Free Then You Were Gone by Claire Moss Page B

the other side of the corridor to see if he could get a better angle, but could only make out vague details from that distance. Just then, the lab door opened and the first students began to emerge, chattering and rummaging in their bags and shoulder barging each other out of the way without even noticing while they dabbed at their phones.
    At last he spotted her. ‘Ayanna!’
    The girl turned, saw Jazzy and stopped, a puzzled frown on her face. ‘What you doing here, man?’ She sounded nervous.
    What could he say?
I came here because I literally couldn’t think what else to do and I was going nuts in the office on my own? I came here because I know Simone will ask me what I’ve been doing to look for Mack and I need to be able to tell her something? I came here because even though you’re some skinny sixteen-year-old kid you’re the only person I’ve talked to who actually might be able to help me?
    ‘Mack’s still not back,’ he said flatly. ‘I need to be sure that you’re telling me the truth.’ In fact he was one hundred percent certain that Ayanna had been telling the truth. Her feelings for Mack had been pretty transparent; she could have had no possible reason to lie.
    ‘Of course I am! Jesus!’ She had already started walking down the corridor, back towards the main entrance. ‘Don’t you think I want to help you?’
    ‘I know you want to help.’ Even with his freakishly long legs, Jazzy was having trouble matching Ayanna’s huffy pace. ‘But I wondered if there could be a reason you’re not telling me everything. Perhaps because you’re trying to protect your brother?’
    She whipped round to face him without breaking stride. ‘Protect my brother? Are you actually serious?’ She shook her head and turned to face forwards again, her pace not slacking. ‘I already grassed up my brother to you, didn’t I? I did it straight away, you hardly even had to ask me and I blurted it all out. For all I know you could have been one of them UKIP freaks, you could have been all anti-immigration and called the feds on him the minute I was out of the office. But I did it anyway, didn’t I? My own brother…’ She took a sharp breath, then hissed the last words at him. ‘I did it to help – to help Mack, but to help you as well.’ Shaking her hair back from her face, she went on, ‘You looked so lost and freaked out, and I thought, these people don’t deserve this sort of shit. You know, you and Mack – and that Simone too, I suppose – you’re all right. You’re just working for a living – yeah, fair enough, you work for that creepy old guy Keith, but that ain’t your fault – you’re just trying to get on with your boring life.’
    ‘Thanks,’ Jazzy snorted.
    Ayanna suppressed a smirk, her head down. ‘Yeah, no offence, but you know what I mean. Anyway, it made me sick to think of Mack or you caught up in some of the shit Hakim gets himself involved with.’
    ‘What do you mean?’ Jazzy kept his voice low. They were nearly back at the central reception area and there were crowds of students flowing past them on all sides. ‘Is it dangerous?’
    Ayanna sighed and her pace slowed. ‘Look, I don’t really know what Hak gets up to, and I try not to ask. I don’t like the fact that he does it – he don’t even need to do it, he’s got a good job with the council, it’s not like he needs the money, he gives it all to my mum and dad anyway…’ as her steps grew slower her speech grew faster, ‘but whatever, he thinks he’s doing the right thing. See, we’re lucky really. Things were pretty shitty when my mum and dad got out of Somalia, but they were a fucking weekend at Center Parcs compared with what it’s like now. And we’re here legally, we followed the rules, did the right thing and we’re allowed to stay. We’re home safe now, you know?’
    Jazzy nodded, as though he did know. As though he could ever know. Home for him was, and always had been, a vast and prosperous