Free A Friend of the Family by Lisa Jewell Page A

not seeing Jo every day. But now, it’s fine.’
    Ned threw him a look. ‘Are you sure, Tone?’
    ‘Positive. Single life agrees with me.’
    ‘It’s just that you don’t seem very… You’re not the same as… Are you sure you’re happy? Because, you can talk to me if you’re not. You know that, don’t you?’
    Tony smiled. ‘I’m happy, Ned. Honest. Life’s just different now, that’s all. Not better, not worse, just different.’
    Ned nodded and they fell silent again.
    ‘I like Ness,’ said Ned eventually, through a mouthful of food, ‘she’s really funny.’
    ‘Yeah,’ said Tony grimly, ‘she’s all right, isn’t she?’
    ‘Where did you meet her?’
    ‘You know Trish? Rob’s missus?’
    ‘Yeah.’
    ‘Friend of hers, from school.’
    ‘Oh. Right. Are you going to marry her?’
    Tony spluttered slightly and laughed. ‘What?!’
    ‘Well, why not? She’s really pretty and really nice, and she obviously really loves you.’
    Tony wiped his mouth on a napkin and grimaced at Ned. ‘No, Ned. I am not going to marry Ness. We’ve only been going out for a year.’
    ‘Well, are you going to live with her, then?’
    ‘God, Ned, I don’t know. I’m really not thinking like that at the moment. We’re just, you know, hanging out. It’s nothing serious.’
    Ned nodded at him, knowingly. ‘I prefer her to Jo,’ he said in a small voice.
    Tony looked at him in surprise. ‘Really?’
    ‘Yeah. She’s more… human. More real. And she’s got better legs.’ He grinned at Tony and they laughed. ‘But seriously, Tone, I think you’ve done really well for yourself there. She’s brilliant.’
    ‘What about you and whatsername?’ Tony still felt vestiges of loyalty towards Carly when it came to Monica. ‘What went wrong there, then?’
    Ned shrugged and picked some cucumber out of his sandwich. ‘Don’t know really,’ he said.
    ‘What, she dump you? You dump her? What happened?’
    Ned fell silent for a moment and contemplated a coffee ring on the table-top.
    ‘Come on. You can tell me.’
    Ned cleared his throat and leant in so close towards him that Tony could smell cucumber on his breath. ‘Promise you won’t say anything to Mum?’
    ‘Uh-huh.’
    ‘Well, she went fucking loop-the-loop. Completely, like, really, really scary.’
    ‘How d’you mean?’
    ‘Just lost the plot entirely. Started following me, hitting people, pulling out her own hair, you know, like actual big clumps of her own hair.’
    ‘Christ. Shit. That’s bad. So – what happened? Is she better now?’
    Ned shrugged and picked at the plastic casing of his sandwich. ‘No, not really.’
    ‘Well, what did she say when you told her you were coming home?’
    He shrugged again. ‘Nothing much.’
    ‘You did tell her, didn’t you? You did tell her you were coming home?’
    Ned shook his head and looked embarrassed. ‘Well, I left her a note.’
    Tony laughed. ‘Oh shit, Ned – that’s really low.’
    ‘Yeah, I know, I know. But you don’t know Monica. I mean, Monica’s really – big.’
    ‘What, you mean fat?’
    ‘No – big. Like a bloke. Like a big bloke. And – I don’t know – anything could have happened if I’d told her I was leaving. She could have beaten me up or cut off my dick or something.’
    ‘You mean, you were scared of her?’ Tony started to laugh.
    ‘Terrified. I mean, really terrified. I saw her kill a kitten once.’
    ‘What?!’
    ‘Straight up. It was lying on the side of the road, half dead – it had been run over – and she just got hold of it, like that, and broke its neck. Calm as you like. She didn’t even cry or anything.’
    ‘Jesus.’
    ‘Yeah, and then this other time she gave a little girl a Chinese burn – tiny little girl, you know, with ringlets and everything. Said she’d been giving her dirty looks.’
    ‘Shit – she sounds psycho.’
    ‘I know. And she hit me once. Well – twice, actually. Knocked me sideways – gave me a black eye. But the