Free Unspeakable by Abbie Rushton Page A

leave, but Jasmine grabs my hand to stop me. ‘Wait. Just a minute. There’s something I want to tell you, too. I want to explain why we moved. I know it seems strange. I know people are talking about me, wondering why I came here just before exams.’
    I grab my notepad. You don’t have to , I write.
    ‘But I want you to know.’ Jasmine draws in a big breath. ‘Some girls at my old school were giving me a really hard time. It was affecting my schoolwork, so Mum and Dad thought I should sit my exams in a new school.’
    That’s awful , I write. Who could not like you?
    She gives me a tearful smile.
    I’m glad you told me , I add. I’m glad you moved, even if it was for a horrible reason .
    ‘Me too.’ Jasmine swipes tears from her face and says, ‘Right, let’s get something to eat!’
    The kitchen is thick with the scent of tomato soup. It bubbles away in a pan on the hob, spitting out drops like lava from a volcano.
    Mum laughs when she sees me inspecting the can. ‘So I didn’t technically “make” it. But it’ll do, won’t it?’
    ‘It’s fine,’ Jasmine assures her. ‘Smells great!’
    Jasmine starts chatting about a TV programme where a woman adopts a child who turns out to be her younger sister. Mum asks if she’d like to act in a soap, and Jasmine laughs and says she’d rather be on stage. Then she notices some gossip magazine lying on the table and they start to coo over the male torsos in the centrefold.
    I tune out, concentrate on blowing steam off my soup. I’m glad Jasmine knows now. Well, she knows as much as Mum. Neither of them knows the whole truth. What I did to Hana.
    The voice screams through my head, splitting it in two.
Murderer.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Dear Jasmine,
    I’ve taken your advice. I’m not going to write to Hana any more. I like your idea of writing her a goodbye letter, and I will do some day, I promise.
    Anyway, I thought, seeing as I won’t be writing to her, that maybe I could write to you instead? You were asking about Hana, what she was like. I wanted to think about it, so I could get her just right.
    Hana was sarcastic, funny, dry; beautiful, quirky and cool. She was a geek. Massively into Star Trek , Star Wars , Stargate . God, it made her mad when I mixed them up! She hated ferrets, loved gherkins, and once downed a wholebottle of banana FRijj in one go. She was super-smart, and could recite the whole periodic table off the top of her head.
    On my sixth birthday, Mum bought me this doll. It was a cheap, knock-off Barbie and its leg kept falling off. I was gutted. I really wanted a Disney Sleeping Beauty Barbie, just like Hana’s. So she used all her birthday money, and the pocket money she’d been saving for a new bike basket, to buy me one. She’d do anything to make someone else happy.
    I knew her inside out. Better than I knew anyone. I miss her. It still hurts so much.
    I wish you could’ve met her – you would have absolutely loved her.
    Megan xxx

CHAPTER TWELVE
    Jasmine and I are walking to the bus after school. She’s all caught up in this Drama project she’s working on, and has barely taken a breath in the last three minutes, until we see Luke ahead. ‘What’s that on Luke’s back?’ she asks.
    We get a little closer. It’s a Post-it note. I sigh when I read the single word on it.
    Jasmine gasps. ‘Luke!’ she shouts. Several people turn round, including Luke. Jasmine starts towards him, but I grab her arm, rummage for my notebook and scribble a message: Don’t tell him. I’ll take it off on the bus without him noticing .
    Jasmine nods and we catch up with Luke. ‘Er – hi!’ Jasmine says with an exaggerated smile. ‘Mind if we sit with you on the bus?’
    ‘Nope. Was that … what you wanted?’
    ‘Yeah! Just wanted to make sure we could all sit together.’
    We board the bus and find some seats. Luke shoots us an odd look when we sit behind him, instead of across the aisle. He twists round, his back to me, so he can moan to