Going Offside by Van Cole

Author:Van Cole
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Van Cole

Chapter Nine

Finn

I don’t know what had possessed me to come with Liam, but the fact that he had shown up unannounced meant that he wanted to talk about something important. I felt a little guilty about the way things had ended the other night. The more I thought about it the more I couldn’t understand why he would lie about sending letters, so if he was telling the truth then what had happened to them? There was something not quite right about this, and I wanted to figure out the truth.

I rushed away from the house, glancing back, afraid that dad would see me. It wasn’t as though I had been grounded or anything, but things were still tense between us. I was waiting for the moment when we would clear the air, but it hadn’t happened yet. Maybe it never would. Liam had an old car that somehow looked stylish, despite the faded paintwork and the reluctant chug of the engine.

“Is this thing going to hold together?” I asked.

“She’s got it where it counts,” Liam said. He slapped the dashboard with his palm and the car jerked into life. Loud jazz music filled the vehicle. “I hope you like this. I can’t change the station,” he said, having to raise his voice to be heard over the music. One of the windows didn’t work properly either, so was perpetually open a crack. The wind blew in. It wasn’t much of a car, but still, it was more of a car than I owned. We drove into town and headed towards a bar. It was quiet at this time of day. I was a little worried that people might have looked at us with suspicion, but they minded their own business. I thought Liam would order a fancy cocktail, but instead he got a beer. I made it two. Nerves flickered within me as we took a seat near the window. I had no idea what was going to happen.

I wrapped my hands around the cool glass and watched the bubbles rise to the froth.

“So, what do you want to talk about?” I asked, trying to stop my voice from shaking with nerves. The swelling in Liam’s lips and the bruised shine of his eye were fading.

“I guess I just wanted to clear the air a bit, you know? Running into you the other night was a, well, it was a shock to the system. I think we maybe have different ideas of what happened when I left. Maybe even over the years we’ve begun to resent each other. I thought it was better that we got to know each other properly, face to face, rather than let all this fester inside us.”

“I suppose that’s the mature way to handle things,” I said, although I felt myself shuddering inside. I had never been so good at confrontation. I guess that was just another way in which Liam was different to me. He had always been the one to lead and I had always been the one to follow, but just because he was here it didn’t change things.

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.