‘Maybe he meant she wet herself laughing,’ says Holly, charitably. ‘Which she almost did.’
Marcus can’t think of anything to do to Julia and Holly, so he launches himself onto Finbar. They wrestle and grunt through the weeds, half showing off for the girls but meaning it anyway.
Becca, frantically jabbing buttons, is on the edge of tears. ‘Did you check if they’re on your SIM card?’ Selena asks.
‘I checked
‘Hey,’ says someone, and Selena feels the jolt slam through her even before she turns her head. Chris drops down to sit beside Becca and holds out his hand. ‘Give us a look.’
Becca whips her phone out of reach and gives Chris a suspicious glare.
‘Whoa, look at that!’ Someone from Marcus’s gang, whooping across Marcus and Finbar still rolling in the weeds. ‘Harper’s into mingers!’
‘You’re wasting your time,’ Holly tells Chris. ‘She doesn’t actually have tit pics.’
‘She doesn’t actually have
Chris ignores them both. To Becca, gently, the way he’d coax a prickling cat: ‘I might be able to get your photos back. I used to have that phone; it does this weird thing sometimes.’
Becca wavers. His face, clear and steady-eyed: Selena knows how it opens you. Becca’s hand comes out, her fingers uncurl on the phone.
‘Fucking
‘Yeah. Well.’ Finbar dusts himself off, half scared, half proud, glancing over at the girls. ‘You went for me, man.’
‘You were asking for it!’
‘I started it,’ Julia points out. ‘Are you planning on punching me too? Or just sending me more mini-dick pics?’
Marcus ignores her. He pulls himself up and heads for the fence, with his head tipped back and his hand still over his nose. ‘Ahh,’ Julia says with satisfaction, turning her back to the guys. ‘You know something? I needed that.’
‘Here,’ Chris says, holding out Becca’s phone. ‘Are these them?’
‘OhmyGod!’ Becca yelps, on a wild rush of relief. ‘Yeah, they are. That’s them. How did you…?’
‘You just moved them to the wrong folder. I put them back.’
‘Thanks,’ Becca says. ‘Thank you.’ She’s giving him the smile she never normally gives anyone but the three of them, a huge shining monkey-crunch. Selena knows why. It’s because if Chris can do something like that, just out of niceness, then not all guys are Marcus Wiley or James Gillen. Chris has that knack: turning the world into a different place, one that makes you want to take a running dive right into the middle.
Chris smiles back at Becca. ‘No hassle,’ he says. ‘If it gives you any more grief, you come find me and I’ll have a look, yeah?’
‘Yeah,’ Becca says. She’s mesmerised, face upturned to his, radiant in his light.
Chris gives her a tiny wink and turns away, and for a second Selena can’t breathe, but his eyes go right over her like she’s not there. ‘I like your new pet,’ he tells Julia, nodding at the front of her jumper, which has a stoned-looking fox woven into it. ‘Is he housetrained?’
‘He’s very well-behaved,’ Julia says. ‘Sit! Stay! See? Good boy.’
‘I think there’s something wrong with him,’ Chris says. ‘He’s not moving. When was the last time you fed him?’ He throws a marshmallow at the fox, out of his pick-and-mix bag.
Julia catches the marshmallow and tosses it into her mouth. ‘He’s fussy. Try chocolate.’
‘Yeah, right. He can buy his own.’
‘Uh-oh,’ Julia says, ‘I think you’ve pissed him off,’ and sticks a hand up her jumper to send the fox leaping at Chris, and he mock-yells and jumps up. And then somehow he’s next to Selena and the air has turned into something you can feel on every inch of your skin, lifting you, irresistible. His smile feels like she’s known it by heart forever.
‘Want one?’ he says, and holds out the pick-and-mix bag.
Something in his eyes tells Selena to pay attention. ‘OK,’ she says. She looks into the bag, and in with the powdery bonbons and the dried-out fudge is a small pink phone.
‘Actually,’ Chris tells her, ‘you have the rest of them. I’ve had enough.’ And he leaves the bag in her hand and turns away to ask Holly what she’s doing for Easter.
Selena puts a sherbet lemon in her mouth, rolls the top of the bag and shoves it deep into her coat pocket. Harry has given up on her and is telling Becca how his Economics mock was a total ’mare, doing an impression of himself having a full-on cross-eyed wobbler in the middle of the exam room, and Becca is laughing. Selena looks up at the long strokes of light plummeting down between clouds straight at them all, and tastes exploding lemon and feels the insides of her wrists tingling.
During first study period Selena goes to the toilet. On the way, she slips into their bedroom, pulls the pick-and-mix bag out of her coat and shoves it into the pocket of her hoodie.
