Read Online Keeping it Real by Annie Dalton - Free Book Online Page A

the window. She gave a scared laugh. “Great, now you’re talking to yourself, Sky.”
    I rushed across the room. “Sky, listen to me! You’re not talking to yourself and I’m not in the clouds, babe - I’m standing right behind you. Can you feel those teeny angel tingles? That’s me!”
    I’d just made things worse. Sky started flapping her hands, like a desperate fanning gesture. “This is SO sick,” she said in a kind of moan. “When you’re dead you’re dead. This is just in your head, Sky.”
    “Weren’t you listening, fool?” I said lovingly. “I’m not a spook! I’m an angel. At least I will be, in about sixty thousand years, when I’ve—!”
    Sky gasped and spun round. “Mel?”
    There was pure shock on her face, but there was joy too, I swear; if we could have sat down and talked then, I truly believe things could have been different.
    But the very next second, a hideous ring tone shattered the silence.
    It literally made me see spots in front of my eyes. I was close to throwing up when Sky snatched up her mobile.
    I felt our fragile connection snap like a thread. Only one thing makes a girl look like that, and that’s a boy.
    “Yeah, I know, you’ve got mine,” Sky bubbled. “We must have swapped phones by mistake! They’ve all gone to Brighton. Yeah, in this weather! No, and I wouldn’t have gone if she had. Shut UP, you pig! I’m a big girl now, you know!”
    Sky was lying on her bed now, acting kittenish. She creased up laughing. “I’ll make you pay for that! So are you coming to pick me up?” I heard her voice falter. “OK, well, I can probably find a cab. Yeah, about ten minutes.”
    I watched numbly as she rushed round like a human whirlwind, dragging on her little top and skirt, pulling on high stretchy boots, putting in her hoop earrings.
    Was this mystery boy’s call what my friend had been waiting for? Because there was no resemblance to the blank listless girl of five minutes ago. Grabbing her faux fur jacket, Sky slammed out of the flat.
    I beamed myself after her, but Helix told me not to follow her any further.
    I almost stamped with frustration. “This is Park Hall, Helix! Something bad could happen.”
    “Something bad has happened.” Helix seemed incredibly sad.
    “You don’t get it, this is what human girls do! This is normal behaviour on my planet. Human girls get boyfriends and fall in love, and suddenly nothing else matters.”
    “Sweetie, what just happened in there is totally not normal.”
    “Helix, when it comes to cosmic stuff, I’m happy to take your advice, but this is my world, OK, and I think I know it just a tiny bit better than you do!”
    I was talking out of my angel rear-end. I didn’t understand anything that had happened since I got here. At least Jax and Karms were still recognisable as my friends, but as I watched Sky hurrying away into the dark, I felt like I didn’t know her at all.
    The old Sky had big dreams. She’d seen what happened to girls in Park Hall and she wanted better. No way would she humiliate herself for some boy.
    The snow was turning into sleet. I huddled inside Brice’s jacket. Something dark was hovering at the edges of my mind, and it was getting harder and harder to shut it out.
     

Chapter Nine
    I didn’t know it but I was just about to get a lift.
    Nearby windows started to rattle in their frames as an Agency motorbike roared up. The rider took off his helmet and I saw spiky dark hair with blond flashes.
    “Good, you’re still here,” Brice grinned. “Hop on and I’ll take you back.”
    I was so upset I had to take it out on somebody.
    “I’m a trainee agent, Brice. I don’t need someone following me around like my big brother. I told you I’d do this by myself.”
    “And I respected your wishes, darling! But Jools was worried we forgot to tell you the security code. She didn’t want you to be locked out.”
    “You just use your tags - she showed me.”
    He looked sheepish: “The others were