VOLKO

Chapter Thirty-Six

Two days had passed since I'd arrived home. Just as expected the Cotton's showered me with love and endless questions. I'd showed them the few photos I'd taken of the place, and explained the little details I knew about the building work.

Nothing was mentioned about my failure to show up last time, in fact everyone seemed to be actively avoiding it. I suspected Jay might have mentioned something, I couldn't blame him, I'd have done the same.

Between Chase and Jay, I got the feeling they knew something was up. For one, Jay casually asked a lot of questions regarding Robert, nothing to interrogate that someone would notice. It might have been my imagination playing tricks as nobody else picked up on it.

Opposite to Jay, Chase stayed unusually quiet. He listened intently to every word I spoke. To the point Gemma asked him what was wrong. He'd simply shrugged it off as being tired but I knew that wasn't the case. Chase got angry when he was tired, he got quiet when he was thinking. Something Chase rarely did.

Much to my relief the journey had been uneventful. I've introduced Will to the Cotton's and he'd agreed to stay in the guest house in the back garden for safety reasons, which Mr and Mrs C accepted with no further questions.

To my amusement Conor and the other guy, who I still didn't know the name of were left having to stay at the hotel originally booked. I'd have thought they'd be happy that Will could stay, it meant nobody had to sit around in a car all day on watch, but they weren't.

Conor in true Conor style moaned, throwing that we'd hatched this plan. Luckily, Will was a no nonsense kind of guy, he shut Conor down faster than I could with a week's notice.

Apart from that, life in the Cotton's house had been pretty normal. Roy had gone away with his university friends, I only saw Gemma in the evenings as she went about her internship in the day, Jay worked tirelessly in his room on a new project he wouldn't talk to me about, Chase spent half his day working out for the neighbours daughter and the other half with me.

Mrs C had a charity bake she was busy baking for and Mr C was working on a new case. From the sounds of it, it was a pretty big deal.

That evening, Gemma sat at my desk, lazily drawing. Every now and then she'd hold the paper to the fading light, concentrating.

"He said my designs were something that designers of today should aspire to. He wants to see five more by the end of the month and if they're good enough, he'll introduce me at his show. Like this is a massive deal Meg. It's exactly what I've been working for." Gemma's voice hummed in the background.

I knew I was being a bad friend, yet I couldn't focus. My mind wandered uncontrollably back to Dean. I'd cursed myself over a hundred times for not grabbing his number. At least then I'd be about to communicate with him. Jake's words about war had left me uneasy.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Sorry Gem, I completely spaced out. Will you get tickets for the show?" There was no point in lying, Gemma was a straightforward kind of girl. Bullshit pissed her off.

"What's up with you? You seem different, more distance and on edge. Is everything okay?" Gemma appeared to the outside world like a complete airhead, when really she was just as smart as the rest of her siblings. She often seems emotionally detached so it always surprised me when she picked up on my emotions. Sometimes before I did.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about my family and what to do. Really boring stuff. Which I don't want to think about." I closed the laptop on my bed which had Oxford university open on a tab.

I'd yet to mention Robert's suggestion to Mrs and Mr C. Perhaps because I knew they'd play down how much university would cost them. They went out their way to make me feel less of a burden. If they knew how I felt they'd be so ashamed of themselves and that's something I couldn't stomach. Not from them, they didn't deserve that.