She’s honest. Although I’d have preferred her to be a little less honest.
“Are we breaking one of your rules?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Then what’s the problem?”
“A phone call isn’t going to change anything.”
I can hear her voice waver – this time, she’s not being totally honest. But I know that she needs to play these games every so often, just to keep her guard up. To stop her showing her vulnerability.
“It could do us some good.”
“Our agreement still stands. Remember the small print.”
“I wasn’t suggesting otherwise.”
“Okay,” she sighs. “Go on.”
“Tell me about this Carter kid.”
“What exactly do you want to know?”
“I want to know why my daughter hates him so much.”
I can hear her smiling at the other end of the phone. “Do you remember our year group at school?”
“More or less.”
“There were two distinct groups: the losers and the cool kids.”
“I vaguely remember, yeah.”
“You were part of the second group, while I fell firmly into the first. The two groups had nothing in common, no links or ties.”
I sigh, guiltily.
“You used to make fun of people like me, who were in my half of the year.”
“I never made fun of you, and I definitely didn’t hate you.”
“Oh, no?”
“Not at all.”
“Well, maybe things have changed. Kids are a lot harsher nowadays.”
“I can imagine.”
“And the ‘losers’, or ‘nerds’, as you call them, don’t have an easy life. No one likes someone who knows the answer all the time.”
“I do,” I say suddenly. “I like people who know the answers. And I liked them before, too.”
“Are you trying to say that you used to secretly like all the nerds?”
“Not all of them. Just one in particular.”
Silence on her end.
