Fred by Simon Philip

Author:Simon Philip
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
Published: 2021-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Fred remained in the corridor. He was barely aware of how much time had passed since he’d slumped onto the floor after his argument with Marvin. He guessed he’d probably missed dinner, not that he’d have wanted to go anyway. He let the wall support the weight of his muddled head. It was pounding, as if the thoughts knocking into one another inside it were physical objects, hammering at his skull.

What happened? In less than twenty-four hours, he and Marvin had gone from being best friends to bitter … not quite enemies … but what felt like strangers; from being inseparable to hardly able to meet one another’s eyes. The reservations he’d had about attending camp suddenly seemed justified, though he hadn’t, of course, imagined he’d fall out so spectacularly with Marvin.

More importantly, how had it happened – and so fast? Perhaps he should have thought more carefully about what Marvin wanted and left him to enjoy camp on his own; after all, Marvin’s reaction to his invitation hadn’t exactly been enthusiastic. But Marvin had never explicitly said, ‘Don’t come.’ And anyway, it felt bigger than that now, as if a dark force, some menacing magic, had tormented then swallowed their friendship. As far as Fred was concerned, there’d been no major problem until Hex had come between them, but now it was as though Marvin was under Hex’s spell …

A fresh thought disturbed Fred: perhaps Hex was the dark force. Was Hex using magic to come between them, to try to prove a point about Fred? He was certainly clever enough. And now, every time he thought about it, Fred felt more and more certain that Hex had sabotaged his potion, maybe even his magic in Transformation. So was Marvin literally under Hex’s spell?

But then … was he always stealing the attention away from Marvin and everyone else? He never intended to, so how could Marvin blame him for that?

And, until now, Marvin had never seemed to resent Fred’s success. He’d always been there for him – always happy to listen to and discuss Fred’s worries. It was Marvin who’d encouraged Fred to take on the lizard – which had led to his friendship with Merlin. Marvin had only ever seemed excited about that.

But Fred’s stomach lurched as a truth suddenly hit him with the force of the fiercest spell: he had too often been caught up in the bubble of his own world to notice how Marvin was feeling, not quite as good a friend as Marvin had always been to him. He should have kept his worries about Hex to himself – dealt with them himself – rather than rely on Marvin for support, just as he always did. Camp was only for three days – why couldn’t he have just kept quiet and held it together for Marvin?

Fred considered again whether he should just go home. That way, Marvin would be free to enjoy the rest of camp and focus on himself for once.

But then,

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