The Lie. C.L. Taylor

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СКАЧАТЬ will tempt her back out.

      “I’m going to the loo.” She stands up, shoves her phone into the pocket of her cargo trousers and shuffles away.

      Leanne and I watch her go.

      “Looking forward to Pokhara tomorrow?” Leanne asks.

      “I can’t wait. I need a massage like you wouldn’t believe. How long’s the bus journey again?”

      “About six hours.”

      “Wow.”

      “I noticed a little corner shop just down from our guest house. We should grab some water and snacks and things after breakfast.”

      “Good idea.”

      We lapse into silence as I gaze around the bar. We’re on the first floor of a building on the main stretch of Thamel, the tourist district of Kathmandu, and the sound of car horns drifts through the open windows. The walls are painted a deep red and decorated with fairy lights and paintings of temples and mountain ranges.

      “Guys!” Daisy bounces back into view with a tray bearing eight shot glasses in her hands, just as Al rejoins us at the table. “There’s a wall over by the bar that loads of people have signed. We need to write something. Come on!”

      “I don’t know what to write.” Daisy bites down on the piece of chalk in her hand then cringes as a squeaking sound fills the air.

      “I do.” The tip of Al’s tongue pokes out of the corner of her mouth as she drags the chalk over the wall. The whole expanse has been painted with blackboard paint, and it’s filled with sketches, messages, dates and obscenities.

      “Fuck you, Simone!” Leanne rolls her eyes as she reads aloud what Al has written. “Seriously, Al, you can’t leave that up there.”

      “Why not?” Al folds her arms over her chest and stares admiringly at her handiwork.

      “Because it’s really negative. This holiday is supposed to be about new starts.”

      “Okay, then.” Al pulls her sleeve over her hand and rubs at the wall. “There you go.”

      “Fuck?” Leanne says, and everyone laughs. “That’s it?”

      “That’s the best you’re getting out of me. Your turn, Emma.” She hands me the chalk.

      “Oh, God.” I look at Daisy, who’s still deliberating what to write, a pale chalky patch now smeared on her bottom lip. “I don’t know what to write, either.”

      “Give it to me, then.” Leanne snatches the chalk from my hand and, before I can object, she steps towards the wall and starts scribbling. When she steps back, there’s a self-satisfied grin on her face.

      “What the hell?” Al squints at what she’s written. It’s longer than the things other people have written and, to fit it all in, she’s had to twist the sentence over and around other scribbles like a snake.

      “It’s a Maya Angelou quote,” Leanne says. “‘The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.’”

      I have to fight not to roll my eyes. Trust Leanne to be pseudo-deep when everyone else has drawn dicks and bollocks and written things like “I love beer” on the wall.

      “Okay, I’ve got it.” I twist the chalk from her fingers and read aloud as I write. “Emma, Daisy, Al, Leanne: the adventure of a lifetime.”

      Daisy steps forward and nudges me out of the way. She rubs out “the adventure of a lifetime” and replaces it with “best friends forever”.

      “There.” She stands back and pulls the three of us into an awkward hug. “Perfect.”

      Al rummages around in her backpack, pulls out two cans of lager and chucks one at me. We left the bar half an hour ago and we’re back at the guest house, ostensibly to sleep, but Al seems to have other ideas.

      I catch the can of beer. “What’s this for?”

      She settles back on her bed and kicks off her trainers. “Not being a dick.”

      “What do you mean?”

      “Tonight. It was like the Daisy and Leanne Show. Well, the Daisy Show, with a one-woman audience.”

      “They were trying to cheer you up.” I pull the tab on my beer and take a swig. We drew lots to decide who’d share with whom in the guest house. Leanne wanted to share with Al, and for me and Daisy to share, but Daisy thought it would be fun to “mix things up a bit”, especially as we’ll have to share rooms at the retreat and in the jungle, too.

      “I know, and I would have laughed if it wasn’t so sad.”

      “Al!”

      She smirks at me over the lip of her can. “Come on, Emma, admit it. I could see you cringing.”

      “Well.” I shrug. “Maybe a bit. I felt like I should have held up a neon sign pointing to our table that said, ‘We Are Having FUN!’”

      “Best friends forever!” Al bursts out laughing and the tension I’ve felt all evening finally dissipates.

      There’s a knock at the door and we both freeze.

      “Come in,” Al shouts.

      The door swings open and Daisy’s blonde head peers around the doorway.

      “Are you two bitches having fun without me?” She points at our beers with mock horror. “And you’re drinking the duty free!”

      Al reaches into her backpack and chucks a beer at Daisy. “Join in, let’s be friends forever!”

      She cackles with laughter and the sound fills the room.

       Chapter 7

       Present Day

      “Jane? Have you got a minute?” I’m elbow deep in dried dog food when Sheila calls my name. She’s standing in the doorway of the supplies room with a woman I’ve never seen before. Unlike Sheila, who’s nearly six feet tall and all bosom and bum, the woman standing next to her is tiny. She’s barely five feet tall and her Green Fields’ standard issue navy polo shirt hangs flat from her shoulders, skimming her non-existent chest. Her grey trousers nearly cover the toes of her black trainers.

      “Of course.” I stand up, tip the scoop into one of the twenty metal bowls on the table to my right, then wipe my hands on my trousers and cross the room.

      “Jane, this is Angharad, one of the new volunteers. Angharad, this is Jane; she runs the dog section.”

      “Hi!” I smile at the newcomer. From a distance, she looked about nineteen, but, up close, I can see she’s nearer my age. She tucks a strand СКАЧАТЬ