Lucy lost interest fast, but Charlie’s fixation with the most distant hooded group remained. His gaze fell on a figure at the edge, the only one not holding a phone. Leo had one, but his solitary ways meant he rarely used it.
Agitation burned in Charlie’s veins. Suddenly, he had to be sure the lonely figure was Leo.
He scrambled to his feet. The girls, preoccupied with their vodka, paid him no heed until he stepped over them.
Jess caught his arm. “Where are you going?”
Charlie shook her off. “To find Leo. He, um, has my house key.”
It was a plausible explanation. She let him go, and he set off across the park. As he got closer to the group by the basketball court, the wind picked up again. He shivered, wishing he’d worn his other jacket, and pulled his hood up, smirking at the irony.I’ll fit right in over there.
“Charlie?”
Charlie jumped and whirled around. Leo was behind him, half-empty rum bottle in one hand, a fat joint in the other. “Okay?”
Leo raised an eyebrow. “Was gonna ask you the same thing. You look like you’re on your way to off someone.”
“Seriously?”
“Why not?” Leo shrugged and offered a lopsided grin that suggested he was probably as trashed as he’d planned. “You’re dressed all black and shit. Like an assassin.”
“Don’t know what assassins you’ve ever seen. And my shoes are blue.”
Leo snorted. “Like I can even see them. Dark, innit?”
Charlie let it go. He’d spent most of the evening talking in circles with pissed-up girls. He couldn’t be arsed to do it with Leo. “What are you doing on your own? Thought you’d be over there with the knobheads.”
“Knobheads? You mean Wayne? You’re a bit of a twat about him, you know. He’s sound.”
It was Charlie’s turn to snort. “You only think that because he gives you weed.”
“Howd’ya know that?”
“Because Reg doesn’t give you enough money to buy your own.”
Leo fixed Charlie with a sphinx-like stare. “I meant how do you know I smoke weed, but I guess the bifta in my hand gives me away, eh?”
“A little.” Charlie chanced a grin. “And Fliss told me too. Nothing gets past her.”
“So she keeps telling me. Anyway, what are you doing, bowling across the park? I thoughtyou’dbe living it up with your gang of birds.”
“Got bored. Thought I’d come and find you.”
“Why?”
“Why not? Live in the same house, don’t we?” Charlie shifted his weight from one foot to the other. Leo had a way of making him feel like the biggest idiot in the world. He’d set off to find him with no plans for what he’d say when he did, and he had an inkling Leo somehow knew it. “Um, anyway. I should probably get back.”
Leo moved close enough for Charlie to smell the rum on his breath. “Fuck that. Let’s go for a walk.”
Charlie trailed Leo to the disused railway line that ran parallel to the far side of the park. Leo didn’t say much, but then he rarely did. They climbed over the wooden gate, and Leo gazed around and took a seat on an old bench. “This place is messed up.”
“Nah, it’s just old. Haven’t been any trains through here since the seventies.”
“I don’t mean that.”
Charlie drifted to the bench and dropped down beside Leo. “What do you mean, then?”
“Dunno.” Leo took a swig from the rum bottle and offered it to Charlie, rolling his eyes when Charlie waved it away. “This town, I s’pose. You’re all so fucking normal.”
