Free He's After Me by Chris Higgins Page B

and dive on him. We are rolling over and over on the floor, playfighting, and then we are kissing, touching …
    And the door opens and Livi walks in.
    ‘Oops! Sorry!’ she says and backs out quickly. Jem groans with frustration and I sit up and pull my top back down.
    ‘This is doing my head in!’ I say through clenched teeth. ‘We are never on our own in this place.’
    ‘We need to find somewhere we can be alone together.’
    Downstairs the phone rings. I can hear Mum answering it and then she calls up the stairs, her voice sounding a bit strange. ‘Anna? Olivia? Someone wants a word with you!’
    ‘Who?’ I yell down but she doesn’t answer. I disentangle myself from Jem, who is still lying on the floor, and go downstairs.
    When I come back up, I’m in an even worse mood.
    ‘What’s up?’ asks Jem.
    ‘Guess who it was? The Bitch!’
    He sits up. ‘What did she want?’
    ‘They’re off to New York tomorrow, shopping. She wanted to know what we wanted from them for Christmas.’
    ‘Kind of her.’
    ‘Cow! I don’t want anything from her. She’s just rubbing it in. I feel like going down there now and writing all over her wall: Jude is an evil bitch. I don’t think she got the message last time.’
    ‘Can do. Just wait till they’re safely tucked up in bed. Better still, wait till tomorrow when they’re in mid-air over the Atlantic and you can write what you like. How long are they going for?’
    ‘I dunno. Three nights, maybe four.’
    ‘Plenty of time.’ His face takes on a dark, brooding quality that I’ve seen so many times before when he’s deep in thought. He knows how much I hurt inside. Then all of a sudden his expression changes, like a light has switched on inside his head.
    ‘What is it?’
    ‘Problem solved!’ He throws his arms around me, squeezing me so tight I can hardly breathe. ‘Don’t you see?’
    ‘See what?’
    ‘We’ve found our place to be alone!’
    ‘You don’t mean … ?’
    ‘Your dad’s flat. It’s perfect! It’s going to be empty and you’ve got a key!’
    ‘I dunno …’
    ‘Anna, come on! It’s not like we’re breaking in or anything.’ Jem’s eyes are shining with excitement. ‘We’re just taking over an unoccupied building for a while. Squatters’ rights. It’s perfectly legal.’
    ‘Four days on our own.’ It is so tempting.
    ‘And four nights!’ His eyes soften and he picks up my hand and kisses it. ‘Anna, I can’t believe it, it’s the answer to our prayers. We can be together all night long.’
    ‘Jem, I can’t … Mum will be asking questions if I disappear for that long …’
    ‘Don’t worry.’ He kisses me – a long, unhurried kiss. ‘We’ll work something out.’ His lips move down to my throat. ‘We’ve got all the time in the world.’

Almost where he wanted to be.
    Not with who he wanted to be with.
    But he was getting there.
    One step at a time.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
     
    T he next day at college I can hardly contain my excitement. I’m going to meet Jem after work and, if we feel like it, we’re going out tagging. Then it’s back to Dad’s.
    I’m elated, but scared.
    In my free period I go down to the library to try to get some work done. I’m so behind it’s difficult to know where to start. I need to revise for a test in Sociology but I’m missing half the notes. I bow my head and read over what I’ve got, trying to fight down a rising feeling of panic. I’m never going to pass.
    ‘Hi.’
    I look up. Zoe’s standing in front of me.
    ‘Hi.’
    There’s an awkward silence. We’ve hardly spoken since the incident in the common-room. she’s a bright girl, Zoe. I was afraid she’d found us out but she’d never mentioned it.
    ‘What you up to?’
    ‘Revising. We’ve got a test next lesson, haven’t we?’
    She nods, eyeing my thin file dubiously. I close it with a thump. ‘There’s no point, I’ve missed too much.’
    ‘Borrow mine,’ she says and she hands me her file. ‘I’m up to