Read Online Alice in Time by Penelope Bush - Free Book Online Page B

stairs with the message. He loves carrying messages to and from Mum and me, which is just as well because that way I don’t actually have to talk to her. The trouble is, I’m starving and I really do want my dinner, but I don’t want to leave my room and have to face reality. Not after such an awesome daydream. I wonder where it would have gone if Rory hadn’t interrupted it. I’ve never really kissed a boy before, let alone anything else. I don’t really want to think about the ‘anything else.’ The kissing is good enough for now. The only trouble is, will it be good enough for Seth? I think back to the joke he made in the café about being fed up with single sex. Was he trying to tell me something?
    I can hear Mum calling me and suddenly I don’t want to be on my own any more with all these thoughts, so I go downstairs.
    I manage to get through the meal without being interrogated by pulling a mega-sulk. I leave as soon as possible, mumbling something about heaps of homework, and hurry back to my room. I get my phone out and put Seth’s number into it, then carefully place the napkin that he wrote it on in my treasure box. I lock it then hide the key in the wardrobe, in the pocket of an old jacket that I never wear any more. You can never be too careful with a brother like Rory around.
    When Seth said ‘ring me’, did he mean tonight? Would that seem a bit desperate if I rang him now? Then again, when he said could we meet up on Saturday did he mean during the day or in the evening? If he meant the day then I won’t have to worry because I can still go to Imogen’s later. But if he meant the evening, then what am I going to do about Imogen? Icould just ring her and say I can’t make it. But then she’ll want to know why and I can’t tell her about Seth because if she thinks I’m cancelling on her because of a boy she’ll never speak to me again. It’s no good – I’ve got to find out from Seth when I’m going to see him. Maybe I’ll just text him.
    I go into messages and realise that this will be the first text I’ve ever sent. I key in
Hi
and sit for ages wondering what else to put.
Wot time Sat
would be a good idea but in the end I just leave it as it is and send
Hi
all on its own. I’m just sitting there thinking that he won’t know who it’s from because I’m not in his phone index and maybe I should send a proper message, when my phone rings, nearly giving me a heart attack.
Seth
comes up on the screen and I think I must get a photo of him and then that will come up as well.
    ‘Hi,’ I say into the phone.
    Seth’s voice comes back. ‘I thought it was you. Either that, or someone going for the world record in shortest text ever.’
    I decide to get straight to the point. ‘I was just wondering what time you wanted to meet up on Saturday.’
    ‘Well, I’ve got a Saturday job and that finishes at five so I thought about sevenish if that’s OK with you? Shall I pick you up at your place?’
    Hell, no. That won’t do. I need a plan. Thinking quickly I say, ‘I’ll get back to you on that. I’m not sure where I’m going to be.’ Well, that’s the truth. We talk for a bit longer then he says, ‘God, I can hear my step-sister coming. I’ll have to go, see you on Saturday,’ and he’s gone.
    Later, in bed, I try to get back into my daydream – the one that had been so rudely interrupted earlier – but it’s no good.I need to put my mind to how I’m going to see Imogen and Seth on Saturday night. Why couldn’t I have just told Seth that I had plans and that we’d have to leave it till another time? Partly because I want to see him – desperately – and partly because I don’t want him to think I’m not interested.
    As it turns out, I have the whole night to hatch a plan because, thanks to that Turkish coffee, I don’t get a wink of sleep. And on the whole it’s not a bad plan. It could be better, but I think it will work.

Chapter Seven
    I don’t see Seth at all during