Free Minus Me by Ingelin Rossland Page A

you sure this is a good idea, Linda?’ whispers Maria.
    ‘Shh. I’m the one asking questions round here. Well, Sofie?’
    ‘Your dress, and how amazing you look right now,’ says Sofie.
    ‘Tonight doesn’t count. It’s got to be a memory from before.’
    ‘I’m sorry,’ says Sofie, biting her lip. ‘Er . . . your pink jacket. The one you had at junior school.’
    ‘You are soo wrong! I have never had a pink jacket. I hate pink,’ Linda says, preparing to spin the bottle again.
    ‘Am I out, then?’ asks Sofie hesitantly.
    ‘No, you just sit there.’
    Linda spins the bottle again.
    ‘Tina?’
    ‘That’s easy. You put a worm in our teacher’s salad once. It was disgusting,’ says Tina, giggling, and making everyone else laugh too. Linda grins with satisfaction. She wants to be remembered for being funny and tough.
    She sets the bottle in motion again. This time it stops in front of a small, skinny boy from the other class.
    ‘Kristian?’
    ‘Kristoffer,’ he says.
    ‘Oh, yes!’
    Linda suddenly thinks that Maria might be right. Perhaps this game isn’t the best idea after all.
    ‘My name is Kristoffer, and I remember you pushing me into a pond in year 5. Then you told everybody I’d wet myself. And it wasn’t true.’
    ‘But you must have realized it was a joke,’ says Linda, reaching for the bottle. I don’t want to hear anything more from that wimp, she thinks. The blood pounds in her ears, and she can feel them going red. Typical.
    ‘And last year you put ants in my lunch box.’
    ‘Oh, c’mon! Is that such a big deal?’ says Oscar, with a sigh.
    ‘She forced me to eat them. It was disgusting. And for the rest of the day everybody called me an anteater.’
    ‘But it was just a bit of fun,’ says Linda faintly. She knows she never apologized, and she remembers threatening to beat him up if he told. Just don’t think about it, she says to herself. Just forget it! Just suppress it. But one person who hasn’t forgotten or suppressed it is Kristoffer, and right now he’s like a dog with a bone.
    ‘But just because you find things funny, doesn’t mean other people find them funny!’ says Kristoffer. His voice grows louder and cracks on the last word. There’s a red rash appearing on his neck.
    Linda doesn’t answer. She is about to spin the bottle again, but Kristoffer grabs it and holds it tight.
    ‘But she didn’t mean any harm. Did you, Linda?’ says Maria, leaning forward and loosening Kristoffer’s grip.
    ‘Won’t you even say sorry?’ asks Kristoffer, glaring at Linda.
    ‘I’m sorry,’ says Linda, unable to meet his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’
    Then she gets up and as she leaves she can hear Kristoffer shouting after her, asking if she really means it.
    ‘Yes,’ she says. ‘I really do mean it.’
    But she can’t bring herself to face him as she says it.
    ‘Thank you,’ she hears Kristoffer say.
    Linda doesn’t answer him. She just runs out and slips into the bathroom. Then she locks the door behind her.

Chapter 19
    Through the door Linda can hear that the music’s gone back on. She stands with her eyes closed, and sniffs the comforting fragrance of her grandmother’s perfume that still seems to hang within the walls of the flat. What would Granny say if she were here now? If she knew what kind of person Linda really is. Just the thought of it makes her eyelids sting. Linda wishes her guests could just disappear, and be gone when she comes out. She wishes she could turn the clock back. She sees Kristoffer before her, and all those faces around them. Faces that say: is this guy out of his mind? Or do they say the opposite? Perhaps these faces say: what an awful thing to do! Linda’s so bad; it’s good she’s going to die! Had Linda really been so unaware that she was upsetting Kristoffer? No, she has to admit it had occurred to her. It’s just that it was so easy to do. So tempting. Can she help it if there’s something about Kristoffer that