‘Because your sister is a nasty, filthy liar and she doesn’t deserve to be alive.’
My heart almost stops when I hear Liv’s gravelly voice. I barely take in what she’s said because I’m too stunned that she’s standing there and neither Kieren nor I heard her come downstairs. She’s wearing a long, fluffy green dressing gown, stained with make-up, and her hair is wrapped in a pink towel. What did she just say? All I know is it was something along the lines of wishing me dead.
Kieren releases his hold on me but is frozen to the spot, just as I am. It would have been different if she’d answered the door and I’d been ready for her – I’m not good at being taken by surprise.
‘Get out of my house,’ she says, spitting her words at me.
‘Actually, I’m not in your house.’ It’s a feeble attempt to stand my ground, but I won’t be intimidated by this monster. How is it we share the same genes?
She lurches forward and grabs Kieren. ‘Get upstairs, now.’
He doesn’t protest but runs off, thudding up the stairs without even a glance in my direction. Fear, that’s what that is. But when he reaches the top he stands and blows me a kiss that only I can see.
‘You’ve got some balls coming here,’ says Liv. ‘D’you know how many people wanna see you hung, drawn and quartered for what you did?’
‘And what exactly did I do, Mother?’ The irony I lace this word with will be lost on her. To me she is, and always has been, Liv Carpenter.
‘Really? You wanna play that game, do you? You put an innocent man in prison and walked away as if nothing happened!’ She edges towards me, her eyes stone cold. ‘He’s suicidal, y’know. And if he tops himself then God help you, because there’ll be a lynch mob after you. He’s got loads of family, loads of friends. And every one of us wants justice.’
It is all I can do to stop myself vomiting across her cracked doorstep.
I lift up my arms. ‘There’s nobody around, Liv. No one listening. Why don’t you just tell the truth? Because you know what he did. You saw him, I know you did, so cut this phoney act. You’re as guilty as he is and what goes around comes around, Liv.’
I turn quickly and walk away – I can’t listen to any more of this.
Her shouts follow me down the street. ‘Don’t show your face again, you dirty whore. D’you hear me? Just shrivel up and die in a corner somewhere, that’s what you deserve.’
As I walk away, I think how strange it is that those words can hurt just as much as, or more than, what she’s already done to me.
* * *
The flat is silent when I get home, but that doesn’t mean I’m alone. Alison is always too quiet, creeping around the place undetected until she’s standing right there, staring at me. Creepy as hell.
After the day I’ve had, I could do with her being here; I want to have it out with her and force her to listen. She needs to know the truth. But that didn’t work with Liv today, did it? When will you learn that people like her and Alison only hear what they want to hear, and you’re wasting your breath trying to convince them otherwise?
There is only one thing I can do, other than drink myself into oblivion, and that’s prepare for my lectures tomorrow. I’ve got Zach’s first thing in the morning, and our next assignment’s due in, so I need to go through it one more time.
As I step into my room, I catch a waft of Alison’s sickly-sweet floral perfume. It’s bloody everywhere in this flat: the bathroom, the kitchen, and now it’s seeped into my bedroom, the only place I can get away from her. And since the incident with Aaron, she’s been wearing even more of it, probably just to annoy me.
Settling at my desk, I load up my laptop and hunt around for my USB. I usually leave it in my desk drawer, safely tucked out of the way, but it’s not here. It’s got all my uni work on it and I can’t afford to lose it. I only feel a mild flutter of panic – I’ve been known to find it in pockets or my bag – but after an increasingly frantic search, there’s no sign of it.
Swearing to myself, I scan my computer files, relieved that I back up my important work. But my assignment for Zach isn’t there, and a search of the hard drive finds nothing with the name of my assignment.
How could I have been so dumb? But as I search my memory, I remember saving it on here. I swear I did. I even remember wondering if Zach would be as complimentary about this one as I copied it to my USB, convincing myself he wouldn’t and that he’d realise he was wrong to think so highly of me.
I spend another half hour turning my room upside down, until it looks like I’ve been burgled, but the search is futile.
Alison – it has to be. She’s trying to screw with me in her passive-aggressive way, and she’s done the only thing she knows will get to me. I rush to her room and pound on the door, shouting her name just in case she’s hiding in there. But there is only silence.
Not even bothering to get my coat, I grab my keys and leave the flat, slamming the door behind me, ignoring the bitter wind as my feet pound the pavement. I have no idea where I’m going, but I need to get the hell out of that flat.
After a few minutes, my head feeling like it’s about to explode, I realise I’m running in the direction of the coffee shop. I’m drenched in sweat, despite the cold, and must look a mess, but it’s as good a place as any to go. I can dose up on caffeine, let my heart rate slow down and get my mind around the momentous task of rewriting this damn assignment before tomorrow.
I’ve still got the handwritten notes for it, but I know without trying that I’ll never be able to recreate the original story, that there’s no chance I can match it. Damn that bitch, she’s lost her head over a man – if Aaron can even be called that – and that’s why she’s done this. I’ve seen Liv behave like this too. I would never let a man drive me to that kind of psychotic behaviour.
There’s only one customer in the coffee shop when I walk in: an elderly man whose hand trembles as he lifts his cup to his mouth. Lucia is serving today and she asks if I want my usual.
‘No,’ I tell her. ‘A double espresso.’ I’ll be up late tonight and I need all the caffeine I can get.
She frowns and then laughs, almost simultaneously, and says something in Slovakian. ‘Sorry. Sit. I bring.’
The elderly man has gone now so I take his seat in the corner by the window, pulling out my notebook while I wait for my drink. I stare at my notes and beg inspiration to hit me. Something. Anything. But the words just blur into a black scribble. This is useless; I can’t do it.
‘Hey, this is a sight for sore eyes.’
I look up and Zach Hamilton is standing by my table, smiling down at me.
‘Hi, what are you doing here?’ I try not to show how pleased I am to see him.
He sits at my table. ‘I had to do some last-minute prep and thought I’d stop here before I head home. I did wonder if you were working.’ He eyes the notes scattered across my table. ‘But actually it doesn’t look like you are.’
‘Not today, but I needed to get out of the flat. I’ve got a lot of uni work to do.’ He doesn’t even know the half of it.
He frowns. ‘Josie, is everything okay? You seem a bit… out of sorts? Oh, God, that’s a stupid expression, isn’t it? I must sound like I’m ninety.’
But I can’t laugh. There’s been no time in my life when anyone has ever asked if I’m okay, other than the police, so I forcefully blink back tears. ‘No, not really. Not at all. Nothing’s okay.’
Even as these words escape me, I know it will be a huge mistake to pull Zach Hamilton into my life.
Chapter Seven
Mia
* * *