Inside Out by Natalie Hibberd

Author:Natalie Hibberd [Hibberd, Natalie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Matador
Published: 2019-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

twenty-nine

‘What the hell happened to you?’ demanded Bliss as, two days later, Liam sprinted across the playground towards her, Lucy, Nerris and Sherona, wearing a distinctly panicked expression. ‘You look like someone’s died or—’

‘Is she following me?’ Liam interrupted urgently, his eyes bulging so that he looked quite insane. ‘Is she following me?’ He didn’t wait for her to reply before diving between Lucy and Nerris, using them like some kind of human barricade.

Confused looks were exchanged between the four girls, and then Sherona turned to the still-hidden Liam and spoke as though comforting a frightened animal, ‘Is who following you?’

Looking aghast at her lack of intuition, Liam answered in a voice that sounded like the hiss of a distressed and angry cat. ‘Who d’you think?’ he asked, crouching still lower so that nobody who didn’t know what to look for would be able to see him, his eyes darting wildly back and forth.

As she realised what he was getting at, Bliss’s eyes took on a depraved gleam. ‘Jesus Christ, Liam, is Bamforth still stalking you?’ She saw him nod and gave a snort of shameless laughter. ‘After all this time? That’s mental!’

‘I only just managed to escape! I told her I needed to go to the loo, but I think she might have seen me coming over here!’ He groaned loudly. ‘You have to hide me!’

The all-too-obvious desperation in his voice made Lucy’s heart lift slightly. ‘So… you’re definitely not interested then? In Bamforth, I mean?’ she quizzed, speaking with an attempt at a casual air that did nothing to hide her elation from Nerris, Sherona and Bliss. ‘You’d never, y’know, date her or something?’

Liam shook his head at once. ‘Oh God, no; she really creeps me out!’

Instantaneously, a fire of triumph seemed to flare up in Lucy’s stomach, and she replayed Liam’s words in her head, a smile appearing on her face immediately. Her next thoughts were accompanied by the sound of a victory march. He doesn’t fancy her! He doesn’t fancy her! He—

‘Lu?’

The sound of Liam’s slow, concerned voice snapped her back to the real world and she looked hurriedly around at him, seeing that he’d risen to his feet. ‘Yeah?’ she asked.

‘Are you OK? You look kind of… weird,’ he stammered uncertainly. ‘I mean, no offence, but…’ he trailed off, shooting the others a look that all of them read to mean ‘help me out here!’

‘You were blushing,’ Nerris supplied, looking a little uncomfortable, ‘and you went kind of… vacant.’

‘No, I didn’t!’ she replied indignantly, feeling the colour in her face intensify considerably. ‘Did I?’

‘Well, we’ve been talking to you for the past five minutes with no response,’ Sherona informed her, a knowing and evil grin now upon her face. ‘So, either you’re ignoring us…’ She paused, her eyebrows slowly creeping skyward. ‘Or you were distracted.’

Mortified, Lucy did her best to douse the bizarre internal flames that were now spreading rapidly through her insides, but it did no good. Instead, she searched madly for a change of subject, trying with all her might to avoid the gaze of the others as she did so.

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