Who Watches This Place by Amy Clarkin

Author:Amy Clarkin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The O’Brien Press
Published: 2024-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

WHEN FIONN ARRIVED AT THE OFFICE, the still silence in the hallway told him he was arriving to an empty room. He’d half-expected it. Éabha and Raven had a class with Lizzie, their last before she went away, Davis had reluctantly agreed to talk Audrey through some aspects of their investigation protocols, and Archer had never been one for timekeeping, even before he’d fallen for Éabha and apparently dropped his brain – or at least his friendships – in the process. Thankfully, Audrey and Davis were meeting outside the office. The two couldn’t go more than a few minutes in a room together without bickering or sniping at each other – Fionn had timed it – and it could get exhausting. His patience for it was even thinner than usual, because he could tell that Audrey infuriated and fascinated Davis in equal measure, and in Davis’s fervour to convert her to the ways of PSI, Fionn had lost the one remaining friend who actually seemed to pay attention to his existence any more. He hated the small, bitter part of him that resented Davis for that, but he was fed up. He was lonely. And he didn’t know if any of them would even care if he told them.

Archer wandered into the office, a cosy forest-green jumper on and his hair dishevelled in a way that was fifty-fifty between ‘artful styling’ and ‘forgot to brush it’. With Archer, it could be either. His nails were blue today, the varnish on his thumb already starting to chip.

‘Hey, Fionn,’ he said, smiling cheerfully at him.

When was the last time he and Archer had hung out by themselves? It was definitely before Christmas. Possibly longer.

‘Hey,’ Fionn replied, sitting at his desk and switching his computer on.

He leaned over to search in his rucksack for his high-quality noise-cancelling headphones.

‘Are you good for family takeaway night on Tuesday?’ Archer asked.

They called it family takeaway night, but really it was a no-shop-talk informal PSI team dinner (though Cordelia more often than not made an appearance). Because they all fitted in PSI work around job shifts and college, they often ended up eating while they worked in the evenings. Raven had complained that it meant any meal they had together was constantly punctuated by PSI talk. Fionn was pretty certain she’d been angling for a ‘we actually take a proper food break and not eat at our desks’ motion, but Archer had enthusiastically suggested ‘family takeaway night’ where they all sat down and ate together, strictly no ghost chat allowed. It was a nice tradition, even if more and more it seemed to turn into a group date night plus Fionn.

‘Oh, so you actually want me there?’ Fionn asked before he could stop himself. He knew there was a bitter, brittle tone to his voice but couldn’t bring himself to care.

‘Of course! It’s family takeaway night. Why wouldn’t we want you there?’ Archer asked, his eyes widening in surprise.

‘Because you’ve spent the last few months practically ignoring my existence?’

Confusion spread over Archer’s face.

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