Читать книгу Mine - S.A Partridge - Страница 13

I look back at the girl standing with her skateboard over her shoulder giving me the finger. She’s wearing grey jeans with holes at the knees and a Led Zeppelin T-shirt – I recognise the Icarus design from their album artwork. The tips of her blue hair blow in the air like flames licking the sky. The rained-out lights blur around her like an electric halo. She turns around with her finger still in the air and I sink back into my seat, laughing. I love my hood. I really do.

I realise how high I am. Normally I wouldn’t let Bones pick me up at home, but I’m in no condition to navigate my way around. I walked as far as Kenilworth Centre before sending him a WhatsApp.

“We almost hit someone,” I say, wiping my hand over my face.

“Who cares? Got any more spliff?” asks Brendan from the back seat.

“No.”

“Aw, c’mon, man. You always say that. Don’t hold out on me.”

Grudgingly, I reach into my pocket and pull out a joint. I guess he did sort of pay for it.

Brendan takes it and tucks it into his pocket. “Cheers.”

“Whatever. Just rob me. Like I care.”

“Hey, have you checked your phone lately?” he asks. “Julia is trying to get hold of you.”

I look up guiltily. “Me? Why?”

He shrugs. “Ask her yourself.”

He doesn’t know what happened last night, or I hope he doesn’t. And Jules is the last person I want to speak to right now. I look back, but Blue-haired Girl is gone. Or maybe I just imagined her. That can happen when you spend ninety per cent of your day high.

We hotbox the car all the way down the M5.

Once we get to the city, we hit a hole-in-the-wall club called The Bunker, where drinks are cheap and the bouncers don’t look at you twice unless you hit someone. I’m struggling to focus on what’s happening around me. That second joint has really pushed me over the edge.

“I need a beer, man. I need to come down. I’m way too high.”

Bones starts laughing and I whip around. “Whoa. When did you get here, man?”

“I drove you here, asshole.”

“Oh yeah.” This is not good.

We head inside the graffitied building, where I crash into a pool table. When I look up, dazed, Bones and Brendan are polishing pool cues with bits of blue chalk.

“I think I passed out.”

Bones presses a beer into my hand and then I’m up again, throwing my arms in the air and dancing round the table while Bones and Brendan laugh like cavemen. This is the life I know. It’s only a matter of time before I lose myself in one epic, unending party.

A vision of short skirts and mermaid hair clouds my vision – Jules and her friends have arrived. I sink back onto a chair and finish my beer, trying to pretend I haven’t seen her. But she’s already spotted me. Like a shark that’s picked up the scent of blood in the water.

She sits down next to me and starts talking animatedly. I nod, hardly listening.

I’m staring at my nails, freaking out at how yellow they are. Were they always this yellow? It’s hard to concentrate on anything else. Weed does strange things to your brain.

“So you’ll come with me, as my date? I hate going to these things alone.”

I finally look up from my nails and I blink till Jules comes into focus.

“Yeah. Sure. Whatever.” I don’t even know what I’m agreeing to, but I can’t say no to Jules. Break her angel heart. Not just because she’s Brendan’s sister. She’s like family to me.

I slip away to the bathroom and spend a long time looking at myself in the mirror. The bruises are fading but the dark skin under my eyes is a permanent fixture. Have I brushed my hair today? I doubt it. It’s sticking out everywhere, like I stuck a fork in a socket.

The walls around the cracked mirror are covered in stupid messages and phone numbers. Someone’s left a black Sharpie on the basin. I draw a little hammer on the wall – I like to leave my mark, even in gross club bathrooms.

When I come out, Jules is waiting for me. She’s leaning against the wall, one leg bent back. This was what I was afraid of. She grins at me and extends her hand.

“Not here, Jules, please. Not in front of Brendan.”

Her smile falters. “He doesn’t care, honestly.”

“Yeah, but I do.”

She doesn’t look happy. I wait for her to walk away first, then I hunch my shoulders and skulk back.

I’m suddenly extremely nervous about what I’ve just agreed to and it’s got nothing to do with drug-induced paranoia.