Fully English

CHAPTER 28

We are pounding the floor, our heartrates spiking as we sprint through the streets of West Lincoln town centre. Reece is pulling me along so strongly I am taking flight as I run along with him, not sure exactly of where we are going. Neither of us want to go home to our parents but the desire to be away from the hoopla here was ever-present.

Passers-by separate and stare as we move faster until I muster the strength to stop Reece at a high street. He looks around wildly waiting for the cars to pause before continuing to drag me along the street. I breathe in whenever I can, sucking oxygen from the air to keep from cramping. I am sweating out my braids and my forehead is growing wetter with every passing second but I power through. Cars zoom up and down the street and we sprint through the caveats of traffic that rush hour affords us before reaching the train station and reading the scoreboard of departures.

"Where do we go?" I wheeze breathlessly.

I am almost buckled over with exhaustion but Reece stands strong, his stamina keeping him upright.

"Look up."

I tilt up from my crouched position and scan the times and destinations listed. There are many yet few: West Lincoln is not the most pedestrian of areas so it served mostly as a junction in journeys when changing from one train line to another.

My eyes fall on a familiar destination name nonetheless.

"Bollington."

"Where?"

I point at the screen. "It leaves in five minutes."

"Why Bollington?"

"It's where my uncle lives," I say. "We can try and find him."

On a whim, we buy our tickets impromptu, sprint along the platform and jam our bodies into the only vacant pair of seats left in the last carriage.

*

On the train, we gather our breaths and find the closest seats before collapsing. It's not even afternoon yet the day has already been hectic and quite frankly I want it to be over. I can tell by Reece's expression though, he is just getting started. There are still questions swirling in his head from my earlier announcement about Damon's dad. I have no doubt he will bring it up at some point during the journey so I enjoy the silence whilst I can.

Nervously, I look out of the window and watch his side profile itch to speak up before hesitating and settling into nothing. It must be half an hour before he taps my thigh and I turn to him with fake dubiousness.

"Earlier," he starts off. "You said you wanted revenge."

"Did I?"

Because we were some of the last people to board the train and had been running, we hadn't gotten the best choice of seats and our area was crowded. In order to communicate, we had to speak in code and not be our usual frank selves.

"You did. And I just wanted to know why."

"I told you he hurt me."

"Did he -?" He tails off suggestively.

"Stop." I say stoically.

I know where this leads and I can't have him say such – not with so many people around on a public train. I wasn't that frank with my business.

"You need to see someone – a psychologist or counsellor maybe."

"I've been in therapy for years, you know that," I remind him.

He falls into silence for a moment. "Yeah but when was the last time you went?"

Now it's my turn to be quiet.