The House Party by Mary Grand

Author:Mary Grand [Grand, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Boldwood Books
Published: 2020-07-20T16:00:00+00:00

19

That evening Beth told Sami about Layla and the piercing, but didn’t mention the phone call.

Sami was up early the next morning. His students had exams and so he wasn’t going to London for the next two days

‘What are you going to do with yourself?’ asked Beth.

‘I’ll go for a run, then probably spend most of the day at the pharmacy.’

‘You’re there so much. You’ve not been spending as much time in the garden, and that’s not good for you. Be careful.’

He kissed her on the forehead. ‘Love you.’

While Beth was in the shed attending to the guinea pigs, she heard the house phone, and rushed back inside. To her surprise, it was Layla’s music teacher with a new date for Layla’s exams.

‘But she did them a couple of weeks ago—’

‘She didn’t come. She sent me a text. Said she was ill.’

‘Oh my goodness, I don’t believe she did that.’

‘I’m sorry. I did tell her that you wouldn’t get a refund with such short notice.’

‘I’m angry about the money, but even more about her lying to me. Thank you for the date, but I think I need to see what she is up to before we go paying out for more.’

‘Of course. Let me know in the next week.’

Beth charged up the stairs and straight into Layla’s bedroom.

‘How could you lie to me about your exams?’

‘Eh?’

‘You know, your music exams. How dare you cancel them? Do you know how much they cost?’

‘I told you I didn’t want to do them.’

‘We paid nearly two hundred pounds for you to do those exams and you couldn’t even be bothered to go to them.’

‘I told you I hate exams.’ Layla turned over in her bed.

‘Don’t ignore me. You always say that, but then you always do well.’

‘Just because I do well doesn’t mean I enjoy it.’

‘You’ve come so far. Grade seven in both. You’ll have them all your life. They’ll go on your personal statement for university. You are so lucky.’

‘So you keep telling me.’

‘Where were you when you should have been doing your exam?’

Layla turned over to look at her. ‘I went to Shepherd’s Chine with Conor. I told him about fossils. He was actually interested.’

‘You went on his motorbike?’

Layla grabbed hold of the top of her duvet cover with tight fists. ‘You never listen to the important stuff, do you?’

‘You’re not allowed on that bike, and you should be concentrating on your work, not wandering around a beach.’

Layla sat up in the bed.

‘Listen to this, Mum. I hate the bloody flute and singing exams. I’m leaving school as soon as I can. I’m going to travel.’

‘Well, I’m afraid to say, you’re wrong. You have to stay in school or do some kind of training until you’re eighteen, so you’d better just get on with it. You are so lucky. You have the chance to make something of your life. You don’t want to end up like—’

‘Like you? Do you hate your life so much? Having me and Adam. Is that why you’re doing this degree?’

‘No.

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.