Read Online Lies Like Love by Louisa Reid - Free Book Online Page B

for what would happen and for the night I’d had and how I had another friend and everything was getting better at last.

Leo
    Audrey disappeared too fast for him to stop her, and then he didn’t want to follow in case she thought he was some sort of stalker. He’d thought she’d stay out longer; it was only nine, and things were only just revving up. Then again, he’d see her tomorrow, he thought, as he wandered around for a while on his own, carrying the teddy by its arm, wondering if he should dump it. In the end he couldn’t do it. A group of kids from school huddled in a group by the ghost train and called out to him to join them, but it wasn’t fun any more. Especially not when Lizzy caught up with him.
    ‘Saw you before,’ she said.
    ‘Yeah?’ Leo walked on.
    ‘With Mental.’ Lizzy opened her mouth round the candy-floss, twirled her tongue into the sugar.
    ‘What?’
    ‘You with that new girl. What are you doing hanging around with her?’ She waited, and when he didn’t respond, taunted again, ‘She’s mental. Didn’t you hear what she did in Maths? She passed out, just like flat out on the desk and no one could wake her up. There was dribble all over. It was disgusting. She’s rank. Really manky.’
    ‘Oh, whatever, Lizzy. Just forget it, right?’ There’d been one party, last summer – Leo remembered now – andLizzy had been drunk. So had he. She’d sat on his knee, her hands worming on his thighs. He should have pushed her away. Big mistake.
    Lizzy was grinning, her eyes small and hard, and although Leo had never sworn at a girl he felt like it then.
    ‘You know what,’ Lizzy shouted after him as Leo strode away, ‘I’ll find out the full story for you. Then you’ll thank me.’
    He walked faster, didn’t look back, didn’t listen, left the field and went to meet Sue, who’d been visiting a friend in town and would give him a ride back.
    ‘Good night?’ she said, starting the car. He fiddled with the radio, tuning out of Radio 4, looking for something loud to stop him thinking.
    ‘Leo?’
    ‘Yeah, I guess so. Audrey didn’t hang around long. I got bored after that.’ Got harassed after that. Lizzy, what a cow. What a mean-hearted, cruel creature. She was so spiteful. Why did girls get like that? It was so pointless and boring.
    ‘Well, I suppose if she had her brother with her she had to get him home. He’s only little.’
    ‘True. Yeah.’ It was a good point. It could explain why she’d dashed away. He should have walked them home.
    ‘I shouldn’t worry if I were you.’
    ‘OK. I won’t worry.’ He glanced up at his aunt and half smiled.
    ‘It’s sweet though.’ She squeezed his hand, just once, quickly, and winked.
    ‘Stop it. We’re just friends. I’m going over theretomorrow, to help Aud with some homework, OK?’ He’d sensed something wild in Audrey tonight, a spirit she kept tamped down, and Leo wanted more of that. His old life had shown him enough straight and boring to last him forever: a book full of straight ruled lines covered in uniform script, the answers perfectly performed, grammatically correct. But then, without warning, pages and pages of scribble. Black and hard and gouging through it all. Until this: like a poem, the words had begun to shine. Leo rubbed his forehead, squeezed his eyes shut, then opened them again and stared straight ahead, impatient to be home, impatient to be asleep so tomorrow could start.
    ‘Sure. Good,’ Sue said. ‘She’s a nice girl. Pretty too. Lovely, actually, although I agree – not your usual type. Not like those glamorous creatures I’ve seen in your photos on Facebook.’ Sue raised her eyebrows. Glamour wasn’t her scene.
    ‘Who says they’re my type? They’re just girls, Sue. Old friends. Who I don’t even keep in touch with any more.’
    ‘Just suggesting. Anyway, Audrey seems very sweet-natured. If anything, she’ll be a good friend.’
    Leo nodded. It was true, he liked her. A lot.
    ‘I