Read Online Blood Ties by Sophie McKenzie - Free Book Online Page A

door. ‘What on earth have you got that big rucksack on for?’ she frowned.
    ‘ Er . . . school books,’ I said, blushing. ‘Stuff I borrowed off Clara. I have to give them back. She needs them for homework this weekend.’
    Mum fluffed up her hair. ‘Okay,’ she said, turning to look at herself in the mirror opposite. ‘I just wanted to say you should avoid buying anything yellow. Not a good colour for you. Go for blue or green. Bring out what colour there is in your eyes.’
    Yeah, right, Mum. We both know my eyes are the colour of sludge.
    ‘Fine,’ I said, stepping outside. ‘Bye.’
    I shut the door and raced off up the road to the train station.
    As I got closer to the North London address Theo had given me, I got more nervous. Up until now I’d only been worried about getting Dad’s laptop out of the house. Now I started thinking seriously about what would happen when I arrived at the place we were meeting. It belonged to some friend of Theo’s called Max.
    A zillion anxious thoughts flooded my head.
    What was Max going to be like? How was he going to hack into Dad’s emails? I mean, Dad had a password I didn’t know.
    Anyway, suppose Dad had deleted the email after he’d sent it? Worse. What if I was wrong and the email was nothing to do with Theo? Or what if Dad had changed his mind and there was no email?
    I’ll feel so stupid if they can’t find anything on the computer.
    Then again, suppose Max did manage to find something? What if all Dad’s files got destroyed or corrupted? How would I ever explain that?
    By the time I reached the tube station closest to Max’s house I’d been travelling for nearly two hours and felt all ugly and dirty as well as scared. I’d put on this pale-green top and was sure I was sweating into it horribly under the arms. I’d caught sight of myself in a shop window walking up from the tube station and, as usual, my hair looked awful – all lank and shapeless round my face.
    I stood in a doorway and put on a little make-up. It didn’t help. Now I just looked like an ugly girl with black-ringed eyes and overly glossy lips.
    I found the right road and trudged down it. I rubbed some of the lip gloss off with my finger. Dad’s laptop was pulling on my shoulders now and my back was aching.
    I took a few deep breaths. At least I was going to see Theo. Even if he wouldn’t go for me in a million years, I’d get to talk to him again. And it wasn’t like there’d be loads of people there. Only this Max, who was probably just some geeky boy with spots.
    I checked the address Theo had given me. I was here. A small, brick terraced house with a front garden full of weeds and peeling paintwork on the door. A thickset man was squinting at me from one of the windows, his arms folded. Who was that? Max’s dad, maybe?
    I rang the doorbell, fear surging through my stomach. The sound of dogs barking came from inside the house. Then the door swung inwards and two enormous, brown-haired mongrels poked their heads through the gap. Theo was bent over between them, struggling to pull the dogs back by their stiff leather collars.
    ‘Hi.’ He flicked his head to get his hair out of his eyes.
    ‘Hi,’ I squeaked back, feeling my face redden . He was even more gorgeous than I’d remembered. I quickly clocked the jeans and trainers – the same ones that he’d worn before. But now he was wearing a black T-shirt. His arms were smooth and brown underneath, his muscles all tensed with the effort of holding on to the dogs.
    ‘Sorry about the mutts,’ Theo said. ‘They’re Max’s. Hey, log off, guys. Log off.’ The dogs stopped leaping about and stood obediently at his side. I stared at them. I like dogs, but Mum had never let me have any kind of pet, so I wasn’t used to them. I reached forwards and carefully petted the smaller dog on the back. His fur was short and dark and rough. He sniffed at my shoes.
    ‘That’s Java,’ Theo said. ‘The other one’s his mum, Perl.’