Paper Airplanes by Dawn O'Porter

Author:Dawn O'Porter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Abrams
Published: 2014-07-04T16:00:00+00:00

FLO

I didn’t run after Renée because I couldn’t tell her what she wants to hear. When I thought Sally was going to see me with her, I panicked. I felt like the ground was opening up and I was going to get sucked in.

Renée thinks it will be easy to tell Sally, but if I do, then I will still have to sit next to her for the rest of the year. We will still be in the same classes for everything but science, and she will never let us just get on with being friends. The only way Renée and I can keep seeing each other is to keep it secret. Maybe over time I can phase out my friendship with Sally, maybe by the time we come back for sixth form she will have found someone else to boss around, and Renée and I can sit next to each other and then it will all be fine, but it’s how we get to that that terrifies me. I need Renée to give me more time. Sally is not someone you just break news to. There’s a system. I just need to work out what that system is.

When I get back to the house I’m soaking wet and starving. Mum has recently decided that ready meals are the best way to feed me, so the fridge is full of them. I hate ready meals. Dad used to cook big dinners before he moved out, but Mum never ate much of them. She lived on a diet of coffee and fags. Spaghetti Bolognese, chicken curry, lasagna—if I concentrate hard enough I can still smell them. I inhale deeply and imagine the smell filling the house. Dreaming of the meals Dad used to cook, I follow my nose into the kitchen, but I don’t quite make it to the fridge.

“Flo,” says Mum in a stern voice. She is sitting at the head of the kitchen table. There is a man leaning against the sink. I don’t recognize him. “This is Fred. He is going to come and live with us. OK?”

I fall silent for what feels like half an hour. Neither of them offers to chat through it. Move in? Already? The house still smells of Dad.

“What do you mean, live with us? In Dad’s house?”

“It isn’t your dad’s house anymore. It’s my house, and yes, Fred is going to come and live with us in this house.”

I hear a banging in the hallway. Two men carry Mum’s mattress down the stairs, and a new one is shortly brought in. I watch this while we stand in another cold pool of silence.

“Hello, Flo. Nice to meet you.” Fred reaches out a hand to me. I shake it. His palms are clammy, and his eyes are creepy. He is tall, and his face is shiny. His hair isn’t blond, but it isn’t brown, it’s browny-gray. A bit of it is combed over his head to hide some baldness, but it’s thin and pointless really, I can see his skin through it.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.