Read Online Boys Don't Cry by Malorie Blackman - Free Book Online Page A

dryly. ‘You know a lot about it for a half-pint sixteen-year-old.’
    ‘I may be shorter, thinner and younger than you, but in everything else I am greater.’
    I laughed, and it felt and sounded strange – and good. This day had already lasted for ever and I hadn’t even been on the same planet as a smile since I woke up.
    ‘Modest as ever, Adam,’ I said.
    But the thing was, he was right. Adam was one of those gits who breezed through exams with the minimum of effort. Actually, it wasn’t just exams but life in general. I, on the other hand, had to slog my guts out. Funny, smart and good-looking, everything came so easily to him.
    ‘One day I’m going to be a famous actor.’ Adam had regaled Dad and me with his plans for his acting career from the time he was twelve. ‘I want to be an actor more than anything else in the world. I live, eat, breathe and dream of being an actor.’
    I mean, please! ‘Is that like the way I dream of being a pop star?’ I’d scoffed.
    ‘No, ’cause yours is just a dream. You sing like a creaking door. Dad’s gene! But my dream will become reality one day,’ Adam replied. ‘Look at me. I’m gorgeous and can act the spots off anyone else at school. In fact, it’s only my modesty that stops me from being perfect!’
    I mean, pleeease! ‘Ladies and gentlemen, the ego has landed.’
    ‘Adam, don’t set your heart on being an actor. It’s very unlikely,’ Dad told him.
    Adam had drawn himself up to face Dad directly. ‘So was going to the moon, or inventing penicillin, but it was still done. Unlikely things happen every day. And if I want it enough, I’ll get it – in spite of what you think.’
    ‘You should have a backup plan, in case it doesn’t happen,’ Dad warned when it became apparent that Adam was actually serious.
    Adam just shook his head. ‘A backup plan means somewhere in my head, I think I might fail and that word is not in my vocabulary. Plus I’m too talented to fail.’
    Dad and I had exchanged a look at that one.
    And as for using the bathroom each morning, forget it! If Dad or I wanted to stand any chance of using it before midday, we had to put on jet packs to get in therebefore my brother. Once Adam hit the bathroom, that was it. As my brother explained it, he had to cleanse, tone and moisturize to stop his skin looking like a gravel path – his words – only it usually took a good thirty to forty minutes minimum. I mean, no one has that much skin, for God’s sake!
    My brother, Adam.
    He grinned at me now, turning back to Emma. ‘D’you want to hold her for a while?’
    ‘Nah, it’s OK. You’re doing fine,’ I replied.
    Adam sighed, looking almost . . . sad.
    ‘What’s the matter?’ I asked.
    ‘I’d love to be a dad some day,’ said Adam. ‘It’s not going to happen though.’
    ‘There’s nothing to stop you meeting the right girl some day, settling down and having a whole football team of kids if you want.’
    Adam regarded me. ‘Do I look like the kind of guy who’s going to settle down with a good woman?’
    ‘Stranger things have happened.’ I shrugged.
    ‘If I settle down, it won’t be with a good woman and what’s more—’
    ‘Fine,’ I interrupted. ‘Go for a bad woman then. They’re supposed to be more fun anyway.’
    ‘It wouldn’t be with a woman at all . . .’ Adam began.
    ‘Adam, I don’t want to talk about this.’ I turned away.
    ‘No,’ said Adam thoughtfully. ‘You never do.’
    That wasn’t fair. ‘You’re too young to know who or what you really are,’ I told him.
    ‘How old were you when you figured out who and what you really are?’ asked Adam.
    ‘Damn it, Adam,’ I snapped.
    ‘Ah! D’you know you always bite my head off when I ask you something you can’t answer?’
    ‘I do not,’ I protested. ‘And all I’m saying is, this is a phase you’re going through and you’ll grow out of it.’
    ‘Did you go through this phase?’
    ‘Well, no, but I read somewhere or other