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‘Missed her!’ Matty said, triumphant, never mind the oncoming traffic now ploughing straight towards us. A twenty-tonne lorry blasting its horn.
‘Oh God!’
We’d learned about momentum in physics; velocity, mass and unstoppable force. We were going at fifty miles an hour, but in a fight between us and the truck, Matty and I would be the ones ending up as ketchup.
On instinct, I raised my arms to shield my face, squeezed my eyes shut. There was a vulpine cry, high-pitched and animal. From me, I realised.
My mouth was dust, my skin soaked in sweat. The air thick with the sickly-sweet smell of petrol.
‘You can open your eyes now.’
The lorry had gone, the car slowed to normal speed. And yet I couldn’t stop shaking.
Matty glanced at me, his pupils expanding to fill his irises. Then, with an almost imperceptible nod, he pulled the car over to the side of the road and killed the engine.
‘You’re not crying are you, pumpkin?’
‘What the hell’s wrong with you? Why would you—’
‘It was just a game, Soph.’
But I was already getting out of the car.
‘Where are you going?’
‘You think I’m letting you drive me home?’
He beat me back, tried to make out everything was hunky-dory when I got there.
‘The wanderer returns. . .’
My mother took in my tear-stained face, fired Matty a questioning look.
‘What’s wrong, honey?’ She touched a hand to my forehead. ‘Are you okay?’
‘No, I’m not okay. Matty just tried to kill me.’
‘Tried to kill you?’
Her voice had gone very quiet.
‘Drove like a maniac. Did his best to crash the car. Literally fifty miles an hour in a thirty zone. Directly into the path of a truck.’
She straightened up, glowered at Matty. Jaw so tight it changed the shape of her face.
‘What were you thinking?’
I’d assumed she’d tell me I was overreacting. That she’d taken my side so quickly had the strange effect of making me feel worse rather than better.
‘Come on now, Soph,’ Matty said, all butter-wouldn’t-melt. ‘I was only mucking about. I thought we were having fun.’
My mother responded before I could.
‘Fun?’ she spat.
‘Why are you making such a big deal out of this?’
‘Seriously?’
