Ice Cream and Incidents by Agatha Frost

Author:Agatha Frost [Frost, Agatha]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pink Tree Publishing LTD
Published: 2018-06-19T05:00:00+00:00

9

Julia resisted the urge to jump in the taxi with Russell and Arthur to visit Simon at the hospital. Instead, she went up to her room and passed out the moment she climbed under the covers. When Barker woke her up at three in the afternoon, opening her eyes felt like peeling back Velcro.

“You’ll thank me later,” Barker whispered as he pulled back the covers. “You won’t rest tonight if you sleep the day away.”

Barker drew back the curtains, the bright afternoon sun blinding her. Julia flung her legs over the side of the bed and forced herself into a sitting position. She looked down at the bed, and for a moment, she wondered where Mowgli was. The Liza mural reminded her where she was.

“We’ve been at the beach all day,” Barker said as he applied sunscreen to his arms. “The weather has been lovely. Why don’t you jump in the shower and we’ll go back down? Jessie and Alfie are still there.”

The shower helped awaken Julia’s mind. By the time she was across the road and on the beach with Alfie and Jessie, she felt almost human again.

“We were just daring each other to run into the sea,” Jessie said as Julia settled onto a beach towel next to them. “Alfie said he’ll give me twenty quid if I do it.”

“It looks freezing,” Barker said. “And it’s grey. We’re still in England, Jessie.”

“But twenty quid is twenty quid,” Alfie said, wafting the note under Jessie’s nose. “Go on. Are you chicken, sis?”

Jessie snatched the money from Alfie’s hand, peeled off her black hoodie, and sprinted towards the water in her T-shirt and jeans. She ran into the waves, the water splashing up onto her face. She let out a small shriek, her voice going higher than usual. When she made her way back, dripping from head to toe, it was obvious she was trying to hide her shivering.

“Don’t call me a chicken,” Jessie said through chattering teeth as she sat back on her beach towel. “Your turn.”

“Not for a million quid,” Alfie replied with a smirk as he leaned back to sunbathe. “You’re too easily influenced, sis. You shouldn’t let yourself be so easily coaxed.”

Julia chuckled as she watched Jessie decide whether she was going to pounce on her brother or drag him into the sea. She did neither, instead choosing to expertly slide another twenty-pound note out of his wallet while his eyes were closed behind his sunglasses. The normalcy was almost enough to make Julia forget the events of the morning, which felt like a distant dream she had let slip away. When she remembered that Simon had woken up, she suddenly shot up.

“How’s Simon?” Julia asked, craning her neck to look back at the pink B&B. “Can he talk? Has he said anything?”

“I don’t know,” Barker admitted with a shrug before leaning back into his towel. “I haven’t seen anyone around all day, apart from Honey, and he’s not really the chatty type.”

Julia leaned back onto her towel, but her mind was buzzing too hard to relax.

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.