The Time of My Life. Cecelia Ahern

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      CHAPTER THIRTEEN

      I was standing on the fire escape, secret smoking location number three of the year after the disabled toilet on the second floor and the cleaning staff service room. Two other people were there too; a man and a woman but they weren’t there together and none of us spoke. It wasn’t like the smoking section outside a club or pub where everybody spoke to everybody, united by the happiness of being out on a social occasion. This was work and the only reason we were all here, apart from needing to feed the nicotine fix, was to get away from talking to people. We had come here to have a break from thoughts and the hard work that came with the constant interaction with idiots. Or at least people we considered idiots because they were not mind readers and we had to, patiently, use polite words to explain things that we were thinking when really inside we were fighting the urge to take their heads in our hands and softly and repeatedly thud their foreheads off the wall. But there was no such politeness here; we were shutting off our brains, deliberately ignoring each other and satisfied by our right to do so, concentrating only on breathing in and blowing out smoke. Only I wasn’t. I hadn’t stopped thinking, and I wasn’t smoking.

      I heard the door open behind me. I didn’t bother turning around, I didn’t care if location number three had been found and we had all been caught. What was another misdemeanour on my current rap sheet? But the other two did care and they hid their cigarettes in their closed and quickly yellowing palms, forgetting the rising smoke would give the game away, and they both quickly turned to see who had stumbled upon their lair. They didn’t appear too concerned by who they saw but they didn’t relax either which meant it wasn’t the boss but it wasn’t someone they knew. The man took a final long drag of his cigarette and quickly left, the scare of the close call enough to ruin his nicotine thrill. The woman stayed where she was, but eyed the new guest up and down as she had done with me when I joined them. I still didn’t turn around to see who it was, partly because I didn’t care who it was, but mostly because I knew who it was.

      ‘Hi,’ he said, standing so close to me our shoulders rubbed.

      ‘I’m not talking to you,’ I said, staring straight ahead. The woman sensed something juicy and settled down to suck on the remainder of her cigarette.

      ‘I told you it was going to be harder than you thought,’ he said gently. ‘But don’t worry, we’ll get there.’

      ‘Will we now,’ I said. ‘Excuse me,’ I turned to the lady, ‘would you mind if I borrowed a cigarette, please?’

      ‘I think she means can she take it. She can’t give it back once it’s smoked,’ Life added for me.

      She looked at me as though she’d rather sell her favourite grandmother but she gave me one anyway because that’s what people do, they’re mostly polite, even when they’re feeling rude inside.

      I inhaled. Then I coughed.

      ‘You don’t smoke,’ he said.

      I inhaled again in his face, then tried to stifle the cough that immediately came after.

      ‘Why don’t you just tell me why you’re so angry?’

      ‘Why?’ I finally turned to him. ‘Are you demented? You know bloody well why. You made a fool of me in there. You made me look like a … like a …’

      ‘Liar, by any chance?’

      ‘Look, I had a plan. I had it all under control. You were just supposed to sit there and observe, that’s what you said.’

      ‘I never said that.’

      ‘Somebody said that.’

      ‘No, you assumed.’

      I silently fumed.

      ‘So tell me, what was the great plan? You were going to lie again and all of a sudden like the great genius you are, learn Spanish overnight?’

      ‘I have a great aptitude for learning, that’s what my French teacher said,’ I huffed.

      ‘And your civics teacher said “could do better”.’ He looked away. ‘I did the right thing.’

      Silence. СКАЧАТЬ