Afraid (22 page)

‘Don’t be so selfish,’ Tom scolded.

‘It’s all right.’ Chloe adopted a wounded expression and placed her cup on the table before dropping her feet to the floor. ‘She obviously doesn’t want me here, and I don’t want to cause any bother, so I’ll go.’

‘No, you won’t,’ Tom insisted. ‘This is my house, and I decide who stays or goes.’

Already upset that he was taking the girl’s side over hers, Skye was furious when Chloe smirked at her. But she knew it would be pointless to say anything, so she took another deep swallow of wine.

All innocence again when Tom turned back to her, Chloe smiled and said, ‘Thanks for letting me stay. It’s been ages since I slept in a real bed.’

‘You’re more than welcome,’ Tom said, picking her cup up and handing it back to her. ‘I promised I’d look after you, and I will. Now just relax and drink your wine, then I’ll run you a bath.’

Skye drank the rest of her wine in one go and stood up.

‘Where are you going?’ Tom asked when she started walking towards the door.

‘To get another drink,’ she told him clippily.

‘I’ll get it.’ He jumped up and snatched the empty cup from her hand. ‘How about you, Chloe? Ready for another one?’

Chloe finished her drink and handed her cup to him. Then, lounging back when he’d left the room, she looped her hands together behind her head, and said, ‘Yep, I’m definitely going to like it here.’

Thoroughly agitated, Skye sat back down and rapped her fingernails on the arm of the chair. This was going to be a long night, and she couldn’t wait for it to be over.

15

Bright sunlight was streaming through a gap in the curtains when Skye woke up the next morning, and her head throbbed painfully when it hit her eyes. Desperate to escape its line of fire, she rolled onto her side and pulled her pillow down over her face. She hadn’t felt this bad since her first night here, when she hadn’t been used to alcohol and had got really, really drunk. And, just like that time, she couldn’t remember having come up to bed last night. Guessing that Tom must have carried her upstairs again, and hoping that he wasn’t annoyed with her, she slid her hand over to his side of the bed.

‘Tom …? Are you awake?’

He wasn’t there and the sheet felt cool to her touch, as if it had been some time since he left the bed – if he’d even slept there at all.

Sick at the thought that he might not have done, Skye squinted at the alarm clock he kept on his bedside table. Her head felt woolly, but she was pretty sure it was Monday. He always left for work at seven a.m. and it was only 6:45, so she might still catch him.

Tom wasn’t in the kitchen when she got downstairs, but she could see his car through the window so she knew he hadn’t left yet. She looked into the living room, wondering if he might have slept on the couch, but he wasn’t in there either. About to withdraw her head, she hesitated when she spotted a filthy pair of trainers lying upturned on the floor. Confused, because they weren’t hers, and they were far too small to be Tom’s, she breathed in sharply when a vision of a young girl suddenly flashed into her mind.

Chloe
.

The name came on the heels of the vision, and Skye rushed back out into the hall as a sickening wave of suspicion washed over her.

‘Tom?’ she yelled, racing up the stairs. ‘
TOOOOM
!’

‘Sshhh!’ Tom hissed, walking out of the bathroom just as she reached the landing. He was bare-chested, and was rubbing his wet hair with a towel. ‘What are you shouting for?’

‘I – I didn’t know where you were,’ she croaked, feeling a little foolish for having thought that he was with Chloe. ‘I wanted to see you before you went to work.’

‘I’m not in work today,’ he told her, strolling into the bedroom. ‘It’s a bank holiday.’

‘Oh, right,’ Skye murmured, following him and sitting on the end of the bed. ‘Are you going out?’ she asked when he pulled a T-shirt over his head and shoved his feet into his trainers.

‘Yeah, I need to get Chloe some new clothes.’

‘Why?’

Tom had just started combing his hair but he twisted his head around when Skye asked him this, and said, ‘I hope you’re not questioning me?’

Skye shivered when she heard the anger in his voice, and mumbled, ‘No. I just don’t see why you’ve got to buy clothes for her, that’s all.’

‘Because she needs them,’ he replied irritably. ‘Her stuff was too dirty, so I threw it out. Anyway, like I said last night, this is
my
house and I won’t have you tell me what I can and can’t do. I don’t see why you’ve got such a problem with her, anyway. She hasn’t done anything to you.’

‘Yeah, she has,’ Skye countered sulkily. ‘She was horrible to me last night.’

‘No, she wasn’t.’

‘She
was
. You didn’t see the way she kept looking at me when you weren’t watching.’

‘Right, pack it in!’ Tom barked, slamming the comb down on the dresser. ‘I’ve tried to be nice, but you obviously haven’t learned your lesson yet. She’s staying, and that’s the end of it. Have you got that?’

When Skye nodded, he took two small paper wraps out of his pocket and tossed them onto the bed, saying, ‘Give one of those to Chloe when she gets up. And make sure she has something to eat.’

With that he left, leaving Skye to fume in silence.

Chloe felt terrible when she woke up a couple of hours later, and she was confused to find herself in bed because she didn’t remember having come upstairs. In fact, she didn’t remember much of
any
thing after Tom had brought out the wine last night, so she guessed that she must have had too much and this was the hangover.

When an all too familiar itching sensation began to crawl over her skin, she sat up and scratched her face as she looked around for her jacket. Tom had talked her into coming here yesterday with the promise of food and a bed, and she had only agreed on condition that he let her stop off on the way to score a couple of wraps. She’d guessed that he was some kind of do-gooder who thought he was going to ‘save’ her from her life on the streets, and she had no doubt that he would probably try to get her off the smack while she was here. But there was no way she was going cold turkey. She’d been there and done that, and had no intention of putting herself through it again.

Her clothes were nowhere to be seen, so she got up and made her way downstairs to the kitchen.

‘Where’s my clothes?’ she asked when she saw Skye on her hands and knees scrubbing the life out of the lino. ‘My head’s killing me, and I need my stuff.’

Skye shot a frosty look back over her shoulder and, sloshing the scrubbing brush into the bucket of soapy water, sniped back, ‘It’s your own fault for drinking so much. You’re obviously too young to handle it.’

‘I’m not that much younger than you,’ Chloe retorted churlishly.

‘I’m nearly sixteen,’ Skye lied. ‘What are you,
twelve
?’

‘Fifteen,
actually
.’ Chloe gave her a smug smile.

‘Maybe so, but I’m more grown-up,’ snapped Skye.

‘Whatever,’ Chloe said dismissively, looking around. ‘So where’s my stuff?’

‘In the bin,’ Skye told her. ‘Tom said he didn’t want it in the house ’cos it stinks.’

‘You’d better be kidding me!’ Chloe gasped, rushing over to the bin. ‘My gear’s in the pocket.’

‘Not that one,’ Skye said when the girl yanked the bin lid up. ‘It’s in the outside one. And that’s locked,’ she added when Chloe ran to the back door. ‘So don’t bother trying it.’

When Chloe turned and rushed out into the hall, Skye guessed that she was going to try the front door, and called, ‘That one’s locked, as well. And the windows are nailed down, before you start on them.’

‘This isn’t funny,’ Chloe said, visibly shaking when she came back after running around the house looking for exits. ‘Why’s everything barricaded? It’s locked up tighter than fucking Strangeways.’

‘Tom likes to know I’m safe when he’s out,’ Skye told her. ‘But don’t worry,’ she added resentfully. ‘He took your stupid drugs out of your pocket before he binned your stuff.’

‘Where is it?’ Chloe asked, looking around the spotless ledges before pulling a drawer open.

‘Don’t root,’ Skye scolded. ‘Nothing in there belongs to you.’

‘It don’t belong to you, neither,’ Chloe said irritably as she rifled through the drawer’s contents. ‘It’s Tom’s house, not yours.’

‘Me and Tom are engaged,’ Skye informed her tartly. ‘So everything is mine as well as his.’

‘I don’t see no ring on your finger,’ Chloe sneered, resuming her search.

‘It was too big, so he’s getting it changed,’ Skye lied, her cheeks flaming. ‘We’re getting married next year, so there!’

‘If you say so.’

Infuriated, Skye threw the brush into the bucket and stood up. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

Unfazed by her aggressive stance, Chloe said, ‘It means you’re dreaming if you think he’s gonna marry you. If I wanted him, I could take him off you like that.’ She clicked her fingers.

Skye’s chest was heaving, and her eyes were glinting with anger. ‘I
knew
you were after him,’ she hissed. ‘But you’re never going to get him, so you’d better just give up and get lost.’

Chloe shook her head. ‘You’re proper thick, you, aren’t you?’

‘And you’re a slag,’ Skye shot back. ‘Don’t think I didn’t see you touching him with your feet last night.’

‘Didn’t stop me, though, did he?’ Chloe slammed the drawer shut and opened the cupboard above it instead.

‘Get out of there!’ Skye squawked, rushing over when the girl started pushing her neatly stacked tins around. ‘I spent ages sorting that out.’

‘Don’t try and boss me around, you stupid bitch,’ Chloe yelled. ‘I just want my gear.’

Skye instinctively lashed out when Chloe shoved her, but she missed her mark and yelped with pain when Chloe grabbed her by the hair. ‘Get off me!’

‘Make me!’ Chloe hissed, dragging Skye’s head down and trying to kick her. ‘You’ve been looking down your nose at me ever since I got here, but you’ve picked the wrong one to mess with, bitch!’

Skye had never liked fighting, mainly because she wasn’t very good at it, but she knew she had to do something or she was going to lose half her hair. So, twisting her neck, she reached up and raked Chloe’s cheek with her nails.

Bernie had started barking as soon as the fight began but he jumped up when Chloe screamed, and ran towards them. Chloe saw him coming and darted behind the table, crying, ‘It’s gonna bite me! Call it off!’

For a split second, Skye felt like letting Bernie go for the other girl. But she quickly snapped out of it and shouted, ‘It’s okay, boy! Go back to bed.’

At the sound of her voice, Bernie turned and went back to his blanket. But he continued to eye Chloe as he lay back down, and growled deep in his throat when she stepped out from behind the table.

‘Sorry,’ Skye murmured, feeling guilty when she saw the blood-dotted welts on the other girl’s cheek. ‘I shouldn’t have done that.’

‘Fuck off.’ Chloe glared at her as she placed a hand over the stinging flesh. ‘You’re just lucky you’ve got that mutt to protect you, or I’d have done for you.’

‘I’m trying to apologise,’ Skye argued. ‘And I don’t have to, ’cos you started it.’

‘
I’m trying to apologise
,’ Chloe mimicked nastily. ‘You make me sick, you snotty cow. My old school was full of bitches like you, always looking down their noses at me. But I showed them, and I’ll show you. You just wait till
that
’s not around.’ She nodded in Bernie’s direction. ‘You’ll be sorry you ever messed with me.’

‘You’re not the only one who’s had it hard,’ Skye snapped, losing patience with the girl’s self-pitying attitude. ‘I got put in a home before I came here, and had to run away.’

‘Big
wow
,’ Chloe retorted sarcastically. ‘I’ve been kipping in a doss house with a load of crackheads and winos.’

‘Yeah, well, my mum stabbed my dad,’ Skye shot back, a
beat that
look on her face.

‘Why?’ Chloe asked. ‘Catch him touching you, did she?’

Skye’s cheeks reddened with indignation at the very suggestion that her dad would ever do something like that to her. ‘No, she did not!’

‘Yeah, she did.’ Chloe gave a knowing smile. ‘I can always tell when someone’s lying, and it’s written all over your face.’

Furious that the girl was bad-mouthing her father, Skye hissed, ‘Shut your dirty mouth, you! My dad’s not like yours. He’s lovely, and he’d
never
do anything like that.’

‘So lovely that your mam stabbed him,’ Chloe reminded her nastily. ‘Normal people don’t go around stabbing people for nothing.’

‘She’s ill, if you must know,’ Skye admitted, her eyes glittering with tears of anger. ‘And don’t you ever talk about my dad again, or I’ll—’

‘You’ll what?’ Chloe challenged, fronting up to her and giving her a shove. ‘If you’re gonna do it, do it – don’t just stand there saying it.’

‘You’d best back off.’

‘Or what?’

Neither girl had heard Tom’s car pulling up outside, and they both jumped when the door suddenly opened and he marched in.

‘What the hell’s going on in here?’ he demanded, dropping the carrier bags he was holding and placing his hands on his hips. ‘I could hear you from outside.’

Offended that he was directing his angry glare at her, Skye spluttered, ‘It’s not
my
fault. She’s the one who started it!’

‘No, I didn’t,’ Chloe protested. ‘All I did was ask for my gear, and she went for me.’

‘You liar!’ Skye squawked. ‘
You
went for
me
!’

‘Look what she did.’ Chloe rushed over to Tom and raised her cheek to show him the fingernail marks. ‘
And
she tried to set the dog on me.’

Skye’s mouth fell open in disbelief. ‘I did not! He was only trying to protect me ’cos you were ripping my hair out.’

‘I was scared,’ Chloe whimpered, clutching at Tom’s arm. ‘I thought they were going to kill me.’

Tom placed a protective arm around her shoulder and said, ‘I’m here now. Don’t worry; I won’t let them hurt you.’