Find her, Callum. Go.
And he is charging up the hill.
34
GEORGIA
As soon as Georgia turns onto the path towards home, everything seems different. Light makes new inroads through the trees; branches knit and weave fresh patterns above her, deflecting the rain. Water no longer invades her eyes and mouth, but glistens in soft, pretty drops that form shimmering crystals across the whole forest. She zigzags along the track, jumping over the biggest puddles, each step unwinding the mess in her head. She tries to shake the tension out of her muscles, but they react by squeezing tighter despite her encouragement. She’s going to be in pain tomorrow.
It has been hard to walk this route lately without thinking of Leo, because she always has to pass the very first spot she saw him. Will there ever be a day she comes this way and only afterwards realises he hasn’t gone through her mind? She hopes so. Perhaps if she walked here often enough with Danny, then those memories would replace Leo. But is Danny even speaking to her any more? He’s probably too busy celebrating. Before long he’ll be laughing about that photo with his friends.
Her good mood begins to disperse, and she quickens her pace. The sooner she is home, the better.
She imagines her parents waiting for her, back at school, and has a pang of guilt. They will be so disappointed. She debates turning around, just for them – but the thought of publicly coming in last is mortifying. Still, she can’t leave them waiting. She had better get in touch and let them know what she’s done.
She pulls her phone out of her zip pocket, and sees she has already missed a call. Before she can redial, it rings in her hand. To her surprise she sees Sophia’s name on the screen. Quickly, she answers the call.
‘Where the hell have you been?’ Sophia asks without preamble. ‘I’ve been trying to get in touch with you all morning.’
‘I’ve been running,’ Georgia says. ‘And before that, Zac disappeared with my phone. I’ve done something a bit crazy actually: I decided to walk home in the middle of the race – Mum’s going to kill me.’ Saying this out loud makes it ludicrously real. A hysterical giggle escapes her mouth.
‘Tell me about that later,’ Sophia cuts in, her voice stern, her tone sweeping the smile from Georgia’s face. ‘Listen to me now. My mum has just phoned yours. I had to confess everything. Mum is fuming, and Dad keeps looking at me like I kicked his puppy.’
‘You told them about the guy you were seeing?’
‘Yes, and listen, Georgia, I met him online. And, the thing is – I’m really, really, really sorry, but when I signed up for the dating site, I put your name in. I was just a bit nervous – it felt safer to combine our details. I thought you’d find it funny . . . it wasn’t meant to lead to all this trouble. But you’ve been so distant and serious lately that I couldn’t tell you. And then I had all these emails from different guys, and I got a bit distracted.’
‘You mean you pretended to be me?’
‘Well, only because I had to answer to the name Georgia, which was a bit weird, but I got stuck with it. No offence. I started seeing this bloke – Robbie. It was brilliant to begin with, but I didn’t want my parents to find out because he’s a bit older than us. What I didn’t know until the other day was that he also has a fiancée – the shit.’
While listening to Sophia, Georgia emerges from the woods a short distance from home. There’s about fifty metres of road before she reaches the house, and she immediately spots a white car parked just beyond their driveway. It’s facing her on the opposite side of the road, peeping around a bend.
‘I think his fiancée has gone crazy – I think she tried to run us over.’ Sophia is talking in a rush now. ‘I had a big fight with Robbie on Wednesday night. He told me that we needed to cool things for a while. I wanted him to front up and discuss everything face to face, so on Thursday I texted him Bethany’s address, asking him to meet me. When he didn’t reply, I thought that was it. But now I think maybe his girlfriend came to find me instead.’
Georgia is trying to take in all this information as she makes her way towards the house, when a woman with long, dark hair gets out of the white car, slamming the door. ‘Er, Sophia . . .’
‘When I came round, I had a voicemail from Robbie saying his fiancée had read the messages on his phone and gone berserk. And when Dad showed me the photo of the woman prowling round the hospital, something clicked. Then it came back to me – Danny running after you in the street and shouting, “Georgia!” I think she was waiting for me that night, and now she’s muddled up. She thinks you’re the one sleeping with Robbie.’
The woman stands by the car, shielding her eyes from the drizzle.
Georgia stops walking.