Andy shot him a disbelieving stare. “How have you worked that out so quick? Takes most folk years to see through that chip on her shoulder.”
Leo shrugged. “She’s good to Lila and me.”
“She’s a great girl,” Andy agreed. “She just doesn’t want anyone to know it. Bloody hell, look . . . it’s about to start.”
Leo followed Andy’s gaze to the pitch and saw the teams were in position with the referee about to blow his whistle. The biggest football match he’d probably ever see was about to kick off and . . . he didn’t care.It’s like I’m dead inside.And if it weren’t for the tremor in his hands, and the sweat dripping down his back, he’d have thought he was.
The game passed in a blur of flashing lights and suffocating noise. Andy bought Leo a pasty at halftime, but Leo hid it under his seat. Recently, Kate’s shepherd’s pie was the only thing that didn’t burn a hole in his belly and make him feel like he’d swallowed a bottle of acid.
Out of nowhere, Andy thumped Leo’s back. “Three nil. Good game, eh? Did you see van Persie’s goal? That’s gonna be on Match of the Day, for sure.”
Leo nodded and tried to find a response coherent enough to satisfy the eager grin on Andy’s face, because despite being obviously Team Reg, he was proving hard to hate. “Yeah, it was good.”
Andy shook his head. “‘Good’? Bloody teenagers. What’s happened to you all? My mum couldn’t shut me up when I was your age. Come on. Let’s fight our way back to the car.”
And a fight it was. The exit routes were crammed with chanting fans, shoulder to shoulder, elbows jostling with every step. Leo feared he might puke, until Andy got behind him and caged him within his massive arms.
Outside, fresh air hit Leo like a truck. He bent double and sucked it in until his chest ached from the effort. Andy squeezed his shoulder. His touch wasn’t magic like Charlie’s, but Leo felt no urge to shake him off.
“Better?” Andy asked. “Can get a little stuffy in there, can’t it?”
Leo nodded. He wanted a smoke, and was sure he’d smelt tobacco on Andy earlier, but common sense told him that asking for a fag would be more trouble than it was worth. “What are we doing now?”
“Going home, via McDonald’s, if that’s all right with you. I’m bloody starved.”
Leo didn’t see how, given the huge pie and chips Andy had put away during the match, but he shrugged. Despite missing Charlie’s quiet presence, he had no desire to return to the house anytime soon. Nights there were long and dark, even with the lamp he’d pinched from Charlie’s room. “Okay.”
Andy drove them out of London and stopped at a service station on the M25. McDonald’s was closed for refurbishment, so he parked up at KFC, went inside, and came back with enough chicken to feed a small army.
Leo picked at his food, relieved Andy hadn’t made him go into the restaurant, and a comfortable silence enveloped them.
Comfortable?
Really?
Leo turned the word over in his mind, testing it, but it fit. The only other time he could recall the feeling recently was when he’d played Xbox in the cellar with Charlie—quiet evenings spent side by side on the battered sofa bed, shoulder to shoulder, battling it out with zombies and flamethrowers.
“I was thinking of taking Lila to Legoland next weekend. Do you think she’d like that?”
Leo glanced up at Andy. “Lila? Why? What’s she to you?”
“My little sister, for the time being.” Andy fixed Leo with a steady gaze. “Listen, I know it’s taken a while for me to take you out, but that’s only because social services muck about so much with their paperwork. If I’d had my way, we’d have done this weeks ago.”
“What’s it got to do with social services?”
“I needed to be approved before I was allowed to drive you and Lila around, be alone with you, stuff like that. You know the rules.” Leo was mystified. Andy frowned, then something seemed to click. “Shit, I keep forgetting you’re not one of those kids who’s been in the system for years. This is all new to you, eh?”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Andy shrugged. “Hopefully, you’ll never need to. Okay, let me put it like this: Dad and Kate have been taking kids like you for as long as I can remember, but it’s something wealldo really, as a family. So the way I see it, I’ve got two extra siblings to take care of for a while.”
“‘Take care of’?”
“Yep. I’m your big brother, like it or not, and for you that means football, bowling, and, ’cause you’re a teenager and shit, the occasional sneaky pint. Just don’t tell Ma.”
Leo didn’t know what to say. A sneaky pint sounded awesome, but the rest of it? The bloke was taking the piss. He had to be, right? “Did you take Charlie out when he was Lila’s age?”
“Sometimes, not to the football, though. He’s always been a nerd, so we spent a lot of time at the cinema, in silence, ’cause the little squirt didn’t talk until he was about eight.”
