‘I’m OK,’ I nodded before turning back to face Callum.
‘Laura?’
He gave me a look, as though he was the victim.
‘You’re the one who said you only wanted to have fun,’ he said. ‘This whole thing was your idea. Last night, this week, all of it.’
‘From start to finish,’ I agreed, my heart a steady drum, keeping time with my measured words. ‘And I take full responsibility. I’m sorry if you feel bad, I’m sorry if this week made things worse with your parents, but I don’t hate myself enough to stay here a second longer than I have to. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do so I’m sure you won’t mind if we leave, after all.’ I opened the door and shot him one last agonised glance. ‘I’m no one, just a random girl.’
And when I walked out the door, he didn’t make a single move to stop me.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
‘I don’t think I can listen to any more of this.’
In the back of the car, Joel put his hands over his ears and groaned. ‘By the time we get to “Smallest Man Who Ever Lived” I’ll be ready to drive us off a cliff.’
‘When you’re driving, you get to pick the music,’ Desi shouted over the bridge of ‘Down Bad’. ‘This is for Laura. She needs this, it is therapy.’
‘I really don’t,’ I assured her from the passenger seat. ‘I’m really fine.’
‘Oh, did you hear that, Joel? She’s fine.’
‘Excellent news,’ he leaned forward to turn off the stereo and Desi slapped his hands away, almost steering us directly into the central reservation. ‘Makes me even happier to be spending Christmas Day trapped in a Mini with you two freaks.’
There was a beat of silence in the car.
‘Can we stop?’ he asked. ‘I need a wee.’
Desi gave him a look in the rearview mirror.
‘We’ve been in the car for seventeen minutes.’
‘I didn’t have time to go before we left!’ he protested. ‘I was too busy packing up your stuff!’
‘Too busy having another go on that bloody Rory more like,’ she muttered. ‘Honestly, I can’t take you anywhere.’
‘You’d like him if you got to know him,’ Joel pouted in the back, arms and legs crossed.
‘What are you basing that on exactly?’ she replied. ‘Youdon’t even know him.’
‘I’ll have you know it’s very difficult being the only gay member of the family at Christmas,’ he declared. ‘You wouldn’t understand the amount of pressure we’re under to be incredibly hot and charming and funny.’
‘What’s that got to do with you sticking your tongue down his throat in the kitchen in the middle of the night?’
‘Nothing,’ he muttered. ‘He’s just really, really hot.’
‘Des, turn in here,’ I cut in on their bickering before I was forced to slap them both. ‘There’s a petrol station, they’ll have a loo.’
‘No.’
‘And an M&S Simply Food.’
Her eyes lit up at the promise of a cheddar & onion twist.
Joel’s head suddenly popped up between the passenger seats, making me jump.
‘It’s a mirage,’ he whispered. ‘It won’t be open. Don’t get my hopes up.’
