Six months later . . .
“Slow breaths, Leo.” Reg’s hand was warm on Leo’s shoulder. “You’re not on trial, remember? Just answer the questions to the best of your ability. No one’s asking any more of you.”
“You’re not on trial . . .”
Maybe not, but if the police hadn’t walked away from what he’d done to Darren Stroud last winter, he probably would’ve been by now.
Don’t think about that.
Leo shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Kate had wanted him to wear his school trousers, but Reg had dissuaded her:“Let him be comfortable, love.”After all, with Leo’s evidence being prerecorded, it wasn’t like many people would see him today—just the judge and the barrister for the prosecution.
“He won’t be able to see you, Leo. I promise.”
Leo hadn’t believed the lawyers, but Reg had only had to tell him once.
He won’t see me.
Leo didn’t know much, but of that, he was certain.
“Are you ready?” This time, it was Carol, the social worker, who spoke—a kind woman who wore her hair in long plaits and who had become Leo’s loudest champion outside of the Poulton family.
Leo nodded and steeled himself. Dennis was far away in his prison cell, but opening the wounds Leo had fought so hard to heal still wasn’t going to be easy. Already, his heart was skipping beats, his skin burning with the phantom fire that all the love in the world had never entirely extinguished. He pointed to the door at the end of the stark corridor. “In there?”
Carol nodded. “Let’s go.”
Like most things Leo found himself afraid of in his new life, the anticipation of giving evidence against Dennis turned out to be worse than the actual event. The questions he was asked were no worse than he’d expected, and no one argued with his answers.
And when he closed his eyes and hid his face, they stopped—at least until he was ready for them to continue.
When it was over, Leo emerged from the small, airless room to find Reg waiting for him at the nearest exit.
“Let’s get out of here,” Reg said. “You tell me how it went on the way back to the car. If you want to, that is. It’s okay if you don’t.”
Leo waved good-bye to Carol and followed Reg out of the court building. “You wouldn’t ask me anything if I said I didn’t want to tell you?”
Reg smiled wryly. “You are allowed to keep some things to yourself.”
Leo grunted, because the way things had changed at home in recent months had left him little of the privacy he desperately craved, and Reg knew it. Not that Leo was going to complain about moving into Fliss’s light and airy loft bedroom, even if it did mean that he and Charlie rarely got the chance to be truly alone. The shadows were bright in the attic, and Leo slept among them like he’d never slept before.
They reached the car. Leo slid into the passenger seat and retrieved his Arsenal snapback cap from the back seat to jam on his head. “Are we going home now?”
Reg smiled and handed over the phone he’d taken off Leo before they’d gone inside the court building. “I think you have a call to make first. I asked the school to let Charlie answer his phone at lunchtime. It’s quarter to one. If you ring now, you’ll catch him.”
Charlie.Leo had fought hard to keep Charlie from his thoughts since they’d parted at breakfast that morning, because Charlie was beautiful, and pure, and deserved better than to share Leo’s headspace with Dennis.
But that was over now. Leo’s evidence today had been the last loose end in Leo’s old life, and he was finally free—when his screwed-up brain allowed him to be. And so he took the phone and called Charlie, and waited with bated breath for him to answer.
’Cause, yeah . . . just the thought of hearing Charlie’s voice was still enough to make Leo’s heart skip. And damn if Reg’s knowing smile didn’t say that he saw right through Leo’s attempts to play it cool.
It made Leo wonder how he and Charlie had ever kept the fledgling relationship a secret in the first place. Kate and Reg had taken Charlie’s coming out with little surprise, and had only seemed mildly more shocked by Leo’s. Predictably, their immediate concern had been for the family, and Leo’s feet had barely touched the ground before he found himself firmly ensconced in the attic, a laminated sheet with new rules about closed bedroom doors taped to the wall.
Six months down the line and it was funny. At the time? Not so much. And he couldn’t deny that despite the skylights above his bed, he missed the comfort of knowing Charlie was just a few feet away. Sleepless nights—of which there were still many—were so much harder when he faced them alone.
“Leo?” Charlie’s breathless voice broke into Leo’s reverie.
“It’s me. Why are you out of breath?”
“I was in the art room. I’m only allowed to answer the phone in reception, remember?”
