‘I’m sorry – I’m sure I texted you.’
‘No, you didn’t!’ Anna shrieks. ‘You texted your father, who was asleep until we were forced to call him in a panic. I cannot believe you stood us up like that! After all we’ve done for you!’
Beneath the shame, something else starts to simmer. So that’s why they’re throwing a fit, because they thought they’d messed up and Dad was called to witness it? I try to keep the anger in check, try not to think about how theyignored Simo. It won’t help me out of this mess.
‘I really am sorry. It was an accident,’ I say. Beneath the duvet, Simo finds my hand and squeezes it.
‘Young man, this family has no tolerance for accidents. You risked your life! This isn’t some lousy town at the arse end of nowhere where bored farmers dye cows and exchange news via a noticeboard like it’s the sixteen hundreds! This is a city with real crime! Stabbings! Murders!’
There is a moment when it’s OK to laugh at the image of Anna Brandenburg throwing her hands in the air and screaming about stabbings and murders, but this isn’t it. I bite my tongue. Hard.
‘We are sending you back on the first train. Best to pack your bags,’ Graham commands with forced coolness.
They both turn their backs and go to stride out of the room, but not before I say my piece.
‘So, I slip up once, and barely even that, and now you’re mad that I didn’t hang around so you could show me off to your friends, only to forget me when you got bored? How long did it take you to notice I was gone? It must have been hours!’
‘We are not having this discussion, Matthew!’ Graham roars, mistaking me for Dad in his anger, and slams the door shut. My heart beats so fast it hurts.
Two hands find my shoulders and begin to rub the muscles there. Simo kneads out the tension, and tears fall from my eyes, leaving marks on the duvet. I hate that they have the power to make me cry.
‘Hey,’ Simo murmurs, wrapping his arm around me, ‘it’s OK.’
‘It’s really not,’ I say, and fall into him.
‘But it’s going to be.’ He combs his fingers through my hair, and for a second I feel a little less miserable and small.
‘How do you know?’ I ask, because that was so ugly I can’t imagine facing Anna and Graham again.
‘Hmm, remember when our names landed on the infamous noticeboard from the sixteen hundreds? That felt like the end of me then, but I’m OK with it now. Because we’re still here.’
The tears fall even harder after that. He’s defending my grandparents and they don’t deserve him. I don’t deserve him. My conscience only grows heavier. Looks like I have truly made a mess of things.
Sleep is impossible, so we put on a sitcom in the empty hope of making ourselves feel better. We pack like we were told, and though the last thing I want is to run into anyone, I steal out of the room and hunt down our phones. We each have several missed calls from my grandparents, which makes my heart sink, and a string of texts from Dad, which kicks it even lower, until I spot his final text:
Love you, speak tomorrow. Don’t let them get youdown.
Dad xx
At four in the morning, there’s a knock on the door and Susie announces that the car is ready to take us to the train station. Neither Anna nor Graham is there to see us off.
This early on a Sunday, we’re the only people in the compartment. It’s several hours until dawn creeps into thesky. Simo snoozes on my shoulder, but despite the fatigue, my mind is in tatters.
Reality has come crashing down on us. Gone is the pool, the cover of night, the glitz that gave everything a magical feel, that made the impossible possible. Though like Simo said, we’re here, and we’re together. We survived. If we can own up to our feelings and come out on the other side, nothing can break us. Guilt makes my stomach cramp, but now there is hope too.
‘Simo?’ I say and nudge him awake. ‘I have another truth.’
‘What is it?’
There’s one last thing I was too afraid to say last night. I fear I might be sick, so if I don’t get it out now, something else will appear.
‘It was me. I put our names on the noticeboard.’
CHAPTER 24 – SIMO
‘You did what?’
I must have misheard.
