I grab it from his hands and then remember to say thank you.
“It’s really good,” he tells me. “The sails are in perfect proportion. If it was real, it would go really fast.”
“Thanks,” I say again. “I like your box, too.”
He blushes, then asks me if I want to go crabbing with him, just as Lara wanders into the room.
“Elsie, I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
She stands between me and Frankie with a hand on her hip and swishes her hair into Frankie’s face. She’s been searching me out a lot recently, accosting me in the corridor, begging me to tell her where Dillon is, why he isn’t spending any time with her.
“I don’t know where he is,” I tell her now. “He finished his exam early, so I guess he’s gone out to celebrate.” I swallow a huge lump in my throat. He practically ran out of the exam and he looked like he was about to throw up.
“Actually, I don’t even care about him anymore. I came to see if you wanted to hang out over the summer. Go into Inverness and stuff. You know, get drunk, find boys to kiss, or whatever.”
She says whatever as though it might mean something sordid. I try not to think of her and Dillon. Until a few weeks ago, I had been wondering about doing whatever with Tay over the summer. I feel hot just thinking about it. And then I think of Danny and feel even hotter. Frankie jumps in and saves me.
“Elsie and I are making plans to go rockpooling. Aren’t we, Elsie?”
The appalled look on Lara’s face makes me smile, and suddenly rockpooling is exactly what I want to do. If anything because it might cool me down.
“Yes, we were,” I say, mimicking her hair flick, which doesn’t really work because my hair is too curly and too heavy. “Why don’t you come?”
Now Frankie’s face falls, but he can’t have everything his own way. Either Lara comes with us or I don’t go at all. I don’t want Frankie getting the wrong idea. Lara isn’t too bad, really, just a bit skinny. And Frankie, well, I owe him, I guess. We make plans for the next day because I want to get it over with, and then, finally, school is out.
7
I WAKE UP FEELING FREE. NO SCHOOL. NO AILSA. THIS IS THE start of two months of nothing but diving. Before I get out of bed, I hold my breath for three minutes and ten seconds. Soon, very soon, I will make it to four minutes. I’m nearly ready for the drop-off. I shuffle along the corridor to Dillon’s bedroom and stick my head around his door. His room smells of vomit and aerosol. Dillon stirs. His feet stick out the end of his bed, twitching.
“Dil, are you awake?”
He groans, and I wander over to the window where Eddie’s bed used to be. The cemetery is in full view, and some of the shiny headstones glint in the sun, winking at me as though they want me to go down. I turn away.
“Wakey, wakey, sleepyhead.”
“Go away,” Dillon growls. “I’m asleep.” He kicks the duvet into the air and moves his feet back inside the bed.
“But it’s the holidays.”
“Exactly,” he mumbles.
“I’m going rockpooling later with Lara and Frankie. Do you want to come?”
Dillon lifts his head above the duvet and stares at me. He looks even worse than he did yesterday, with cracked lips and gray skin. I feel myself recoil slightly. He could be an extra in a zombie movie.
“It’ll be fun,” I say. “We’re going to look for crabs.”
“That sounds exciting. Why are you going with her?”
Because she asked; so I can pretend to be normal; because it’s a decoy from what I’m really getting up to this holiday.
“Because there’s nothing else to do, and for some reason your girlfriend wants to be my friend.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.” Dillon stretches and sits up in his bed. His greasy hair is stuck to his forehead.
“Well, she seems to think she is. I mean, she says she doesn’t care about you anymore, but I don’t believe her.”
He laughs lazily, as though he’s too tired to do it properly. “That girl’s got issues.”
“Well, if you’re breaking up with her, then I’m not doing your dirty work for you.”
“I’m not asking you to,” he replies. “Right—get out of my room so I can get dressed.”
He flings a dirty sock in my direction.
As I leave, something green lodged behind the wardrobe catches my eye. An old cuddly toy of mine—Jasper the frog. I pull him loose and shake him in the hallway, and the dust hovers for a moment in the landing before tumbling down the staircase.
In the kitchen after breakfast, I show Mum the finished sailboat. It’s so hot today that the heat has even made its way inside our house, warming all the surfaces. I hold the boat in the palm of my hand while she inspects it, running her fingers along the smooth wood. She blows a piece of hair off her face and wipes sweat from her forehead.