Perfectly Reflected (5 page)

“Yeah, well, some other time. Got to go now,” he mumbled, heading off quickly in the other direction. I hoped he could hear us laughing.

It took a while to get home as Grace drove very slowly, anxious not to make any mistakes. She pulled up outside my house but couldn’t park in her usual spot; an unfamiliar car was already there, and we could see someone sitting inside it.

“Hmm, I’ll watch until you’re in the house, I think. Shame
we didn’t bring Jack with us,” she said, peering over her steering wheel at the back of the stranger’s head.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine, but thanks for waiting.” I gave her a swift hug, then got out of the car, calling back to her. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Night.”

“Goodni—” She broke off suddenly. “I don’t believe it! It’s Geeky Graham!”

I spun around and looked at the figure getting out of the car parked just in front of us. It was a boy who had been in the same class as Jack and the others at school, but who had left a year before to go to the local sixth-form college. He was known as Geeky Graham as he only seemed able to relate to a computer screen. He had spent his entire childhood, as far as any of us knew, plugged into the Internet, hacking into other people’s networks, playing online war games and never getting involved with anything in the real world. A year or so back, and much to my surprise, he had plucked up the courage to ask me out. I had turned him down as gently as I knew how, but he had got pretty upset about it. Shortly after that there had been a scandal at the boys’ school when he had hacked into their systems and been discovered after a random audit with the entire set of forthcoming exam papers in his account. He had been promptly expelled. I’d been really relieved when he had left and there was no chance of bumping into him any more.

He had gained a brief notoriety as a result of the expulsion, as most of us thought it was over the top, but he had few actual supporters as he no real friends. He had found out too late that being world champion at MegaDeath 4 wasn’t the same as having some mates.

And now he was standing outside my house with a nervous
smile on his face, which looked even more pallid than usual in the orange glow of the streetlight.

“Umm, hi … Graham.” I remembered just in time to drop the Geeky bit. “What on earth are you doing here?”

“Waiting for you, course.” He gave a nervous laugh. “Though I was beginning to think you weren’t going to show.”

“Oh, really?” I asked hesitantly, completely confused. Something odd was going on. Again.

“Everything OK, Alex?” Grace’s voice came from inside the car.

“Yes, don’t worry. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.” I leaned into the car window to give her a hug. “I’ll text you when I get in, let you know what happens.” She nodded almost imperceptibly.

“OK, night, Alex,” she said loudly. “See you, Graham.” With that she drove off and both Graham and I watched as her tail lights disappeared.

“So, umm,” I started, unsure of what to do. “Long time, no see.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while.”

“You OK then? New school working out?” I cast desperately around for something to say.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s all fine,” he muttered, looking at the floor, kicking small stones off the pavement. He seemed to have been struck dumb.

“Well, er…” Inspiration deserted me and I looked at the floor too, wondering where this bizarre conversation was going. There was a long pause as both of us considered our feet.

Graham’s next words came out in a rush. “I was kind of surprised when you got in contact.” He hesitated but before I could say anything, he continued, “Pleased, but surprised. After
last time, I guess I didn’t expect that you would, well, you know…” His voiced faded out as he continued looking at the floor. “And I was even more surprised to realise that we had so much in common.”

I was too stunned to speak. What on earth was he talking about?

“Graham, it’s, er, great to see you, but I’m really confused. Why are you waiting for me?”

“Oh, come on! You can’t possibly have forgotten; it was your idea!” He took one look at my face and carried on, but less certainly. “You said you wanted to come with me to the convention in Birmingham this weekend, the MegaDeath one. You said…” He tailed off, and even in the strange streetlight I could see the colour rising in his face.

This was getting worse and worse. I had to stop it as painlessly as I could. “Graham,” I said gently. “I’ve not spoken to you for ages…” Actually, I couldn’t remember speaking to him at all since he’d asked me out, but now probably wasn’t the time to mention that. “Not since before you left the school. When did we fix all this up?”

“You’ve been talking to me all week on Facebook. I didn’t believe you were serious at first but you convinced me.” He paused for a second but then looked me straight in the eye. “Is this some sort of joke?”

Yet again I felt a shiver of horror up my neck. “Someone has been messing us both about. I’m sure you’re a great guy, but I didn’t agree to go to Birmingham with you.” I watched as his face crumpled, and felt awful; he stood there looking like a kicked puppy. I rushed to explain, words tumbling out as I tried, unsuccessfully, to make it better. “Someone has a vendetta against
me, you see. They’ve sabotaged my e-mail, broken my window and now this. I’m really sorry; you don’t deserve to be involved.”

“So it wasn’t you on Facebook?”

I shook my head slowly, and I saw his shoulders slump even further as he turned away. Who would be this vindictive? “I’m so sorry.” I risked a quick glance at him but he was struggling to stay in control. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything!” he spat as he turned back towards me. “You’ve had your fun, now leave me alone!”

“Honestly, it wasn’t me! And I’ve no idea who would do such an awful thing.” But I was talking to thin air. Graham had jumped back in his car and was trying to make an exit. The car fired but died and I could see him sitting rigid in the driving seat. I’m not sure which of us was wishing harder that the car would work. He tried again and this time the old engine spluttered into life, and with a spin of tyres he was gone. I stood alone at the edge of the road, almost shaking with fear. Who could possibly be that mean, and what were they going to do next?

Olivia

I had a terrible night, thinking of poor Graham. Every time I remembered the look on his face I could feel myself going all clammy. My mind kept circling around the questions of who and why, but nothing came to me. And Grace had been clueless too, when I’d told her about it. “Poor old Geeky Graham,” was all she’d managed.

In the morning I stretched as I lay in bed, remembering at last with a smile that I was due to go to St Paul’s again to see Callum. I put everything else out of my mind as I thought about standing in his arms and kissing him properly. I just had to negotiate my release from household duties for the day. Downstairs I could smell the home-baked loaf that Mum made every Saturday, and jumped out of bed to put my plan into action.

But it wasn’t to be quite that simple. Mum had obviously had a conversation with Graham the night before, and was keen to get to the bottom of things. As we sat in the kitchen with our coffees and the warm cinnamon loaf I knew she had me trapped.

“So what did that poor boy want, Alex? I’ve never seen anyone look quite so gutted when he heard you weren’t in.”

“What time did he turn up?”

“Oh, it wasn’t late. About half-past eight? I told him that you were at Eloïse’s party. I take it he didn’t try and find you there?”

I felt my stomach churn, and surreptitiously pushed my
plate away from me. He had been waiting outside for over three hours. “What exactly did he say?” I asked, wondering how much I was going to have to tell Mum.

“Well, he said he was here to pick you up, but as soon as I told him that you were out, he got very flustered, and barely said another word.”

I heaved a silent sigh of relief. If Graham hadn’t mentioned going away for the weekend, I certainly didn’t have to. “It was all a bit of a misunderstanding, Mum. He got the wrong end of the stick from something that someone had told him, that’s all.” I tried to leave it at that, but her eyebrow was up.

“And…?”

“And nothing. Really. He’s just a guy I used to know, that’s all. Seems he’s been carrying a bit of a torch. I let him down gently,” I added quickly as I saw her draw breath to interrupt. “It’s all fine now, I promise.”

“Hmm, well. I know you won’t have been leading him on, Alex, you’re too nice. But I’ll not forget the look on his face for a long time.” She shook her head as she cut herself another slab of the loaf. “So what are your plans for today? What do you and Grace have cooked up?”

“I think Grace is seeing Jack today, he’s playing in a match so she’s off to support him.”

“Are you going to watch too?”

“I don’t really fancy going again; I always feel a bit in the way these days.”

Mum reached over and squeezed my hand. “Never mind. It’s always tough when your best friend gets their first serious boyfriend. You’ll have plenty of time for that, when you find someone you like.”

“It’s fine Mum, I’m really happy for them. But I don’t want to be trailing around after them. It’s just…” I felt really mean manipulating her, but the chance was too good to miss. “It’s just difficult finding other things to do. I thought I might pop up to London, have a look at some of the shops on Oxford Street, maybe go to the Tate Modern. What do you think?”

“That sounds like a great idea. Why don’t you call Abbi or Mia and see if they want to go with you?”

“Yeah, I might just do that. I’d better get in the shower then, otherwise I’ll miss the train.”

“I’ll run you down to the station, if you like. When you go upstairs will you wake up your brother? He’s supposed to be helping Dad with the garden this morning.”

“OK, I’ll go and get him now.”

I ran up the stairs and along the corridor to Josh’s room. It was always like entering a dark cave; he never opened the curtains and great towers of used deodorant spray cans threatened to topple off the chest of drawers every time I went in there. I tapped gently on the door and there was an answering grunt.

I put my head round the door and could see his face illuminated in the gloom by his laptop screen.

“Hiya. Mum wants me to wake you up. She thinks you have forgotten about the digging.”

“Yeah, right. Why do you think I’ve been hiding up here? I don’t even like vegetables.”

“Well, she’ll be up herself soon, so you might not want to be caught on that.” I gestured towards the computer as I edged gingerly into the room.

“True. So has she done interrogating you now? What on earth was Geeky Graham doing here last night?”

“Did you see him too? The poor bloke!” It was my turn to shake my head. “Someone hijacked my Facebook account and set up a date with him. He thought I was going to go to a MegaDeath convention with him.”

“No! Really?” Josh started laughing. “How dumb can he be? No girls
ever
go to those things. Why the hell did he think you’d be up for that?”

“Whoever was impersonating me was very persuasive. And stop laughing, Josh, it’s not funny.” Josh tried to smother his amusement but he wasn’t very successful.

I was about to ask him if he had any thoughts about who might’ve been so cruel when we were interrupted by the sound of the old school bell clanging at the bottom of the stairs. Josh sighed and shut down his laptop. He was being summoned.

“Looks like my lie-in is over.”

“Have fun!” I smiled at him as I picked my way back across his bedroom floor, through the piles of discarded clothes. I quickly went to my bedroom, shutting the door carefully so that no one would hear me, and checked my watch. It was nearly half-past nine, so hopefully not too early for Callum. I sat at my desk with the mirror positioned in front of me and called to him softly.

He was there in an instant, the tingle in my arm starting almost before I had finished saying his name. He was sitting just behind me with his left arm superimposed across my right wrist as usual. His other hand was already busy stroking my hair.

“Hi. Looks like you’ve been having a busy morning.”

“Hello. I wondered if you’d been watching. So you know what’s been going on?”

“I think so. Some poor kid thought he was in with a chance.” Callum gave me one of his most gorgeous smiles.

“You don’t know the half of it.” I quickly gave him the full details of the hideous event, finding myself blushing furiously yet again at the horror of it. Callum’s brow furrowed in confusion.

“Who can possibly have a grudge against you? I mean, none of your friends would do that, would they?

“No, absolutely not! And anyway, some of them might be able to make a lucky guess at my password, but none of them would hack into my e-mail as well as my Facebook account. Someone who knew every school secret I have ever had broke into my account and e-mailed the headmistress on Thursday. Luckily for me they got the address wrong so it never got delivered. I’ve obviously upset somebody who knows me really, really well, but I can’t even think who would know that stuff.”

In the mirror I could see Callum’s strong arm enfolding me, holding me close and safe. “That’s so weird. It’s almost as if someone was in your head, but how could that be?”

“I know. I keep trying to figure out who can have all that information and why they would be doing this to me. What have I done to them?”

“I’m sure you haven’t done anything. It’s someone else with the problem, not you.”

I knew he was trying to make me feel better, but I wasn’t sure I believed him. “It can’t be a coincidence though, not all of it.”

“Well, maybe it’s someone from school. What about Ashley?”

“That’s another thing! She gave me a slap the other morning – I didn’t even tell you about it. It can’t be her doing the rest of it, though. Slapping is about as sophisticated as she gets.”

“So that’s at least two different people with grudges. Why did she slap you?”

“Oh, it was just nonsense. She thinks I still like Rob. As if!” Callum’s lips pressed together in a thin line as he considered that fact. “Come on, don’t you get all grumpy on me too! You know that he’s no competition for you.” To prove my point I reached up and in the mirror saw my fingers gently stroking his face from the cheekbone to his jaw. He leaned towards my hand, shutting his eyes briefly, and the lightest of tickles traced across my palm. My heart melted again as I looked at him. Whatever the pain and the problems, I loved him and wanted to be with him. “Hey, enough bad news; I need to be getting a shift on. Mum has offered to take me to the station as she thinks I’m going to Tate Modern. Meet me at the dome?”

A gentle smile appeared slowly on his face but his eyes stayed sad. “My favourite place. I’m not sure that the Golden Gallery will be shut though. I didn’t have time to check this morning.”

“Come on! Don’t look so gloomy! After all this nonsense I could do with cheering up, and the best way to do that is to have a proper cuddle from you.”

“Even with everyone watching?”

“I won’t notice them for a second, not when I have you.” In the mirror I could see his free arm tighten around me, then he dropped a kiss on the top of my head.

“See you there then. Give me a call when you get to the Tube station.”

I looked quickly at my watch. “Two hours, that’s all. See you soon.” He gave me another quick squeeze and was gone.

I spent the time on the train trying hard not to think about all the bad things that were going on, but it was difficult not to keep coming back to it. I had somehow accumulated a lot of enemies in a very short space of time. As I turned them over in my
mind yet again I started to fidget with the amulet on my wrist. It was such a beautiful piece of jewellery, with the mysterious stone that was exactly the same colour as Callum’s eyes, held in the cage of finely twisted silver ropes. I still couldn’t believe my luck in finding it, whatever the other problems. I sat and traced its outline with my finger as I thought about the matching one on Callum’s arm. Soon we would be together, his strong, smooth fingers laced together with mine as we watched the London skyline. Whatever was causing my other problems, I could deal with them all if I had Callum.

The suburbs of London streamed past my window, slowly turning into the industrial parks and markets, and finally the snake-like structure of the old Waterloo International came into view. At the station I found that the Tube link directly to Bank was shut, and the woman at the information desk directed me to a bus. Sitting on the top deck as we drove over Waterloo Bridge I could see St Paul’s in the distance, the late morning sun glinting off the Golden Gallery, which encircled the very top of the dome. That was my special place, where the amulet and my new talents allowed Callum to appear to be real, where I could touch him and hold him. And kiss him. The thought made me smile again. Whatever else was going on at least there was the chance that I might get to kiss him again.

But it was a Saturday, so I wasn’t sure how practical it was going to be. Even from the bridge I could just glimpse people up there, enjoying the view from one of the best vantage points in London. Previously Callum had been able to ensure that there was maintenance going on, which kept the tourists away. I had no idea how he managed it, but it meant that our visits had been reasonably private, apart from all the other
Dirges. Kissing an invisible man in a crowd of people would be interesting.

The bus slowly worked its way down Fleet Street, but came to a standstill at the bottom of Ludgate Hill. I could see the queue of traffic snaking up towards the cathedral. I checked that my headphones were secure and was about to pretend to make a call to speak to Callum when the phone rang, making me jump. It was Rob. I debated ignoring it, but curiosity got the better of me.

“What do you want?” I said, abruptly.

“And good morning to you, you gorgeous creature! What are you doing today?”

“I’m going out, actually. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Well, how about I join you? Keep you company while that boyfriend of yours is away?”

“Are you mad? Why would I want to spend the day with you?”

“Now, don’t be like that, Alex. We had one little misunderstanding, that’s all. Can’t a guy get a second chance? Let me show you what it’s like to have a boyfriend who isn’t away all the time.” His voice was smooth and oozed confidence, which irritated me even more.

“I’m not going to listen to this, Rob. Don’t call me again!” As I angrily snapped my phone shut I became horribly aware of how loud I had become. The people around me on the bus were all obviously listening. Ignoring them I stabbed quickly at the keys on the phone.

“Callum, hi. I’m stuck on a bus.” I tried to keep my voice low and unemotional. “The Tube was shut. Do you want to meet me on the steps? I’ll call you back in a minute to check and see if you got the message.”

I waited for a few seconds, knowing that it would take him almost no time to run from the Tube station to where I was on the bus. Very quickly I felt the tingle in my arm, and automatically started to relax. I picked up the phone again.

“Hi. I seem to be stuck. I’m going to see if the driver will let me off.”

“OK. There’s a massive queue all round St Paul’s so if you can get off, you should.”