Read Online Nine Letters Long by J.C. Burke - Free Book Online Page B

peaceful. ‘Thanks anyway.’
    â€˜Whatever,’ Alex sighs. ‘Roxy’s coming, so at least I’ll have someone to talk to. Zac gets so serious before a game.’
    Evie draws a square within a square, then joins the lines together, making it a cube. ‘He’s psyching up, I guess.’
    â€˜You should see him in his soccer shorts. He looks so hot. God, I want to run on the field and … and rip his clothes off.’
    â€˜That’d go down well.’ Evie draws cube after cube, each one the same as the last. ‘I’m sure Zac’d appreciate it – not.’
    â€˜I think afterwards we’ll go to that new gelato bar for coffee. It’s just across from the Penis Abuser.’
    Evie swallows. ‘Really?’
    â€˜Luckily it’s a Sunday. That means …’
    Evie presses hard on the pencil as Alex prattles on.
    â€˜â€¦ the Penis College is closed so Zac can’t be distracted by the babes walking in and out. He’ll only be able to look at me …’
    Evie begins to slash vertical lines through each cube.
    â€˜â€¦ only that weird-looking skinny chick hangs out there on a Sunday; she is a complete case …’
    Line after line after line, each one darker than the last. Evie can’t stop it.
    â€˜â€¦ I mean she’s hardly going to …’
    â€˜Ouch!’ Evie yelps.
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Nothing.’ Evie shakes her hand. ‘I just broke my dad’s pencil.’
    â€˜Is that all?’ Alex scoffs. ‘The thing about Zac is that …’
    Evie doesn’t want this conversation. Usually it’d be fine. Usually she’d be able to tell Alex what was going on in her other life. Now she can’t. Alex is caught up in a different life. A new life. A life Evie hoped she could have. A life she has had to put on hold – again.
    â€˜Roxy,’ Alex prattles on, ‘you know how their family is really old friends with Zac’s. Well, Roxy was telling me the cutest story about Zac when he was little –’
    â€˜Alex, my mum needs to use the phone.’ Another lie. ‘I’ve got to go. I’ll see you tomorrow.’
    â€˜Hang on! Have we got art first? I’m just too scrambled in the head at the moment. Blame it on love.’
    Evie ignores her. ‘Art’s second period,’ she replies.
    â€˜Okay. Hope your headache gets better.’
    â€˜Oh? Yeah, yeah, thanks. Bye.’
    Evie lies on the bed, staring at the ceiling, feeling horrible. Alex has been her lifeline. Alex has been the one Evie could tell anything too. Alex accepting her was something she had always been sure of. Once, they’d been bound together – two misfits happy to have found one another. But now Alex wants more. Evie wants it too, but for her it’s not as simple.
    â€˜How’s Alex?’ Robin wanders in with a pile of clean washing. ‘Help me fold this, will you?’
    â€˜All right.’ Evie sighs, searching for a sock’s other half.
    â€˜What is it?’
    â€˜Oh, she’s just, you know, got a boyfriend, all that stuff. And … I guess I couldn’t be further from that.’
    â€˜Give it time, love.’
    â€˜It’s more than that.’ Evie picks up the undies and bras. ‘Where’s this sock’s mate? I can’t find it.’
    â€˜It’s hiding there somewhere,’ her mum replies, stacking her husband’s T-shirts onto a shelf. ‘I don’t know what it is with socks. Where do they go?’
    Evie gives up. She lies back on the pillows, wishing for what she can’t have. A photo of her dad and grandma sits on the bedside table. She holds it up and studies her grandmother’s face. How she wishes she was alive. Alive to guide her through the uncertainties and protect her from the things that frighten her. But the one person Evie longs to speak to is silent.
    The paper she was scribbling on