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I certainly did. Go Billy.
“How’s it going?”
“Great. Love it. I’m a geek at heart.”
“A big muscular one who fires up at the slightest insult.”
He laughed. “Nuh. Anger management. Remember? I had to do that.”
I’d done one of those after that fight that saw me locked up for a night.
“What about you, Drake?” Sapphire asked.
My insides recoiled at that “What are your plans?” question.
“Um… well.” I knitted my fingers. I wasn’t thinking on the run for a change, because after Billy had spoken of his computer programming course, I’d gone and enrolled myself in a mathematics degree.
“I’m also doing a course.”
“What are you studying?” she asked.
“Complex mathematics.”
Her brow creased. “Oh, you wish to teach?”
“Not sure. I just want to understand how everything works. I’ll see where that takes me.”
“He’s actually brainy. He just looks dumb.” Billy pulled a face.
That was the friend I loved—the one that poked shit at me so I could poke shit right back.
Sapphire rolled her eyes and giggled.
Chapter 31
Manon
ThereIwasshoppingwith my mother, and I didn’t even have the urge to shoplift.
As we walked through Harrods, she went through racks of designer dresses.
“What did you talk about with Grandmother?” I asked.
She shrugged. “Just lots of apologising. Mainly about Will on my part, and on hers, for ghosting me. Not that she referred to her avoiding me as that. You know Caroline and her big words.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m so used to being a bitch. Being nice isn’t easy, and all this smiling is hurting my face.”
I had to laugh. “I know what you mean. The same thing happened to me the first time Grandmother sealed my acceptance into that family with a hug. I’d grown so used to walking around like a stuck-up princess.”
She sniffed. “Then you’re more like me than you care to admit.”
Was I like her? I studied her face for her usual smirk, but she maintained an even expression. If anything, I’d learnt from her selfish, manipulative actions how not to be, but I kept that from her.
“One can change. And at least Grandmother gave me a second chance. That’s big of her. Don’t you think?”
She nodded abstractedly. “She owes us. We’re blood, and she’s making amends, I’d say.”
“If you were Caroline, would you have accepted us?” And so the questions continued because I was still trying to process our new happy-family arrangement. Suspicion had been woven into my heart where my mother was concerned, so I couldn’t help but wonder if she had a hidden agenda that may erupt into a shitstorm at any minute.
She moved her head from side to side to stretch her neck. “Not sure. I’m not her, so I can’t answer that. It’s all about what life throws at us. That’s how we’re made. It’s all very well to have nice intentions, but after a life of nothing but crap, you harden. You have to. The soft ones are the first to fall in this wild push of life.”
