? ? ?
She was in agony during the two weeks before term commenced, an agony of lost love combined with a fear of what was to come. It was almost a relief to get to the start-of-term assembly and see him up there in the rows of teachers, watch him introduced as a new member of the school, hear her friends comment on what a hottie he was.
The day passed in a daze. She had never felt so ridiculous in her striped blazer. She held her breath as she reached every corner, aware that Leo and her mother were now in close proximity. She couldn’t concentrate when people spoke to her. She threw her lunch in the bin.
She tried to tell herself that everything else was another life. But each time she pictured his face close to hers she knew that what had happened between them had been real. She had no doubt he’d had genuine feelings for her – surely he couldn’t switch them off in an instant.
By lunchtime she couldn’t bear it. She had walked up to the sports hall and found him with a group of table-tennis players. She had watched him for a while in the shadows of the doorway, and when the games finished she had loitered while people came out. When everyone had gone, she slipped inside the hall.
He was putting equipment away, and as soon as he saw her, he stopped.
‘What are you doing here?’
‘I needed to see you.’
Neither of them moved. Then he turned away and began to collect more bats and balls. She walked over and put her hand on his. ‘Leo?’
He whipped his arm away as though her touch had stung. ‘Stop!’ he cried, his gaze shooting across to the open doorway. She followed his glance, to see one of the students coming back in. ‘Forgot my jumper,’ the boy said, and hurried across to a row of chairs, eyes averted, collecting his clothing and heading straight back out. Until he disappeared, until she exhaled, Georgia hadn’t realised she was holding her breath.
‘For god’s sake, Georgia. Come to my office after school,’ Leo had said. ‘Now, go.’
She was thrilled to have another opportunity to see him. She had counted every second of the afternoon, unable to catch her breath, lightheaded by the time the final bell rang. She needed to talk to him before they met up somewhere with other people around. Although he wasn’t her regular sport teacher, who knew when he might take one of her classes unexpectedly. This was only the first day; she couldn’t go on like this.
She waited until most people had gone, before heading to the main building where the offices were. She marched up to one of the forbidding wooden doors and knocked.
‘Come in,’ a voice called.
She entered, closing the door quietly and coming to stand at the opposite side of the desk.
He said nothing, glowering at her. A fiery flush began to spread from her face down through her whole body. He was waiting, but she could not find any words to try to appease him. The room began to fill with the weight of expectation, as though an unseen poison was finding its way through every crack and crevice, coming closer, ready to choke her, leaving her with no way out.
She watched him move around the desk, his expression changing to contempt. As he approached, her exhilaration drained away; fear was taking its place. He was acting so differently to the person she had known. She felt her legs start to weaken and the word she uttered came out so quietly that at first she was not sure she’d said it at all.
‘Leo.’
She wondered if he would see how close she was to fainting – if she did, would he catch her? – but when he got near enough that his whisper would only be heard by her, he stared straight into her eyes and said, ‘Do not ever call me by my first name. I’m warning you, Georgia: stay away from me, and I’ll stay away from you. I won’t warn you again.’
29
ZAC
Zac is sitting in the cobbled square in the centre of town, summoning the energy to take the short ride up to school. It’s nice here, away from the tension. Everyone is getting on with life, there’s no sign of the apocalypse that Zac is certain awaits him.
He had stopped at a bakery and eaten two sausage rolls in quick succession, ignoring the vibration of Georgia’s phone as three more calls from Sophia went unanswered. However, when he realises his own phone is beeping in his pocket, he pulls it out. It’s Maddie.
Whatever you said worked. She’s taken the photo down.