Read Online Fading by Rachel Spanswick - Free Book Online Page A

thinking maybe I missed more than a bunch of people talking on TV.
    “I’m fine. You just seem…quiet.”
    “Oh, no. I’m fine, really. I’m just watching the movie.”
    “You are?” He seems amused now.
    “Yeah, you aren’t?”
    “Well, I’m trying, but I’m lost.” He admits a little reluctantly.
    “Lost?”
    “Uh huh, I don’t suppose you could tell me what is going on?”
    “What’s going on?” Does he mean what’s going on here, with us?
    “In the movie…”
    “Oh, right.” I laugh, relieved. “Nothing is going on. I’m not sure this is really a movie. I think it’s some sort of reality show. Nothing has actually happened yet.”
    “I didn’t think so.”
    “How do we always end up watching things that none of us really want to watch?”
    “What? How do we?”
    “Well, we went to the movies and ended up seeing a children’s film because we couldn’t decide what to see and we talked through the whole thing, almost got kicked out. Then there was the movie at my place, you fell asleep, I zoned out after twenty minutes. And now this thing whatever it is.”
    With a laugh he pulls me closer to him on the sofa. “Yeah, you’re right. I don’t know what it is with us and movies.” Instead of turning it off or changing the channel, we both turn back to the show.
    When after an hour, I spend more time thinking about what I will or will not be doing later tonight with Ethan, I realise that I’m far too nervous to go through with it and, to be honestly, I seem to have managed to talk myself out of doing it without ever actually talking at all.
    So, with this in mind, I wait until Ethan leaves the room to get us some more beers and I text Lexi, asking her to get me out of here.
    It’s the system we came up with in the beginning, I text her, she calls me and then I tell my date that there’s some kind of emergency so unfortunately, I have to leave. Apparently everyone has a system like this and Lexi was pretty excited that I finally had a need for one. I’m not sure it’s something someone should be excited about, but I guess she was just glad that I was finally doing something.
    It takes longer than expected for my phone to ring, so long that I had to use the excuse of going to the bathroom to send her a second text but even still, it took more than an hour for my phone to ring.
    So when it does finally ring, I jump about a foot off the sofa and answer it in a complete panic.
    “Hello?”
    “Lil, it’s me. Lex.” Comes in my ear and then I remember that I was actually waiting for her call. And my first thought was, wow, she’s good at this. She has the panicked tone down and it ignites a flame of worry inside me.
    “Lex, what’s wrong?”
    “Lil, it’s your dad?”
    “What about my dad?” I ask and feel only slightly guilty when Ethan sits up straighter and put a supportive hand on my back.
    “There… Lil, I’m so sorry. There was a car accident an-”
    “Is this a fucking joke?” All worry and surprise and guilt and every emotion except anger leaves me. “What kind of sick joke are you playing Lexi? You know this isn’t funny. I can’t believe you would say something like that!”
    At the obvious change in my mood, Ethan’s hand leaves my back and instead, he kneels on the floor in front of me.
    “Lilith, I promise you that I’m not joking.” She swears in my ear.
    “So tell me what the hell has happened!”
    “There was a car accident, your father is in the hospital.” She’s crying now and a part of me doesn’t want to believe that’s telling the truth. That part of me wants me to believe that she’s still just providing with an excuse to leave Ethan’s place early.
    “You’re lying.” This isn’t happening. “My father would be in bed by now, he wouldn’t even be in a car.” Deny everything. “It’s not him.”
    “Lilith. Listen to me, it’s true. I don’t know why he was out but he was and … you should come.”
    The phone drops out of my