Lucy dropped her head. “What’s that, Charlie, babe? Did you say something?”
Charlie abruptly uncurled himself. He straightened his legs and caught Leo’s shin with a bruising kick as he scrambled to his feet. “Stop crawling on me.”
“No one’s crawling on you.” Leo stood and held out his hands. “What did you take?”
Charlie stared at Leo’s hands, head tilted to one side, eyes so wide the whites gleamed in the moonlight. Leo thought he hadn’t heard him, but then Charlie laughed a laugh Leo had never heard from him before. “I love you.”
For a brief moment, Leo’s heart felt like it would burst out of his chest, then he realised that Charlie wasn’t looking at him, he was gazing at Jess.
Jess stepped around Leo and took Charlie’s hands. “You bloody idiot. What the hell have you taken?”
“Um . . .” Charlie stared up at the sky and blinked a few times. “Dunno. Do I look mashed?”
“And then some. We need to straighten you out before you go home. Your folks are going to hit the roof if they see you like this.”
Charlie giggled. “Gimme a cuddle.”
Jess obliged, and Leo relaxed a little. His own experiences with X had been less than pleasant, but he’d had some good times too. Good times he could barely remember now.
“Fucking hell, Charlie. Your heart’s going mental.”
Jess’s startled exclamation made Leo jump. He stepped closer and took Charlie’s wrist. Sure enough, his pulse was racing. “We should go home.”
“Really?” Jess shifted uneasily. “Reg will go nuts. He’ll probably call the old bill or something.”
“It’s okay.” Leo pulled out his phone, retrieved one of only five contacts stored on it, and tapped out an SOS. “I know what to do.”
It took some negotiating, but eventually, Leo managed to persuade the girls to let him take Charlie home. Charlie drifted beside him as Leo steered him through town. He seemed happy enough—more than happy—but Leo knew the effects of X well enough to know things could go wrong at any moment. What if the pills Charlie had taken weren’t X at all? What if they’d been cut with weed killer or some shit? Leo’s veins boiled with rage for the fuck-face who’d given Charlie the drugs, but his anger felt like nothing compared to the real fear that Charlie was about to drop dead.
“I love having you as my brother.” Charlie stopped walking and turned to Leo with a soft, loopy grin. “You probably hate me because I tried to snog you, but I do love you.”
Leo swallowed the lump that suddenly formed in his throat. “I don’t hate you. Why would you think that?”
“’Cause you hate everyone, don’t you? And, ya know, I did try and snog you and . . .”
“And?”
Charlie shrugged. “Dunno. I wanted to kiss you, though. I do that, with boys . . . I want to kiss them, instead of girls.”
Leo’s own heart quickened. “You like boys?”
“Yes.” Charlie stared at Leo for a long moment, like he was waiting for Leo to say something—anything—but his attention was abruptly diverted before Leo found the words to tell him he wasn’t alone in the world. “Ooh, Leo, look. The Christmas lights are still on the market cross. Let’s go see.”
He darted away before Leo could stop him. Leo caught up to him by the stone steps that led to the focal point of Heyton’s old high street. “Nah, no way. You’re not climbing up there in this state. You’ll break your bloody neck.”
“But I want to see the lights,” Charlie protested. He tried to free himself from Leo’s restraining grip, but Leo held firm.
“There’s no lights up there. You’re tripping.”
“Tripping?Oh, I get it. I like tripping.”
Charlie stopped struggling and leaned against Leo. He was warm, like the open fire in the living room back in Swindon. “Come on,” Leo said. “We need to go home.”
Neither of them moved. Charlie’s heartbeat thudded wildly against Leo’s chest, and Leo’s own pulse sped up, like it was chasing Charlie’s. He sucked in a breath. His mouth was dry, and the memory of Charlie’s lips on his hit him like a truck. “It’s okay, Charlie.”
“What is?” Charlie turned his head and stared at Leo, his usually keen gaze clouded by whatever chemicals were wreaking havoc in his blood. “You look all serious. I hate it when you look like that.”
“Why?”
