‘Yeah.’
She reaches for her knickers and her leggings. Punch in the guts.
I sit up. ‘I’ll be right back,’ I mumble, but my voice is so quiet that I don’t know if she even heard me.
I throw the condom away in the bathroom and wish I could punch my own face in the mirror. My reflection is mocking me. My cheeks are flushed, it’s clear what I’ve just been doing.
My blood is still boiling, but I feel like shit.Rookie. Failure.She bloody well had a condom ready. She wanted to have fun. I bet it lasted longer with that fucker Valentine Ward.
I lower my head and force myself to breathe deeply. OK, it was crap. But seeing that I’ve been single for ever, she must know that it was my first time and that I . . . I didn’t really have it all under control. If you ever even should, but fine. Maybe she’d like to try again. Today, or some other time. I just have to tell her the truth, it really isn’t hard.
I reach for the door handle. Tori’s got her back to me and she’s still on the phone.
‘No, Will.’ She sounds so insistent that I stop. ‘Right now. Dr Henderson has to have a look at it.’
My blood runs cold. She turns to me and I see the panic in her brown eyes.
‘We’re in my room. Give us five minutes.’
TORI
Kit looks worse than Will had claimed on the phone. Worse than last time his dad lost it. He’s got a split lip and his nose is bleeding, but it’s the colour of his face that scares me. Kit’s as white as a sheet and he’s clutching his belly as Charlie and I walk towards them in the street in Ebrington under cover of darkness.
‘Why didn’t you call an ambulance?’ Charlie comes round to Kit’s other side so that he can help Will support him.
‘He doesn’t want one,’ Will says, tight-lipped.
Kit gives a quiet groan, his hand still pressed to his stomach. He looks apathetic and it makes my own belly ache as he lurches.
‘Dr Henderson’s on his way,’ I say. Or so Olive said when I phoned her in a panic to ask her to tell her dad. It would take him at least twenty minutes to get to Dunbridge. ‘We only have to make it as far as the school.’
The road from Ebrington to Dunbridge Academy has never seemed longer to me. Olive is standing under one of the archways in her joggers, glancing nervously in our direction.
‘He should be here any moment,’ she keeps saying, as Charlie and Will take Kit to the sick bay.
‘Good grief, lads . . .’ Nurse Petra murmurs, waving the boys through. Kit groans as he sinks onto a couch, and trying to straighten his legs makes him whimper with pain.
‘Dad, hurry!’ Olive’s voice is shaking. I turn and see Dr Henderson, who is pulling off his hat and scarf as he walks. He seems to grasp the situation at once, and doesn’t waste time asking questions. Kit’s belly looks as stiff as a plank, and when Dr Henderson tries to feel it, he writhes under his hands.
‘Would you call an ambulance please, and then bring me all the Ringer’s solution we’ve got?’ he asks Nurse Petra.
Will is ghostly pale, and Charlie pulls him slightly aside.
‘What’s wrong with him?’ Will’s voice trembles. ‘Dr Henderson?’
‘We’ll look after him,’ he says, in Olive’s direction. ‘Please, all of you, wait outside.’
Olive’s face is hard. She looks as though everything within her is rebelling against pushing Will out of the room. He doesn’t start to cry until the paramedics arrive and he’s not allowed to go too. I’ve never seen my little brother in this state. It’s heartbreaking.
We follow him out into the courtyard where the ambulance is casting blue light up onto the school walls. It’s late, there are no sirens, but it’s only seconds before all the dorm curtains start twitching.
My heart stumbles as Mrs Sinclair’s dark Range Rover pulls up. She immediately gets out and walks over to the ambulance. I can’t hear what she’s saying to Dr Henderson and the paramedics, before they shut the doors and the doctor gets into his own car, presumably to follow them. Will pulls away from my arms and tries to run to him, but Mrs Sinclair holds him back.
She looks startled as she sees Olive, then me, and finally Charlie.
‘What on earth has been going on here?’
27
