Read Online Girls in Tears by Jacqueline Wilson - Free Book Online Page B

He’s my Mr. Dream Man, the boy I bump into on the way to school. Literally. And now I’ve done it again. “I’m so
sorry
! Honestly, I don’t always bash into people.”
    “Only when I’m around!”
    “I didn’t realize you worked here.”
    “Well, I can’t really feel like Joe Cool in this gear,” he says, tipping his funny hygiene hat into a rakish angle. “But it’s an OK job just for now. I’m having a gap year before starting at university.”
    “I’m definitely going to have a gap year too,” I say. “My girlfriends and I have got it all worked out. Six months’ work and then six months’ traveling . . .”
    I want to go somewhere wonderful, like Australia. Nadine fancies somewhere more exotic, like India. Magda wants to hire a car and drive all over America—well, if she’s passed her driving test.
    I tell him all this and he listens politely, but you can tell he’s really thinking, Yeah, well,
maybe
. He tells me about his month Euro-railing, staying at campsites. I don’t think much of camping. We always used to go camping in Wales before we got the cottage. It was so damp and so dreary and ants got in my sleeping bag and I’m pretty certain a mouse ran over my face in the night. It
could
just have been my own hair but I screamed my head off anyway.
    I’m telling Mr. Dream Man all about it and he’s laughing. Then I look up and there’s
Russell
standing staring at us, even though we said goodbye half an hour ago.
    “Russell! What are you doing here?”
    “Don’t worry. Don’t let me interrupt,” he says in a surly tone.
    “I’d better get back to work anyway,” Mr. Dream Man says quickly. He leans his head close to me. “Is he the boyfriend? He’s
nice
.”
    Russell isn’t acting a
bit
nice. He’s marching off so quickly I have to gallop after him, my trolley veering wildly left and right so that little old ladies and mums with toddlers have to leap for their lives.
    “Russell, wait, will you!” I bellow in frustration. “What are you doing here?”
    “I felt mean leaving you to do all this shopping. I thought the least I could do was come and find you and help you carry it. I had no idea
why
you suddenly had this urgent desire to act like the Wonder Woman of Waitrose.”
    “What?” I blink at him.
    “Don’t come the wide-eyed innocent with me, Ellie! I had no idea you had a thing going with that shelf-stacker guy in the silly hat.”
    I burst out laughing, which makes Russell even more furious. “Oh, Russell, listen. I hardly know him.”
    “Oh yeah? The way he was looking at you made me feel sick. He obviously fancies you like mad.”
    “The one thing I
do
know about him is he’s gay.” Now it’s Russell’s turn to stand with his mouth open. “What?”
    “He’s gay, Russell. And if he fancies anyone, it’s you. He said he thought you looked very
nice
. He’s obviously smitten.”
    Russell is going very pink. “Right. Well. That’s cool. Though I hope you made it plain you’re my girlfriend.”
    “You were acting like you’re really jealous,” I say.
    “Nah, of course I wasn’t. I just thought you were making a monkey out of me.”
    “But I wasn’t.”
    “That’s right.”
    “So we’re still friends?”
    “We’re more than friends, silly,” says Russell, and he takes my hand and twists the ring lovingly on my finger.
    He helps me carry the shopping all the way home. Anna is very grateful to us both. Russell’s having a cup of tea with us when Dad comes home, early for the first time in ages. He’s carrying a huge box of Sainsbury’s groceries.
    “Dad!
I
went to Waitrose,” I say.
    “Well, we won’t run short of butter and tissues for a while now,” says Dad.
    “Thank you for getting all the stuff, anyway,” says Anna, fumbling in her handbag. “How much did it come to? I’ll pay you out of the housekeeping purse.”
    “For God’s sake, I can buy a few groceries. I can still earn a bob or two. Not as much as you, perhaps, but