Read Online Heartbeat Away by Laura Summers - Free Book Online Page B

knew me?’
    I shrug, playing for time. Shall I tell him everything? Now’s my chance.
    I bottle out. ‘I . . . don’t know – I guess I must have just confused you with some other boy. You know how it is.’
    â€˜Course.’ He looks disappointed. ‘So you often mistake random strangers for people you know, then?’
    I force another smile. ‘Occasionally.’ I sneak a look at his face. He’s smiling too. Can I trust him? I desperately want to.
    â€˜Or . . . maybe I have already met you,’ I venture cautiously.
    â€˜How? In a past life or something?’ he says with a frown. ‘Like reincarnation, you mean?’
    â€˜Could it happen?’ I ask, searching his face.
    He thinks for a moment. ‘Knowing my luck I’d comeback as an insect,’ he jokes. Then he notices my expression. ‘You really believe in all that stuff?’ he asks.
    â€˜I don’t know what I believe any more,’ I say.
    We stand awkwardly by the front gate. From the corner of my eye I see Danny’s bedroom curtain twitch back and a small bored face, topped with spiky hair, press itself against the glass of the window. A few seconds later, Mum opens the front door and stands in the doorway, her face like thunder.
    â€˜I’d better go,’ I tell Sam.
    â€˜Can I see you again?’ he asks.
    My heart soars. I nod.
    â€˜Will your mum kill me if I call for you next Saturday morning?’ He glances fleetingly at Mum’s furious face.
    â€˜Meet me at the end of the road.’
    â€˜What time?’
    â€˜Eleven . . .’
    â€˜Becky!’ calls Mum impatiently.
    â€˜I really have to go.’ I run up the path, watching him as he walks off down the street.
    â€˜Becky, where have you been? A walk, you said. A walk! You’ve been gone five hours!’
    â€˜I didn’t mean to be that long, Mum. I did try to text you . . . but my battery was flat.’
    â€˜We’ve been frantic! Joe’s been out in the car looking for you and I even rang round all the hospitals thinking something terrible had happened.’
    â€˜I’m really sorry.’
    â€˜Sorry?’ Tears start to roll down her cheeks. ‘Oh, Becky, how could you?’

29
    I don’t explain about Sam. I don’t really explain anything. How can I? I don’t understand myself. If I tell Mum about me seeing things and people, she’ll really freak. So I decide to be slightly economical with the truth, and mumble that Sam is just a boy I know. She assumes he’s someone from school and I don’t put her right.
    â€˜You’re a bit young to get involved with boys, Becky,’ says Joe. ‘You’ve got your GCSEs coming up next year.’
    â€˜I’m not “involved” with boys!’ I protest, glaring at him, annoyed that he always feels he has to interfere.
    â€˜Becky, that’s enough!’ snaps Mum. ‘You’ve had us both worried sick.’
    I look at Mum’s anxious face and feel terrible. ‘I’m sorry. But Sam’s just a friend. Honestly.’
    And the weird thing is, although I’ve only just met him, I feel like I’ve known him for years. Which is, of course, completely bonkers. I hardly know him at all.
    Leah’s the only real friend I’ve known for any length oftime. We’ve grown up together. We played and argued and made up all the way through primary school; spent long summer holidays dressing up in old net curtains and making perfume out of rose petals. She was the only person I told when Mum and Dad split up.
    We stuck together like glue when we moved up to secondary school and swapped homework, gossip and clothes. We were both in the cross-country running team and spurred each other on through races on dank November afternoons. And although she always had to look after her little brother, when I got ill she was the one who texted me to cheer me up on bad days, when just