and her dad got into the Merc, and it slid quietly away.

      ‘Pen, paper, phone. Quick,’ said Jake.

      ‘Why?’ said Goofy.

      ‘Her bloody number, that’s why.’ He went into the van, searching his sleeping bag and rucksack, saying the number out loud to himself. Repeating it over and over while Goofy laughed.

       Hannah

      SHE’D FALLEN FOR Jake.

      It had only been a couple of weeks. But this was like some drug taking over her mind, her body and her every waking thought. Her dreams. Deeper every day.

      Two weeks of cloudless summer days.

      They lay on the sand till they baked. They cooled down in skin-biting water. Walked cliffs with her sheepdog, Beano.

      In the evenings Jake worked shifts in the Queen’s Arms. Afterwards, he walked her home.

      More than once she saw the curtains flicker in the shadows. She wanted them – Mum at least – to meet him, to see what she saw. But for now she wanted to keep Jake safe. From questions. Because there would be a lot of them.

      *

      So they visited Jake’s family first.

      It was away from the village, at the end of a terrace of cottages, near the cliff tops.

      All the other cottages gleamed smart. Not Jake’s house. Later, Hannah told Bess, it had ‘ramshackle charm’. In truth, the roof slates were loose and covered in moss and the walls were stained grey by summer sun and winter storms.

      But the weedy lawn was freshly mown, and in the corner of the garden Jake had built a pretty pink painted shed for his sister. There were stickers and dream-catchers in the windows. The house was run-down, but it looked like a home.

      They’d hardly got through the door when a boy and a girl appeared.

      ‘You’re the dolphin lady,’ said the girl. Hattie was ten, with dark ringlets, and round eyes like Jake’s.

      ‘Yes, I suppose so.’

      Sean was fourteen. Runner-bean skinny, with straw-blond hair to his shoulders. He was grinning madly.

      ‘You must be special. He don’t normally bring them home.’

      Jake took a firm grip on his brother’s nipple, and twisted hard.

      ‘That hurt!’ Sean yelped.

      ‘Good.’

      Hattie laughed, and poked Sean, joining in.

      ‘Stop. Now.’ Jake’s mum СКАЧАТЬ