Lies Like Love

LEO

Chucking his apple high in the air, Leo caught it in one hand and made as if to bowl it over the fields, then stuffed it back into his pocket. It was sunny and it was lunchtime, at last, and the air smelled clean outside. He sat down on a bench, throwing his head back and shutting his eyes, basking, he thought, like a lizard. But when he opened them again, there she was, appearing out of the autumn mist like something from Arthurian legend. He jumped a bit. That was weird. A girl just standing there, staring at you; a bit intense.

‘Oh, hello.’ Leo smiled at her. It was his default position. No one could say he wasn’t trying.

‘Hi.’

He’d not seen her for a week and had almost forgotten to wonder how she might be doing, but now he grinned.

‘You gave me a shock. I thought you were, I don’t know . . .’

‘What?’ She stepped closer.

‘Well, a ghost, a fairy, maybe.’

‘Ha.’ Audrey pulled a face that bore no resemblance to anything ethereal whatsoever and Leo grinned.

‘Here,’ he said, unpacking his lunch, ‘have a sandwich. I’ve got heaps.’

‘No, thanks,’ she said, but he could practically see the saliva pooling in her mouth when she saw what he had. Sue’s homemade bread. Loads of cheese and salad, pickle. They’d made it together, with fruit grown in Sue’s garden – it had gooseberries in it, of all things. He pointed them out. Audrey smiled. Her eyes were gooseberry green today. Her cheeks apple pink all of a sudden. He couldn’t say that though, but at least she sat down, gingerly, on the end of the bench.

‘Go on, I don’t need it all,’ Leo said. Maybe she was just too polite. Maybe she had an eating thing. That would explain how thin she was. He knew plenty of girls like that too. But he didn’t ask and usually they didn’t tell.

‘No, really. I’ve got loads of allergies and stuff. It’s why I look like I look.’ Her eyes challenged him to contradict her, so he didn’t. Maybe it explained things. Like the skin on her arms and hands, cracked, sore-looking, partly bandaged. He’d noticed it that first day at the Grange before she’d hidden behind that cushion. But he was pretty sure he hadn’t been looking at a rash. Hadn’t her mum said she was a nurse? Not that it was his business, and he wanted to look away, stop giving a damn. But it seemed as if he’d turned into a good Samaritan. More like a busybody, sticking his nose where it wasn’t wanted. He felt in his pocket.

‘Here, have my apple, then,’ Leo said. Audrey hesitated a moment, and he nearly chucked it at her, to force her to catch it, but in the end she took it, her face splitting open with a smile as she took the first bite. They didn’t talk. She ate like it was a serious business, requiring attention. Her eyes half-closed.

‘So, are you feeling better?’ He remembered she’d been looking for the nurse last week. But, reaching out like this, it was like putting his hand into a bowl of ice-cold water.

‘I’m OK,’ she said eventually and moved away, just a fraction, sensing his scrutiny, and he kicked himself. This wasn’t how it had been before. Well. Actually it was.

‘It must be hard for you, coming here, after you lost everything,’ Leo said.

‘What?’ She looked up at him.

‘The fire, you know. Your mum mentioned it to Sue. They had coffee last week? I’d be gutted if I lost all my stuff.’

Audrey looked down at the ground.

‘Yeah, that.’ Her voice was flat, her expression dead. Leo shifted on the bench.

‘Look, meet me later,’ he said. ‘Really, I’ll show you and Peter the shortcut home, like I said. And I’m not just being nice. I’m bored; I could do with the company, OK? We’ll find Peter a badger. Or a snake, even. How is he, anyway? Does he like his new school?’

‘He’s all right. Not that good.’

He hated the sadness that he saw in her eyes; it hurt.

‘Well, come on – we need to cheer him up, right?’

‘Yeah, all right, then.’

‘It’s a date,’ he said, and then winced at his expression, but Audrey didn’t seem to have heard and let him walk her back into school.