Free The Sound by Sarah Alderson Page B

pulled them off him.’
    I stare unblinking at Sophie, lost in the story and picturing it all happening like a scene from
Fight Club
, then I turn my head to look at Tyler again. I still can’t believe
Jesse put him in hospital. Behind Tyler I spot Matt – he’s goofing around in the water with Parker. I can’t imagine him stepping between a group of angry guys and being the voice
of reason, either.
    ‘But why?’ I ask, turning back to Sophie. ‘What did Tyler do? What was the fight about? I don’t understand.’
    ‘Tyler said it was totally unprovoked – once he could actually talk that is. His jaw was broken – it was wired shut for a while.’
    ‘Shit,’ I murmur under my breath.
    Sophie leans in closer. ‘But I have a friend who has a friend whose sister said she saw Tyler flipping Jesse off the week beforehand in town.’
    ‘Flipping him off?’
    ‘You know – giving him the finger.’
    ‘Swearing at him? That’s it?’
    ‘I told you, Jesse Miller is totally psycho. He was expelled from school too.’ She pauses. ‘That’s what I heard anyway.’
    I frown. It still doesn’t make much sense. ‘What about the trial?’ I ask. ‘Did Jesse say anything in his defence?’
    ‘No,’ Sophie says, lying down and picking up her magazine. ‘He pleaded guilty so there was no trial. He was just sentenced.’
    I lie down beside her and try to absorb everything she’s just told me about dead nannies, and about Tyler and Jesse almost killing each other over nothing. I’m glad I want to be a
music journalist because I think I would suck at being an investigative one.

 
11
    The only times I like to sweat are in the mosh pit at a festival or a gig. I do not like to sweat while exercising. So this whole cycling thing is not working out so well for
me.
    I’m only grateful for the fact there’s no one near to see how frightfully attractive I must look right now. I made sure that everyone left the beach before I did so there would be no
chance of anyone driving past me, even though that meant I had to spend all day on the beach and now I’m sunburnt to hell despite layering on more sunblock than Michael Jackson ever did.
    Jeremy, Tyler and Parker left early on – saying they had some things to deal with, whatever that means. Jeremy mentioned something about studying but I never see Matt or Eliza studying
– at least nothing other than Sophie’s boobs and
Vogue Magazine
(respectively).
    For lunch Matt went and bought up half the supermarket – dumping a pile of crisps (they call them chips just to confuse me), cans of Coke (no diet) and sandwiches onto a towel between us,
which all the girls complained about and refused to eat (carbs).
    I got to know Summer a little better, mainly because she’s obsessed in a truly unhealthy and slightly scary way with the royal family and wanted to know everything there was to know about
Kate Middleton, as if I was best friends with her or something. I told her what little I knew, gleaned from the pages of
Grazia
, and it was as if I’d told her the secret to eternal
life because now she’s acting like we’re
besties
.
    Eliza avoided me, and Paige had enough of the sun after half an hour and left. Sensible her.
    Anyway, now I’m struggling against the wind and my thighs are chafed and stinging, my arse is numb and I only just figured out that clicking the gear lever thing makes pedalling easier
(though sometimes harder and I haven’t figured out the pattern yet). I don’t think I’m ever going to make it into town, let alone through town and out the other side before it
gets dark. I’ll be lucky to make it back to the house before New Year at this rate. I’ve had to take two more puffs on my inhaler just to get me this far.
    Finally, up ahead I see Miller’s Bike and Boat Store and that gives me the spurt I need to push through the pain barrier. I pedal so hard I swear I almost take off, just to get past the
place before the Gods of Humiliation can