Safety is Relative

Chapter Seventeen- A Dead Man Rising

Most people wake up on their sixteenth birthday very happy and excited. I woke up stiff, stressed and not really wanting to face the day ahead. I also forgot that it was my birthday.

I walk into the kitchen like a zombie, to find my family just about to bring up a pile of presents to my bedroom.

‘Oops,’ I say, walking back out again.

They call me back, and I open my presents to a rousing chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ whilst sat at the kitchen table, which, on the positive side of things, means that this year my room isn’t covered in wrapping paper. I receive a new phone off Mum and Dad, which I think was a very thoughtful and obviously last minute addition, as well as several books and a DVD. Quinn gives me a box of chocolates, and Sorrel gives me a notebook and a tube of smarties. Ash however, has made me a magnificent Victoria Sponge cake, with beautifully crafted icing reading Happy Birthday Little Sis.

‘Thank you so much,’ I smile, my mood massively boosted. ‘I needed this,’

We all do a family hug, which makes us laugh at how cheesy it is, but is nice all the same. That’s the nice thing about family, I realise. They’ll always be there for you.

After breakfast, which was a joint effort from Ash and Dad (a simply enormous fry-up), I add the numbers I can remember into my new phone, as well as the family ones, which basically includes Nate, Jessica and Nina. I really want to see Nate, I realise with a pang.

‘That’s where I was going,’ I say suddenly, feeling cold all over.

‘What, darling?’ asks Mum, looking up from the newspaper.

‘On Friday morning. That’s where I must have been going- you’d kept me in all week, of course that was the first place I would have gone!’

‘What? Where?’ says Ash, dropping the pan he is washing up back in the sink.

‘To see Nate,’ I say emphatically, waving my phone around. ‘I would have gone to see him! That’s who I was on the phone to, that’s why I was smiling!’

‘Nate- the boy who came round a few weeks ago?’ asks Mum.

‘Keep up, Mum,’ says Ash sharply. ‘Rue’s been going out with him for a few days now, right?’

I nod.

He winks at me. ‘Knew it the moment he came round.’

‘You what?’ says Quinn, looking like he’s been bashed over the head with a pan. ‘Rue has a boyfriend!’

‘Rue has a boyfriend?’ echoes Mum, looking shocked.

‘It’s a recent thing,’ I say awkwardly, ‘I was trying to find the right moment to tell you.’

Mum sighs, but she looks happy, I think, so I continue.

‘Anyway, I hadn’t seen him properly for a week, so I would have gone straight to meet him.’

‘Okay,’ nods Mum. ‘So you went to see this boy, Nate Haemon? Can you remember anything else?’

‘No… I don’t know if I actually ever made it there.’

Suddenly another bit fits into place. ‘Oh! I must have met Jasper on the way! He’s going out with Nate’s cousin.’

Mum tries to process this information, but I feel as surprised as her.

Jasper’s going out with Nisha? Since when! I feel like I have just learnt that information for the first time, and I have no idea where I that came from.