You Are So Not a Fallen Angel

Chapter 13

Aunt Mandy pounced on me the moment she saw me. I entered the kitchen, and found my mother and Mandy standing on either side of the table, glaring at each other. It looked like I had interrupted them in the middle of an argument.

“Where have you been?” Mandy demanded. “Your mother has been looking all over for you.”

I glanced at my mother. She looked tired and irritated, but not overly worried. This was not the first time I had gone out for a few hours on my own.

“Out,” I said. Which was, strictly speaking, the truth.

“I did realise that,” Mum said. She moved over to the counter, picked up a tomato, and started chopping it up with more force than necessary. “Out where?”

“With a friend.” Again, the strict truth, if not the whole truth.

My mother stared at me for a moment, clearly weighting up if she could be bothered to have an argument. Now I’d looked closer, I saw she didn’t look just tired. It was closer to exhaustion. 

“Call if you’re going to stay out late,” she said eventually. “And next time, at least tell your brother you’re going out.”

“Okay.” I left it at that and went out to have a swim. I was still feeling slightly fuzzy, as if my thoughts were finding it difficult to travel through my brain. As I changed into my swimsuit, it occurred to me Lorris had yet again waltzed off into the sunset without answering any questions. Not that I’d asked any, to be fair. I had been too busy cooing with delight over the pretty, pretty garden. But it was possible he had only taken me there as a distraction...

“Or maybe you’re going crazy,” I said as I left the pool house.

“You certainly are if you’ve started talking to yourself,” Elijah added as I passed him. He sat up and pushed his sunglasses to the top of his head. “That’s the first sign of insanity.”

“Have you actually moved this afternoon?” I asked.

“No.” He flopped back again. “I’m working on my tan. I need to have something to show for my summer.”

“Do you know you’re the colour of a cooked lobster?” I tossed my towel over the other sun lounger. “And your glasses have left a mark?”

Eli leapt up and rushed inside to check his reflection, and I laughed as I dived into the pool. The shock of the cold water did get rid of the last of the fuzziness, but the general feeling of tranquillity remained. I swam a few lengths slowly, just enjoying feeling relaxed and un-hassled for once. Of course, it didn’t last long. I dived under water and swam up the length of the pool. When I emerged, gasping for air, I saw a pair of flip-flops balanced on the edge of the pool. In those flip-flops was a pair of feet. And those feet were attached to the long, brown legs of my cousin Flora.

“Hi Flora,” I said. “Lovely evening, isn’t it?”

She said nothing, just glared down at me.

“How was London? Did you buy anything nice?”

“Where were you this afternoon?” she demanded. She looked like she had just bitten a lemon. A rotten lemon.

“With a friend.”

“Oh really?”

“Yes, really.” Where the hell was she going with this?

“And where did you go with this ‘friend’?” she didn’t do air-quotes with her fingers, but she might have well.

“The park, not that it’s any of your business.”