Free The Knife That Killed Me by Anthony McGowan

time.”
    “Nice,” said Stevie. I think it was the first time he’d opened his mouth.
    Kirk looked confused, his eyes darting from Shane to me and back. “Yeah, mine too,” he said.
    It was fantastically feeble, and even Stevie laughed. Then there was a general discussion, and names flew about, and I lost track of which ones they liked and which were supposed to be lame.
    It was nine o’clock when the film finished.
    “I’m going to call for a pizza,” said Shane. “You want in? We’ll put some music on, hang out some more.”
    “Yeah, give the boy an education,” said Kirk, in a way that sounded friendly.
    I realized I was hungry, and part of me wanted to stay in this warm dark cave with my new friends. Maybe even find out some more about the music they were raving about. But they weren’t really my friends, not yet, and I was worried that I might already have outstayed my welcome, plus my brain was frazzled with all the stuff that had happened today. I needed some time to think, to sort things out in my head.
    “No, I’d better be going. My parents … Thanks, though.”
    “OK, that’s cool. I’m going upstairs to phone.”
    I said goodbye to the others. Billy shouted something friendly, and Maddy smiled again. That made four times.
    On the way up Shane said, “We didn’t really talk much about Roth, about what to do.”
    “I delivered the package. I did what he said.”
    “Yeah, I guess you did. But he’s … dangerous, you know.”
    I laughed. “Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
    Shane pulled a serious face, and then smiled back. “Sure you have. But I don’t just mean that he’s a thug, that he can smack you around. I mean he’s dangerous … God, this sounds stupid … dangerous to your soul.” I’d never heard Shane sound so uncertain, so unsure of himself. But, strangely, that made me take what he was saying even more seriously. “Do you get me?”
    “Yes,” I said. “I get you.”
    “OK then,” he said, sounding relieved, but still serious. “So tomorrow, you should hang out with us. When you stick together … well, you must have noticed, his sort leave you alone.”
    “Thanks,” I said, a bit embarrassed.
    There was music upstairs. Shane opened a door into another huge room, and the sound poured out. It was something classical. I’d never been in a house before where people played music like that. Two adults, Shane’s mum and dad, I guessed, were sitting on a funny-looking sofa. They were drinking wine from big, tulip-shaped glasses. They both hadtheir eyes shut. It felt wrong going in there, like walking in on people doing something private.
    “Hey, Mum, can I get a pizza for the guys?”
    Shane’s mother opened her eyes. They were enormous and so blue they looked inhuman, something mineral. There was a kind of stillness to her face. She looked quite a lot like Shane. She was very beautiful.
    “Of course, use my credit card when you telephone—it’s in my bag in the hall.” And then those astonishing eyes turned on me. “Who’s your new friend?”
    “This is Paul. He got into a bit of a scrape.”
    Shane’s mother stood up and walked over to me. “So I see. And are you going?”
    “Yeah, I’ve got to … got to get home.”
    I blushed. I couldn’t meet those blue eyes, and I looked at my feet.
    “But you’ve been hurt.” She put out her hand and touched my cheek, where the teeth had cut me.
    “It’s nothing. It doesn’t even hurt. Shane put some stuff on it.”
    “Well, you must let me give you some money for a taxi.”
    That made me panic. I’d never been in a taxi. I didn’t know how you did it, what you said—I mean, where to go, and how much you gave the driver.
    “No, honest, I’m fine, thanks, thank you,” I said, and then I basically just ran out of there, shouting a quick goodbye to Shane.

It’s raining. Did I say it was raining? No, perhaps I can’t say that it is raining. All I can say is that there are huge droplets of rain caught