7 Miles Out by Carol Morley

Author:Carol Morley [Morley, Carol]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910536155
Publisher: Blink Publishing
Published: 2015-09-15T04:00:00+00:00

summer nights

‘Just think, me and you on holiday together,’ I said to Linda. ‘It’ll be a right laugh!’

The youth club leader had organised a week in a holiday apartment in Devon, free of charge. Linda was upset that Drac couldn’t come, as her mum and the tongue-and-groove boyfriend had made other plans, but she did think it was a lovely idea when I mentioned we might get our own bedroom to share, just the two of us. What I didn’t say was that I was also hoping that we could share a bed.

My stomach flipped with the possibility. Linking arms with Linda was the best feeling in the world and the next step was to feel her whole body against mine.

Before the holiday, Mum told me that we were moving out of the flat. As I packed my new swimming costume, a towel, a change of clothes, two pairs of socks, two pairs of knickers, my washbag and dictionary, Mum explained that I was to telephone my sister when I got back and that she would pass on details of our new place.

‘There’s nowhere lined up at the minute, but there will be. You go and enjoy yourself.’

Mum didn’t realise that I had other things on my mind than where I was going to be living. I couldn’t stop thinking about Linda and what it would be like to kiss her.

The journey to Devon was endless. My fantasy of a minibus with pairs of padded seats was replaced with the reality of a windowless converted van with hard, wooden benches screwed to either side. Ten girls were squeezed into the airless back, cut off from the youth club leader and her boyfriend, who was driving, by a partition of grubby white-painted steel. I had imagined I would be sitting next to Linda and pretending we were a band on tour, but because she was so popular I didn’t even get to squash beside her.

A girl was sick into a carrier bag and the sweet cloying smell fixed itself into the lining of my nose. I didn’t care about any of the others. I disliked one girl in particular who became judge and jury on what we looked like when we dozed off. She declared me the worst-looking sleeper because my mouth hung open as I slept. I was horrified that Linda had seen me like that and made sure I didn’t fall asleep again on the journey.

We arrived at the holiday apartment, where I claimed the small room with bunk beds for Linda and me. It wasn’t a double bed, but at least it was our own room.

‘Top or bottom?’ Linda asked.

‘You choose,’ I said.

She took the top.

*

I sat down on the beach, took my jelly sandals and socks off, rested my feet in the warm, gritty sand, tilted my face to the sapphire sky and closed my eyes. Sunlight made the back of my eyelids pink and I could see threads of veins. My pulse throbbed in my ears and the sea sounded like passing traffic.

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