‘Then you’d better hope your mum and most of all psycho Shane doesn’t find out who it is because he won’t be happy, I can tell you that for nothing.’ The minute Phoebe said it, her eyes widened and her neck and face flushed crimson.
‘What do you mean by that? Phoebe… tell me… you’ve gone bright red and I know something’s up.’ Molly couldn’t believe her best friend had kept something big from her.
They fell quiet. Outside, the city marched to its own beat, keeping time with Molly’s pounding heart.
Chapter Eight
Phoebe finally broke the painful silence. ‘Look, I was sworn to secrecy, okay, and to be honest I didn’t want to cause trouble. Kye begged me not to say anything so I didn’t and until just now I’d forgotten all about it.’
Molly looked up sharply. ‘Kye? Why, what do you mean, begged? I don’t understand. What’s he got to do with anything?’
In the moments while Molly waited for Phoebe to sort out where her loyalties lay, her mind raced back to being fifteen. The Christmas party at school, all soft drinks and crap food laid on by the teachers in the main hall. It was there that after months of eye-flirting, Kye Ryder from the year above plucked up the courage to ask Molly out and seeing as he was cute she said yes. She’d never had a boyfriend and everyone was green with envy. Her WhatsApp buzzed into the small hours with messages from her friends wanting in on it all and Molly loved being the first of her circle to go on a real date.
She’d been so thrilled she told her mum and Dee the next day, and later over dinner, Dee blabbed to Shane. He didn’t say much, other than doing his ‘stepdad’ thing, wanting to knowall about him and once he was satisfied Kye wasn’t the village rogue, said he’d drive her to the retail park that weekend where she’d arranged to meet Kye.
It was all going to be totally innocent, Burger King and then bowling. Well it would have been if Kye had turned up but he didn’t and worse, he blocked her number when she tried to get in touch and ask why. And when she went back to school after the Christmas break he totally blanked her.
She remembered ringing Shane in floods of tears asking him to come back and pick her up, then how angry he’d been at Kye for hurting her feelings and how foolish she’d felt after telling all her friends about her date. It had put her off the idea of having a boyfriend forever and then, when she turned sixteen, that all changed. Shane made it all okay and every time Molly saw Kye after that, she felt smug and superior.
A delivery moped screeching past made Molly start and snap back into the present and at Phoebe, ‘Tell me.’
‘Okay, okay… I bumped into Kye about a year ago here in town, in Alchemist. He was home from uni, with friends, and we got chatting, you know, reminiscing about school and I teased him about standing you up that time. As soon as I mentioned your name his face clouded over and he looked angry so I asked him what was wrong. Maybe it was because he’d had a few drinks that he opened up but I got the impression he was sick of being the bad guy. He told me why he stood you up and blanked you afterwards.’
‘What did he say?’ Molly could still feel the sting of teenage embarrassment three years later and it made her feel small.
Phoebe raised her perfectly tattooed eyebrow. ‘You’re not going to like it which isexactlywhy I didn’t tell you at the time.’ She caught Molly’s impatient look and continued. ‘Shane warned him off, okay. Waited for him near his house and actually grabbed him by his jacket, rammed him against a walland told Kye if he came anywhere near you he’d break his legs. Kye was scared to death – some grown man roughing up a sixteen-year-old. But he retaliated and told Shane he’d ring the police and tell his mum, and then Shane turned really nasty.’
Molly was dumbstruck for a second or two, totally unable to get her head around what she was hearing but believing it instantly, dreading what was to come. ‘What did he do?’
‘If you remember, Kye was from a single parent family and on a scholarship at our school. He was really clever and his mum was over the moon when he got a place because no way could she afford to send him to our fancy school. Kye told me his mum had put all her hopes on him going to uni and having a great career. Shane told Kye that if he didn’t do as he was told, he’d get him expelled, or his scholarship withdrawn. He said he and your mum were generous benefactors and they held a lot of sway with the headmaster and governors. And that he knew where his mum worked and played golf with her boss and could get her sacked, too, if he wanted. Said he had lots of contacts around town so to watch his step. Kye was terrified of being beaten up and losing his place, and his mum losing her job at the biscuit factory, so did as he was told. That’s why he didn’t turn up and blanked you. End of.’
‘Oh my God, Shane did that! Fuck, Phoebe that’s awful…’ Molly felt sick and her hands shook.
‘I know. And after Kye told me, I think he regretted it and begged me not to repeat it. He still didn’t trust Shane not to make trouble for his mum who has his little sister to look after. He wanted it all forgotten, so I promised him. I thought about it loads when I got home and even though you’re my best friend I realised it was the right thing to do. It would’ve caused problems at yours and the atmosphere was already crap so I didn’t want to make it worse.’
Molly’s head was going to explode. It was too much to take in and worse, there were a million more thoughts clamouring for attention, asking questions, reminding her of other instances of Shane’s jealous behaviour and, worse, warnings, red flags and creeping dread.
‘Are you mad with me? You look pretty pissed off, to be fair.’ Phoebe was twiddling her fingers and spinning her silver rings nervously.
Molly reached over and grabbed Phoebe’s hand and squeezed it tightly. ‘No, no I’m not mad with you, Pheebs. Not at all. There’s only one person I’m annoyed with right now and I’ll deal with him my own way.’
Silence fell between them, and in the lull, as if she’d summoned the devil himself, her phone buzzed in her pocket. A message. Shane from his secret phone that he used to contact her.
Where are you? Miss you. X
Molly’s stomach twisted.
‘Everything okay?’ Phoebe asked.
Molly smiled. ‘Yeah. Just Dee.’
She’d lied. Again. Because it was easier than the truth. And the truth, whatever that was, seemed to be getting murkier by the day.
Chapter Nine
The early evening humidity did nothing to help Julia’s frame of mind as she stood at the island in the kitchen, slicing lemons and limes for the jug of iced water she kept in the fridge now the weather had turned stifling. The blade clicked rhythmically against the chopping board filling the room with the citrus scent.
From the corner of her eye, she watched Dee flit around the room, chirpy and full-on, restless then suddenly still and silent as if she’d burnt herself out. Julia often thought of her as a beach ball, one minute bouncing around, bright sunny colours spinning in the air, then the next it’d be stuck under a deck chair, hiding away, its vibrancy dulled by layers of sand.
