Anyone Else But You

Chapter 3 - The Truth Comes Out

The Libertines – Can’t Stand Me Now

By the time her mum returned with her sister, Maddie had made absolutely no progress on her history essay; the Cold War was playing second fiddle to what happened earlier in the day. She couldn’t stop thinking about what had occurred in the park, especially Jasper. He’d been almost human, giving her his jacket and helping her find Teddy and on Friday night he hadn’t bitten her head off about punching him. It didn’t really make sense, normally he’d have had a right go at her. Ali hadn’t helped either, she’d called just after Maddie had returned from her walk and had complained about Jasper non-stop for an hour and a half.

The clattering of shopping bags and gym bags in the hall woke her up from her reverie, she looked at the page in front of her and saw that she’d written five words in the last hour. Groaning to herself she got up from her seat at the kitchen table and headed through to the origin of all the noise. A cluster of carrier bags greeted her followed by her mother helping her sister hobble through the doorway with a bag of frozen peas strapped to her ankle.

“What happened?” Maddie asked her sister as she clung to the hall table trying to hop along as their mother went to close the front door.

“I fell off the beam and twisted my ankle, coach says there’s nothing to worry about but it’s really saw. He said I need to rest it for a few days.” Maddie winced as Kate lifted the peas off to show a swollen and bruised ankle.

“Help me with these shopping bags Mads.” Her mother bustled past her, hands full of plastic bags. Maddie rolled her eyes at her sister and they both smiled, grabbing the remaining shopping bags she followed her mother through to the kitchen. She dumped the bags with the others her mum had carried through and returned to her history assignment at the table. “How’s the essay going?”

Maddie sighed and looked across the room. “Not well, I can’t concentrate.” She picked up her pen and read the page she’d been staring at for the past half an hour, not taking a word in. Her mind flashed back to the park again, the moment when they’d gotten wrapped up in Teddy’s lead was on replay in her head.

“Maddie! MADDIE!” She jumped as her mum’s voice cut through her subconscious, her pulse and breath returned to normal as she remembered where she was. “I said, I ran into Theresa Johnson at the supermarket today and she told me the funniest story about something that happened in the park this morning.” Maddie froze at her mother’s words, this was not going to end well. “She said she saw a girl being dragged along by a dog, said girl then fell into the lake. The dog ran off while the girl got into an argument with a boy. She also mentioned the girl looked a lot like you. So, is there anything you want to tell me?”

Her mother raised her eyebrows as she closed a cupboard and turned towards Maddie, who was still frozen to the spot. Her cheeks were flushed and she was doing everything she could to avoid eye contact with her mum, knowing full well it would give her away. She picked up her pen and began to doodle on her paper in the hope her mother would drop the subject. “I don’t know what she’s talking about, I didn’t see anything in the park; it must have been after I left.”

“Riiiiight! So I won’t find any wet, muddy clothes in your laundry basket and there’s another reason why Teddy’s acting so sheepish?” Maddie hazarded a glance at her mother and instantly wished she hadn’t. The teacher’s eyes were out and they weren’t going away until they found out the truth. She shook her head, knowing that her mother didn’t believe her at all, luckily she’d put the washing machine on with her clothes from this morning before her mum had returned so she wouldn’t find the evidence.