Page 27 of Summer Holiday Lifeline

“Why?”

“Cruel English teacher?” He almost smiled. “Or so I thought at the time, but now it helps me stay focused. Jake isn’t the only one with a spicy brain around here.”

Myles took the opportunity of distraction to restraighten Steven’s curled fingers.

“Fucking hell!”

“Sorry.”

Fresh blood oozed from the cuts.

“Oh, yeah, that’s…” Steven swivelled in his chair, leaving his hand in Myles’s grip but lowering his head to the crook of his elbow on the table.

The kitchen lights brightened as Myles leaned over the injured hand, partly in an attempt to block the sight from Steven’s view.

“Oh. That hurts.” Steven tried to pull his hand away when Myles dabbed at the first cut to clean it.

“Well, it will.” Myles shaded his tone of voice to as reassuring as possible. “Who’s Jake?”

“What?” Gingerly, Steven lifted his head from his arm.

“Jake? I assume that was the guy at the back door? Who’s he?”

“Oh. My little brother. He’s autistic. God, he’ll be frantic. I should⁠—”

Myles pressed him into the chair with his free hand and clamped his other tight around Steven’s wrist. “You have to look after you, first. You can’t calm him down if you’re dripping blood everywhere. That’ll just make it worse, right?”

“Yeah.” Steven let himself be pushed back. “Right. Of course.”

“Jake works at the Oaks, yeah?” He knew this because he’d served Myles a number of times, but anything to keep Steven distracted.

“He does.”

“He knows Kreed and Lucky well?”

Steven hissed as Myles applied a small daub of antiseptic cream to the first cut. “He does.”

“So they’ll be able to help him until you get there.”

“Yeah. And Lucy.”

“Who’s that?”

“Jake’s girlfriend.”

Myles smiled up at his patient. “So Jake has a lot of help. Let’s focus on you.”

Steven blinked at him, breath held, eyes wide. “Who are you?” he asked after a minute.

“Myles. I knew Lucky way back. And Ozzy. Jet and Shelly are my niece and nephew. We’re here for a summer vacation.” He finished dealing with the second finger and reorganized the supplies to prepare for moving on to the third. “I can’t believe Jet is helping in the kitchen over there. It was like pulling teeth to get him to carry his dishes to the sink at home.”

“How old is he?”

“Sixteen. Going on Smartest Dude in the Universe, if you ask him.”

Steven snickered. “Sounds like me at that age.”

“Me too.”