I wrap an arm around him. “I’m glad, Henry.”
“Me too.” He puts a hand on the back of my neck. “What about your chat with your dad? How did it go this time?”
I think about my answer before I speak. “Different, not so bad. I think he is actually sorry for what he did. Not just to Mr.Ward. But to Mum too. And me. It doesn’t change what happened, but it felt a bit like closure when we were in that café.”
“That’s good, Em. You don’t need him.”
“True, I only need you,” I whisper into Henry’s jumper.
“That’s not true,” he says. I lift my head in surprise. “You only needyourself. Nobody else. But I’m a nice bonus.”
“Very nice,” I mumble. “Will you go to the New Year Ball with me, then?” I ask. “Tori told me about it,” I add when Henry looks at me in surprise.
“Of course we’re going to the ball together.” He says it like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, and I love everything about that.
“Good. ’Cause Tori wants us to go dress shopping in Edinburgh before the Christmas holidays. And you and Sinclair have to come too.”
“So she’s going to the ball with him after all?”
“No, but she still wants him to be there.”
“Valentine won’t like that,” Henry remarks. “But he hates us now anyway because we got his uncle into trouble.”
“I really don’t know what Tori sees in him.”
“I don’t think she knows herself sometimes. But until Sinclair has the guts to ask her out, they’ll never get it together.”
“We could help,” I suggest.
“I think that’s something the two of them have to figure out for themselves.”
I groan. “Why do you always have to be so sensible?”
“You mean, not looking at exam papers and nearly getting myself expelled?”
“Let’s not talk about that,” I say hastily, even though we’re clearly going to talk about this a lot.
Henry looks at me a moment. “You’d do it again, wouldn’t you?” he asks.
“I’d do anything to help you. But not like that. I’d go to Mrs.Sinclair or Ms.Vail and tell them I was worried about you.”
“I had a chat with her on Friday,” Henry says, out of the blue.
“Ms.Vail?”
He nods. “I kind of needed to talk and you weren’t here.”
“And how was it?”
“Good, I think.”
“You could go to see her again. Even now that I’m back,” I suggest.
“I’ve been thinking about it.”
For the first time in weeks, I can feel Henry’s confidence returning. They’re baby steps, but we’ll take them together—in the right direction.
Henry
