He pulled her closer. ‘What did they say about all this?’
‘The kids? Some of them sent me messages, saying they felt bad it was happening. Most didn’t say anything. How could they? They’re just kids. Some of them were shouting at the school gate with their pissed parents and their placards. The school authorities said they were worried for our safety and the safety of the school, so they sent us all home until it blew over. They called it a suspension to keep the parents happy, but they’re removing books at the parents’ requests anyway. I don’t know if I have a job to go back to, and I don’t know if I wanna go back.’
‘You should have told me.’
‘You had your own stuff going on.’
‘Oh.’ Harri drew his neck back. ‘With Paisley, you mean? But I didn’t tell you things were rocky with Paisley.’
‘A girl knows.’
‘Right.’ Harri let this sink in. Everybody had known he and Paisley were doomed, long before he’d been able to admit it to himself. A flash of headlights passed over the library wall, followed by another, but neither registered it now. ‘I could still have helped.’
Annie made a cynical snort and reached for the bottle. ‘There’s nothing anybody could do.’
‘And your parents didn’t stick up for you?’
Annie’s eyes fell. ‘Nope. They were embarrassed, I reckon. They don’t see things the way I do. They don’t think it’s important that kids see themselves and their lives reflected in books. Most of all, they’d prefer I didn’t bring a big, public fight to their door.’
‘You deserve better than that.’ He tamped down the livid feelings. How could anyone treat Annie like that?
They passed the bottle between them, and Harri loosened his hold on Annie. The auction sounds and the distant milling of people had faded, but Harri only vaguely registered this fact. He didn’t care if they were the last to leave. He’d call a taxi soon enough. For now, he had to comfort Annie.
‘Tell you what, though, if youdogo back to face them, now that I know, you have me on your side, all right? You’re not on your own.’
Annie nodded, fixing her eyes on the fire.
For a long moment no one said anything and Harri moved to throw some more kindling on to the flames. ‘We’ll be out of sticks in ten minutes at this rate,’ he said, coming right back to her side where he’d been a moment before. It suddenly felt very, very close, now that Annie’s confession and crying fit had passed.
He wriggled an inch or two away from her side and she definitely noticed. A line appeared between her brows. Harri had to look away. He’d gone and made things awkward again, so he shifted his body back, right into the nook by Annie’s side, and her warmth reached his limbs where they almost touched.
‘Did you, um, hear from Cassidy at all?’ he tried, hoping the moment would pass and be forgotten.
‘Oh, yeah, I did actually.’
‘No way! What did she say?’
‘It was just a thumbs up emoji, but that’s still progress.’
‘Did she know all this stuff was happening to you?’
Annie sighed again. ‘Pretty hard not to know. It was in the Amarillo papers and there wasn’t a person who wasn’t talking about it.’
Harri was overtaken by a feeling of injustice. ‘I don’t like that,’ he said, and his jaw set like a clamp as he shook his head.
‘It’s okay. Deadbeat Dave might have stopped her reaching out. Or maybe she thought it was my fault, bringing it on myself? No, actually, no. There’s no way she’d think that, even if that would suit Dave perfectly. She knows me, and I know her. She’d be mad too.’
‘Areyou mad?’ Harri said.
‘Of course I am!’
Harri looked at her for a long time, his eyes searching her face for the spark. Where had her fight gone? Had it really been that bad? That she’d lost it completely?
‘I’m just taking some time,’ she said defensively. ‘To regroup. Like you are.’
‘The Annie Luna I know fights for what she wants.’
‘Does she? Or does she wait around, for years and years in some cases, waiting and hoping that she’ll get what she wants?’
